2007 a banner year for Canadian actors and directors; can next year compete?
By Lee-Anne Goodman Canadian Press
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

TORONTO - Canadian actors and directors were among the hippest and hottest in cinema during 2007, with movies like "Away From Her," "Eastern Promises" and "Juno" some of the most lauded of the year and actors Ellen Page, Michael Cera and Seth Rogen becoming household names around the globe.

"Away From Her," the directorial debut of one-time child actress Sarah Polley, was the No. 2 best-reviewed movie of the year, according to the film junkie's website Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com), which compiles film reviews from across North America. Only the animated kids' movie "Ratatouille" snagged more rave reviews than Polley's poignant Alzheimer's disease drama.

The Golden Globes, considered a harbinger of the Oscars, have also smiled upon Canadians: "Juno," from Montreal-born director Jason Reitman, was nominated for best film in the comedy or musical category, while David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" got the nod for best dramatic film. Viggo Mortensen, who starred in the Cronenberg film, received an acting nomination.

Page, who lives in Halifax, has been nominated for best actress in a comedy or musical for her portrayal of a feisty pregnant teen in "Juno," while Julie Christie is up for best actress in a dramatic film for her role in "Away From Her." Both are widely considered to be shoo-ins for Oscar nominations.

Can the momentum hold in 2008 for Canadians here and abroad? It would be a daunting task, but those in the know say there are some promising Canadian films in the works, and that the actors currently in the glare of the Hollywood spotlight are most certainly going to remain there.

Paul Gross's $20-million pet project "Passchendaele," a First World War drama, arrives in theatres in 2008, as does an eagerly anticipated Atom Egoyan film, "Adoration."

Deepa Mehta's "The Exclusion," about the plight of 375 asylum-seekers from India who fled Britain and arrived in Vancouver in 1914, will also likely be released in the coming year, as will the latest from Jean-Marc Vallee of "C.R.A.Z.Y." fame. Vallee's film tackles an unexpected topic: "The Young Victoria" is a dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule and her enduring romance with Prince Albert.

"The big news is going to be the Paul Gross film," says Richard Crouse, the film critic for CTV's "Canada AM."

"He's tried for so long to get this made, it is a real passion project for him and it cost a lot of money - and in Canada films don't cost a lot of money, typically. So I'm really curious to see what comes out of that ... It's a movie made by Canadians on a scale that we don't see very often in this country."

The Egoyan film, starring Canadian actor Scott Speedman, formerly of "Felicity" fame, also sounds intriguing, Crouse says.

"Scott Speedman is an unlikely choice to be in an Atom Egoyan film but he's actually a really good actor, and something interesting is going to come out of all that," Crouse says. "Everyone's interested to see what happens with 'Adoration' because Egoyan has kind of pulled back a little bit and is doing what he does best, which is make smaller budget, interesting films."

Steve Gravestock, director of Canadian programming for the Toronto International Film Festival, says there was a wealth of great homegrown films that screened at the 2007 festival - and adds that next year is shaping up to be just as bountiful.

"The talent pool here in Canada is really quite large," Gravestock says. "There's a lot of really interesting stuff out there and hopefully it will jibe with our dates and whatever their commercial plans are. People thought this year was great - we had a lot of Canadian films in very prominent positions, a big Canadian slate - and next year doesn't look any smaller."

As far as the Canadians who made a splash internationally in 2007, Crouse says, the future looks bright.

"Sarah Polley is being recognized all over the place, deservedly so, and Michael Cera, Seth Rogen and Ellen Page are emerging as three of the hot 'it' people in Hollywood right now," Crouse says.

'Juno' a breath of fresh air amid bleak holiday movies
December 5, 2007
By Lee-Anne Goodman, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - Among the slate of highly anticipated holiday movies in theatres this month, one film alone has generated a near-deafening buzz - "Juno," the sweet new movie from Montreal-born Jason Reitman that boasts a strong Canadian pedigree.

