Whip It and the Stryper T-shirt, redux.

I never did follow up my earlier post on Whip It and the Stryper T-shirt depicted therein -- but since Drew Barrymore's directorial debut came out on DVD this week, I figure now is as good a time as any to say that I loved the film, I wish it had done better at the box office, and I am intrigued by the fact that the Stryper T-shirt seems to be even more significant in the film than it was in the original book, at least based on the excerpts that I have read.

I can't say why it is more significant without giving away a spoiler of sorts, but suffice it to say that what the film does with this plot element underscores one of several reasons why I like this film: it does have genuine affection for, and try to "understand", all of its characters -- even the ones who would have been very easy to dismiss in a lesser film with the same basic premise.

Hoodwinked! comings and goings.

The companies behind Hoodwinked! giveth, and the companies behind Hoodwinked! taketh away.

First, the bad news. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil was originally going to come out two weeks ago, similar to how the original film came out in mid-January four years ago, but late last year it was put on indefinite hold. This has put certain promotional partners -- notably Burger King, which is already selling toys and running contests in the United States and Great Britain -- in a bit of an odd spot. The British Burger King site says it is possible to watch the trailer for the new film here, but I have been unable to find it anywhere, and Cory Edwards, who directed the original film and co-wrote the sequel, wrote in a recent blog post that he has "no idea" when the new film will come out.

Presumably, one reason for the film's delay is that its distributor, the Weinstein Company, has been hard up for cash in recent months, not least because their Oscar-bait musical Nine flopped in a big way when it came out several weeks ago. The original Hoodwinked! was one of their biggest hits, so you'd think they might be eager to get the sequel out there soon, but they may not be able to afford the prints and advertising right now.

Not all recent Hoodwinked! news has been bad, though. Edwards also recently announced that the soundtrack to the original film, which has long been out of print, is now available for download via iTunes. So if you've been looking for a more "legit" copy of the soundtrack than the bootleg version that composer-producers Fleming & John made available at their MySpace page some time ago, well, there ya go.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence -- a visual study

You can count me among those who think A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) is one of the more underrated movies of the past decade. And as such a person, I was glad to come across this two-part video essay by Benjamin Sampson last night (via The House Next Door). It may only scratch the surface of what makes this semi-posthumous collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and Steven Speilberg so interesting, but the surface is a perfect place to start, and this video essay scratches it so well:

Bernard Émond on faith, hope and charity

I have seen only two of Bernard Émond's films so far -- La neuvaine aka The Novena (2005), which he wrote and directed, and Ce qu'il faut pour vivre aka The Necessities of Life (2008), which he simply wrote -- but what I have seen, I have liked.

He's an admittedly secular filmmaker, not a religious one, but he is sensitive to the role of religion in people's lives, and I am especially interested in his other films now that I hear La neuvaine was conceived as the first part of a "trilogy" on faith, hope and love. Quoth today's Globe and Mail:

La Donation, which opened last fall in Quebec, completes the Montreal writer-director’s trilogy exploring the theological virtues of faith (La Neuvaine, 2005), hope (Contre toute espérance, 2006) and, now, charity through stories of personal and cultural loss. If it all sounds heavy, be assured there is nothing heavy-handed about Émond’s deft, emotionally rich observational filmmaking, which has been lauded by festivals, critics and award juries since he turned from documentary to features with La Femme qui boit in 2001.

La Donation revolves around Jeanne (Élise Guilbault), a Montreal emergency-room doctor who was also the central character in the trilogy’s first film. Here, she arrives in the small Abitibi town of Normétal as the temporary replacement for the local doctor (Jacques Godin), who is nearing retirement and planning a short vacation. When he unexpectedly dies, Jeanne must tend to the community while considering her own future. “In the first film, Jeanne witnesses an assassination, holds herself responsible and is saved from killing herself because of a stranger’s kindness,” Émond explained during the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. “After that I wondered, what can be her life? What is a meaningful life?”

The “totally secular answer,” the self-described “non-believer” said, can be found in La Donation and its small-town setting. “We live in a society motivated by the logic of greed and I think we must reconnect ourselves with the logic of giving, which is so pervasive in traditional societies,” said Émond, a trained anthropologist who worked for Inuit television in the Arctic earlier in his career. “We live in a system of exchange. I give you 10 bucks, you give me pair of shoes; after that, if you die, I don’t care. Whereas in a traditional society, I give you something and maybe you don’t give me something right now but you owe me. Maybe your descendants will give something to my descendants. The added benefit of giving is that it creates ties.”

Remembering Gilles Groulx’s 1960 National Film Board documentary Normétal, Émond decided to scout the town as a possible location. “When I stopped my car in front of the church, I was completely overtaken by a feeling of melancholy because the town I had seen in the film was no more,” he recalled. “Abitibi is one of the great chapters of Quebec history and one of the saddest. These are places where people created new communities, but these villages and their way of life are disappearing.

“Since my films explore different facets of loss and grief, Normétal was a very cinematographic place just waiting for its film – waiting for my film,” he added with a laugh.

La donation opens in Toronto this coming Friday; I do not know whether, or when, it will be coming to Vancouver.

Canadian box-office stats -- January 24

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest.

