The Canada Day weekend is upon us, which means going outside and being in parks and lakes and stuff. But it’s also going to be disgustingly humid, so if you find yourself needing to duck into an air-conditioned movie house for a couple of hours, you won’t be lacking for options.

“Dark Horse”: I grew tired of Todd Solondz’ relentless wallowing in middle-class white misery several movies back; from Susan‘s review of his latest, it sounds like she’s finally hitting the wall as well.

“Flamenco, Flamenco“: Carlos Saura and Vittorio Storaro film some musical performances. People who like this sort of thing will like this sort of thing, you know? Me, I find my mind wandering by the fourth or fifth song.

“Magic Mike“: Steven Soderbergh’s male-stripper movie leavens the pop effervescence of the “Ocean’s” trilogy with the economic consciousness of “The Girlfriend Experience”. Trust me, this is a net positive.

“People Like Us”: A Manhattan money guy (Chris Pine) learns some valuable life lessons after his father dies and leaves him a trail to the sister (Elizabeth Banks) he never knew existed. If Cameron Crowe decided to put his own spin on Lisa Chodolenko’s “Laurel Canyon”, it’d probably look a lot like this. Susan liked it a little more than I did.

“Take This Waltz“: Sarah Polley goes for broke with her second feature — and captures something complex and fascinating, if not altogether cinematically successful. Oh, and here my NOW Q&A with Sarah from TIFF 2011, since I didn’t get a chance to sit down with her again.

“Ted”: Seth MacFarlane’s first feature sounds very much like an alternate-universe iteration of “Family Guy”; this is intriguing, but I wasn’t able to make it to the press screening. Rad’s review should be up shortly, though.

“Town of Runners”: Documentarian Jerry Rothwell brings his camera to the Ethiopian village of Bekoji, where the path out of town quite literally runs straight through the Olympics. Rad finds it intriguing if not compelling.

“Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection”: Every six months, like clockwork …

That’s everything! Oh, but don’t forget “Jaws”, running in a new digital restoration at the Lightbox. If you’ve never seen it  in a theater, you literally don’t know what you’re missing.

In this week’s NOW, you’ll find the reason I went to Los Angeles over the weekend: A report on the “Magic Mike” press conference, where the likes of Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer and Matt Bomer discussed jumping around on stage while wearing garments that could best be described as banana hammocks. Steven Soderbergh oversaw the chaos with impeccable timing. (Listen to the audio clips. You’ll see.)

You’ll also see me waxing ecstatic over a new digital restoration of “Jaws“, which Universal bowed at Cannes last month and is bringing to the Lightbox for a limited run this holiday weekend. Yes, it’s the same master they’re using for the Blu-ray edition, but that won’t be out for another six or seven weeks and however big your screen is, the movie won’t have quite the same impact as it does in a proper auditorium with a crowd under its spell. Gorgeous, it is. I might even go down and catch it again, just because.

Good morning all! I’m back from Los Angeles — I did tell you I was going to Los Angeles, right? — with photos of tar pits and cheese plates, and a lot of transcription to do. But before I get to that: Wow, “Brave” did okay this weekend.

$66.7 million worth of okay, in fact, with its closest competitor, “Madagascar 3”, well behind with just $20.2 million. Of course, “Madagascar 3” has been number one for the last two weeks, so it’s not like it’s hurting; domestic gross to date is now $157.6 million.

“Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” suffered more mightily, pulling just $16.5 million to sputter into third. (And remember, it’s playing predominantly in 3D engagements with inflated ticket prices.)  “Prometheus” took fourth with $10 million.

“Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” earned $3.8 million in limited release, placing tenth. Doesn’t change how I feel about it, of course, but I’d hoped it would do better. It’d be nice if Steve Carell could open a non-Apatow picture once in a while.