Young Halifax actress Ellen Page, who plays a feisty pregnant teen in the movie, is even being hailed as a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination by longtime film writers and popular blogs like Cinematical (www.cinematical.com).

"They'd be making a huge mistake if they overlook Page's career-defining performance here," wrote Cinematical's Erik Davis. "In short, she's a powerhouse. She commands your attention in every scene, and you'd be hard-pressed to find an actress who could've pulled off a similar (or better) performance in that role."

The Envelope, the Los Angeles Times movie blog, even predicts victory for Page in the film that was shot in Vancouver and co-stars fellow Canadian actor Michael Cera.

"Remember, six of the past best-actress 10 champs were first-time nominees. Oscar voters love to crown ingenues," wrote film scribe Tom O'Neil on the blog.

Considering the holiday field of films and performances from high-profile Hollywood heavyweights, that's high praise indeed for Page, who appeared on "The Trailer Park Boys" and also starred this year in the Canadian film "The Tracey Fragments."

Reitman was delighted earlier this year when Fox Searchlight brass took in a screening of "Juno" and immediately moved up its release date from the spring of 2008 to this season's crucial holiday period. Among the bleak films arriving in theatres this month, Reitman reasoned, "Juno" would be a welcome respite similar to last year's beloved "Little Miss Sunshine."

Indeed, dark subject matter is almost uniformly on offer in this season's other big holiday films.

There's the gory, slasher-themed "Sweeney Todd" starring Johnny Depp, himself the subject of Oscar buzz, the John Cusack Iraq War tear-jerker "Grace Is Gone," and "There Will Be Blood," a film about greed and vengeance that marks a rare return to the movies by Daniel Day Lewis in another performance that has award-show prognosticators chattering.

"Atonement," the cinematic adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel, is a tragic story of wartime love. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is another highly acclaimed film that tells a depressing though ultimately inspirational story - it's about a French editor who suffers a massive stroke that leaves him unable to communicate except for blinking his left eye.

Some of the season's other big movies - and the ones routinely singled out as being among the best films of the year - are blood-soaked and grim, including "No Country for Old Men," "American Gangster" and David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises." "Michael Clayton" and "Into the Wild," released earlier this fall, aren't exactly cheery either.

Even "The Golden Compass," one of the holiday season's few big action/adventure flicks, along with Will Smith's "I Am Legend," is dark and the subject of controversy due to its supposedly anti-religion themes. A Catholic school board in Alberta pulled the book that inspired the film from its shelves just this week; another one in Ontario did the same thing two weeks ago.

Richard Crouse, the film critic for CTV's "Canada AM," says "Juno" is like a breath of fresh air amid this season's big films.

"It is definitely the little movie that could," Crouse said Wednesday.

"People want something that's a little lighter, something that's going to make them laugh. I don't know if I'd call 'Juno' a family movie, but it is something you could see with your teenagers and have a day out at the movies over the holidays ... the film is really funny and Ellen Page is amazingly good in it."

Crouse noted the absence of Iraq War movies - except for Cusack's "Grace Is Gone" - amid the holiday fare, pointing out that autumn films including "In the Valley of Elah," "Lions for Lambs," "Rendition" and "Redacted" tanked at the box office.

"People are seeing enough of the war on television," he said. "They can turn on CNN 24 hours a day and see it, they can read about it in the newspapers, and I just don't think people want to pay money to see those films right now. It's too fresh. They want some escapism, which is why 'Juno' is going to do very well."

Hints from the gifted
By Flannery Dean, Canwest News Service
Saturday, November 24, 2007

To help you figure out what to buy those special-interest types on your gift list, we asked a handful of noteworthy Canadians to tell us what they hope to receive. Here's hoping it will help you out.