Avatar -- CDN $59,310,000 -- N.AM $551,741,499 -- 10.7%
Sherlock Holmes -- CDN $18,290,000 -- N.AM $191,076,852 -- 9.6%
It's Complicated -- CDN $8,000,000 -- N.AM $98,270,085 -- 8.1%
Tooth Fairy -- CDN $1,090,000 -- N.AM $14,010,409 -- 7.8%
Legion -- CDN $1,280,000 -- N.AM $17,501,625 -- 7.3%
The Lovely Bones -- CDN $2,270,000 -- N.AM $31,242,633 -- 7.3%
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel -- CDN $14,170,000 -- N.AM $204,140,348 -- 6.9%
The Spy Next Door -- CDN $1,200,000 -- N.AM $18,544,619 -- 6.5%
Extraordinary Measures -- CDN $382,692 -- N.AM $6,012,594 -- 6.4%
The Book of Eli -- CDN $3,760,000 -- N.AM $60,735,686 -- 6.2%

Newsbites: The Bible movie edition!

Further to my previous post, here are some Bible-themed movie news bits that I've been meaning to blog for a while, a few of which I discovered via Matt Page's invaluable Bible Films Blog.

1. It has been at least five years since the folks behind the Visual Bible announced their intention to make a word-for-word adaptation of The Gospel of Mark. Some of us had given it up for dead -- but now Mark Goodacre notes that a comment from Philip Saville, director of the Visual Bible's previous effort The Gospel of John (2003), was recently posted at YouTube, which seems to indicate that the film might still be in development.

2. Spanish filmmaker Emilio Ruiz Barrachina has made, or is in the middle of making, a feature-length film that depicts Jesus as a political zealot who leads an armed revolt against the Temple in Jerusalem, among other things. The website for the film gives its English title as The Disciple: Jesus, the Undisclosed Story and says the film is still currently in production, but Matt Page says the film already premiered at the Malaga Film Festival way back in April. The producers of this film are also working on a documentary called Jesus 2.0 which will argue that the New Testament has it all wrong and the true meaning of Jesus' teaching was preserved by a group called "the knowledgeables", which I'm guessing is a translation of "the Gnostics".

3. The Maltese Times reported a couple years ago that a "wholly Maltese" movie about the life of Jesus had been shown on the big screen there with the blessing of the local Catholic bishop. Anno Domini XXXIII was originally going to be a 17-part TV series, but the producers decided to re-write it for the big screen -- though it would seem, based on the trailer at YouTube, that the "film" was shot on video and still has a certain made-for-TV quality.

4. Carman, a Christian pop star whose efforts to make Christianity macho and "relevant" have been mocked even by his fellow Christian musicians, is now starring as Boaz in the straight-to-DVD effort The Book of Ruth: Journey of Faith, which is described on the movie's website, somewhat ludicrously, as "a Biblical Cinderella story from the archives of the royal Jewish bloodline". Where to begin? For one thing, Ruth was not some virginal maiden waiting to be swept off her feet by Prince Charming; she was a widow whose method for finding a second husband may have been somewhat sexually aggressive, depending on what you make of the original Hebrew version of this story. For another, while the Book of Ruth does say that one of her great-grandsons turned out to be King David, there was nothing "royal" about Ruth or her family during her lifetime; indeed, the Israelites didn't even have a king at that time. The basic point of the story is not that a woman found true love, or whatever, but that foreign women and their offspring were not necessarily harmful to the people of Israel despite what some of Israel's leaders, such as Moses and Nehemiah, tended to claim. It will be interesting to see if the film gets into that on any level, but I'm not holding my breath.

Samuel Goldwyn tackles The Resurrection

Variety magazine reports that cameras will start rolling on a new movie about the Resurrection of Jesus sometime in July, and it sounds like the key creative personnel may be a somewhat eclectic lot.

The key figure behind the film seems to be producer Bill McKay, who has been talking publicly about this project since at least October 2008. Back then, he said he had been brought onto the picture by Sony, which prompted me to wonder if this was the same Resurrection movie that Sony's Screen Gems division had been developing with Tim LaHaye. But Variety says the current film will be released next year by Samuel Goldwyn, the secular distributor that has handled such evangelical hits as Facing the Giants (2006) and Fireproof (2008), and there is no mention of LaHaye or Sony or Screen Gems anywhere in the article.

Also involved in the new movie is executive producer J. David Williams, who was head of Providence Entertainment when they released the first-ever evangelical Christian movie to earn a place in the nation's weekly box-office top ten list. I refer, of course, to the end-times thriller The Omega Code (1999).

But perhaps the most interesting name associated with the new movie -- which goes by the title The Resurrection of the Christ -- is director Jonas McCord, whose credits include The Body (2001), which starred Antonio Banderas as a priest who investigates the possibility that an archaeologist may have discovered the bones of Jesus and thus disproved the Resurrection.

Variety says Dan Gordon, whose credits include The Hurricane (1999) and The Celestine Prophecy (2006), is writing the script "with a focus on the power, greed and ambition of those involved in the crucifixion -- Pontius Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas and Judas."

