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On the Edge of Blade Runner is a fantastic documentary about the making of one of my favorite movies. I hear that there’s an Ultimate Blade Runner DVD box set coming out in 2007 that will include four different versions of the film. So, I guess I’m going to have to buy something like my fourth of fifth version of that movie next year.

The production values in Star Wars Revelations are incredible. The story and acting are just slightly better than what you might expect in fan fiction. That means it’s spotty and a bit lifeless through a lot of it, but boy does it look pretty.

Kevin Smith Talking About Writing Superman is about 100 times funnier than Clerks II (except for one tucking scene in Clerks which you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen the movie).

I was a little sad to see Kevin Smith returning to his Jersey Trilogy universe. It seems like that story has more than run its course now, but other people seem to be excited, so whatever. I wish him luck with it.

Despite my low level of interest, I have to say that doing a Director’s Commentary Podcast is sort of brilliant. Why wait for the DVD to come out, and why not do this so that you can encourage people to buy a second ticket to your movie? That’s smart marketing, and I bet that takes off in a big way with other movies.

Of course I thought Roger Ebert’s idea about other people doing movie commentaries you could download was brilliant too, and I don’t think anything ever came of that, so what do I know?

Darkon is a documentary about a bunch of LARP players that looks absolutely epic in scope. LARP is cute and all when it’s confined to small little web movies with dorky kids, but these guys really seem to be into it. I’m not sure what to make of that. check the trailer here

Hmmm, I don’t remember The Sining being a comedy. I guess sometimes, the trailer is nothing at all like the movie.

Yesterday, I decided to go see a movie. I didn’t much care which one I saw. So, I got to the theater and The Brothers Grimm was showing pretty much right when I got there. And, the previews made it seem like it might be interesting. Plus, Terry Gilliam, so it had that going for it.

I think it could have been an interesting movie. I saw an interesting movie peeking out from behind the corners every once in a while. But there were layers and layers of useless crap piled on top of it. What was the point of the French soldiers? I think they were supposed to be comic relief, but they were neither comical nor a relief.

When the movie ended, I ducked in to see The 40-Year-Old Virgin since, I’d heard good things, and I wanted to try to get my money’s worth for the day.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is insanely funny. It’s also sort of touchingly sweet and many of the secondary characters all have their own interesting storylines going on that really add texture to what on paper looked like it should have been a stupid farce. Not that there would be anything wrong with a stupid farce, but I was actually kind of surprised at how good this movie ended up being.

So, if you’re going to go see a movie, make it the virgin one. The grimm one is just disappointing.

Lord knows that 80s hair metal fans/bands are easy targets for parody. A few bands recently have done a pretty good job with it. But, I’m just not sure that Backstreet Boys are the ones to pull it off.

It should have been very funny, but somehow it just wasn’t. You’d think these guys would be good at putting on costumes, but they just held themselves too distant from the role or something. I guess good parody needs to be rooted in authenticity, and I just don’t see any of that here. Still, a few funny moments (mostly with the extras), and probably worth a view.

In The O Factor, Field Maloney asks if Owen Wilson was the key to the Wes Anderson phenomenon.

The suggestion is that Anderson is too insular about the worlds he creates without Wilson’s writing collaboration to act as a moderating influence.

It makes sense. It seemed like Life Aquatic was a major homage to Buckaroo Bonsai which was extremely insular in its own right. I loved Buckaroo, and I even sort of liked Life Aquatic, but it did leave me cold in a number of ways. But then, so did Rushmore the first couple times I saw that. It was only after repeated viewings that I came to love Rushmore so much. I’ve only seen Life Aquatic once, so I’m reluctant to pass a too early judgment on the film.

I went to see the movie Sideways this weekend. It was absolutely FAN…TAS…TIC! Go see this movie if you haven’t. Now, I want to drive up to Santa Barbara for a wine tasting tour (and I don’t even like wine).