THE SCENESTER: Vancouver gossip maven Elaine Lui (a.k.a. Lainey, of laineygossip.com) knows exactly what she wants: a round of golf at the Wynn Las Vegas; a perfect black fedora; the complete Beverly Hills 90210 series on DVD; and the Andrea Brueckner Luxembourg Shopper in black crackle patent. In a concession to practicality, she admits she wouldn't mind a new dryer.

THE TIPPLER: Ottawa-based oenophile Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over:A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass (Doubleday Canada) is dreaming of a "bubbly Christmas." And she's counting on "Santa or Bacchus" to make it Bollinger Champagne. "I'd drink it with a large bowl of potato chips while I watch the seventh rerun of Miracle on 34th Street."

THE DESIGNER: Finding the perfect gift for uberdesigner Karim Rashid could, admittedly, be a little tricky. "I would be really happy with a microchip implanted in my body that would open up all my doors -- approved by the FDA-- since I constantly lose my keys." And failing that? "A new tattoo."

THE CINEASTE: Speaking of miracles, film critic Richard Crouse, author of The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen (ECW Press), has set his sights high. "I'd love someone, anyone, in Hollywood to get an original idea," he says. "No more sequels! No more movies based on bad Baby Boomer television shows! Get a new idea and then give me an exciting, original movie."

THE FASHIONISTA: Lisa Tant, editor-in-chief at Flare, subscribes to the How Stella Got Her Groove Back school of wish fulfilment. "My ultimate Christmas treat would be a spa week away in the tropics, with an easy read, a hand-some man and no BlackBerry."

THE HOCKEY FAN: Also on the hunt for an original is Dave Bidini, musician, author and hockey aficionado: "I want a Bernie Parent goalie mask, painted by Andrew Rucklidge, with a purple brain painted on the outside, please, God."

THE NOVELIST: The 2006 Giller Prize-winning author Vincent Lam ( Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, Doubleday Canada) has his eye on a BMW 330xd diesel station wagon. "They get fantastic fuel mileage -- as good as hybrids," Lam says. "And they have incredibly low emissions. Who am I kidding? They're cool."

THE HANDYMAN: Canada's most famous man-about-the-house, Mike Holmes, would like nothing better than a short reprieve from drywall and leaky pipes for the holidays. "I'd love to have a few days' vacation on a beach in Hawaii," he says.

THE ENVIRONMENTALIST: "A funky purse by Jack and Marjorie, made of reconstructed vintage fabrics," says Adria Vasil, whose environment column, Ecoholic, appears in NOW. "And something styley, made of organic cotton, bamboo or hemp, by another sustainable, sweatshop-free Canadian designer --Thieves."

THE MUSICIAN: Singer-songwriter and member of the band Shaye, Newfoundland's Damhnait Doyle thinks outside the box: "I want a gift that will fill my soul, my heart and my mind, something that will keep on working, even when the batteries run out and the wrapping paper is in the recycling bin. I want to open up my eyes on Christmas morning and say, 'This is the best Christmas ever.' " Sure, Damhnait. What's the gift?

"An envelope telling me that, instead of buying one another gifts, my family and I have bought groceries and children's presents for 10 families that need a little extra help during this financially stressful season."

Shinan: Murder on the dance floor
December 07, 2007
By Shinan Govani
Scene, heard:

    * Breaking news, courtesy of Rachel Sklar of The Huffington Post. The man formerly known as J.D., and the one who is now a gravitas-voiced anchor fella on CNN, John Roberts, has actually gone and broken his neck. A bicycle accident in New York on American Thanksgiving Day is how it happened.

    * Funnyman Rick Mercer likes to blog, and the other day he blogged on one of the many benefits of gay-ness: “When you fly standby on Air Canada, you’ll get a free upgrade to business class because the guy behind the counter, he’s gay, too.”

    * Professional moviegoer Richard Crouse has one main critique after seeing The Golden Compass — and it’s of Nicole Kidman! When I ran into him at a party this week, he put it this way: “She’s one Botox job away from full facial paralysis! It’s distracting!”

