Isn’t it about time for another contest around here? It sure is! Thanks to the generosity of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, we have two copies of ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ on Blu-ray to give away to our readers. How do you win? Read on to find out.
For this contest, two lucky winners will each receive one Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack copy of ‘The Adjustment Bureau‘ starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Here’s the studio boilerplate:
A rising politician finds himself caught up in a pulse-pounding, mind-bending conspiracy in The Adjustment Bureau, the acclaimed film coming to Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD on June 21, 2011 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Academy Award® winner Matt Damon (the Bourne series, True Grit) and Golden Globe® winner Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, The Wolfman) are the star-crossed lovers chased by mysterious forces that threaten to destroy their futures unless they abandon one another. Deleted and extended scenes, filmmaker commentary and exclusive bonus features offer behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the film. Plus, for a limited time only, the Blu-ray™ Combo Pack of The Adjustment Bureau includes a downloadable digital copy of the film that can be viewed anytime, anywhere, on an array of digital devices.
Written for the screen by George Nolfi (Ocean’s 12, The Bourne Ultimatum) who also makes his directorial debut, The Adjustment Bureau is based on the short story “Adjustment Team,” by visionary writer Philip K. Dick (Total Recall, Minority Report, Blade Runner). The Adjustment Bureau also stars Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, Eagle Eye), John Slattery (“Mad Men,” Iron Man 2), Michael Kelly (Changeling, Dawn of the Dead) and Terence Stamp (Wanted, Valkyrie).
The theme of this contest is adjustments. For your chance to win, we want you to post in the Comments section below your answer to this question: What one element or aspect of an existing movie do you wish you could adjust? Even the best of movies typically have something wrong with them. Maybe it’s a miscast actor, or a bad musical score, or shoddy visual effects, or just one bad scene that stands out and derails an otherwise good movie. If you had the power to go back in time and alter the course of one movie, what would you fix?
For example: If I had this power, I’d like to replace Keanu Reeeves in ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula‘ with… I don’t know… anybody, really. Reeves is terribly miscast in that movie, and his wooden performance stands out badly among an otherwise stellar cast. How about we take Carey Elwes (who has another part in the movie now) and put him in the Jonathan Harker role, and then grab Tim Roth and put him in the smaller role that Elwes currently plays? That would do. That’s what I would fix.
I’ll allow up to three entries per person, but please keep them short. (Less than 200 words would be good.)
The two winners will be selected based on our own subjective discretion. This contest is only open to entrants from the domestic United States. We will not ship internationally (whether you’re a U.S. citizen or not). Employees of High-Def Digest or Internet Brands and their families are not eligible. Standard contest rules and conditions apply. People who have won any of our previous contests within the past one year are also not eligible to win, but may get Honorable Mentions.
The deadline for entry is this Friday, June 17th. The winner will be announced next week. Good luck, everyone!
Jay
Spider-man 3: Too much to change in this one, but if I could adjust one thing it would be to have Sandman and Harry be the only villains, ending the movie with Peter Parker tearing off the black suit and Eddie Brock becoming Venom and saving him for a movie of his own.
Jay
X-Men 3: Swap Bryan Singer for Brett Ratner. Just swapping those two would fix countless problems with that movie.
Tim
No Ewoks in ROTJ.
The End.
Jay
Halloween (Rob Zombie version): The main problem I have with this movie is the begining. Showing the young Michael Myers isn’t a bad idea, but making his family horrible white trash is. Make the family a loving and upstanding middle or upper class family with no obvious problems. To me that makes Michael turnin into a murderous psycho inexplicable and, to me, much scarier.
Adam
That would defeat the purpose of showing young Michael at all.
Dave Files
Return of the Jedi, either remove or change the Ewoks by making them less “cute”…….
Jane Morgan
‘Catwoman’ with Emily Blunt instead of Halle Berry.
Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie.
Directed by Chan-wook Park.
Philip Latcholia
Remove George Lucas from the directors chair for all the Star Wars prequels.
FLskydiver
Ding Ding Ding!
