Memories of Tomorrow Movie

Get Smart and The Love Guru open this weekend in a rare big comedy vs. big comedy battle. Of course, it’s not going to be much of a battle.

In one corner, we have Steve Carell’s Get Smart, which has looked funny from the first preview of Carell stuck in a phone booth. In the other corner, the absolutely God-awful looking The Love Guru, which stars Mike Myers retreading what he’s already done before - only much, much worse (read the Love Guru movie review).

Despite last year’s disaster Evan Almighty, Carell is in the prime of his career. With The Office and The 40-Year Old Virgin still fresh on people’s minds, not to mention the great Get Smart previews, I expect big things for this movie. As for The Love Guru… I am expecting Little Nicky type numbers, only maybe not that bad.

Neither film has received very good reviews, but Get Smart should handily win the weekend. I’m not a box office expert, and in fact I rarely make box office predictions, but I’ve been seeing box office predictions for Get Smart between the $40 and $50 million mark. For The Love Guru, anywhere from $20 to $35 million.

Now, I’m not generally one to oppose weekend box office estimates, but I’m a little surprised by these numbers. I believe Get Smart is going to make close to $60 million, and The Love Guru less than $20. Yes, I think Get Smart is going to do that well at the box office, and The Love Guru that pitiful. I will be disappointed if The Love Guru makes more than that.

I, like many people, have been skeptical about the upcoming Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie. After all, it’s an animated film, and Star Wars isn’t meant to be animated, at least not on the big screen.

Thankfully, the new movie trailer actually makes the movie look pretty decent. The trailer is treated no different than the previews for any of the other Star Wars film, with brooding music that leads to the standard Star Wars music. There’s very little dialogue - playing it safe, I see - and lots of long distance shots, which is where the visual effects look the best. All in all, this is a very good movie trailer, especially given the footage.

Unfortunately, I still think releasing this film to the big screen is a mistake. Yes, it’s going to make much more money than it would have on TV, but there’s just something about releasing an animated Star Wars to theaters that seems damaging to the series as a whole (yes, even given the fact that the prequels weren’t exactly fabulous). Star Wars: The Animated Series is a great idea, and as long as it stays on TV it can remain fairly independent from the movies. However, with its theatrical release upcoming, it’s going to be very hard to separate it out. And considering that the characters look pretty silly, that’s not good.

The new romantic drama Elegy stars the unlikely duo of Sir Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz. I’m not completely sure who’s getting the better deal here, but I’m pretty sure the much-older Kingsley is getting an unfair benefit. And that’s what the movie is about. He has a perfectly fine but ultimately loveless relationship with Patricia Clarkson, who still looks pretty good for her age, but is absolutely enthralled by the younger Cruz. And you know what? Cruz digs his skinny little frame, too.

As far as romantic dramas go, Elegy looks pretty good. The movie trailer is pieced together well, with tantalizing music and a clean, solid look. The trailer maybe shows a bit much, but for movies like this, that’s OK - as long as the ending isn’t revealed, a movie like this can show all the scenes in the world. And the great thing about Elegy? It could go many ways. Given the age difference, it’s possible Kingsley and Cruz won’t live happily ever after. Hell, Kingsley may even die.

Elegy looks pretty good. Kingsley has tainted his reputation so much over the last few years that it’s nice to see him in something a bit more respectable.

A recent survey conducted by FilmJabber.com found that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was expected to be the best of the summer by moviegoers. The Harrison Ford-starring film, the first Indiana Jones movie in nearly two decades, has been buzzing, and 27% of the survey takers said it “will be the best blockbuster of the summer.”

Indiana Jones narrowly beat out The Dark Knight, which came in second with 26%. Third place belonged to the already-released Iron Man, which received 9% of the votes.

However, among men, The Dark Knight was considered to be the best by 34% of the group versus 21% for Indiana Jones. Among women, 31% expect Indiana Jones to be the best movie of the summer. Whereas one might expect Sex and the City to have ranked high in this category, The Dark Knight still came in second with 16%.

All of this bodes well for Thursday’s release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which is a frontrunner to make more money than any other film this summer - and perhaps this year. Reviews have been mixed, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. The hype is so high that people are bound to be disappointed - more than likely, this is a film that will thrill and entertain more on a second viewing.

