A couple of weeks ago, The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration came out on DVD and Blu-ray. It's a five-disc set, with all three films plus two discs of special materials. After watching the whole trilogy last weekend, I had a couple of realizations: The Godfather is amazing. The Godfather: Part II is mostly amazing. The Godfather: Part III is ten billion times worse than you remember it being. And, finally, Andy Garcia has a truly bewildering amount of chest hair. It's insane. You could lose a Robin Williams in there.

More thoughts after the jump, including but not limited to musings on Francis Ford Coppola's luck, how good Robert De Niro used to be, how Al Pacino Now looks less like Al Pacino Then and more like a dessicated, angry mummy who vaguely resembles what Al Pacino Then used to look like, and Sofia Coppola's crimes against humanity. Oh, and incest!

Goddamn. Fincher's next film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, comes out on Christmas Day.

Thanks to Ezra for the heads up.

UPDATE: Never mind. Nike yanked it. Because it makes perfect sense to keep people from seeing a really great ad that makes your company look really cool, apparently.

Excellent. Last night's was one of the funniest South Park episodes I've seen in a while--especially with that inclusion of a Howard the Duck pinball machine. The whole episode is here.

Via FilmDrunk.

Well, yes and no. I prefer to watch movies for entertainment first, and sadly, Welles comes with such a load of cinematic baggage that it's almost impossible to enjoy him without being distracted by where he fits into the canon of 20th century movie-making: At the top. Which is clearly where the producers of this 50th anniversary edition of Welles' last film made in the US also think he deserves to be...releasing the DVD of Touch of Evil in three versions, to showcase Welles' directing prowess.

First, there's the 1957 "preview" version of the film, cut together by Universal before Welles saw it. On seeing it, Welles fired off a now famous 58-page memo back to the studio, demanding that certain changes be made before the film's release. Included, too, is the "theatrical release" version, which takes some of Welles' demands into account. Then, there's the restored version cut faithfully to Welles' artistic vision in 1998.

For those film geeks among you, the box set, which is released today at $27, includes for the first time a copy of Welles' memo, presented on 5x7" notepaper in an evocative manila envelope. I enjoyed opening it, imagining I was a Universal studio exec with the power to ignore Welles. But I've got to admit, going through all three versions of the movie to determine where the changes had been made and what effect they'd had, was beyond me. On the other hand, as a sheer entertainment enthusiast, I was kicking myself for not having watched this movie earlier. Because it's full to the brim with treats of the non-geeky kind.

It's a well-known fact that here at the Mercury, we love Steven Seagal. And his energy drink. Which means we've been waiting for Under Siege 3 for what feels like FOREVER. Luckily, MTV cornered Seagal about that very issue--and broke the news that there's not only an Under Siege 3 in the works, but if Seagal has his way, it'll go all Crystal Skull on us. The Legend mumbles:

We would like to make Under Siege 3 and there are offers and we're... lookin' at 'em. I personally want it to be something more, you know, modern. In other words, I wouldn't mind if it was about, you know, something more mystical, or something that, you know... maybe extraterrestrial in nature. Anything like that. Some real government top secrets instead of just, you know, the typical.

SHIT YES! REAL GOVERNMENT SECRETS! I'm also going to take this opportunity to note that I foretold this, sort of, because obviously, I'm all psychic and shit. Check it: I hereby foretell that in about .03 seconds, you're going to have regretted wasting your time reading this blog post.

Yeah. I'm good.

Via io9.

Matt Davis asked for it, and Larry Flynt delivered: Flynt's PR peeps have confirmed to the NY Daily News that Hustler Video has indeed shot a Palin-based porn. No word yet on the release date or the title, but while we eagerly await this cinematic feat, I think we can imagine where it might go. You know what to do. Title ideas in the comments below. LS

Twitter--or, as I can't help but think of it, "blogging for those who don't even have the attention span for actual blogging, which, seriously, is just kind of ridiculous"--is at its most entertaining when fake Twitter pages pop up. (Remember Sarah Palin's?) My new favorite fake Twitter: Michael Bay's, which boasts updates like:

Fuck it, it's time for some BEACH VOLLEYBALL!

and

Shia is crying less today.

