Todd’s Movie Blog

I am in a quandry. This weekend is the opening weekend for not only Will Smith’s I Am Legend, but also Morgan Spurlock’s What Would Jesus Buy. I do not make a lot of money from my day job so I am only able to see one film. But which one? I Am Legend is sure to be an action pack thrill ride of chases and escapes from zombie/vampires. On the other hand What Would Jesus Buy is sure to be a thought provoking examination of commercialism vs religion. Hmmm. Put like that, the answer seems pretty clear. Will Smith’s film will be around for weeks. Morgan Spurlock’s might only last the weekend. Thought provoking can’t compete with zombie/vampires. More’s the pity, I greatly enjoyed both his first film, Supersize Me and his TV show 30 Days. I’m sure this film will be just as entertaining and educational as his other projects. So, to the art theater I go this weekend.

I was in Best Buy the other day looking for my wife’s Christmas present when I noticed that Battlestar Galactic: Razor was out on DVD. I know that it was annouced that they were going to release it the week after the broadcast on Sci-Fi, but it didn’t really hit me until I saw it in the store, that this is the idea Hollywood needs to latch onto to help their sagging sales due to online “pirate downloads” of their films. Like everybody else I know that over ninety percent of pirating is done over seas and that Hollywood is looking idiotic busting eighty-year-old grandmothers because their grandson grabbed the latest summer blockbuster someone put out on the net while visiting over the Holidays. Instead of doing that, why don’t the studios make a no frills DVD to be sold right outside the theater door. People come out all pumped up from having seen the movie, notice the DVD’s for sale and snatch one up. A few months later the extended version with all the extra features can be released and the same people will grab that one two. Both George Lucas and Peter Jackson have proved fans will buy as many different versions as you can put together. As for what I got my wife I would like to tell you but then she would know because she reads my blog. Well, okay, but keep it a secret. I got her a …

I am pumped for the new Will Smith movie, I Am Legend. I’m a big fan of Richard Matheson’s book, with all of its thought provoking concepts of what it means to be human when things change. Being a Will Smith vehicle I’m sure it will be as action packed as Charlton Heston’s version from the seventies, The Omega Man, but I’m also hoping that it will contain the darkly cynical underpinning of the sixties Vincent Price version, The Last Man On Earth. Most importantly I hope this version will include the original ending from the book, which explains the title. But I have a sinking feeling that Hollywood, being Hollywood, will cop out as usual and go for a neat, tidy, and ultimately illogical ending.