This raises an interesting question: How much of the movie will take place before the Resurrection and how much of it will take place after the Resurrection? Most films about Jesus have not paid a lot of attention to the Resurrection itself, and with perhaps some justification, since the gospels don't necessarily go into a whole lot of detail about it either; in Mark's version, some women find an empty tomb and a man who gives them a message, and that's pretty much it. But a film that bills itself as being specifically about the Resurrection -- indeed, McKay has even called this film "kind of a sequel" to The Passion of the Christ (2004), which ended with the risen Jesus stepping out of the tomb -- would presumably have to focus more heavily on the the stuff that happened afterwards. The stuff that happened before the Resurrection has already been done to death (uh, so to speak) in countless other films.

Incidentally, McKay's most significant screen credit to date is the Billy Graham biopic Billy: The Early Years (2008), which he co-wrote and produced. Make of that what you will.

Canadian box-office stats -- January 17

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest.

Avatar -- CDN $51,940,000 -- N.AM $493,267,000 -- 10.5%
Leap Year -- CDN $1,760,000 -- N.AM $17,529,000 -- 10.0%
Daybreakers -- CDN $2,280,000 -- N.AM $24,088,000 -- 9.5%
Sherlock Holmes -- CDN $17,010,000 -- N.AM $180,073,000 -- 9.4%
Up in the Air -- CDN $5,910,000 -- N.AM $62,831,000 -- 9.4%
It's Complicated -- CDN $7,120,000 -- N.AM $88,224,000 -- 8.1%
The Spy Next Door -- CDN $666,332 -- N.AM $9,600,000 -- 6.9%
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel -- CDN $13,360,000 -- N.AM $192,742,000 -- 6.9%
The Lovely Bones -- CDN $1,140,000 -- N.AM $17,487,000 -- 6.5%
The Book of Eli -- CDN $1,890,000 -- N.AM $32,770,000 -- 5.8%

A couple of discrepancies: Daybreakers was #9 on the Canadian chart (it was #11 in North America as a whole), while The Blind Side was #9 on the North American chart (it was #12 in Canada).

Dawn Treader -- more gratuitous battles!

It has been evident for some time that the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will make major, major changes to its source material.

Last month, producer Doug Gresham hinted that he was "ambivalent" about the changes on this film in a way that he hadn't been on the previous two films, and a press release issued last summer suggested that King Caspian and the other characters will now be embarking on their journey not simply to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia, as they did in the book, but to "save Narnia, and all the astonishing creatures in it, from an unfathomable fate."

Now, director Michael Apted has revealed another development that is giving some Narnia fans pause. In a recent interview with the Australian version of Empire magazine, he stated:

“This is a lot more psychological; it’s not a big action movie. There are a lot of different locations and adventures but, apart from a huge battle at the end with a sea serpent and a dragon, this is a character story. The quality of the book, and the appeal of the book, is that it’s more of an emotional than a swashbuckling adventure.”

NarniaWeb.com responds:

There are definitely a lot of positive lines here, like “not a big action movie” and “a character story.” But I’m sure that the bit that will leave everybody talking is the line “a huge battle at the end with a sea serpent and a dragon.” Is this dragon Eustace? If so, did they move Dragon Island to the end of the movie? Or just the bit where Eustace turns back into a boy? Only 11 months of speculating to go!

Meanwhile, in other news, the Washington Times ran a story on New Year's Eve quoting someone who quoted a former script adviser who said the film was "drifting" from C.S. Lewis's original vision. It's hearsay, sure, but where there's smoke, there tends to be fire, and right now it seems like there's a lot of smoke.

The Vancouver Film Critics Circle awards.

Here's another one for the better-late-than-never file. Two nights ago, the Vancouver Film Critics Circle announced the winners of its tenth annual awards -- has it been ten years already!? -- and this year, it was my turn to announce who won Best Director.

In addition to the winners listed below, lifetime achievement awards were given to Nettie Wild, a documentary filmmaker who happens to be the subject of a career retrospective at the Pacific Cinematheque this coming weekend, and Leonard Schein, who founded the current version of the Vancouver International Film Festival some 28 years ago and currently runs the arthouse theatre chain Festival Cinemas.

And the nominees were (with winners in orange):

CANADIAN FILMS

BEST CANADIAN FILM
J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother)
Polytechnique
The Young Victoria

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A CANADIAN FILM
Xavier Dolan, J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother)
Sébastien Huberdeau, Polytechnique
Stephen McHattie, Pontypool

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A CANADIAN FILM
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Anne Dorval, J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother)
Nisreen Faour, Amreeka

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A CANADIAN FILM
François Arnaud, J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother)
Daniel J. Gordon, Nurse.Fighter.Boy
John Paul Tremblay, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A CANADIAN FILM
Lisa Houle, Pontypool
Miranda Richardson, The Young Victoria
Gabrielle Rose, Excited

BEST DIRECTOR OF A CANADIAN FILM
Cherien Dabis, Amreeka
Xavier Dolan, J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother)
Denis Villeneuve, Polytechnique

BEST BRITISH COLUMBIA FILM
A Shine of Rainbows
Excited
Facing Ali

INTERNATIONAL FILMS

BEST FILM
A Serious Man
The Hurt Locker
Up in the Air

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEAD ROLE
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alfred Molina, An Education
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo'Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

BEST SCREENPLAY
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
The Cove
Food Inc.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Broken Embraces, Spain
The Headless Woman, Argentina
Summer Hours, France

For what it's worth, my own choices won in eight of the sixteen categories, but just to keep a little mystery, I won't say which categories they were, or what I would have picked in them.

