This week, Lucasfilm announced the features for the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. To satisfy everybody, there will be a one-disc, no-frills DVD version as well as a two-disc Special Edition, plus a Complete Adventure Collection, with the Special Edition plus the first three Indy movies. (Sadly, they do not come in a badly dented refrigerator.) And if you're wondering if the Special Edition is worth it, you might want to check out the massive list of extras you get with it before you decide. (Or maybe watch the movie again. You don't want to buy it, then suddenly remember the scene where Shia LaBeouf swings with the monkeys.)

Tags: Blu-ray, DVD, extras, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

If you don't read a lot of comic books, and you're looking for a good one to check out, try Y: The Last Man from Vertigo. It's about Yorick, a young man who, for unknown reasons, is the only man on Earth who doesn't die a horrible death on the day that the "man" part of mankind is wiped out. Women take over the world, and the Y-chromosome-sporting Yorick has to stay out of their clutches, since half of them want to kill him and half want to use him in horribly awesome ways. Luckily, Shia "The Beef" LaBeouf knows exactly what that feels like.

Tags: Carl Ellsworth, comic book movie, D.J. Caruso, Eagle Eye, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Shia LaBeouf, Transformers, Vertigo, Y: The Last Man

There's nothing new about summer blockbusters getting a little leeway when it comes to the basics of movie-making. Be it an extra burp of action in Act III or more than one MacGuffin, most movie-goers are so jazzed for the flick after the months of hype and marketing they don't even notice. But one trend that movie-goers can't miss seems to be on the rise--what I like to call the summer buttbuster, and more than one of the movies you're dying to see this summer fit the description.

Dark Horizons is reporting that both Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight have run times of well over two hours. Indy looks to be coming in at around 140 minutes (that's two hours and twenty minutes for you non-math types) and the new Batman at a whopping 165, four trailers shy of three hours.

Now, I'm as excited for both of these films as the next gal--despite rumors that Indy 4 may not be worth the 19 year wait--but my ass can only take so much. You factor in the hour you'll have to wait in line for a good seat and the slow almost-as-bad-as-deplaning crawl out of the theater and most people are looking at nearly 5 hours of cinema pleasure. And while the studio sounds like it wouldn't mind cutting down Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight to around 150 minutes, reports are that it seems unlikely to do so. To which I say, grow a pair, Warner Brothers. Not only do people need to eat food other than suspect hotdogs and butter-drenched popcorn, but they need to be able to pee and not worry that they'll miss the one part of the movie worth the 12 bucks they spent on it. A bladder-bursting epidemic is not what 2008 needs.

Tags: dark horizons, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the dark knight

November 4 has come and gone, but the voting isn't over yet. Voting for the People's Choice Awards started yesterday and continues through December 7. You don't get many choices, though. Looking at the just-announced list of nominees, you might think only a handful of movies came out in 2008. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and the new Indiana Jones will vie for top honors in both the favorite movie and favorite action movie categories. It's not surprising that in an award system based on popular opinion the highest grossing films would rise to the top of the list. Statistically speaking, chances are pretty good that even if you only saw three movies this year, those were the three you saw. Other not-unexpected movie nominees include Wall-E, Sex and the City, and Mamma Mia!

Tags: Brad Pitt, Eagle Eye, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, People's Choice Awards, The Dark Knight

The world is buzzing today with news and gossip about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The big news, of course, is the LA Times story that maintains that George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford won't be paid until the studio brings in $400 million in revenue. That's a large haul, even for Indy. And it's a shocker in Hollywood, where actors, directors and writers usually get paid a high set rate first, and talk about residuals later. It's a risk on the parts of the big three, but they clearly believe in this movie, and were willing to bank (pun intended) on it making a haul big enough to cover the $400 million and still pay them loads of money. Or maybe they're doing it for the love? Naaah...

Tags: george lucas, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Steven Spielberg

Why is George Lucas lowering our expectations on "Indy 4: Attack of the Jones"? He's making me nervous with his Wes Craven-esque "It's only a movie" comments. I can't bring myself to believe that the new Indy movie sucks, but I was always told that when a girl's Mama tells you her daughter is bad news, you believed it. And you ran. Lucas hasn't gone so far as to say the movie is sub-par, but his ominous protestations against those who are really looking forward to May 22nd has the Internet buzzing. It looks as if Lucas is invoking the Odienator Pessimist Principle, which states the pessimist is never disappointed. If the audience vibrates in their chairs as if the screenings were in Sensurround, and then collectively pass out in orgasmic glee when the credits roll, Lucas will feel great that he was underestimated crowd reaction. However, if the movie is anything like those nightmares he recently tried to pass off as Star Wars movies, he can tell us he told us so beforehand.

Lucas didn't write nor direct Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- a good sign if there ever were one. Ford is fit as a fiddle and Karen Allen is back as tough cookie Marion. The trailer is as full of excitement as the poster is full of background images, and rumor has it the movie realistically deals with Indy's age. Why shouldn't I be excited? I mean, what could possibly go wrong? What could Lucas be telling us between the lines of his statement? My imagination runs wild. Is Indy now being chased by a gigantic blue boulder that says Viagra? Does an uncredited Kate Capshaw shows up to pull the hearts out of the audience in the 3-D IMAX version. Could it be that Sean Connery shows up riding the giant head from Zardoz? Or that Cate Blanchett's villain turns out to be Bob Dylan dressed as Queen Elizabeth and screwing a 15-year old boy? Or that horror of horrors: Indy's sidekick is Jar-Jar Binks?

Lucas has tempered my excitement, but he's piqued my interest even more. This was probably the Emperor's evil plan all along.

Tags: george lucas, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

In under a week, the Cannes Film Festival will announce its 2008 line-up. Stalled by an impending writers strike, American filmmakers last year were too worried about what this would mean for the future to come up with much in the way of "avant-garde" movies in time for Cannes. Where last year saw several promising entries, including No Country For Old Men, this year it seems as though only Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York is headed for the competitive category, reports guardian.co.uk. According to the report, big-budget films like the new Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda are slated for "glitzy" showings, but will naturally not be vying for the chance to accidentally poke themselves on the prestigious (if spiky) Palme d'Or.

Tags: cannes film festival, george lucas, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, kung fu panda, Shia LaBoeuf