Terry Mattingly has an interesting column up now on the question “Should Jews believe Judaism is true?” The column is based on David Klinghoffer’s new, and apparently controversial, book Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History. Mattingly’s column includes this interesting tidbit: What Klinghoffer finds disturbing is that the doctrinal lessons of Passover are incomplete without those taught by Shavuot, a holiday that comes 50 days later. Shavuot recalls the revelation of the Jewish law —... Read more

Jeff Overstreet has seen the trailer for the upcoming Narnia movie, and he reports this bit of unexpected news: The big breaking news concerning this though is that Bryan Cox is NOT going to be the voice of Aslan. Got this straight from the head of Disney voice casting. Cox *was* cast, but then he came in to do the lines and, because he had recently lost 40 pounds, his girth was significantly reduced, and that has affected his famously... Read more

As I mentioned when I posted the link to my review of The Interpreter, I had to get the review done within hours of seeing the film, and I did this while I was a little under the weather, so I didn’t put quite as much thought into it as I might have liked. I do recall thinking, as I neared the end of the review, that I had spent so much time analyzing the performances and other aesthetic points... Read more

My sister once said her favorite movie of all time is Hobson’s Choice (1954). And my own third-favorite movie of all time is an obscure British film called The Family Way (1966), which has never been released on VHS or DVD in North America, despite having a fairly impressive pedigree; it was written by Alfie playwright Bill Naughton and its score, by Paul McCartney, was the first-ever solo Beatle project. What do these movies have in common? Sir John Mills... Read more

Still fighting this really bad cold that hit me a couple days ago. It’s making writing very difficult. I spent some time last night hacking an interview down from well over 3,000 words to something less than half that length, but that sort of task is more methodical than creative, and it doesn’t require too much brainpower. Coming up with new things to say, though — ah, that requires a clear mind, which I currently do not have because it... Read more

Just some links to some new articles of mine. First, my review of The Interpreter, which I saw two nights ago and had to review yesterday despite a terrible cold. Second, my article on Kingdom of Heaven director Ridley Scott and leading man Orlando Bloom, which I wrote for BC Christian News and modified somewhat from an as-yet-unprinted article that I wrote for ChristianCurrent; I would call the article an “interview” except it was one of those junket things where... Read more

Actor-comedian-musician Jack Black and actor-writer Mike White, after collaborating on the so-so Orange County and the much-better-than-it-had-a-right-to-be School of Rock, are at it again — this time in a Nickelodeon movie about “a Mexican priest who secretly moonlights as a masked wrestler in order to save an orphanage from closure.” And it’s “inspired by a true-life story”! Those who like to keep an eye open for religious connections in film, however weird or obscure they might be, might be intrigued... Read more

I still haven’t seen Sahara — the wife took my brother-in-law to the preview while I was on the Kingdom of Heaven junket — but I have to say, after reading Mark Steyn’s negative review, I want to see it more than I did before. Here’s his opening paragraph: Until James Bond came along in the Sixties, the most successful movie series to date had been the Road pictures with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Sahara seems to... Read more

This just in from the Hollywood Reporter: all six Star Wars films will be screened at Leicester Square in London on May 16, one day after Revenge of the Sith premieres at the Cannes festival and three days before the film opens to the general public. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I suspect this will be the first time the special-special editions of the original trilogy (i.e. the 2004 DVD versions, as distinct from the special editions released in... Read more

Good news for fans of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki — especially if you happened to discover him through Drifting Clouds (1996) or The Man without a Past (2002; my review), the first two installments in his “unemployment trilogy”. Agence France-Presse reports that Kaurismaki will film Vartija (The Guard), about “a security guard searching for happiness in the concrete jungle of Helsinki,” in May and June of this year. I really enjoyed the Kaurismaki retrospective at the Pacific Cinematheque a couple... Read more