Philip Latcholia
Convince the makers of Conviction and especially Hillary Swank that the story of a unrepentant wrongly convicted loser who brings his baby to bars, starts fights with strangers for no reason and who’s sister ruins her own life and marriage, passes the bar and becomes a lawyer just to prove his innocence only to watch him kill himself climbing over a wall a week later is not going to be a hit.
Philip Latcholia
Remind Robert Rodriguez that just because you’re have a blast making a movie with your friends doesn’t make it’s a good movie. (See Machete)
Dick Ward
Lets remind Kevin Smith and Tim Burton while we’re at it!
Shannon Nutt
Too obvious, but I’d replace Sofia Coppola in the Godfather Part III with…well, anyone!
Garrett
Since Adjustment Bureau is based on a Philip K. Dick story, my adjustment is for another Dick adaptation: Total Recall. While I love the film, I have always been unsatisfied with the ending as being too pat. I have always wanted to see Quaid wake up at a Rekall office after saving Mars; it was all a virtual vacation.
Shannon Nutt
Sorry, but the ambiguous ending is better.
Betty Andrews
If I had a time machine (or one of those magic hats) I’d make damn sure to “Adjust” the post-“Sixth Sense” life of M. Night Shyamalan. Maybe just alter his path a little, steering him more towards extreme couponing perhaps. I can’t say I stand alone in feeling that even at his best, his abysmal films cause retinal bleeding. If there is a Bureau out there, they really screwed up giving Mr.Shyamalan free will. He has become a disgrace to film and will be dealt with accordingly. Just think of how much better “The Village” would have been had Uwe Boll directed it. He is, after all, Shyamalan’s ONLY competition. 😉
motorheadache
I would change the ending to Frank Darabont’s adaptation of “The Mist.” It’s a well-made movie up until the ending, which is so over-the-top it almost comes off as comical. It’s like the ultimate “d’oh!” moment. They should have faded out after encountering the enormous creature, driving off into the mist and leaving it open-ended.
Chaz Dumbaugh
Not that this goes in here, but the book does end like that, Darabont got King’s approval for the ending to be changed to what you saw, so either way, King was involved, if you want your ending, go read the book and you will get it 🙂
motorheadache
Or I could just press stop 🙂
But yeah, King’s approval or no, not a fan of the ending. It actually makes me laugh, and I don’t think that was the intention.
And I hadn’t read the book, but had heard that was how it ended. I’d rather the film have followed suit.
Michael Mora
Couldn’t agree more. He kills his family and 2 minutes later he is being rescued. Seemed rushed.
motorheadache
Also, that one horrible line from X-Men. You know what I’m talking about. Where Storm does something really cool, then ruins it by saying something EXTREMELY stupid. Why, oh why did they keep that line in the film? Every time I watch it now I have to cover my ears at that scene and pretend she’s just being a silent badass.
Onslaught
I would probably change the Emperor Palpatine fight vs. Mace Windu in Episode III. It’s an abysmal scene, which ruins an otherwise pretty solid middle, and aside from a few choice scenes (involving Natalie Portman), the movie itself is pretty good. But that scene is awful. First off, the Jedi Masters are killed immediately and they don’t even put up a fight, they let themselves get attacked. Secondly, using Ian McDiarmid and Samuel Jackson instead of stuntmen makes the fight incredibly dull, and the close up shots of their faces make the fight feel incredibly stiff, especially compared to the excellent final lightsaber battle in III.
And finally, the appearance of Anakin and the chopping of the hand (and formation of butthead Palpatine) just makes it worse. The acting is putrid, the choreography is putrid. It was a huge stain on an otherwise, decent film, which made it seem much better given Ep. I and II.
Dick Ward
You’re changing something about Episode III and it isn’t “Noooooooooooooooooo!” I’m not sure how I feel about that :p
Onslaught
I probably would change that too, but honestly, this Palpatine scene was probably just as offensive, and it took up 5 minutes of the movie as opposed to 5 seconds. At least I can laugh at the “NOooooooooooooo” part. I simply cringe at this other.
Chaz Dumbaugh
One movie I can think of off hand is The Matrix Reloaded, I would adjust that whole rave scene right out of the movie, while I understand what they were going for, it completely threw off the whole tone of the film, slow motion undulation coupled with drain plug sex = really weird.
