Well, there you go: “Clash of the Titans”, marketed as the Next Big Movie, became the Next Big Movie with an opening weekend gross of $61.4 million — or $64.1 million, if you count the Thursday night screenings.

I’m kind of surprised by the way the movie’s fared with critics, honestly. I mean, it’s not great cinema or anything, but it’s a well-crafted entertainment, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much it improves on the now-quaint original. The venom being directed at such an unpretentious production seems disproportionate … though I guess the other option is to go too far in the other direction, and treat it as a camp artifact without waiting for the ironic distance to form. (Though that approach does result in fun pieces like this.)

Maybe it helps that I saw it in good old two-dimensional 35mm; most of the griping I’ve read comes from people who’ve seen it in 3D, which seems to make for a pretty disappointing experience.

Or maybe it’s just that the Kraken in this version looks like the Cloverfield monster’s stroppy older brother. I’ll give ’em that one.

It’s Easter weekend, so The House Next Door has logically dedicated the latest of its Conversations dialogues to Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” — two radically different takes on the same subject matter.

Jason Bellamy and Ed Howard know their material, and it makes for essential reading, even if you don’t know your Pauls from your Sauls.

(That was a trick. They’re both Harry Dean Stanton.)

This week’s MSN Movies gallery uses the “Clash of the Titans” remake to look at other big-screen interpretations of Greek mythology.

I am very proud of MSN’s art department, by the way; it couldn’t have been easy to find a still from “Hercules in New York”. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spent a great deal of money erasing all traces of that film …

Holiday or no holiday, it’s a Friday and movies are opening. Once more into the breach, then?

“Clash of the Titans“: Louis Leterrier’s remake of the inexplicably beloved 1981 fantasy epic — seriously, have you seen it lately? — throws out the love story and focuses on the monsters, which is pretty much exactly what the property demands.

“Formosa Betrayed”: James Van Der Beek plays a Reagan-era FBI agent who stumbles across U.S. complicity in China’s annexation of Taiwan. No, seriously!

“The Last Song”: The Miley Cyrus machine meets the Nicholas Sparks machine … with entirely predictable results, according to Rad. (Yes, I know it opened Wednesday, but I was distracted.)

“Max Manus“: Aksel Hennie gives a complex performance as Norway’s greatest WWII resistance hero in this straight-up espionage thriller — which could have used a little more complexity itself. But it has its moments.

“Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?”: Writer-director-producer-star Perry’s commitment to releasing a new movie every six months is admirable, but now he’s basically just remaking “Couples Retreat”.

“Women Without Men”: A quartet of Iranian women attempt to create a feminist utopia in Shirin Neshat’s adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s allegorical novel. Susan admires its imagery, but can’t overlook its structural problems.

Right, that’s everything. And now to go in search of a proper hot-cross bun …

The latest issue of NOW is out, and I’m all up in there, from my “Clash of the Titans” junket piece (and attendant Q&A with Sam “half-man, half-big-blue-alien” Worthington) to my overview of this year’s Images Festival.

You know, I keep hoping some experimental filmmaker will produce an 8mm non-narrative take on the saga of Perseus, but somehow it never happens …

DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” ruled the box office over the weekend with a $43.3 million opening.

The computer-generated fantasy — which is wonderful, by the way — supplants Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” as the latest gotta-see 3D spectacle. And since 3D screens are fairly limited, with only about 4,000 of them in North America, “Avatar” is now playing almost exclusively in 2D, which explains why it’s finally fallen out of the top ten.

(Well, it’s either that, or last week’s much-ballyhooed announcement of the April 22nd home-video release. Or possibly everyone’s just seen the damn thing by now.)

Next week, Warner’s “Clash of the Titans” will grab most of the 3D screens currently showing “Alice”, which will presumably send that picture spiraling down to the bottom of the charts. Maybe Disney’s decision to shorten its theatrical window wasn’t so crazy after all, huh?

My latest MSN Movies gallery is a bit of a stretch, using the existence of a movie called “Hot Tub Time Machine” to explore fictional film projects that sound equally preposterous.

Remember the Parker-Stone pitch in “Timecode”? Stuff like that.

(You know, it’s okay to just goof around sometimes.)

Why, look! It’s Friday and there are many, many movies opening! Shall we dive right in?

“Chloe”: Atom Egoyan finally abandons his pretenses and makes a full-on erotothriller — which plays like a fascinating glimpse into an alternate reality where he never followed “Exotica” with “The Sweet Hereafter”, and instead forged a career making glossy B-movies that nobody cared about. Jason and Susan are a little more delicate about it, but we all know the deal.

“City Island”: Raymond de Felitta’s dramedy casts Andy Garcia as a prison guard taking acting classes on the sly — leading his wife (Julianna Margulies) to think he’s having an affair and triggering all manner of wacky consequences. Susan liked it .

“The Coca-Cola Case“: German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia attempt to link the world’s largest soft-drink conglomerate to union-busting and murder in this agit-prop documentary … but fall well short of their goal, settling for indignant finger-pointing over the low wages paid to Coke’s South American workers.

“Greenberg“: Noah Baumbach brings his magical misery tour to Los Angeles for this sharp drama about a fortysomething New Yorker (Ben Stiller, excellent) determined not to engage with the world, and the younger woman (Greta Gerwig, also very good) who complicates things.

“Hot Tub Time Machine”: The title says it all, right? Andrew enjoyed it.

“How to Train Your Dragon“: DreamWorks Animation makes good on the promise of “Kung Fu Panda” in this exhilarating — and surprisingly moving — tale of a young Viking who befriends a fire-breathing scamp. Not a single pop-culture reference to be had, which must have seemed risky, but it works wonderfully. And it’s great in 3D. My review should be up shortly. UPDATE: Linked!

“Mother“: Bong Joon-ho follows “The Host” with another tale of familial devotion; this one’s about a single mother (Kim Hye-ja) who will do just about anything to clear her son (Won Bin) of a murder charge. Part social study, part murder mystery, and entirely compelling.

“Neil Young Trunk Show“: Mr. Shakey’s 2008 tour is captured by Jonathan Demme and six handheld cameras. It’s not as accessible as “Heart of Gold” was, but that 21-minute performance of “No Hidden Path” will send Young’s die-hard fans over the moon.

So there’s something for everyone, really …