Memories of Tomorrow Movie

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.