The summer movie season comes to an end...


Labor Day weekend typically means the end of the summer movie season. For me this has been one of the most boring summer's, as far as movies are concerned, I can remember. I didn't see hardly anything, yet I don't really feel liked I missed out on anything either.


The winter movie season is right around the corner, so let's hope it is better than the summer.

From Justin to Kelly....


I almost don't want to admit I tried to watch this (didn't quite make it to the end), but if I can warn anyone away it will be worth it. I new it was going to be bad, but I thought it would be a fun kind of bad. Instead it was just pretty boring. The performances were not good, but they were not bad enough to make it fun to watch, instead I felt kind of sorry for them. They were probably just kind of thrown into this project and they really had no professional experience. I guess I can give them a pardon for that. Any future projects are fair game for ridicule.

Last movie seen in the theater...


Freddy vs. Jason. Okay, so I wasn't expecting this to be good, I just thought it would be entertaining to watch. I was wrong, this was just boring. I am somewhat of a fan of the Nightmare series, and not so much a fan of the Friday the 13th series. I thought this match up might be kind fun, but of course it wasn't. I think the idea of it was much better than the execution.


No new ideas were brought to either series. You would think they could have come up with something interesting considering that had two iconic horror characters to work with, but instead we get less inventiveness than even the worst of the Nightmare movies. I haven't seen the Jason movies so I can't really comment on that. I will say I'm not even sure why they made this a combination instead just making a new Nightmare movie. I say this because Jason was barely even in this. Don't take my word for anything thought as I heard some kids walking out behind me exclaim, "that was the best Jason movie ever!" I guess the mere presence of Jason was good enough.

Pirates of the Caribbean...


I finally went and saw the surprise hit of the summer. To my surprise I actually liked it! Maybe I had just let myself get too cynical and convinced myself that it would suck. Maybe I was thinking that pirate movie are not really that popular. At any rate I had a good time watching this and that is what really matters in the end.


I have almost always like Johnny Depp in whatever he is in, and this movie was no exception. He created a memorable character, that I thought was not too over the top. The movie could have been a little shorter. I was more into the first half than the second, but that is only a minor complaint.

At the box office this weekend S.W.A.T. was number one making just over 37 million and the Freaky Friday remake did a surprising 22 million coming in at numer 2. Maybe this was only surprising to me, but I didn't really think this movie would do that well, maybe I'm just feeling sentimental about the original.


Gigli fell nearly 82% to come in at eighteen making less than a million. That is turning out to be a more horrible failure than anyone really imagined. Lesson learned: Overexposure is BAD!

When is the movie finished?...


Am I only one tired of the movie on the DVD not being the same as the one in the theater? Sometimes it seems like the director is planning more for the DVD release the the theatrical release. Which version is the definitive one?


I'm not really talking about unrated vs. rated versions (I like seeing a few scenes that couldn't make it past the ratings board), I'm talking about new versions of the movie. Lord of the Rings is an obvious one. The Star Wars Special Editions seem to have overtaken the originals, and there is word there will be more changes to accomdate the prequels. I hate the idea of this. In fact if the original versions of the Star Wars trilogy are not available I will not buy them when the DVDs are finally released.


I believe there has to be an ending point. If everything is not what the director, producer or whoever wanted, then that's just the way it is. I'm tired of trying to figure what the definitive version of a movie is. I'm not even sure what versions of Close Encounter of the Third Kind I have seen. There are two theatrical versions and the recent DVD release (I haven't seen it) is a hybrid version of those.


I want to see the version I remember seeing in the theater of most movies, and if I never saw it in the theater I want to know what I missed, not see some new and improved version.

DVD special features... Too much of a good thing?


The other day my local paper had an article asking if special features on DVDs were getting to be too much?


I think they are. I can't even say how many special features on DVDs I own, and especially ones I have rented, have gone unwatched. Mostly it's because I'm just not interested. I like the movie, I don't need to know every aspect that went into the making of it. Don't get me wrong, I like a few deleted scenes and/or outtakes and maybe some behind the scenes material. On certain movies I don't like a well made documentary (I don't mean just an EPK) and a good commentary.


But I do mean certain movies. Movies that are classics, like Hitchcock films, or movies that have some sort of importance. I know importance is somewhat of a relative term, but how many fully loaded versions of American Pie do we need?

Wow, I really haven't been doing anything movie related lately. Can't believe I went this wrong without an update.


Quickly - here are some weekend highlights:

American Wedding opened at #1 with an estimated 34 million. This is better than I thought it would do, considering how bad the 2nd one was. Maybe I was alone in my opinion though. Spy Kids, Pirates of the Carribbean (the unexpected hit of the summer), Seabiscuit (only a 16% drop%) and Bad Boys II rounded out the top 5.


If you are wondering about Gigli - it opened at #8 with and estimated 3.8 million. J.Lo says the movie is only doing bad because the public wants to see her and Ben fail. Guess she hasn't considered why people might feel that way. Also, if the movie was actually really, really good, would it be the total failure it is...?