'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' Is Coming To Imax & Blu-Ray... Will It Be Worth The Trip?

I am a bit late to the game when it comes to Imax. I saw some early movies in Imax (Batman Begins, Transformers, etc) and then didn't go back to the Imax format again for awhile. That all changed with my trip to see The Dark Knight Rises in all its Imaxed glory. While the film looked wonderful and sounded amazing, I have to be honest when I say that I was turned off by one specific problem: The Price. The tickets here in NYC cost $22 dollars for an Imax film, whether its a matinee show or a show after 5. That is super expensive, and not including the surcharge that would be added if the film was 3-D. That would be at least 5 bucks more. That is a lot of money to see a film, especially when I can buy and own a Blu-Ray for under 15 bucks and watch it more than once on my high def TV at home. I said that if I ever go to see a Imax film again, it would have to be something special. Well, I didn't think it would be so soon, but it looks like I will be there at an Imax screen this September. Raiders of the Lost Ark has gone through the conversion process and will be appearing on Imax screens for one week from September 7-13th! Steven Spielberg is raving about how great his original film looks and I am excited to see one of my favorite movies of all time looking sharp and sounding wonderful. The full Indy set also comes out on Blu-Ray, and to celebrate that AMC will be having a marathon of all four films (not in Imax, just regular) on September 15th! Get over to the Imax or AMC Theater website (or wherever you buy movie tickets online) and reserve yours now. You can see the trailer after then jump...


Here is the movie poster:

And here is the trailer:

It's All Been Done Before.. More Proof That There Is Not An Original Idea In Hollywood, Ever!!!

I have long been a proponent for the fact that almost everything in the Hollywood movie world is some form of a recycled idea. It has all been done in some way or shape before, and very rarely are we treated to a completely original (Inception anyone???) idea or execution of a movie. But stealing ideas and shooting scenes in a familiar way are not just reserved for terrible films by hacks... nope, even the greats seem to get "inspiration" (wink, wink) from other places. Need proof? Let's check out this cool clip from Stoo TV that puts a split screen between some action/adventure films from the black & white era of Hollywood & one of the most highly regarded action films of all time, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Just look how eerily similar these shots are. Wow. This is the best 13 minutes I spent all week, and this split screen is almost as shocking as the Tarantino plagiarism posts we ran last year (click here and here). Click after the jump for the full video...






Thanks to Topless Robot for the tip!!!

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

The gang over at CineWeekly created a really funny video that plugs in the now infamous Darth Vader "Noooooo!!!!" scream from the recently altered Blu Ray version of Return of the Jedi into other famous scenes from some of Hollywood's most classic films. Check out the video after the jump....

Wow, they really didn't leave a stone unturned!!! Well played CineWeekly... what do you got to say to that George????



Lucas: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Steven Spielberg Proves You Don't HAVE To Be A Douche (Did You Hear That George Lucas???)

Pay attention Douche Nozzle. This is how to NOT make people hate you!!!

I came across these wonderful quotes from superstar director Steven Spielberg in regards to digitally editing some of his classic movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark & E.T. for future editions. You see George... you can make mistakes and still redeem yourself. Listen to your boy Stevie... (See Spielberg's quotes after the jump)

Here are Steven Spielberg's comments on an upcoming Blu Ray version of Raiders:

This is the best I think it’s ever looked, because in preparation for the eventual release on blu-ray we had to correct the print again and get the original negative out of the salt mines, and then we had to do the separations, and basically the files, which are just amazing, with all the technology of today, without changing any of the movie materially, we haven’t removed anything, we haven’t added CGI, there’s no digital enhancements! It’s purely the movie you some of you may remember from 1981.

Wow... sounds like Steve has a good outlook on things. Now check out his regrets on digitally altering Raiders and E.T.:

 For myself, I tried [changing a film] once and lived to regret it. Not because of fan outrage, but because I was disappointed in myself. I got overly sensitive to [some of the reaction] to E.T., and I thought if technology evolved, [I might go in and change some things]…it was OK for a while, but I realized what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T. [...] If I put just one cut of E.T. on Blu-ray and it was the 1982, would anyone object to that? [The crowd yells "NO!" in unison.] OK, so be it. 

Wow... you see that? Stevie not only makes fanboys all over the world happy by talking about "robbing people who love E.T. of their memories of E.T" but he also does so by NOT throwing Lucas under the bus and saying he wouldn't edit or not edit based on fan reactions. 

Even though that is exactly what he is saying... he chose to keep it positive and defend the honor of the ORIGINAL FANS that made his early movies (and effectively Steven Spielberg himself) the epic successes they have become. Who cares if you can see a reflection or something doesn't look perfect? If we loved it then, we will love it now. I commend you Steven. now get them damn guns back into that childhood alien movie, will ya????