(Due to a technical glitch, This Week in Film is slightly late, but just as great!)
Nothing strikes me as better on a muggy, hot, smoggy summer weekend, than to sit in a cool cinema and watch some films. That's why this week in film consists of Southern belles, knights, the boy born in the manger next to Jesus, a homeless superhero, a robot who reminds me of Johnny 5 and a doc about Antarctica. Pretty much something for everybody, just to give you some examples of what films can distract you from the summer heat. This and so much more after the jump.

This week not only brings big-budget blockbusters, but Werner Herzog's newest film Encounters at the End of the World. Herzog's attempt at documenting the wild, untamed lands of Antarctica, takes him beyond McMurdo station, also known as the supposed location of John Carpenter's The Thing, to one of the least trod expanses on earth. I can assure you that no other film will take your mind off the heat the way that Encounters will, and it can be seen at the Cumberland Cinema.

The free film at Yonge and Dundas Square this week will be on Monday June 30th, instead of the Tuesday (due to Canada Day) and will be the second part (or the brassier part) of Gone With the Wind. Watch Scarlett get her man and screw up all over again, but don't worry, because tomorrow is another day.

On Wednesday June 2nd, recover from your dual Pride Weekend/Canada Day hangovers by spending the evening in the cool comfort of the Bloor Cinema. The occasion? A double-bill of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian. The mayhem of the shrubberies, wafts of elderberries, Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea will begin at 7pm with The Holy Grail and will continue at 9pm with the Life of Brian.

The Cinematheque finishes their Peter Lynch retrospective this weekend, with a screening of The Herd and his short film Animal Nightmares Saturday evening.

In terms of big-budgets this week, we have a film from Angelina Jolie, Will Smith and Pixar. Normally, with those two actors in contention, I'd have a hard time picking a winner this weekend. But not so much with Pixar's contribution to the summer being Wall-E, a film that was over ten years in the making. With the highest meta-critic score of the year so far, I predict that Wall-E will be kicking all sorts of box-office butt for weeks to come. I know I'll be seeing it tonight, anybody else?

Image: Encounters at the End of the World