Midnight Ramblings

I'm just loving my new DVDs. I love Sin City. It's just so over-the-top in its violence, and its dialogue, and its poorly-computer-animated "digital backlot." Makes me want to run out and buy Pulp Fiction. I spent my morning watching Sin City.

I haven't been able to sit down and watch Titanic yet. Most of its bonus features are "branching," which I find thouroughly annoying. For those who don't know the lingo, "branching" is when you're watching a DVD, and a little icon will pop up in the corner of the screen, and you hit "enter" and it'll take you to a featurette about the making of that scene. I know some love that, but I find it annoying. I'll watch all my featurettes after the movie, thank you very much.

However, I did take some time this morning to watch Titanic's original ending. We all know the original end. After telling her story, Old Rose goes out, we see that she had the diamond all along, and she tosses the diamond into the ocean. Well, in the original ending, Brock (the guy looking for the diamond played by Bill Paxton) discovers Old Rose hanging on the guard rail, and, thinking Rose is going to jump, goes and stops her. Old Rose then reveals to Brock that she had the diamond all along, and she gives Brock a speach about the "trappings of wealth" and "money doesn't buy happiness" and other such cliches. She allows Brock to hold the diamond just once, and then she tosses the diamond overboard. Brock gets closure, and is finally able to let go of his quest.

I can see why they cut it. It was far too preachy.

Oh, and there are three very good Easter eggs on Titanic. These are the kinds of Easter eggs I love. They are:

- The classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch "Titanic's Original Ending," in which Brock (played by guest host Bill Paxton) beats the crap out of Old Rose to find the diamond's location, only to have Rose confess that she made the story up. And then, Titanic's writer/director James Cameron (played by himself) comes on to admit that he re-filmed the ending because he was "chased out of the test screening by people with torches and pitchforks" and that he wrote his original ending because he "thought it was funny to watch an old lady get beat up."

- From the 1998 MTV Movie Awards, a sketch in which two soulless Hollywood executives (played by Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn) try to convince James Cameron (played by himself) to make Titanic 2, in which a secret society of Titanic survivors have built a utopia in the Titanic wreckage.

- The classic Internet cartoon Titanic in 30 Seconds (and Re-enacted by Bunnies).

It's a very nice DVD. I will not disclose how to find the Easter eggs, because that would ruin it for you.