Memories of Tomorrow Movie

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.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull arrives in theaters on May 22nd, and shockingly, Paramount is releasing a new DVD set of the original Indiana Jones trilogy this Tuesday, May 13th. I mean, I am flabbergasted that Paramount would release a new DVD set so close to the release of their new Indiana Jones movie; it’s as if they want to milk some extra cash out of one of their most prized franchises. I just didn’t see it coming.

A few years ago, I picked up The Adventures of Indiana Jones: The Complete DVD Movie Collection, which came with the three movies digitally remastered as well as a bonus disc (that I’ve never watched) that is, according to the box, “the ultimate anthology of Indiana Jones special features to accompany this classic DVD collection.” That’s interesting that that set was the “complete” and “ultimate” collection, when now we have Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection DVD set…

Anyway, this new Adventure Collection offers only three disc and doesn’t make any bold statements about being “the biggest and baddest,” but presumably that’s being put off until all four Indiana Jones movies are released in a single DVD set in the fall. Maybe then Steven Spielberg and George Lucas will actually provide commentary for the films.

Yes, this new DVD set still doesn’t offer director’s commentary for the films, which is a bit surprising. It does, however, have introductions by Spielberg and Lucas before each film, which, I guess, is meant to make up for the lack of six hours of commentary.

While the bonus disc from the previous edition is missing, there are bonus features offered on each movie disc. The features includes interviews with the Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Allison Doody), Spielberg, Lucas, Ford and the screenwriters; an examination of the famous “melting face scene” from Raiders of the Lost Ark; a featurette on the locations; and another featurette that covers the bugs, insects and other creatures found in the movies. The teaser trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie also plays at the beginning of each disc, cementing the fact that this box set is specifically intended to drive ticket sales.

Basically, the bonus features are pretty standard fare.

There are some interesting moments, but for those of you who already own the Indiana Jones movies, it doesn’t make sense to purchase this new set. The bonus features are not amazing, and unless you are so die-hard that you have to have every piece of material ever made on the subject, they aren’t worth shelling out an additional $35.

At the same time, the movies themselves have never looked better. I haven’t watched Temple of Doom yet, but Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade both look amazing. The picture is crystal clear and looks as brand new as movies filmed 20 years can look.

If you don’t have the movies and don’t care about bonus features, this new Indiana Jones box set offers the three movies in their finest form. However, if you don’t think that Paramount doesn’t have a box set due to be released in the fall with all four movies and a slew of special features, however, you’re kidding yourself.