My roommate and I were there on opening night to watch Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay in theaters. The movie, packed full of racist jokes and pokes at stereotypes (primarily against Indians/Arabs/Asians, with a few black jokes sprinkled in as well), was pretty funny, especially since the theater was 75% Indians and Asians, or at least Indian-Americans and Asian-Americans. It wasn’t as good as the original, but, then again, how it could it be? (read my full Harold and Kumar 2 movie review)

I received a box full of the unrated DVDs yesterday (well, I had to drive out to a very inconvenient FedEx location to get them, as FedEx hasn’t figured out that some of us work during the day, aren’t at home to sign for our packages, and don’t like to put their pickup locations in places where people actually live), and so my roommate and I just had to pop in the movie for a second round.

It was still pretty funny, though not as funny as watching with a bunch of people who found it especially funny considering that they had heard variants of the jokes directed at them in real life. Harold and Kumar 2 doesn’t have the repeat value of White Castle, but that’s OK. It’s still pretty entertaining. The cyclops scene is still pretty classic.

Unfortunately, the Unrated Edition DVD is a scam. Granted, it includes the theatrical version as well, but what the hell is the difference? There are six minutes of added footage, but nothing remarkably different. There’s a below-the-waist shot that my roommate claims wasn’t in the theatrical version, but I’m not so sure. Either way, there is nothing particularly “unrated” about it.

What’s worse? There are no special features. I mean none. Other than a few movie previews, there are no bloopers, deleted scenes and so on and so forth. Clearly, New Line (Warner Brothers) is setting up for a two-disc special edition, but come on. What a waste of a DVD.

The Friday box office results for August 1, 2008 are in, and it’s going to be a close one for box office crown. We have two films vying for first place this weekend: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the unwanted sequel starring Brenden Fraser, and the very-much-wanted sequel and box office behemoth The Dark Knight.

The Mummy 3 won the Friday battle, raking in $15.5 million, but it may not win the war. The Dark Knight dropped 45% from last weekend – still pretty damn good for a blockbuster of its size – to add another $12.8 million to its cume. Nevertheless, those smart analysts over at  Box Office Prophets except, with some uncertainty, that the Batman movie may come out on top when final box office numbers are counted. For starters, The Mummy 3 may be a little bit frontloaded – whereas The Dark Knight has proven that people want to see it consistently any day of the week. At the very least, if it comes down to the wire, I could see Universal hedging the numbers a bit so that when the weekend box office estimates come out, The Mummy 3 is sitting on top.

Irregardless, this is a win for Universal. After the disaster that was The Mummy 2 (granted, it made a ton of money), Universal has to be pleased with a $40+ million opening weekend. While it didn’t look as bad as The Mummy Returns, the presence of yetis and poorly designed dragons – as well as God-awful reviews – had the average moviegoer thinking that this was a down-and-out release. I had pretty much forgotten that this was part of a very successful movie franchise, and that it’s still summer – a good amount of money can still be made.

As for The Dark Knight, the good news is that by the end of the weekend it will be closing in on $400 million, the fastest movie to do so. The bad news is that now, it is looking less and less likely that it will knock Titanic off its throne.

Kevin Costner’s Swing Vote, by the way, flopped with only $1.9 million on Friday, begging for a $5-6 million weekend. I feel bad for Costner, as I really want him to get a hit one of these days. That being said, it was clear from the beginning that Swing Vote was not going to be that comeback he so desperately needs.

The Associated Press is reporting that due to Shia LaBeouf’s recent stint with the law – and another car – the blockbuster sequel Transformers 2 may actually write his injury into the script. LaBeouf’s truck was struck a few days ago while taking a left turn, causing him and the others in the car – including fellow Transformers 2 star Isabel Lucas – to be transported to the hospital. LaBeouf’s hand was “crushed,” according to his lawyer.

With at least two fingers out of commission, the possibility has arisen that Transformers 2 – which is currently in filming – may need to be modified. On “Access Hollywood,” director Michael Bay mentioned that the injury might be serious enough to modify the screenplay. Granted, there’s no better movie to work in a hand injury than this movie – or any Michael Bay movie for that matter. Just have Optimus Prime step on his hand in the heat of battle, and we’re good to go.

While the other driver has been cited as “at fault,” there are reports that LaBeouf was drunk at the time of the incident. Whether he was or not, this is the latest in a series of scrapes the actor has gotten into. He might want to think about cleaning up his act before he becomes a paparazzi dream for all the wrong reasons.

In other news, I found out that his name is pronounced “LeBuff” not “LeBoof” today.