    * Natalie Glebova, the former Miss Universe from Canada, did the tying-of-the-knot thing in Bangkok last week to Thai tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan, and according to Hello Canada, the couple’s first dance was to that Bryan Adams Brie-classic Everything I Do I Do it for You.

    * Steve Nash, who isn’t gonna play for the Canadians at the next Olympics but was here this week to play against the Raptors, relaxes his basketball muscles in a very specific way. He levers himself into an ice bath while wearing thermal socks “to keep the frostbite out of his toes,” according to The New York Times.

The City
Compiled by Rob Roberts, National Post
Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2007

MY TORONTO: RICHARD CROUSE ( I )

ONE OF CROUSE'S VIEWS IS ON KING, 44 FLOORS UP

Richard Crouse, Canada's most recognizable film critic, lives his life in Toronto like it was a movie: hanging out with local characters on Mutual Street, gargoyle-watching off One King West and savouring Cajun at a curvaceous bar that once graced the Algonquin Hotel. The pompadour and specs-loving host spoke with Zosia Bielski:

Gritty redux

I moved to Toronto from Nova Scotia about 27 years ago. I rented an apartment that was $55 a month. It was an awful awful place. Weirdly now, I can see it from the home that I bought, 25 years after I ran screaming from that place. I live on Dalhousie Street, a tiny street just a couple blocks east of Church off Shuter.

There's a neighbourhood feel here. You have to go to the Mutual Street Diner, which is just at Mutual and Dundas. It's the kind of place where the waiters know exactly what you want before you sit down. The food's great and it's relatively cheap.

Invariably you run into people you've seen there all the time and so you end up sitting a little longer than you want to probably over that last cup of coffee.

Stinson vision

One of my favourite views, and it's one that I discovered relatively recently, it's at One King Street West. I was on the 44th floor of that building a little while ago shooting some interviews looking south and just slightly east through these panoramic windows. I saw details on buildings that I've walked past a thousand times, gargoyles and really interestingly carved details.

Dottie was here, maybe

My absolute hangout is Southern Accent restaurant on Markham Street, three doors down from Suspect [Video]. It's a Cajun restaurant.

They have two things that are probably the tastiest things I've ever tasted in my life: blackened lamb and piquant shrimp. It is the reason that food was created.

This place is really idiosyncratic looking. The bar came from the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. After the '30s, it was sold a number of times and then it ended up here, so there's a good chance Dorothy Parker sat at it.

Aside from hosting Reel to Real and The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen, Crouse has covered Cannes and the Toronto film festivals and written six books on pop culture.

THE CITY
Compiled by Rob Roberts, National Post
Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2007

MY TORONTO: RICHARD CROUSE ( I I )

Film critic and Toronto local Richard Crouse remembers seeing Citizen Kane at the Bloor and signing up for his membership the day Suspect Video opened. He spoke to Zosia Bielski.

Rosebud on Bloor

Most of the truly great theatres are gone but if you go up to Mount Pleasant, the Regent is still a great single screen theatre. It's been in constant operation since 1927. The people that work there have worked there a very long time. They seem to really love movies and more importantly, really love the place that they work in. It always feels to me like when I go see something there that I'm stepping back in time just a little bit. I love the Bloor. I saw Repulsion there for the first time, I saw things like Citizen Kane on the big screen.

Critics' pick

The Varsity is a really good theatre. It's shifted its focus a little bit over the last couple years and turned itself into a place that doesn't just play the blockbusters. I particularly like auditorium #8 -- it seats 600 people. It does make me laugh going to press screenings sometimes because people laugh at arcane film references that filmmakers have put in. Or the other thing is, you often don't hear a great deal of laughter at the press screenings. What you do hear are people going, "That was very funny," and not actually laughing.