Where there's a Will, there's a way.

Four years ago, I passed along a bit of news about a pitch for a TV show called Will, which was going to centre on "an ordinary guy who lives in a world where people's lives and destinies are being written by scribes in Heaven. The man wakes up one day to find that his heavenly writer has decided to no longer draft his life, and he must go about his day unscripted."

Today, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter announced that the project, which was originally pitched by Demetri Martin, is going ahead -- but as a big-screen movie, rather than a TV show. The film will star Paul Rudd and Zach Galifianakis, and the directors attached to the movie are Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, who last worked on the indie hit Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and have since toyed with several other projects, including The Abstinence Teacher, but have not yet made an actual follow-up.

As something of a Paul Rudd fan, and as one who loves discussions about the nature of free will etc., I am definitely keen to see this.

Canadian box-office comparison 2010

See introductory post here.

These are the Canadian and North American box-office totals for films that played in 2010, as of their last appearance in the Canadian top ten. Click on the years for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Since Canada has about 9.7% of the combined Canadian-American population, red indicates the films that made over 10.7% of their money in Canada, orange the films that attracted about the same proportion of Canadians as Americans, and green the ones that made less than 8.7% of their money north of the border.

Jan 3 | 10

Nine -- CDN $1,650,000 -- N.AM $14,047,000 -- 11.7%
Youth in Revolt -- CDN $709,170 -- N.AM $6,888,334 -- 10.3%
Avatar -- CDN $43,710,000 -- N.AM $430,846,514 -- 10.1%
Invictus -- CDN $2,960,000 -- N.AM $30,755,000 -- 9.6%
Up in the Air -- CDN $5,160,000 -- N.AM $54,800,688 -- 9.4%
Leap Year -- CDN $861,970 -- N.AM $9,202,815 -- 9.4%
Did You Hear about the Morgans? -- CDN $2,420,000 -- N.AM $25,620,000 -- 9.4%
Sherlock Holmes -- CDN $15,040,000 -- N.AM $165,153,093 -- 9.1%
Daybreakers -- CDN $1,230,000 -- N.AM $15,146,692 -- 8.1%
It's Complicated -- CDN $5,930,000 -- N.AM $76,370,540 -- 7.8%
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel -- CDN $12,050,000 -- N.AM $178,451,165 -- 6.8%
The Princess and the Frog -- CDN $6,040,000 -- N.AM $92,546,727 -- 6.5%
The Blind Side -- CDN $9,350,000 -- N.AM $218,978,376 -- 4.3%

Canadian box-office stats -- January 10

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest.

Youth in Revolt -- CDN $709,170 -- N.AM $6,888,334 -- 10.3%
Avatar -- CDN $43,710,000 -- N.AM $430,846,514 -- 10.1%
Up in the Air -- CDN $5,160,000 -- N.AM $54,800,688 -- 9.4%
Leap Year -- CDN $861,970 -- N.AM $9,202,815 -- 9.4%
Sherlock Holmes -- CDN $15,040,000 -- N.AM $165,153,093 -- 9.1%
Daybreakers -- CDN $1,230,000 -- N.AM $15,146,692 -- 8.1%
It's Complicated -- CDN $5,930,000 -- N.AM $76,370,540 -- 7.8%
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel -- CDN $12,050,000 -- N.AM $178,451,165 -- 6.8%
The Princess and the Frog -- CDN $6,040,000 -- N.AM $92,546,727 -- 6.5%
The Blind Side -- CDN $9,350,000 -- N.AM $218,978,376 -- 4.3%

2010 then and now.

It's a sign of how busy my life has become, and how slow my blogging has become, that I am only getting around to this now, but anyhoo.

On New Year's Day, I greeted the new decade, as many people are calling it, by pulling my copy of 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984; my comments) off the shelf, watching it, and taking a few screen captures. As always, I basked in the still-glorious special effects and cringed at the non-stop exposition, but what I really focused on this time, of course, was how the film imagined our world would look today.

Well, okay, not quite today, exactly. Because the flight to Jupiter lasts about two years, most of what this movie depicts is the world of 2008: the entire first act takes place before the main characters go into space, and of course the ship they use to get there had to be built before it was launched. But the film does give us a few brief glimpses of life back on Earth after the ship arrives at Jupiter, too, so it's all good.

The first thing that stands out to me are the enormous computer screens, which may have looked kind of normal when the movie was made 25 years ago, but now just seem kind of monstrous:




Things get a little more complicated when Bob Balaban goes to his computer lab. He, too, has an enormous screen or two in his office, but he also has a computer named SAL, which is sort of the sister to HAL, the computer that went psycho in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). And because this film is a sequel to Kubrick's film, it has to give SAL the same relatively simpler design that HAL had.






