it was under the couch the whole time

I used to watch many more movies than I used to. For whatever reason, both in my reading and TV watching, for the last several years I've been much more into non-fiction (with my watching of the current BattleStar Galactica being a notable exception).

When I still watched movies a lot, my sister pointed me to Metropolis, a 1928 silent film that was a huge sci-fi classic. The movie's initial reception was poor, so it was edited down to make it shorter and more palatable.

According to Reuters and the New York Times, there is a print of the film containing almost exactly the original German release of the film without editing.

It sounds from the articles that the company that owns the distribution rights in the US has verified that the print is genuine, and I assume once restoration work is done they'll be releasing a version.

Cool!

fun behind the scenes

I picked up a DVD of Goonies at my local big-box store earlier this week because I've always loved the movie and the box listed a commentary track. I don't know if there are multiple DVD versions of this out, but the one I have has the ISBN of 1-4198-5512-3.

I was surprised to see that it was directed by Richard Donner. Stephen Spielberg wrote the story and he was one of the producers, but didn't actually direct the film. It shouldn't have surprised me, he's directed other movies that I love, particularly the first Superman movie.

The commentary track is really cool. It has Richard Donner, and most of the principle cast members who played the kids in the film. It's obvious that they liked making the film, had a lot of fun doing it, and it was neat for me to be able to watch it together and comment on it.