It’s been a couple weeks since Sex and the City made its way to theaters, raking in a whole ton of money. I got invited to see the movie opening night, but opted not to stay up to 3am with a bunch of weeping, screaming women. Part of the reason, I’ll admit, is that I didn’t want to be ridiculed by my guy friends for going to see a midnight showing of Sex and the City. Another reason: I am not that huge of a fan to sacrifice my beauty sleep for a picture like this.

Nevertheless, I finally made my way to see the Sex and the City movie, and it was pretty good. In fact, I thought it stayed extremely loyal to the TV show (it probably helps that the writer/director/executive producer of the show is also the writer and director of the movie) and managed to be just as funny as any individual episode.

And, to be blunt, I am straight and single. I didn’t go see Sex and the City because my girlfriend dragged me to it, and I didn’t see it because of my sexual orientation. Yes, I was one of the few single straight guys in the audience - perhaps the only one.

James Bond really is 007 after yet another accident on the Quantum of Solace cost Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond, three of his fingers. Details of how he lost his trigger finger and two others is still unclear, but at least now he won’t be able to make any un-gentleman-like gestures.

OK, in reality, Daniel Craig only sliced off the tip of one of his fingers, according to Daily Mail, but it is the second injury inflicted to the Bond star while filming Quantum of Solace. The production is beginning (if it hasn’t already) to look like a cursed one, as there have been several accidents, injuries and crazy mayors that have disrupted shooting.

An exterior set was heavily damaged after a fire broke out at the studio; a stuntman drove an Aston Martin into a lake; another stuntman suffered head injuries after slamming head first into another vehicle; and Craig had to get eight stitches to the face a few weeks ago.

The new Rambo movie pretty much kicks ass. Released in early 2008, the movie will certainly be the goriest movie of the year, as Sylvestor Stallone, in an unlikely comeback, has directed the film that averages over two deaths a minute. Beyond the quantity of deaths, the quality is amazing - people are torn apart by rail guns, decapitated by sniper rifles and gutted by handmade knives. This movie is every man’s dreams and a cumulation of over a decade of desire for action movies of old.

You can read my full Rambo movie review here.

Rambo was released on DVD last week in a 2-disc special edition, which Lionsgate was so kind to send to me. The DVD includes an audio commentary with Stallone, a few deleted scenes as well as six featurettes that take a look at various aspects of the picture. Though not a massive quantity of bonus features, the featurettes provide some great and honest insight into the picture. Stallone is pretty straightforward and actually quite talkative about the making of the film, and throws in some good jokes aimed at other people on the crew.

The featurettes include:

• Legacy of Despair: The Struggles in Burma
• It’s a Long Road: Resurrection of an Icon
• A Score to Settle: The Music of Rambo
• The Art of War: Completing Rambo
• The Weaponry of Rambo
• A Hero’s Welcome: Release and Reaction

In addition, Rambo’s second disc provides a digital copy of the movie to be used on your iPod or other portable device. All in all, the DVD package is surprisingly good; while nothing amazing, it’s a lot better than I expected to be. At the very least, it made me want to watch the film again.

It had been almost ten years since I watched The Red Violin, a touching and engaging drama where the main character is… a violin. No, it’s not just any violin, but an extremely rare violin fashioned to perfection, painted red and a survivor of several centuries worth of owners.

The movie, directed and co-written by François Girard, is a sweeping, movie drama that spans the violin’s creation centuries ago to a modern day auction where the violin is expected to fetch millions of dollars. The violin survives burials, gunshots, affairs, gypsies, communist China and more and tells the stories of its various owners, from the woman who finds that her husband is more fascinated by the unique properties of the violin than by her to the blind nationalism in China that distrusts the West, including Western music.

Having watched the film for a second time - and having built the movie up in my head for nearly ten years - The Red Violin isn’t quite as captivating as I remember it, but it’s still a very good drama with an incredible score and great acting, highlighted by Samuel L. Jackson.

Lionsgate is re-releasing the film on DVD, this time as the first entry in The Meridian Collection. Along with another film, Diva, The Meridian Collection is set to showcase Lionsgate’s top films in their library. As one might expect, The Meridian Collection is just an excuse to resell DVDs with minimal effort - and to make money, nothing more.

The Red Violin DVD comes equipped with a couple of special features, including:

• An audio commentary with Girard and co-writer Don McKellar
• “The Oscar-Winning Chaconne” - This is an examination of how composer John Corigiliano went about scoring the film. Unlike most films, where the score is added at the end, the score had to built into the screenplay from the beginning as the film often shows complicated finger movements on screen. This is a pretty interesting feature.
• “The Auction Block,” which explains the fascination with Stradivarius violins and includes interviews with the woman who currently owns and plays the violin that the film is based upon.

