never say never again Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Quantum of Solace
Daniel Craig's second outing as James Bond, this time under the direction of Marc Forster, was a straight-ahead revenge drama, with rough edges intact, missing many of the character touches that we've come to expect from 007. That made it feel too much like an anonymous, overly-caffeinated action thriller for my taste, but there are enough dynamic, high-powered sequences to justify a rental. Olga Kuylenko is pretty easy on the eyes, too. Available in one and two-disk DVD editions, as well as Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Bolt
"An entertaining movie for kids," our own Jette Kernion opined. "However, there's not much here for grownups to enjoy ... apart from watching the kids get a kick out of the film." Sounds like it was made for home viewing. John Travolta and Miley Cyrus voice key roles. Available in one and two-disk DVD editions, as well as Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood
Two vital components of the original Watchmen graphic novel that didn't make the theatrical cut; pirate saga Tales of the Black Freighter is brought to life as a 2-D animated mini-feature and features the voice of Gerard Butler, while Under the Hood uses live-action and CGI to spin a faux-autobiography of the original Nite Owl. Both may be included in a forthcoming Director's Cut of Watchmen, but if you just can't wait any longer ... Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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After the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner

There are still two Harry Potter movies to go, but the franchise is already the top-grossing series of all time with $4.47 billion in worldwide earnings. This figure puts it above Star Wars and its sequels and prequels ($4.23 billion) and the 21 official James Bond movies plus the unofficial Never Say Never Again ($4.44 billion). The success came over Labor Day weekend as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix reached a worldwide box office gross of $923.7 million. With it continuing to take in money overseas, that number will only get bigger. And then there's the next installments, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will add at least another billion to the franchise total. Of course, the Bond series will also continue once the Potter films are done and could regain the spot -- still, at only a quarter of the number of 007 installments, those more-family friendly Potters are doing some serious business.

Then again, there's always the issues of inflation and rising ticket prices. According to inflated adjustments, the Bond films have made $10.9 billion (provided by Wikipedia, minus Never Say Never Again). Also, according to Variety, the Star Wars movies have actually out-grossed the Harry Potter series domestically ($2.18 billion vs. $1.41 billion -- without inflation adjustments). So, as usual with box office records and announcements, this is only big news if you want it to be. Warner Bros. COO Alan Horn told Variety that it isn't about competing with franchises like Star Wars and 007; it's just bragging about a "fun number." Anyway, it never should be about what franchise makes the most money; it should be about which franchise is the best, and we all know what that is.

Odds and ends from Tuesday:

• I never quite enjoyed The Mummy movies (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King) as much as, say, watching Brendan Fraser stand outside in the rain screaming bloody murder during that awesome scene in School Ties. Oh c'mon -- you know you dug it too. Needless to say, it appears a fourth Mummy film (or third, depending on whether or not you count Scorpion King) in now in the works and, according to Freeze Dried Movies, both Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz will be reprising their roles as an Oscar winner and a has-been who team up for some classic 1940s-style Chinese action. Seriously, why in the world would Weisz want to do another one of these? Someone get Aronofsky on the phone -- we need to knock some sense into this gal. (And no, I'm not promoting domestic violence -- it was just a joke.)
• When I think of Martial Arts master Bruce Lee, I imagine a dude kicking some major ass. Probably the last thing that comes to mind is a Bruce Lee that sings and dances across a stage. Well, don't tell that to David Henry Wang, because the Tony-winning Chinese-American playwright is keen on bringing a staged Bruce Lee musical to life. He already has approval from Lee's family and is looking to stage the musical in either Shanghai or Beijing sometime in 2008.
• And finally, here's some news that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. To me, at least. According to Moviehole's Gossip Monkey, Kevin McClory is looking to do a remake of the classic James Bond film Thunderball which, as you may remember, has already been remade once with 1983's Never Say Never Again. Can one film really have two remakes?  Seeing as McClory holds the remake rights to Thunderball, I guess the guy can remake it as many times as he wants, right? And we can't say a damn thing. The funniest part about this whole thing is that the folks in charge are seriously considering bringing ex-Bond Pierce Brosnan back for the role, just like they did with Sean Connery for Never Say Never Again. How hilarious would it be if Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan were playing James Bond at the exact same time in different Bond-related films? Ooohh, maybe afterwards they could do a whole Alien vs. Predator sort of thing and have the two battle each other to the death? That would be rad.