This Michael Bay is also apparently in a bit of a Twitter feud with the earnest Slashfilm Twitter. Says Michael Bay,

@slashfilm No, I don't know who "Fellini" is and quite frankly I don't give a shit.

Something to tide you over until the scheduled May release of the movie. Nice outfit, Sacha!

What do these things have in common? The Cans Film Festival! In a benefit for the Oregon Food Bank, today only, any Regal cinema will trade you a movie ticket and a small popcorn for three cans of food (or three non-perishable food items).

Do you realize what a great fucking deal that is? Three cans of soup will run you something like four dollars. A movie ticket and a small popcorn will set you back like three grand. Okay, so I'm exaggerating. Still, do you realize what a great fucking deal that is?

If that's not enough to motivate you to do a good deed for your fellow Oregonians, then you're dead to me. Seriously.

So do everyone a favor and check out the movie times, get some non-perishable food items and get thee to a Regal cinema. I'll be seeing Choke, which is in no way ironic.

Enjoy.

Mass Effect's one of the most cinematic games I've ever played--and given the other film-influenced AAA titles that're making their way to the big screen (like Gears of War and Bioshock), it's not too surprising that Mass Effect's movie rights just got snatched up. (Especially when you factor in that the buzz on J.J. Abrams' Star Trek is really, really good, and that conceptually and thematically, Mass Effect owes more than a few things to the Trek universe.)

The dude doing said snatching is producer Avi Arad, a guy who used to mostly produce stuff for Marvel (like X-Men and Spider-Man) but now has branched off into other areas of fine cinema (like Bratz and Robosapien: Rebooted).

While I'd love to see a blockbuster version of Mass Effect, narratively, the thing runs into the same problem that other big videogame movies, like Bioshock and Halo, do: With a lead character who's either a blank slate for the player to project themselves onto (Halo) or one that's completely malleable, with different traits and actions depending on who's controlling them (Bioshock), it means the studio and the screenwriter are basically going to have to invent a central character for the film. I guess that means these rights purchases are being approached less as buying the narrative arcs of these games and more about buying the environments that these games have created--like the movie studios are buying a bunch of really cool sets and backstories, along with some name recognition, and (hopefully) they'll fill in the gaps with good stuff. (Not likely, though, given every videogame movie ever made, from Tomb Raider to Super Mario Bros.)

Via The Cut Scene.

In the following video, the Shatman lays it all out--and he isn't taking any bullshit. If I were J.J. Abrams, I'd keep a baseball bat next to my bed when I go to sleep. Just to be safe.

Also, William Shatner clearly understands a lot about science, and does not make up scientific things at all. Also, who the hell is he making these videos for? Also, is it just me, or does Shatner really start to freak his daughter out about a minute and 50 seconds in?

Via FilmDrunk.

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE: A lot of this is gonna get cut out, right?

CHARLIE ROSE: Perhaps. But I'll make the deicsion as to what's cut out.

David Foster Wallace on Charlie Rose, March 27, 1997.

1990s moviegoers who have sat clutching their heads in both awe and disappointment at movies like Twister and Volcano and The Lost World can thank James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day for inaugurating what's become this decade's special new genre of big-budget film: Special Effects Porn. "Porn" because, if you substitute F/X for intercourse, the parallels between the two genres become so obvious they're eerie. Just like hard-core cheapies, movies like Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park aren't really "movies" in the standard sense at all. What they really are is half a dozen or so isolated, spectacular scenes--scenes comprising maybe twenty or thirty minutes of riveting, sensuous payoff--strung together via another sixty to ninety minutes of flat, dead, and often hilariously insipid narrative.

David Foster Wallace on Terminator 2: Judgment Day: F/X Porn, from Waterstone's Magazine, Winter/Spring 1998.

Anyone know?

I found this, but it doesn't answer my burning question.

