Look for separate posts on my blog. Smith and Coppola one after the other.

Very likely. Have you seen her weekly questions for the presidential candidates segment?

The whole Today show thing is sort of unclear to me. What Neville is watching are broadcasts about the cancer cure leading up to the viral eruption, which would preclude Couric's participation...but maybe some are older. I recall them being time-stamped, but didn't make note of the dates. Even if you were the last man on Earth you'd have to be pretty desperate to watch Today rebroadcasts, and Neville has piles of DVDs (SHREK is a favorite--quite a change from Heston and WOODSTOCK.)

A minor point. As is the CGI-ness of the lions and deer, but the concept was good, unlike that underlying the infected.

. . . I would imagine some critic or other has mentioned Ranald MacDougall's THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL (1959), and its rather overwhelming non-CGI scenes of Harry Belafonte pulling his little waggon through an empty New York City, as they are going on and on about the uniqueness of these similar (well, the earlier film didn't have grass growing in the street) sequences in this latest (and least) version of I AM LEGEND, but I am yet to read any such comments among the various reviews I have come across - is this older film just not that well known . . . Mr. Cashill is right (in my opinion) regarding THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964) - I still find that one quite chilling; but, come to think of it, perhaps not as frightening as a heavily armed Charlton Heston roaming around Los Angeles . . .

I am a huge fan of Matheson's novel & have wished that there would be a film version using the books' original ending, which I have always felt to be a classic & powerful statement towards social structures & fitting in...It has always been one of the most copied ideas in post-holocaust/disease outbreak sci-fi survivor tales...
Even though the new I AM LEGEND film is not how I would have liked it to be, I was still very pleased with the film, especially with Will Smith's very strong performance as an emotional Robert Neville splitting at the seams...Of course there are story flaws, & differences...It's a mishmash of the book & the first two film versions, leaning mostly towards an OMEGA MAN remake, with a couple ideas added. I do not want to reveal any spoilers here, so I will just say that I enjoyed it, even with the flaws. Will Smith's very believable acting really made the film, & the book's idea of not giving in to a structure/society he is not wanted in basically remained intact... :ph43r:

Honestly, is Will Smith the biggest start on that planet now? He makes these movies that (IMO) look terrible and they just open huuuuuge. I AM LEGEND made $30 million yesterday and looks to make $80 for this weekend. I don't know a single person who has seen it or has any interest in it. Guess I need to get to know the rest of the US.

The trailer for The Dark Knight is attached to it... they could have shown it in front of August Rush and that one would have opened huge.

I don't know about that. Does middle America outside of comic book fans really care *that* much about being the first to catch a tantalizing glimpse of THE DARK KNIGHT? Do they even know? Are the commercials and fluff news pieces playing the angle up?

Damned if I know... it's getting a lot of internet play. I just recall when the trailer for Star Wars Episode One thingy went up, a ton of folks paid to see the movie it was attached to, then left after the trailer was done.

No figuring other people.

I think EPISODE 1 was an exceptional instance.

Yeah... I suppose.

Anyway, I just went to check it out for myself and the damned thing is sold out for the next couple of showings (and it's taking up three of the screens at the multiplex).

So there you go. Coming next year: I Am Still Legend

Isn't THE DARK KNIGHT trailer online tomorrow? I'd wait, but I'm a curmudgeonly 40-something with no dorm party or watercooler to report to. :)

HK AND CULT FILM NEWS I am Legend Review by Derek Singer

http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-a...end-review.html

I loved the use of the closed Tower Video on Lafayette and West 4th as Neville's private DVD library, though its presence (t'wouldn't have been OPEN and STOCKED in 2009!) is also a bit anachronistic.

Since I know a lot of Manhattan really well, I almost said out loud, "Hey, that's the old Tower Videos!" Ssh, Bob!

I watched the second half of the film this weekend - only there IS no second half. The thing evaporates as you watch it! And, guess what? If you read CINEFEX, you'll learn that, at the time when the article was written, the ending was completely different:

SPOILER?
It turns out that the attacking Seekers are only after the female Neville trapped. He gives her back to them, they withdraw, and Neville joins Anna and the kid in their trip to Vermont.

I sh*t you not.

Spoiler

They would have had to call it I AM RIGHT HERE, STANDING NEXT TO YOU... WHAT?.

Actually... it was even more idiotic than that: Neville gets into a fistfight with the main mutant (as the other mutants obligingly stand around and watch) and when Neville triumphs, they all slink off into the night.

I'm positive that the only reason that they went back to reshoot the ending is because it would have been too similar to another recent horror film. Maybe how badly that one played got it through their thick skulls how stupid of an ending it would be.

Not that the new ending was a whole lot better, but better is better...

Does he go there before or after having lunch at the Automat?

AFTER, and then he picks up some books at Brentano's!

So the movie missed the entire point of the book, which is that Neville becomes the monster destroying the new race, the not-vampires.

Does he visit any of the old Grindhouses on 42nd Street? (The Selwyn lives!)

I liked when he drove off a Seeker by pelting him with subway tokens!

And then left Manhattan via the elevated R train! Oh wait, that was Spiderman 2. :rolleyes:

But I overlook it in SPIDEY 2.