I'm #39

Suspect Video on Markham Street, bar none in the city has the widest variety of videos. I'm #39 in terms of their membership. I've been going there literally since the day they opened. Typically, the kind of people that go to Suspect are people looking for something more adventurous and something a little different. Clearly, you can tell it's run by people who know about movies. - Aside from hosting Reel to Real and The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen, Crouse has covered Cannes and the To-ronto film f e s t ival and written six books on pop culture.

Timing is everything in intricate Oscar derby
Tue. Jan. 23 2007
Angela Mulholland, CTV.ca News

What's in a movie's buzz factor? In the race for the Oscars, it's everything. No other recent movie proves this more than Brokeback Mountain.

A critical darling, Brokeback seemed unstoppable. It earned glowing review after glowing review. It won award after award. And then Jack Nicholson got up on stage at the Academy Awards and read those famous words: "And the Oscar goes to..."

Crash.

How did it happen? How could a film that seemed to have a sure lock on Best Picture collapse at the finish line? The answer may lie in the delicate game of "buzz".

Building Oscar buzz is a complicated strategy of marketing, lobbying, and sometimes just plain good luck. Studios try to push the odds in their favour by offering media outlets preview screenings and press junkets in posh hotel rooms. They then take the glowing quotes from entertainment reporters and fill the daily newspapers with ads.

At the end of the year, the studios send out "For Your Consideration" DVD screeners of their likely candidates for nominations. They put their stars on the red carpet at premieres and have them make strategic public appearances to keep their names on people's lips.

They place ads in the trade papers and of course, a well-timed star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the film's lead never hurts either.

But perhaps the most important factor of all is timing. Delicate timing.

Have your buzz peak too late and you won't generate enough hype in time for the Oscar balloting. Peak too early, and your film's momentum peters out too early.

This is what is thought to have happened last year with Brokeback Mountain. Though critics gobbled up the film, by the time the Oscar ballots were mailed out, Academy members seemed to have had their fill of that "gay cowboy flick."

"Brokeback Mountain was absolutely a victim of 'hype overload'," says film critic Richard Crouse.

"It seemed like such a lock for Best Picture that I think Academy voters got tired of hearing about it and voted for the alternative -- which, to my mind wasn't nearly as good a movie."

Not all moviegoers would agree, but one thing is certain: Crash defied the Oscar odds makers twice - by pulling off a victory at all; and by winning despite being released long before "awards season".

The oft-mentioned awards season begins, in many people's minds, at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Dozens of movies, from Chariots of Fire to Capote made their North American debut at the TIFF and went on to become Oscar winners.

Distributors hope if a film develops buzz at the TIFF, it can be released shortly after, ride a wave of momentum through the fall into the Christmas season and be showered with gold come Oscar time.

It's a strategy that has worked fairly consistently for years - until Brokeback Mountain. But it's such a popular strategy that now studios flood the market with "important", Oscar-worthy films every December. And if you send out your "Oscar bait" films in the middle of it, you risk it getting lost in the deluge.

That's why distributors sometimes try to defy the release date convention.

Thinkfilm CEO Jeff Sackman says they deliberately released their Oscar hopeful Half Nelson in August to avoid the awards season rush.

"We knew ahead of time that a lot of the films coming out in the fall were powerhouse, indie-type movies and we didn't want to go head-to-head with those," referring to films such as Babel and The Last King of Scotland.

Sackman says it was a risk to place Half Nelson in theatres at an unconventional time, but that was weighed against his company's belief that they had a quality film that could carry its own.

But any film released early in the year assumes the risk that Academy members may forget about it come voting time. Some say that is what has happened to Flags of Our Fathers, which arrived in theatres in October, garnered only modest box office revenues and seemed to fade out of sight.

Crouse worries that United 93, released in April, could be similarly overlooked.

"It didn't earn a single Golden Globe nomination, although it would seem that a Best Director for a Drama would have been a natural fit," he said before the nominations were announced.