The film includes a few scenes of Roy Scheider explaining his upcoming mission to his wife and son. In one, he goes jogging while his son tags along, and they are passed by a car, and while the car doesn't look particularly futuristic, it does make a sound that suggests it runs purely on electricity, and not on gas:



We also get the following glimpses of the inside of Scheider's home, and because his wife is a marine biologist, the bedroom has an aquarium and the dining room has a pool that the dolphins can access from outside:




Later on, there is a scene in which the ghost of Keir Dullea visits his former wife by appearing on her TV, and we see her apartment from a couple angles, too -- and for some reason, there is a keyboard attached to the bottom of the TV but it is not facing in the same direction that the actual TV screen is:





Finally, I didn't bother to capture any images aboard the spaceships, because there aren't really any real-world equivalents for them yet -- and in any case, the movie was obliged to make at least one of those ships look consistent with the spaceships that Kubrick had designed way back in the 1960s, so it isn't really fair to hold those up as an example of how people thought the future would look when this particular movie was made. But I couldn't resist capturing one more image that shows how blocky computer graphics used to be, and how the filmmakers of the 1980s apparently expected them to remain:



Finally, perhaps the best bit of technological backwardness comes not in any of the visuals, but in a line of dialogue. After Balaban and John Lithgow have been woken from suspended animation, they ask Scheider for certain bits of information, and Scheider replies, "They're all in your cassettes." Cassettes? Seriously? People had been using floppy discs since the 1970s -- I myself had been using them at home for over two years when this movie came out -- so why on earth would anyone looking a quarter-century into the future have thought that cutting-edge federally-funded spacemen would still be using tapes, of all things?

One last trivia note: Dullea's widow, the woman reaching for the TV in one of the images above, is none other than Mary Jo Deschanel, wife of famed cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Passion of the Christ, National Treasure) and mother of famed actress Zooey Deschanel, who I adore. And the year before this movie came out, she played Annie Glenn, wife of John, in The Right Stuff (1983). Apparently she had a thing for astronauts.

James Cameron then and now.

There is a lot that can be said about Avatar, and I hope to say more in the next few weeks, especially after I see the film a second time. But for now, I just want to note a few of the interesting parallels between this and director James Cameron's earlier films.

In some ways, Avatar simply recycles elements of Cameron's earlier films without making any significant changes. Take, for example, the scene in which the feisty female scientist played by Sigourney Weaver gets into an argument with the belligerent military types and calls one of them "Ranger Rick"; this echoes a similar moment in The Abyss (1989) where the feisty female scientist played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio gets into an argument with a belligerent miliary type and calls him "Roger Ramjet". (I asked a friend of mine if there were any other 1960s characters with the initials R.R. that Cameron could cite in any future scenes like this, and he suggested Rocket Robin Hood.)

In other ways, the film recycles elements of Cameron's earlier films and dumbs them down. Chief among these is his treatment of corporate villains. In Aliens (1986), Paul Reiser played a yuppie who initially comes across as kind of friendly -- indeed, he jokes about being "an okay guy" despite the fact that he is with "the company" -- but as the movie progresses, we gradually come to see just how cowardly and even murderous he really is. The character has a certain nuance and complexity, and initially there is even almost something kind of appealing about him, such that we are disappointed to learn his true nature. But in Avatar, all we get is Giovanni Ribisi ranting and cackling and generally just being a pain in the neck.

The most interesting thing about Avatar, though, is the way it recycles certain elements of Cameron's earlier films in order to flip them around and stand them on their head. Three examples of this, ranging somewhere between deeply significant and fairly trivial, come to mind:

First, remember the battle between Ripley and the Alien Queen, which Ripley fought with the help of a load-lifting mechanism that extended her arms and legs, in Aliens? The walking battle machines in Avatar look a lot like those mechanisms, but here, when the mechanized human battles the dark, curved monster, we are supposed to be rooting for the monster and not for the human being.

Second, remember how an Arab terrorist dangled from a missile in True Lies (1994), before Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing an agent of the American government, shot him to his death with the somewhat absurd catchphrase "You're fired"? Once again, in Avatar, a white American pilots an airborne fighting machine of some sort, and a representative of the "other" -- who is engaged in acts of "terror", according to the American characters -- dangles from a missile. But again, we are supposed to be rooting for the "other" and not for the person who is ostensibly on "our" side.

Finally, remember how one of the key themes of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was the way in which the cyborg -- the hybrid "other" created by one kind of being to infiltrate the ranks of another kind of being -- became increasingly "humanized" after he was reprogrammed to assist the Connors? Once again, in Avatar, we have a character who is, in some sense, a hybrid of two species that are locked in conflict, and although he primarily identifies with one side, he increasingly comes to identify with the other side; the difference here is that the character starts out as human and increasingly becomes the "other" instead. The Terminator is redeemed by becoming more human, as it were, while Jake Sully is redeemed by becoming less human.

There are many other bits and pieces in Avatar that point back to Cameron's earlier films in some way, but these are the ones that stood out the most, for me. More later, perhaps.

Canadian box-office stats -- January 3

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest.

