Suela, we can watch the countryside beauty shots in slomo. That will make it 5 hours.

(Although I would prefer a 5-hour cut, because at least there's a chance they'd cover all the story in as much fullness as would make the story flow properly. I.e., nobody disappears for 1/3 of the movie. I'm looking at the time-budget, and all the scenes that got cut, and 4:15 doesn't look like enough.)

My Tolkein-virgin cow-orker saw it the second time this weekend, and came in to pepper me with questions. Given that he said things like "You know, they mention a balrog once in the first movie, but you never see one" and "No, the things the black riders ride are called "nazgul" - remember, the Witch-King says "Never get between a nazgul and his prey" ?" he was very emotionally into the movies.

He wanted to hear all about how Saruman dies in the books, so my roomies and I told the story of the Scouring, and he was almost tearing up at the end. His comment, "Wow. I mean, I like the bit where they are at the table and the pumpkin is more exciting than they are, but wow. That would've been so awesome. Just perfect."

I'm guessing the DVD in May is the theatrical version, based on past performance.

4 hours and 50 minutes was supposed to be > 4 hours and 15 minutes.

I did hear that Jackson's first rough cut of the movie WAS in the 5 hour range, though.

watching FotR after seeing RotK is absolutely heartbreaking.

Last night, the Encore Action channel had the theatrical release of FotR on (fullscreen, damnit--grumblegrumbledamnmoviechannelscan'tevenshowwidescreen versionsgrumble), which I haven't seen in a very long while, and I watched it (well, I spent the first hour flipping back and forth between it and The Frighteners on SciFi). Considering I haven't seen any version of FotR since Trilogy Tuesday, I was practically in tears seeing laughing, cheerful, healthy Frodo in the Shire.

he spends the whole day in bed moaning.

Was there a Beta unit involved? (Sorry, my mind went into The Last Starfighter mode for a minute...)

(well, I spent the first hour flipping back and forth between it and The Frighteners on SciFi)

That must have made for an interesting combined movie....

It was only the second time I've seen The Frighteners, and the first time I've seen most of the first hour, but I keep on missing the introduction of the whacked-out FBI agent played by Jeffrey Combs. What's with his obsession with the Michael J. Fox character? Anyway, it's a decent flick that gets better as it gets more serious, like LotR does. Fox really does a good job playing the increasingly stressed out Frank. Oh, and another question: during the FBI agent's questioning, he asks Frank why Frank's shaking, and assumes that Frank is pulling some kind of mojo on him. Was the shaking part of Fox's Parkinson's Disease, or part of the script?

Was the shaking part of Fox's Parkinson's Disease, or part of the script?

I'm sure it was the script -- that's about as abject as the character gets, being accused of murdering his wife and unable to express his horror and fear. I thought it was incredibly effective, showing his shaking hand over his face rather than the standard big whooping sobs that you'd ordinarily see.

That was a very strange movie, pingponging between the terrible and the hilarious. I did like it, but I never quite know how to feel about it as a whole movie; I can only describe it properly as a series of good moments.

Which, I think, works better in really long movies than in short ones.

Also, a friend of mine heard that RotKEE might be coming out really early -- like in May. . . have any of you guys heard that one?

Oooh, if it's true, that's good news. But I've also heard that the RotKEE is going to clock in at 5 hours, and if that's true (which I hope it is), I don't see how they could possibly finish it that soon.

Actually, I'm guessing that this is the same misunderstood quote that's happened every single year that these movies have been out.

It goes like this, PJ, in an interview, most likely with a NZ paper or something, gives a quote about the next movie being out "next summer."

Somebody in america (where very large numbers of people just don't know that the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere) reads the quote, and thinks the next movie has been pushed up to come out in July, or something.

I suspect it's something similar again here. PJ said something about the ROTK EE being released "next spring" or something, and he meant November.

Look! LotR Valentine's Day Cards!

(well, I spent the first hour flipping back and forth between it and The Frighteners on SciFi)

t utterly fails to come up with a clever way of mentioning that PJ directed that too

Actually, I'm guessing that this is the same misunderstood quote that's happened every single year that these movies have been out.

Hmph. Spoilsport.