"If the awards had been announced in March, this movie would have been at the top of the list. But as the year went on, and people's memories faded, United 93 got lost in the shuffle."

It would appear Crouse was right; the film was snubbed by the Academy and didn't earn a nomination in any of the key categories.

Sackman says in the end, release date strategy is all a gamble. But he admits that release date timing is hardly an exact science.

"It just goes back to the old adage, 'No one knows anything'," he says half-jokingly.

"Every year is different, every situation is different. You're applying your experience and knowledge and purported expertise to come up with the best decision. And in the end, the final result tells you if you made the right decision."

'Dreamgirls' leads Oscar nominations
Tue. Jan. 23 2007
CTV.ca News Staff

The musical "Dreamgirls" was unexpectedly shut out for Best Picture when the Academy Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning, but came away with a leading eight nominations.

The multinational drama "Babel" was close behind with seven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress honours for relative newcomers Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi.

The other films selected to face off for Best Picture were "The Departed," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine," and "The Queen."

Four Canadians scored key nominations: Ryan Gosling for his lead acting role in "Half Nelson," Paul Haggis for screenwriting on "Letters From Iwo Jima" and Deepa Mehta for her foreign film submission, "Water." "The Danish Poet," co-produced by the National Film Board, was nominated for best animated short film.

The other nominees for best actor were: Leonardo DiCaprio for "Blood Diamond,'' Peter O'Toole for "Venus,'' Will Smith for "The Pursuit of Happyness,'' and Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland.''

Film critic Richard Horgan told CTV's Canada AM from California that he's stunned that "Dreamgirls", which launched a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign ahead of the nominations, wasn't a choice for Best Picture.

"Down here in Hollywood, I can tell you that the chatter for months among certain pundits has been that Dreamgirls was going to get 10 nominations or get the Best Picture. So that is a big surprise."

The musical, based loosely on the story of the Motown group The Supremes, also garnered a Best Supporting Actress for American Idol runner-up Jennifer Hudson, and a Best Supporting Actor nod for Eddie Murphy. Three more of its nominations came in a single category -- for original song.

Horgan was pleased to see that "Little Miss Sunshine," which debuted last January at the Sundance Film Festival, was able to maintain enough momentum to snag a few Oscar nods, including Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin and Best Supporting Actress for child actor Abigail Breslin.

"It's a triumph for a film that was purchased this time last year for about $12 million and is now the most successful Sundance film," he said.

Canada AM film critic Richard Crouse added it was particularly noteworthy because the film is a comedy.

"Comedies don't traditionally do particularly well at the Academy Awards," Crouse said. "Six months ago, everyone was talking about the dark horse, this is going to be the dark horse. Here it is."

Martin Scorcese earned his seventh Oscar nomination, this time for "The Departed."

He'll be competing against Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for "Babel'', Stephen Frears for "The Queen'', Paul Greengrass for "United 93'' and -- most notably -- Clint Eastwood for "Letters From Iwo Jima.''

Scorsese, who has never won an Academy Award, could stand a chance this year, CTV's etalk gossip blogger Elaine (Lainey) Liu said. But it's up to Eastwood.

"If Clint Eastwood is willing to step aside and give Martin his due, then he will win this year," Liu said.

Eastwood took the Oscar for Best Director in 2005 for "Million Dollar Baby" over Scorsese's "The Aviator."

Meryl Streep padded out her record as the most-nominated actor ever, earning a Best Actress nomination for her role as the boss from hell in "The Devil Wears Prada." It was the two-time winner's 14th nomination.

Joining Streep as Best Actress nominees were Penelope Cruz in "Volver'', Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal'', Kate Winslet in "Little Children'' and Helen Mirren in "The Queen."

Winners of the 79th annual Academy Awards will be announced Feb. 25 in Los Angeles, live on CTV.

The Pangs of Regret
National Post
Friday, February 09, 2007

Quentin Tarantino has said the sign of a good film is that it makes you want to go home, eat some pie and talk about it. With that in mind, our Popcorn Panel features film buffs feuding in this space each week.