Brian H
I’m surprised no one has mentioned replacing Katie Holmes in Batman Begins. I think Rose Byrne would have been good. She played a young lawyer in Damages…
Douglas C. McKee
Agreed, Katie Holmes was the one weak element of this otherwise great movie. Obviously why she was replaced in the Dark Knight.
Brian H
I think we would all like to see “Game of Death” completed with and by Bruce Lee. Any young actor dying during the production of a movie is tragic. The recent HDD review of the Crow, a movie that I really enjoyed as a kid, highlights this sad state of some productions.
Eric Hulen
Cast a better actress like Charlize Theron as Emma Frost in X-men: First Class. Maybe even Tricia Helfer or Yvonne Strahovski.
Chad Lawless
I’m with Eric. This is TWO MOVIES where January Jones was just wooden: X-Men and Taken (with Liam Neeson). Stop putting her in things where she “acts”…… let’s turn her into a Maxim model instead (or something)….
Eric Hulen
Batman & Robin: Change everything expect George Clonney as Batman and I mean everything!!!
Eric Hulen
Replace Tim Burton with David Fincher as Director of Planet of the Apes. He could’ve make it a great movie with dark sci-fi action and an intellectual core.
Julian
I’m not an American, so I’m just in it for the fame (or the honourable mention).
Back to the Future is my favourite movies. Both sequels are excellent, but I wish Crispin Glover had not been greedy. I wonder how George McFly’s story would have continued. Zemeckis and Gale stated that they decided to kill off the character in the alternate 1985, so they would not have to replace Glover (save for a few wide angles, obscure shots etc).
So, I would like to adjust the BttF-sequels to see George McFly’s story as intended.
lordbowler
One thing I’d change is in all copies of Star Wars (Episode IV):
“Han shoots Greedo First!”.
Of course, this was how it was originally before Lucas altered history, so this may not apply to the contest since its more of a restoration than a change to an existing movie.
lordbowler
A better example of a change I would make to an existing movie:
I would have B.A. whistle the theme of The A-Team TV Show in the A-Team Movie in the window washer scene!
They had the whistled theme in the Fox Movie Channel promo which de-constructed this scene, but the theme (audio) was cut from the film.
Jane Morgan
‘Live Free Or Die Hard,’ written by Shane Black, directed by Michael Mann, Rated R.
RollTide1017
The casting of Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace. Just more proof with how out of touch Lucas is when Haley Joel Osment auditions for the part but you pic Jake Lloyd instead.
triguous
Let’s not forget about Michael Angarano (The Art of Getting By, Ceremony). He was one of the three finalists.
RollTide1017
Sticking with the prequels, I’d replace Natalie Portman as well. I have no problem with Portman as an actor, she has done some great work but, see seemed to grow tired of her role in Star Wars pretty quickly. Her performance in parts Episode II and all of Episode III seemed mailed in, like she didn’t want to even be there. I don’t know who you replace her with but, there has to be someone out there who would actually enjoy being in the series.
RollTide1017
For my last entry, I’m going to go with removing Hans Zimmer from the composing team on Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and the upcoming Dark Knight Rises. I love film scores, been collecting them for almost 20 years now but, I’m growing sick and tired of the Zimmer style with each passing year. I love some of Zimmer’s early work, but he has lost his luster IMO. I know the kiddies like is high tempo upbeat scores but, I miss having true heroic themes in comic book movies. Zimmer use to write good themes for characters and movies in his early days now it is more noise than music IMO.
I say remove him and give full reign to James Newton Howard. I’m a Howard fan and he can right beautiful themes, in fact, the moments he composed for the Batman films are far better than the pure Zimmer moments IMO. I would have loved to see what he would have done with the new Batman series if he was the only composer.
Shannon Nutt
Another one hit me…while there are many changes I’d make to SUPERMAN RETURNS, the love child has GOT TO GO!
Nathan Halstead
if i could change one thing in a movie it would be to take the two-face story out of the dark knight (or save it until the very end allowing you to have him in the next movie). i think that this is a great movie and aaron eckhart was great as harvey dent. i would have liked to see what he could do if he was given more screentime as two-face.