And that’s it. The Meridian Collection doesn’t offer a lot of new bonus features - all it does is get a Lionsgate product back in front of audience’s eyes. Of course, when the film is something like The Red Violin, a quality picture that few people have seen, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Nicolas Cage and Diane Kruger return to the adventure franchise National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, a ludicrous, over-the-top but overall rather entertaining action-comedy. As people know, I feel the franchise - I call it a franchise because there is no denying that a third one will find its way to theaters at some point - is way overrated. The first movie, while not terrible, wasn’t nearly as exciting or smart as people think it is. I went into Book of Secrets with really low expectations and was, thankfully, pleasantly surprised, but I’m not kidding myself that it’s some glorious piece of work. You can read my full National Treasure 2 movie review here.

This blog post is about the 2-Disc Collector’s Edition version of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, which arrives in stores on May 20th, conveniently right before the new Indiana Jones movie arrives in theaters.

The DVD contains a fair amount of interesting and honest special features:

• Audio commentary with Jon Turteltaub and Jon Voight. I didn’t listen to this - honestly, who has time to re-watch movies with the audio commentaries? I sure as hell don’t.
• Deleted scenes with introductions by Jon Turteltaub. The first bit of bonus material I went for was the deleted scenes, and there are some pretty good ones here. More interesting than the scenes themselves are Turteltaub, who delivers an introduction for each one. Turteltaub seems like a genuinely funny guy, and his discussions of the film seem honest and heartfelt.
• Bloopers and outtakes. Your typical blooper reel; there’s some funny stuff here, though nothing amazing.
• Secrets of a Sequel. One of the weaker featurettes on the DVD, this one talks about the challenges of making a sequel. Once again, things are pretty honest as they discuss that everyone assumes a sequel is easy work, but there’s still a lot of work and effort to deliver something unique. Still, it contains a fair amount of, “National Treasure 2 is going to be bigger and better,” kind of statements.
• On Location. This featurette looks at some of the sets around the country and world. Pretty interesting at times.
• Street Stunts: Creating the London Chase. This one is pretty entertaining. While the scene in the movie might be a little out of place (would Ed Harris and his crew really destroy a neighborhood in London so boldly?), it’s always fun to see a bus plow through parked cars and crowded street during a car chase. Seeing it from off camera is just as entertaining.
• Inside the Library of Congress. I don’t remember this featurette, so either I accidentally skipped over it or it instilled no lasting memory.
• Underground Action. This is a pretty interesting featurette that looks at the action that takes place in Mt. Rushmore, specifically the balancing stone tab that the characters find themselves on. There’s some insightful filmmaking stuff here.
• Cover Story: Crafting the President’s Book. This one takes a look at getting the conspiracies into a book, and includes some of the actors providing their viewpoint on whether such a book really exists. This one is pretty pointless, but oh well.
• Evolution of a Golden City. One of the better featurettes in the set, this one looks at the creation and planning that went into the underground city. Once again, the featurette doesn’t come off as promotional.
• Knights of the Golden Circle. Huh, don’t remember this one either. What the heck. I know I watched this one, but have no clue what it’s about…

The National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (wow, that’s a mouthful) is a pretty good disc with some nice bonus features. Turteltaub really makes the featurettes worth it, as he seems to be having fun with both the production and talking to the camera. None of the featurettes seem too promotional and as such provide some great insight into the creation of the film.

Vindication is wonderful. Speed Racer, the awful-looking action-racing film from the Wachowski brothers, is the first flop of the summer season as it took in only $6.1 million according to Friday box office estimates. According to Box Office Prophets, the movie will take in approximately $20-$21 million over the weekend. No matter how you cut it, a movie that costs between $100-$120 million is expected to open to more than $20 million in its opening weekend, and I would expect a huge 60% drop next weekend. After all, with Chronicles of Narnia and Indiana Jones coming over the next 13 days, Speed Racer will have no place to breath.

This made my weekend.

Beyond Speed Racer, Iron Man will once again win the weekend with just under $40 million, though I’m surprised the hit action film didn’t do better in its second weekend. As good as it is, I was expecting some people to return to theaters this weekend - or for holdouts to be lured in by quality reviews - but $40 million, following a $100 million opening weekend, implies that isn’t the case. Still, no one’s complaining.