“Balls of Fury,” the only wide release this week that’s actually being screened for critics, opens today. My review of it can be found at Film.com — my first one for that organization. I’m so nervous! I hope I reviewed it OK!!!

If you’re wondering, here’s the deal: I’m doing one review a week for Film.com. Our agreement is that each review will appear exclusively at Film.com for two weeks. After that, I’ll repost it here. In the meantime, if you go to that movie’s page here on my site, you’ll find a link redirecting you to Film.com.

I realize it is slightly inconvenient to have to go somewhere else to read one of my reviews every week, but I hope you will do so, if only to convince my Film.com overlords that hiring me was a wise, traffic-increasing decision.

All throughout 2007, we’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of “Snide Remarks” by spotlighting a different old column every Wednesday. It’s like taking a stroll down memory lane. A slow, lurching stroll, since we only take one step a week, but still. A stroll is a stroll.

This week’s “Snide Remarks” Classic is “Tightening the Belt,” originally published March 8, 2004. It is noteworthy because it marked the return of “Snide Remarks” after a 6 1/2 month absence. The hiatus began when I stopped working at the Daily Herald and ended here, when I relaunched the column as an Internet-based, by-subscription-only feature.

I distinctly remember how great it felt to write a column again after six months of not writing columns. Writing “Snide Remarks” is like riding a bicycle: You never forget how to do it, and it chafes your thighs. Or something.