There is a lovely scene representing female adolescence. The beauty takes a swim in the Black Lagoon, and the oogling monster in love swims on his back just below her and out of sight. This is exactly how it is for all girls. They told me.
The rest of it is stock shock schlock (that's a fifties category, I think.) Something is different than us. Although harmless, let's kill it. Monster gets mad, then gets even. White humans prevail. Hooray! We go out and vote for white saviors forevermore, and against them commies in their Black Lagoons. That's how it was in the fifties.
OMG! CFTBL (experienced in 3D) is one of my all time fave movies too! I should get to know her better and give up on J-Date. Is there a G(entile)-Date she could be listed on? It'd be so cool to call John
"Dad" and try to outsqueeze his hand every time we handshake.....
Sorry. Got carried away there. That really is one of my fave movies. I wonder how she feels about "The Loved One"?
So thaaaat's why Riley looked so familiar--thanks! That was driving me so crazy I forgot that I could actually look it up and answer that question for myself.
I foogled with the Google to try to find the link to the lists that The Nicholl Fellowship used to have at their website--its a loooooong list each year of people that I NOW cannot find--all are unknown screenwriters trying to break in--who have written something that was read by contest officials who later said, "Yeah, I think this should be a movie," and the script went on to the next qualifying round. There are HUNDREDS every year, people. Why Ho'wood doesn't tap into this potential is ridiculous. Maybe one lucky one per year gets an indie production deal, but most are just gathering dust on somebody's hard drive. Most of it seems to be an art of futility--people proving their chops so they can be HIRED to write the remake.
I think Hollywood will have to start remaking films that were just terrible in their original form to really turn off the audience. Really, can you see it, Kate Hudson and Freddie Prinze Jr. starring in Bird on a Wire? Yah. By that point people will start bringing flamethrowers to movie openings. Perhaps then the remake genre will run its course.
Also, screw remakes. Just give me some decent prequels or sequels and we can call it even...new material + nostalgia = potential win.
If Hollywood makes nothing but bland crap, can people really be blamed for going to the bland crap they kind of know already? Oh, and since they keep packaging movies deceptively, making even the good ones seem like bland crap, how are we even supposed to know which ones are going to be good? Remember how the previews made Charlie Bartlett look like American Pie? Turned out to be a decent little coming-of-age movie. Since most people didn't see it, to them it might as well have been Porky's 9: The Reckoning.
broadway suffers the same illness... good luck finding a musical that's not based on a movie, disney character, or pop songs.
and not to forget the legacy of rap, where the reuse and 'theft' of other musician's original material created a new pop empire. where would 'white lines' be without 'cavern', 'you can't touch this' without 'superfreak'... or the p. diity empire without every other artist's work you can imagine....
does this make every cover song, every cover band a hack too?
i think this stems from producers/directors/studios wanting the "safe thing" too. it's easier to sell the idea based on a 'proven track record' than nothing at all. and now... you can sell a remake by the fact that remakes have a track record.
@Paul Duane: I would like to add Werner Herzog's Nosferatu and Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life, Both of which are fairly brilliant (and made by self-respecting artists).
@The Curse of Millhaven: Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (let's pretend The Invasion never happened, to say nothing of The Faculty)
09/23/09
09/22/09
The rest of it is stock shock schlock (that's a fifties category, I think.) Something is different than us. Although harmless, let's kill it. Monster gets mad, then gets even. White humans prevail. Hooray! We go out and vote for white saviors forevermore, and against them commies in their Black Lagoons. That's how it was in the fifties.
09/22/09
"Dad" and try to outsqueeze his hand every time we handshake.....
Sorry. Got carried away there. That really is one of my fave movies. I wonder how she feels about "The Loved One"?
09/22/09
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09/09/09
Thank Christ I wasn't the only one bothered by this. Pick a race and stick to it, bitch.
09/08/09
09/08/09
Also, screw remakes. Just give me some decent prequels or sequels and we can call it even...new material + nostalgia = potential win.
09/08/09
09/08/09
and not to forget the legacy of rap, where the reuse and 'theft' of other musician's original material created a new pop empire. where would 'white lines' be without 'cavern', 'you can't touch this' without 'superfreak'... or the p. diity empire without every other artist's work you can imagine....
does this make every cover song, every cover band a hack too?
i think this stems from producers/directors/studios wanting the "safe thing" too. it's easier to sell the idea based on a 'proven track record' than nothing at all. and now... you can sell a remake by the fact that remakes have a track record.
09/08/09
09/08/09
Four words for you: John Carpenter's The Thing. Maybe Zombie is no Carpenter but Carpenter was rubbished for remaking Howard Hawks, too.
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09/08/09
I'm sure if given enough time, we could find a way to blame this on George Lucas.