… just a friendly reminder that “The Rocketeer” is screening at the Lightbox today (Saturday) at 2 pm, in 35mm. I won’t be able to attend thanks to a whole bunch of stupid, stupid deadlines, but if you’re a regular follower of this blog, you’re probably exactly the sort of person who’d enjoy it.

So, you know, go.

TIFF’s right around the corner, but for some reason that just enables our distrbutors to throw more than a dozen movies onto Toronto’s screens. That’s insane, and yet I’m expected to let you all know what’s what, so here goes …

“Conan the Barbarian”: Marcus Nispel, who gave us the bonehead burly bloodbath that was “Pathfinder”, tackles the original loincloth warrior in a spurtfest that, according to Andrew, does an effective job of crushing its enemies and hearing the lamentations of their women.

“The Corner Shop”: Upinder Raisauda’s homegrown hybrid is, supposedly, both a heist film and a generational comedy — and according to Rad, it makes “Clerks” look polished and self-assured. So, um, no thanks.

“Fright Night“: Craig Gillespie’s 3D remake/update isn’t perfect — it throws out the original’s ingenious premise far too soon, and doesn’t really replace it with anything better — but damn if Colin Farrell isn’t good, and double damn if David Tennant isn’t great. So, yeah.

“Griff the Invisible“: “True Blood” man-candy Ryan Kwanten goes all Defendor in Leon Ford’s ordinary-superhero comedy, which is different from all the other ordinary superhero comedies by being Australian and also being kinda twee. Strong cast, though.

“One Day”: Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess are ideal partners who spend 20 years getting ready to fall in love, or something. Glenn ain’t buying it.

“Sarah’s Key“: You know the respectable Oscar-bait movies Miramax used to make about the Holocaust? Well, here is another one, and this one has Kristin Scott-Thomas in it.

“Senna”: Ten years after impressing no one with the stylish but empty thriller “The Warrior”, Asif Kapadia reinvents himself as a crackling documentarian with this study of doomed racecar driver Ayrton Senna. Rad finds it a mean machine indeed.

“Sex and Zen 3D: Extreme Ecstacy”: I’m not entirely sure any sex comedy needs to be experienced in 3D, let alone a remake of a pretty broad 1991 Hong Kong venture that kicked off a prurient franchise. And yet, here it is.

“Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World”: The first two “Spy Kids” movies were a lot of fun, but Robert Rodriguez’ kiddie films have grown awfully simplistic and self-indulgent since then. This one’s in 3D and smell-o-vision, and it wasn’t screened for the press, so I’m in no hurry, you know?

“Terri“: Most movies about awkward teenagers shy away from the creepy, icky reality of adolescence. Azazel Jacobs’ considered character study does not — and it’s also really funny, with John C. Reilly doing some of his finest work in years as an unreadable guidance counsellor. Go and see.

“Trollhunter”: Andre Ovredal’s found-footage creeper follows three college students stalking a rural myth who discover they’re on the trail of something very real and very dangerous. Yeah, it owes a great deal to “The Blair Witch Project” — for the first five minutes, anyway. And then it goes sprinting off down its own goony path. Andy likes it as much as I do.

“Whirligig“: Who keeps giving Chaz Thorne money? Is there no one else on the East Coast who might be more deserving? Because this wincingly stiff comedy about a maladjusted young man trying to bang his parents’ neighbour is an awful, awful film, and we really don’t need any more of those than we already have.

“You Are Here“: Playful, provocative and entirely unique, Daniel Cockburn’s meta-detective project finally gets a Toronto theatrical release at the Lightbox. I’ll be doing a Q&A with Daniel after the 7:30pm screening tonight, so, um, that’d probably be the best show to catch.

Oh, and I may not have time to mention it, but the Lightbox is also hosting a Saturday matinee screening of “The Rocketeer” this weekend. As it is unlikely to ever play a local theatre again, I would highly recommend you go.

So, yeah. I have the cover story of this week’s NOW, and it’s an interview with David Tennant — the artist formerly known as the Tenth Doctor, now a live-wire supporting player who handily steals the new “Fright Night” remake out from under Colin Farrell. Do read it. You’ll like him.

Elsewhere in the issue, you’ll find my latest interview with Daniel Cockburn, whose film “You Are Here” finally opens in Toronto tomorrow, nearly a year after its Canadian debut at TIFF 2010. (Here’s our previous conversation, which was part of NOW’s online TIFF coverage but never made it into the paper proper.)

I’ve been asked to moderate the post-screening Q&A tomorrow night after the 7:30pm screening at the Lightbox, so if you’ve been meaning to see “You Are Here” to discover what all the buzzing’s been about, why not catch that show? I mean, you can see “Fright Night” any other time over the weekend, really …

On this surprisingly quiet Wednesday — which, if my calendar is correct, is likely to be the last quiet day I experience for about five weeks — I humbly offer up this MSN Movies feature on heist pictures, timed to the opening of “30 Minutes or Less” last week.

And yeah, I left out “Heat”, but “Heat” is not a heist movie, really. Michael Mann joints defy easy categorization, man.

Oh, and if you’re in the Toronto area, make sure you pick up a copy of NOW tonight. I have a feeling that my readership, in particular, won’t want to wait until tomorrow to see who’s on the cover.