Hello from Los Angeles! I’m just about to run off to a junkety thing, so I’ll keep it short: Here’s a link to this week’s MSN Movies gallery, which uses “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” as the springboard for a look at other movies that turned historical reality into works of spectacular bullshit — um, I mean, which heavily fictionalize real-life personalities and events for the purposes of spectacle.

Consumer advisory: This one’s not a gallery per se, just a single page of text — which is kinda sad, because it’s a fun one and could have used some illustration.

Also, I just realized I left out Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch”, which sort of creates an alternate history for William S. Burroughs in the same way “Time After Time” turns elements of H.G. Wells’ fiction into narrative reality. Balls.

… I guess it must be; the megaplexes are crawling with new releases. Shall we go through ’em?

“Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter“: If I tried to explain it, you’d think I was crazy. So just go see what Timur Bekmambetov has done to liven up one of the great American stories.

“ALPS“: Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to “Dogtooth” is just as weird, if not more so.

“The Boss“: Your tax dollars at work, making crap.

“Brave“: Pixar resurgent! Beautiful characters, gorgeous animation and a story worthy of the legends it cannibalizes. Also, Billy Connolly.

“Bruno’s Blues”: Kiva says Michael Simard’s mockumentary about the travails of jazzman Hubert Bruno is pure torture. Ouch.

“5 Broken Cameras”: Rad found this Palestinian documentary — shot by a landowner who’s losing his West Bank home to Israeli settlers — fascinating and powerful.

“Patang“: Prashant Bhargava’s plodding generational tale falls somewhere between dull family drama and self-indulgent ethnographic documentary. So, whee.

“Seeking a Friend for the End of the World“: In which Lorene Scarfaria demonstrates all you need to make a movie are Steve Carell, Keira Knightley and a meteor the size of New Jersey.  (Oh, and a really intelligent script.)

“Your Sister’s Sister“: Lynn Shelton follows “Humpday” with another project in which Mark Duplass is very uncomfortable, caught between siblings Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt in a remote cabin. I loved it.

… and there we go! Oh, and there’s some other stuff happening in town, including TIFF’s ambitious new First Nations series, a Korean film festival and a midnight-movie marathon Saturday night at the Revue. I’ll be covering those in my NOW Daily web column; I’ll link to it as soon as it goes up.

This week’s NOW is a humdinger for me, content-wise. For starters, there’s the cover interview with Steve Carell, one of the nicest and most interesting people I’d ever want to talk to — and have done, several times now, because I have the best job in the world.

We discuss his new movie, “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”, and because I did the junket for that film I also talked to Keira Knightley and writer-director Lorene Scafaria in Q&As that are part of our online package.

And then there’s the movie section proper, where you’ll find me talking with Lynn Shelton, Mark Duplass and Emily Blunt about “Your Sister’s Sister”, with director Mark Andrews and producer Katherine Sarafian about “Brave” and with Yorgos Lanthimos, Aggeliki Papoulia and Ariane Labed about “ALPS”. Because all I know how to do is give.

Also, if you hadn’t heard, Andrew Sarris died yesterday at the age of 83. I wrote a little remembrance of him here; I couldn’t help thinking that if John was still around, he’d have done justice to the fullness of the man’s life. But he’s not, of course.

Well, how about that. “That’s My Boy” — generally agreed to be the worst thing Adam Sandler has made since, at least, “Just Go with It” — effectively tanked over the weekend, coming in fifth with a measly gross of $13 million.

(That figure would have been a great haul for, say, “Moonrise Kingdom“, which took in $2.8 million in limited release to place ninth, but with Sandler’s history of box-office smashes, anything under $25 million is a humiliating defeat.)

Last week’s top two films, “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” and “Prometheus“, earned $35.5 million and $20.2 million, respectively, staying fixed at the top of the chart. Adam Shankman’s musical “Rock of Ages” opened in third with $15.1 million, and you can bet Tom Cruise is scratching his head, staring into his diamond-encrusted mirror, wondering why his fans didn’t show up to see him play a preposterously ripped version of Axl Rose.

Yes. I wonder, too.