This week's panel

- Richard Crouse, host of Rogers Television's Reel to Real, Canada's longest-running movie review show, and the author of The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen (ECWPress, 2003). His Web site is www.richardcrouse.ca
- Al Burzotta, clerk at Suspect Video (www.suspectvideo.com), "Toronto's hippest depot of higher culture"
- Craig Courtice, a short filmmaker who isn't very tall

This week's pie Sunflower. This week's subject The Messengers.

Richard: Horror fans don't mind a bit of repetition in their stories, just as long as there is some new twist to keep things interesting. What is The Thing other than an amped-up version of The Blob? And 28 Days Later is basically Night of the Living Dead with a European twist. Alfred Hitchcock said, "Self-plagiarism is style," openly admitting to recycling the best gotcha moments of his films. Which brings me to The Messengers, the new Pang Brothers movie that pilfers ideas from so many places we don't have room to list them all. Think The Amityville Horror, The Grudge, The Birds, The Shining and The Sixth Sense to name just a few. Trouble is it's not anywhere near as bloodcurdling as the movies it filches from. It seems the Pang Brothers re-hashed the ideas from those other, and much better films, but forgot to add in the scary bits. My question, then, is: Is The Messengers a horror movie or just horrifyingly bad?

Al: Definitely the latter, Richard. The Messengers is an astonishingly pedestrian horror outing that felt like nothing more than a cheapo X-Files episode padded out to reach the 90-minute minimum for a feature. Where has the American horror movie gone? Will this genre ever rise from its dark pit of mediocrity after being pushed there by half-assed remakes of overrated Asian films like The Ring, Pulse and The Grudge? When did the standard for scary become grey-skinned children with black eyes who jerk around the screen like Elaine dancing in that Seinfeld episode? I miss the good old days of horror when, if a movie wasn't scary, it at least had enough nudity, gore and swearing to keep me interested. Has Hollywood become this afraid of an R rating?

Craig: I don't know why you guys are being so hard on this one. I mean it's just a couple of kids discovering fish-eye lenses and how to use a dolly. These Pang Brothers are just kids, right? I see it says on IMDB that they were born in 1965 ... what!? And that The Messengers took in almost US$15-million at the box office last weekend. What, what!? This all makes me kind of wish we would have done that atrocious-looking Diane Keaton movie for the Panel. Damn, it's cold outside right now --poor fella could wander in off the street and into a theatre just to get some thaw on his toes. At least Lady in the Water was released in the summer, so if you didn't like it you could go grab a beer on a patio somewhere.

Richard: I would have preferred a brewski on a patio, even if it was -28C with the wind chill. I kept searching for some redeeming factor, anything to keep me in the theatre. The performances aren't good -- you can almost see Dylan McDermott reaching for his paycheque in some scenes -- the direction borrows heavily from better movies and even the soundtrack by Christopher Young sounds familiar. They always say that nobody sets out to make a bad movie, but in this case it is all so perfunctory that it seems like everyone involved gave up.

Al: I walked out of the theatre half expecting to see Ashton Kutcher leap from behind a garbage can with a bunch of cameras yelling "That wasn't a real movie. You've been punk'd!" The Pang Brothers deserve no pardon for their actions either. As relatively new artists in the plodding crap machine that is Hollywood, they have an obligation to at least try and show us something we haven't seen before. Isn't that the purpose of importing talent?

Craig: In one weekend a movie as bad as The Messengers outsold what The Last King of Scotland made in its entire release. Now Idi Amin -- that guy was a horror show. But as long as teenagers still get allowance they will spend their money on things the rest of us long ceased understanding. I think even if all horror movies were smart and scary there would still be a market for banal gore. The kids just don't want to watch what the rest of us want to watch. When The Messengers 2 comes out I'll just have to remember to get my cousins to review it.