Nine -- CDN $1,650,000 -- N.AM $14,047,000 -- 11.7%
Invictus -- CDN $2,960,000 -- N.AM $30,755,000 -- 9.6%
Avatar -- CDN $33,320,000 -- N.AM $352,111,000 -- 9.5%
Did You Hear about the Morgans? -- CDN $2,420,000 -- N.AM $25,620,000 -- 9.4%
Up in the Air -- CDN $4,080,000 -- N.AM $45,020,000 -- 9.1%
Sherlock Holmes -- CDN $11,670,000 -- N.AM $140,675,000 -- 8.3%
It's Complicated -- CDN $4,270,000 -- N.AM $59,105,000 -- 7.2%
The Princess and the Frog -- CDN $5,530,000 -- N.AM $86,085,000 -- 6.4%
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel -- CDN $10,000,000 -- N.AM $157,345,000 -- 6.4%
The Blind Side -- CDN $8,860,000 -- N.AM $209,052,000 -- 4.2%

2010 Film Journal

As per my 2009 Journal, videos and DVDs are in italics. Films I saw for the first time have an asterisk (*) next to them. Not counting extras and promo items.

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

Jan 1 -- 2010: The Year We Make Contact
Jan 2 -- Aliens [1986; 1991 version]
Jan 3 -- Chi bi [aka Red Cliff] *
Jan 3 -- A Single Man [2009] *
Jan 3 -- We Own the Night *
Jan 4 -- Nurse.Fighter.Boy *
Jan 5 -- Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day *
Jan 6 -- Pontypool *
Jan 6 -- La mujer sin cabeza [2008; aka The Headless Woman] *
Jan 6 -- The Last Station [2009] *

Jan 6 -- Le silence de Lorna [aka Lorna's Silence] *
Jan 7 -- Creation [2009] *
Jan 8 -- Crazy Heart [2009] *
Jan 8 -- The Abyss [1989; 1993 version] *
Jan 8 -- True Lies [1994]
Jan 9 -- J'ai tué ma mère [aka I Killed My Mother] *
Jan 10 -- Daybreakers [2009] *
Jan 11 -- Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould *
Jan 13 -- Fantasia 2000
Jan 14 -- The Book of Eli *

Jan 16 -- Avatar [2009; 3D version]
Jan 18 -- Up [2009; w/ cine-explore commentary]
Jan 18 -- With God on Our Side [2010] *
Jan 19 -- Terminator Salvation [theatrical version; w/ commentary]
Jan 21 -- Legion [2010] *
Jan 25 -- Youth in Revolt [2009] *
Jan 26 -- Tooth Fairy [2010] *
Jan 27 -- Franklyn *
Jan 28 -- Leap Year [2010] *
Jan 29 -- Ostrov [2006; aka The Island] *

Feb 1 -- The Hurt Locker
Feb 2 -- Edge of Darkness *
Feb 5 -- From Paris with Love *
Feb 5 -- The Secret of Kells *
Feb 5 -- Marjoe *
Feb 6 -- In the Loop [2009] *
Feb 6 -- Gimme Shelter [1970] *
Feb 7 -- All the Real Girls *
Feb 9 -- Dear John [2010] *
Feb 10 -- The Parent Trap [1961]

Feb 12 -- The Wolfman [2010] *
Feb 14 -- The Parent Trap II *
Feb 15 -- Angel Heart [1987] *
Feb 16 -- Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief *
Feb 16 -- Guys and Dolls [1955] *
Feb 18 -- Valentine's Day [2010] *
Feb 19 -- The Weight of Water *
Feb 19 -- Shutter Island *
Feb 21 -- Das weisse Band: Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte [aka The White Ribbon] *
Feb 21 -- Watchmen [2009; director's cut]

Feb 24 -- Bright Star *
Feb 26 -- Cop Out [2010] *
Mar 5 -- The Crazies [2010] *
Mar 6 -- Brooklyn's Finest *
Mar 9 -- Alice in Wonderland [2010; 3D version] *
Mar 10 -- Green Zone *
Mar 11 -- Point Break *
Mar 11 -- She's out of My League *
Mar 11 -- The Prodigal [1955] *
Mar 12 -- Coco avant Chanel *

Mar 12 -- The Last Days of Disco [w/ audio commentary]
Mar 13 -- Remember Me [2010] *
Mar 16 -- Repo Men [2010] *
Mar 16 -- The Ghost Writer [2010] *
Mar 18 -- The Princess and the Frog [w/ audio commentary]
Mar 19 -- Julia [2008] *
Mar 20 -- How to Train Your Dragon [3D version] *
Mar 21 -- Diary of a Wimpy Kid *
Mar 22 -- Future Shock [1972] *
Mar 22 -- The Late Great Planet Earth

Mar 23 -- Hot Tub Time Machine *
Mar 24 -- The Hunt for Gollum *
Mar 24 -- Born of Hope *
Mar 27 -- Greenberg *
Mar 28 -- The Bounty Hunter [2010] *
Mar 30 -- Clash of the Titans [2010; 3D version] *
Mar 31 -- Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant *
Apr 2 -- Slacker Uprising [aka Captain Mike Across America] *
Apr 3 -- Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace ["Phantom Edit" version]
Apr 5 -- Crimes and Misdemeanors

