Update on "I Am Legend". WARNING: Spoilers within.

[Pale Blue Dot]

Apparently, in an alternate ending, it's not a Jesus flick:

http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/i_am_legend_alternate_ending

[onager]

1. Thanks! Interesting.

I would watch for a full DVD rip if I illegally downloaded stuff here in Egypt...

:rofl:

Usual Annoying Aside, and maybe you better get another cup of coffee before starting the tiresome length of this 'un: a local magazine, EGYPT TODAY, runs a semi-regular column written by one of the most famous Arab movie directors, Joseph Chahine. A few months ago, the good ol' MPAA brought their Traveling Anti-Piracy Road Show to the Middle East. Here in Egypt, they apparently bought off enough members of the Bu$h Administration to threaten the Egyptian government with a cut in foreign aid if Egypt didn't crack down on piracy.

Then the MPAA interviewed the local media movers-n-shakers, like the aforementioned Mr. Chahine. In his column on the subject, Chahine was brutally and hilariously frank. When the MPAA asked him what they could do to COMBAT MOVIE PIRACY in the Middle East, Chahine replied: "Nothing." The MPAA rather huffily noted that legal, authorized versions of their masterpieces were available at places like the Virgin Megastore. Chahine then replied that most Egyptians were very poor, and couldn't afford to pay more than US $20 for a single DVD. And that's for almost ANY DVD! Yes, a copy of "Red Dawn" or "Gigli" will cost you just as much as a real movie! You don't see any of those $5.00 specials common to Fry's or Best Buy in the U.S.

I've been to that Virgin Megastore many times. There is only one in the whole country of Egypt, in a very upscale Cairo shopping mall. As an aside to the aside, their book selection is overpriced and sucks also, just like their DVD selection. End aside...

The main point I was going to make: this ending seems more in line with Richard Matheson's writing. He was something of a "spiritual-not-religious" woo-woo, but most of his stuff is religiously neutral existentialism. I'm thinking of "The Incredible Shrinking Man," where at the end of the story the hero had shrunk to invisibility but is still roaring: "I exist!"

He also wrote one of the few haunted-house movies I can still watch without falling asleep: "The Legend Of Hell House."

I really love it when the "spiritual medium" Pamela Franklin cheerily chirps: "God works in mysterious ways!" And grumpy Roddy McDowall shoots back: "So does this house."