Well, people sure do love their narratively garbled, politically incoherent sci-fi epics: “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” stayed at the top of the charts for a second week, grossing $27.5 million and keeping “The Help” in second place with $25.5 million. “Final Destination 5” took third with $18.4 million, “The Smurfs” took fourth with $13.5 million and “30 Minutes or Less” shrugged its way into fifth with $13 million.

Curiously, the 3D “Glee” concert movie failed to crack the top ten, coming in eleventh with a paltry $5.7 million. I suspect this is because the show’s rabid fans already shelled out for the concert tour on which it’s based, and therefore are waiting to buy the DVD. Or maybe there just aren’t that many rabid fans of “Glee” in the first place.

I think it’s time to talk hybrid sequels. I’d really love to see a “Smurfs” sequel that lifted the plot from either “Final Destination 5” or “30 Minutes or Less”. C’mon, who wouldn’t want to see Papa Smurf robbing a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest? Or Brainy trapped on a table with a malfunctioning LASIK device hovering over his face?

Come on, studios, get on it. I don’t even want money; an executive-producer credit would be fine.

So I wrote this thing about TIFF’s Norman Jewison retrospective for my NOW Daily online column. In a nutshell, here’s the thesis:

Norman Jewison hasn’t made a good movie since “Agnes of God” — no, I don’t much like “Moonstruck” — and a lot of the other movies that get thrown around when his name comes up aren’t that great either. But you know how every piece on Atom Egoyan mentions his “Sweet Hereafter” Oscar nominations? Well, Jewison made a movie that actually won Best Picture, so due to the transitive property of the Canadian inferiority complex, that means he’s the greatest filmmaker this country has ever produced.

Except that he is, quite clearly, not. But good luck trying to convince your parents of that fact, right?

Anyway, that’s where I’m at — just sittin’ around, waiting for the backlash. How’s your weekend looking?

“The Help” opened earlier in the week, but even counting that, we’re still looking at just six new releases jockeying for your attention, all of which seem oddly nichey in their potential audience. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you; next week’s going to be insane, so I’ll take whatever lulls I can get.

“Final Destination 5“: After a couple of disappointing installments, the series recovers its sadistic mojo with this enthusiastic go-round, featuring the guy from “Heroes”, the girl from “Frozen” and the guy from “Anchorman”. Oh, and the girl from “The Bold and the Beautiful”. Also, it’s in 3D, but I managed to see it projected flat. Score!

“Glee: The 3D Concert Movie”: Well, it has “movie” in the title, so I acknowledge its existence, but that’s all I’m prepared to do. Glenn saw it; his review will be up later today, I think. Not that this is the sort of thing that requires a review to validate its existence.

“A Gun to the Head“: New Pornographers keyboardist Blaine Thurier makes movies in his off-hours — movies like “Low Self-Esteem Girl”, which had its moments, and this one, which does not. Really, it’s terrible, and I’d bet that’s why it’s been on the shelf for nearly two years.

“30 Minutes or Less“: Ruben Fleischer, director of the disposable “Zombieland”, finally realizes the threat of death is actually a pretty good comic engine with this action farce in which pizza boy Jesse Eisenberg is rigged up with a bomb and ordered to rob a bank by thugs Danny McBride and Nick Swardson — while Aziz Ansari and Michael Pena are locked in a death-match to see who can run off with the picture.

“The Whistleblower”: Larysa Kondracki’s docu-thriller, starring Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop turned UN peacekeeper who exposed a massive sex-slavery ring — finally lands in theatres after its big bow at last year’s TIFF. Rad finds it gripping, though he allows there are a couple of wobbly bits.

There, that’s everything. Well, almost everything; TIFF Cinematheque has started into its Norman Jewison retrospective, so if your parents want to see something over the weekend, point them towards the Lightbox.

The new issue of NOW is out, and in it you’ll find me discussing “Final Destination 5” with the lively Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, who’s had audiences squirming for months in the movie’s surprisingly intense trailer. She’s also a regular on “The Bold and the Beautiful”, but we did not talk about her character — or anything having to do with the show, actually, as I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Elsewhere in the issue, I talk around “Red State” with writer-director Kevin Smith, who’s bringing the film to the Toronto Underground Cinema on Monday night — but wouldn’t screen it for media beforehand, putting me in the very odd position of having to interview a filmmaker about a film I hadn’t seen. Space was tight, so that discussion is (sort of) dealt with in the audio clips. Check ’em out.

Hi, everybody! I’m not entirely sure why the blog disappeared yesterday, or why it came back thinking it was June 24th, 2011. I’m just a simple cave man; your world is strange and frightening to me.

(Seriously, though, does anyone know the ins and outs of WordPress? Apparently I need to update my build, at the very least.)

Anyway, it would appear that the lost pages aren’t lost forever; they’re floating around on the server somewhere, and once my DNS information propagates itself around the net, they should magically reappear. At least, that’s the theory, because I have no frickin’ idea where to find them if they don’t.

In the meantime, “The Help” opens today, and unfortunately it’s exactly the sort of syrupy feel-good movie about institutionalized racism that the trailer promises. Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain give their characters a little more weight than director Tate Taylor’s screenplay perhaps intended, revealing how one-dimensional the rest of his movie really is.

I’m told the book is quite good, though.