Apr 6 -- Date Night [2010] *
Apr 7 -- Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones ["Attack of the Phantom" version]
Apr 8 -- Brothers [2009] *
Apr 9 -- In the Mirror of Maya Deren *
Apr 10 -- The Last Song [2010] *
Apr 14 -- World's Greatest Dad *
Apr 14 -- Death at a Funeral [2010] *
Apr 16 -- Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope [1977 version]
Apr 19 -- Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Vol. 6 [disc 4] *
Apr 19 -- Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Vol. 6 [disc 4; w/ audio commentary]

Apr 19 -- Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Vol. 6 [disc 4; w/ music-only track]
Apr 21 -- My Father the Hero [1994] *
Apr 21 -- The African Queen [1951]
Apr 24 -- Kick-Ass *
Apr 24 -- The Losers [2010] *
Apr 25 -- 20 Million Miles to Earth *
Apr 28 -- The Boat that Rocked [aka Pirate Radio] *
Apr 28 -- The Spy Who Loved Me
Apr 29 -- Män som hatar kvinnor [aka The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo] *
Apr 30 -- Ishtar *

May 1 -- The NeverEnding Story [1984]
May 2 -- Jurassic Park
May 3 -- A Nightmare on Elm Street [2010] *
May 5 -- Defendor *
May 5 -- Capturing the Friedmans *
May 6 -- Everybody's Fine [2009] *
May 6 -- Bigger than Life [1956] *
May 7 -- Star Wars [1977; 2004 version]
May 7 -- Iron Man 2 *
May 7 -- The Back-up Plan *

May 7 -- Supergirl [1984; international version] *
May 8 -- Arsenic and Old Lace [1944] *
May 12 -- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace [w/ audio commentary]
May 14 -- Lord, Save Us from Your Followers *
May 15 -- Letters to Juliet *
May 17 -- Robin Hood [2010] *
May 18 -- A Face in the Crowd [1957] *
May 19 -- Please Give *
May 19 -- Shrek Forever After *
May 19 -- Bronson [2008] *

May 20 -- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time *
May 21 -- Oceans [2009; English version] *
May 22 -- Ben Hur [2010; part one] *
May 23 -- Harry Brown *
May 23 -- El secreto de sus ojos [aka The Secret in Their Eyes] *
May 27 -- MacGruber *
May 28 -- Bébé(s) [2010; aka Babies] *
May 28 -- Sex and the City 2 *
Jun 1 -- King Kong [1933]
Jun 1 -- The Son of Kong

Jun 2 -- Agora [2009] *
Jun 4 -- Get Him to the Greek *
Jun 6 -- Killers [2010] *
Jun 7 -- Meet Marlon Brando *
Jun 9 -- Despicable Me *
Jun 9 -- Marmaduke *
Jun 11 -- The A-Team [2010] *
Jun 11 -- The Karate Kid [2010] *
Jun 13 -- Splice *
Jun 14 -- The Messenger [2009] *

Jun 15 -- It Came from Beneath the Sea *
Jun 17 -- Knight and Day *
Jun 18 -- Toy Story 3 *
Jun 19 -- Jonah Hex *
Jun 21 -- Grown Ups [2010] *
Jun 30 -- The Last Airbender [2010] *
Jun 30 -- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse *
Jul 2 -- The Burning Plain *
Jul 3 -- Dreamscape [1984]
Jul 4 -- The Bounty [1984] *

Jul 5 -- Exam [2009] *
Jul 5 -- Bronson [2008]
Jul 6 -- Der Baader Meinhof Komplex [aka The Baader Meinhof Complex] *
Jul 7 -- Fear and Desire [1953] *
Jul 8 -- The Sorcerer's Apprentice [2010] *
Jul 9 -- Predators [2010] *
Jul 9 -- Flickan som lekte med elden [aka The Girl Who Played with Fire] *
Jul 12 -- Good Hair *
Jul 14 -- Inception *
Jul 15 -- Mr. Mom *

Jul 17 -- Sin Nombre [2009] *
Jul 21 -- Salt [2010] *
Jul 22 -- Get Low *
Jul 22 -- Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) *
Jul 29 -- Dinner for Schmucks *
Aug 1 -- Charlie St. Cloud *
Aug 5 -- Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore [3D version] *
Aug 5 -- The Other Guys *
Aug 8 -- Nema-ye Nazdik [1991; aka Close-Up] *
Aug 9 -- The Kids Are All Right [2010] *

Aug 11 -- Eat Pray Love *
Aug 12 -- Flipped [2010] *
Aug 13 -- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World *
Aug 13 -- The Expendables [2010] *
Aug 15 -- Fantastic Voyage [1966]
Aug 16 -- Condorman
Aug 16 -- InnerSpace [1987]
Aug 19 -- Step Up 3D [3D version] *
Aug 20 -- Piranha [2010; 3D version] *
Aug 24 -- Looney Tunes Super Stars: Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire *

Aug 25 -- Going the Distance [2010] *
Aug 25 -- The Last Exorcism *
Aug 30 -- Protektor [2009; aka Protector] *
Aug 30 -- The Disappearance of Alice Creed *
Sep 1 -- Takers *
Sep 2 -- The American [2010] *
Sep 2 -- The Switch [2010] *
Sep 8 -- The Virginity Hit *
Sep 8 -- Waking Sleeping Beauty *
Sep 11 -- Looney Tunes Super Stars: Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl *

Sep 11 -- Resident Evil: Afterlife [3D version] *
Sep 11 -- Machete [2010] *
Sep 15 -- The Town [2010] *
Sep 16 -- Never Let Me Go [2010] *
Sep 16 -- Easy A *
Sep 17 -- Rejoice and Shout *
Sep 17 -- Devil [2010] *
Sep 18 -- Alpha and Omega [2010; 3D version] *
Sep 19 -- Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole [3D version] *
Sep 20 -- Sólskinsdrengurinn [aka A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism] *

Sep 22 -- The Social Network *
Sep 25 -- Del amor y otros demonios [aka Of Love and Other Demons] *
Sep 25 -- Plug & Pray *
Sep 27 -- Lifeforce [1985] *
Sep 30 -- Buried [2010] *
Sep 30 -- Stonewall Uprising *
Sep 30 -- Io sono l'amore [aka I Am Love] *
Sep 30 -- Det røde kapel [2009; aka The Red Chapel] *
Oct 1 -- Psychohydrography *
Oct 1 -- Anton Chekhov's The Duel [2009] *

Oct 1 -- Fathers & Sons [2010] *
Oct 1 -- Monsters [2010] *
Oct 2 -- Made in Dagenham *
Oct 3 -- Barney's Version *
Oct 3 -- Kawasakiho ruze [aka Kawasaki's Rose] *
Oct 3 -- The Indian Boundary Line / Get Out of the Car *
Oct 3 -- La belle endormie [aka The Sleeping Beauty] *
Oct 4 -- Red [2010] *
Oct 4 -- Rubber [2010] *
Oct 4 -- Waiting for "Superman" *

Oct 4 -- You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger *
Oct 5 -- Let Me in [2010] *
Oct 5 -- Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps *
Oct 6 -- Tamara Drewe *
Oct 6 -- Jack Goes Boating *
Oct 6 -- Derby [2010] / Burta balenei [aka Belly of the Whale] *
Oct 6 -- Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie *
Oct 7 -- StreetDance 3D [3D version] *
Oct 8 -- Rewers [aka Reverse] *
Oct 8 -- Gadkiy utyonok [aka The Ugly Duckling] *

Oct 9 -- Carlos [2010; long version] *
Oct 10 -- Des hommes et des dieux [2010; aka Of Gods and Men] *
Oct 11 -- Catfish [2010] *
Oct 11 -- Another Year [2010] *
Oct 13 -- Collision: Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson *
Oct 14 -- Conviction [2010] *
Oct 14 -- Jackass 3D [3D version] *
Oct 15 -- L'illusionniste [2010; aka The Illusionist] *
Oct 17 -- My Soul to Take [3D version] *
Oct 17 -- Secretariat *

Oct 22 -- I Love You, Beth Cooper *
Oct 23 -- Paranormal Activity 2 *
Oct 23 -- Hereafter [2010] *
Oct 23 -- Audience of One *
Oct 24 -- Rust [2010] *
Oct 26 -- Cure for Love [2008] *
Oct 28 -- Big Love [season 1, disc 1] *
Oct 29 -- Heart of a Dragon [2008] *
Oct 29 -- Saw 3D [3D version] *
Oct 31 -- Big Love [season 1, disc 2] *

Nov 1 -- Life as We Know It [2010] *
Nov 1 -- Luftslottet som sprängdes [aka The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest] *
Nov 3 -- Megamind *
Nov 5 -- Due Date [2010] *
Nov 7 -- Big Love [season 1, disc 3] *
Nov 8 -- Morning Glory [2010] *
Nov 9 -- Fair Game [2010] *
Nov 12 -- Big Love [season 1, disc 4] *
Nov 12 -- Big Love [season 1, disc 5] *
Nov 13 -- Tangled [2010] *

Nov 15 -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 *
Nov 17 -- Big Love [season 2, disc 1] *
Nov 20 -- Unstoppable [2010] *
Nov 20 -- The Next Three Days *
Nov 23 -- Big Love [season 2, disc 2] *
Nov 24 -- Tron
Nov 26 -- Faster [2010] *
Nov 26 -- Love and Other Drugs *
Nov 26 -- Burlesque [2010] *
Nov 28 -- Vision: Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen *

Nov 30 -- Big Love [season 2, disc 3] *
Dec 1 -- Big Love [season 2, disc 4] *
Dec 2 -- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [2010; 3D version] *
Dec 5 -- Skyline [2010] *
Dec 7 -- Black Swan [2010] *
Dec 11 -- Yogi Bear [2010; 3D version] *
Dec 11 -- True Grit [2010] *
Dec 11 -- Big Love [season 3, disc 1] *
Dec 13 -- Tron: Legacy [3D version] *
Dec 13 -- The Tourist [2010] *

Dec 14 -- 127 Hours *
Dec 18 -- Waste Land [2010] *
Dec 22 -- How Do You Know *
Dec 22 -- Little Fockers *
Dec 23 -- Walking with Cavemen *
Dec 24 -- The Social Network [w/ actors' audio commentary]
Dec 25 -- Big Love [season 3, disc 2] *
Dec 26 -- Gulliver's Travels [2010] *
Dec 26 -- The King's Speech *
Dec 26 -- Big Love [season 3, disc 3] *

Dec 27 -- Charade [1963]