I’m back from a lovely long weekend in New York — had to do a little bit of work, but only as an excuse to visit some marvelous museums and restaurants — so now I’m rushing to catch up to everything that needs doing before Thursday afternoon.

Which means I just don’t have time to respond properly to this comment left by a reader the other day … but don’t worry, I will. (Short version: It’s not me, it’s the movies.)

For today’s reading pleasure, I offer up those held-over Metro reviews of “First Snow“, “The Hoax” and “The Marsh“, and my latest Sympatico/MSN DVD column, in which I consider the long-overdue Brian Helgeland cut of “Payback”.

And for your amusement, I offer the names of the celebrities spotted during my visit to Manhattan: “Daily Show” correspondent John Oliver, Vincent Gallo, Ryan Reynolds … and Jean Charest, waiting to catch a flight to Montreal at LaGuardia.

I love New York.