Blade Runner – The Final Cut


Warner Brothers has announced Blade Runner – The Final Cut, a disc of an “all new” version of the film, a disc of “Dangerous Days – The Making of Blade Runner”, a disc of the 1982 theatrical version, the 1982 international version, and the 1992 “director’s cut”, a disc of 90 minutes of deleted footage, featurettes, and movie trailers, a disc of the “workprint version” containing a different opening, no Deckard narration (until the final scenes), altered lines between Batty and Tyrell, and more!

Plus it comes in a pretty cool looking metal briefcase!

As of this writing Amazon has it for sale for 30% off the list price. The release date is December 18th, just in time for Christmas.

That is definitely going on my Christmas wish list.

You can also see the Blade Runner: The Final Cut website.

Matt Damon vs. James Bond

Here’s a shocker:


Hollywood star Matt Damon has dismissed James Bond as being stuck in the past.

The actor, who appears in the Bourne thrillers, said: “The Bond character will always be anchored in the 1960s and in the values of the 1960s.”

He goes on to say that Jason Bourne, the character he played in the Bourne movies “doesn’t have the support of gadgets, and he feels guilty for what he’s done.”

To that I have to say…. DUH!  

Exactly what is he criticizing here?  We have two completely different kinds of characters:   Bond is sent on missions (usually) and takes care of some over the top bad guy saving the world doing it.   Jason Bourne is on a mission to find out what the heck someone did to him, trying to get revenge for what those people did, and to shut them down.

Let’s face it here:   James Bond movies are SUPPOSED to be over-the-top fantasies.   Nothing Jason Bourne could do in a movie would remotely involve the things Bond does:  The Women, The Gadgets, The Villians, The Plans To Take Over The World.   Jason Bourne is SUPPOSED to be a guilt-ridden ex-spy with vengeance on the brain.

I’m not sure what he’s saying here.   Is he actually trying to say that Bourne is better than Bond because Bourne feels guilty?

This is like saying Star Wars was a bad movie because Battlestar Galactica has characters that feel bad about what they’ve done.

Dumbledore and Sirius as Ghosts?


There are just a few days before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released, and I’ve been thinking… Have we seen the last of Dumbledore and Sirius?

I would say that in Dumbledore’s case, we almost certainly haven’t. He does have a picture in his office after all. We’re sure to hear some advice from that. We might even see more of him in a different context if Alberforth turns out to be as important to the last book as we think.

….You don’t think that Dumbledore and Alberforth switched places at the end….nah…

Anyway, many people think thought Sirius might be back. For a long time I thought that when he “died” it probably didn’t really die. I was sad to see that I was wrong about that, when JK Rowling stated Sirius was indeed dead. I really liked that character.

But does that mean we won’t see Sirius or Dumbledore (outside his frame, I mean) again?

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see one or both of them show up as ghosts in the final book. Whether that will be a ghost ala “Nearly Headless Nick” or a ghost as appeared out of Voldemort’s wand (yes, I know it wasn’t Voldemort that killed him… I meant a ghostly form in that same sense).

Any thoughts on whether we’ll see either of them?

Is Snape on the Good side or the Bad side?


It’s about a week until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released, so I thought I should write a bit about what might happen.

Since the end of the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there’s been a debate raging about whether Snape is “good” or “bad”.

The people that think he’s “good” say that he killed Dumbledore because Dumbledore wanted him to, and he’s really still on the good side.

The people that that think he’s “bad” point to all the trouble that he’s given Harry over the years, and that he was playing Dumbledore for a fool the whole time he was at Hogwarts.

I can hear the arguments: “If Snape’s bad, why did he try so hard to teach Harry Occlumency?” and “If Snape is good, why did he kill Dumbledore?”

Believe it or not, I think it was the same reason: To get closer to Voldemort to kill him. If you’re curious why he would want to do that, read what I have to say about Snape being in love with Harry’s mother in a previous post. Snape knows that if Harry dies, there’s no way that he’ll ever get close enough to Voldemort to kill him and his chance will be gone. But what now?

Snape’s Dilemma

What’s Snape’s dilemma? I think Snape is in trouble no matter what he does.

As Book Seven opens, Snape is on the run. Whatever happens from now on, he won’t be safe. He’s a wanted man. The Order of the Phoenix will want him for Dumbledore’s death. The Ministry of Magic Aurors will be after him for killing Dumbledore. I’m sure Harry and Hagrid would want to get him. After going to the “good side”, Snape has got to be on the hit list of the former and present Death Eaters. He couldn’t very well go back to Voldemort and just say “Hey! I was kidding! I’m really on your side!” and have anyone believe him, especially after Dumbledore stood up for him.

The one thing that Snape could have done to get back in with the Death Eaters is exactly what he did… killing Dumbledore. Do I think he really wanted to kill Dumbledore? No. His look of hatred when he killed Dumbledore probably had a lot to do with the fact that Dumbledore DID know Snape’s biggest secret, and he hated Dumbledore for it.

If my revenge theory is correct, at some point Snape is going to try and kill Voldemort. I think he’s likely to fail (and probably die). It might just be enough of a distraction for Harry to finish Voldemort off. If Snape succeeds in harming or killing Voldemort, the Death Eaters will be after him. If he really did turn to be on Voldemort’s side, the Order of the Phoenix (and a lot of other people) will be after him.

He’s in trouble no matter what happens.

So, the bottom line is that at this point I think Snape is just looking out for himself and is really not on either side. He’s looking for a way to exact his revenge on Voldemort. Voldemort will meet his demise, I’m sure… The question is: Will Snape be there to see it happen?

Ethan Haas Was Right Spoilers, Walkthru and Hints


JJ Abrams is working on a special project code named “Cloverfield”. As part of the promotion for the project, a mysterious website, Ethan Haas Was Right appeared. The site contains puzzles to figure out. I’ve created both a Ethan Haas Was Right Hints page and a Ethan Haas Was Right Spoilers page. The hints contain…well, hints… to the puzzles, and the Spoilers page will tell you how to solve the puzzles.

Give it a try!

Update: Reader Jordan points out in the comments that the Ethan Haas website has nothing to do with JJ Abrams, which everyone was thinking… up until this was debunked by JJ himself on Ain’t It Cool News. Thanks for the info Jordan!

A New Conan Movie?


Variety is reporting that New Line Cinema has entered negotiations to take over the rights for Conan the Barbarian after Warner Brothers lost the rights.

I doubt that we’ll see Arnold Schwarzenegger back in that role anytime soon.  Too bad too, since he was great in the original films.

Pixar’s WALL-E

You’ve probably already seen the trailers for Pixar‘s next movie, Ratatouille.   I’m a big Pixar fan, going back to the Luxo Jr. days.  

So, have you heard about the Pixar movie coming out in 2008?   It’s called WALL-E, and you can view a preview trailer here.

Enjoy!