I just got an email from Tara J. Fallon, who claims that she "took over organization of this year's event in Dallas when I was made aware of the missing donation." Fallon says everything's cool now: "The missing funds that we were originally concerned about have been recovered, along with $1388 of additional funds collected from 2 other related events." If you're interested, Fallon has posted more details here (it's the third entry down, posted on September 5).

Righteous Kill didn't screen in time for our press deadline. About 15 minutes into the movie, it became obvious why: Righteous Kill is a terrible movie.

Check out our review here. Or, if you'd rather remember less depressing times:

The fact that Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies ever has previously caused me to get kind of rabid about the possibility of anything new and shiny and ghostbuster-y. Up until a week or so ago, any such developments were limited to the videogame (which is currently languishing in a weird sort of limbo). But now it looks like there's a possibility of a brand spankin' new Ghostbusters movie--one headed up by the original Ghostbusters creative team, along with two writers of the Americanized The Office and Judd Apatow. Not a bad crew, that.

If it actually happens--and this is something that seems fairly unlikely, given the previous bungled attempts to get a third film made--it sounds like this'll be kind of like Ghostbusters: The Next Generation, with the original crew handing over the franchise to a new cast, one possibly made up of Apatow's usual gang. I kind of have mixed feelings about that--on one hand, the Apatow gang is pretty great, but on the other, I'd also like to avoid seeing the original Ghostbusters cast contract a nasty case of Mutt Williams Syndrome.

Anyway: More at the Chicago Tribune. This via io9, which also points out that Sarah Palin is a robot.

So My Pretty Portland is over and done with--but now local filmmakers have another chance to show off their short films. The Regional Arts and Culture Council's "Portland Art Happens" program is a new project that intends to "excite, stimulate, and inform the 50,000 monthly visitors to the RACC website by showcasing an array of short videos by local filmmakers that portray Portland's vibrant art scenes." (I know, right? Who'd have thought you could have both "excite" and "stimulate" in a sentence and still have it be that boring?)

Basically, the RACC is looking for films that are between 30 seconds and three minutes long and are produced exclusively for this project, and they need to "feature a variety of art forms being presented in the tri-county area." You've also gotta open and close with the RACC logo (which, in addition to all these requirements, kinda makes this whole thing feel like maybe RACC is just lookin' to get some TV ads made on the cheap). Deadline's September 17, and if you're one of the six filmmakers they select from the submissions, you get $200.

Complete details are here.

As for the above image? Bayotic, isn't it? (I don't know what you guys' problem with the dude is. He's just trying to make a lot of kids' dreams around the world. He's a goddamn hero.)

Variety has a great story up about three big, upcoming films--each of which, for one reason or another, is making studio heads nervous. James Cameron's first film since Titanic is the 3D/CG/live-action sci-fi epic Avatar, slated to come out at the end of 2009; David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story and has caused a rift between Finch and Paramount about the film's running length; and Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are... well, who the fuck knows what's up with Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are.

I'm stoked about all three of these--those are three of my favorite directors--but right now I'm just insanely curious about/impatient for Avatar, a film that Cameron's been talking about, on and off, for like 12 years. Just having Cameron return to sci-fi would be exciting enough, but Avatar feels like something utterly new to boot: When Variety says that Cameron's "goal is to change motion pictures as we know it," they're dead on, despite their questionable grammar. Cameron has always been part storyteller and part inventor, and if Avatar lives up to its promise, it won't only be as technically revolutionary as The Abyss, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Titanic, but it also stands a very real chance of changing the way people go to movies. Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D was cute and all, but imagine a Cameron-scale mega-blockbuster, possibly showing exclusively in 3D and Imax, and you start to realize that a few years from now, going to the movies could be a substantially different experience.

But that's a ways off. In the meantime, I'm just going to hope that Fincher gets final say on what stays in Benjamin Button, and that a Spike Jonze-directed, Dave Eggers-written Where the Wild Things Are does, in fact, exist somewhere, and wasn't just something I gleefully hallucinated in a sweaty fever dream.