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Post by AD on Jun 30, 2011 23:18:05 GMT -5
This month, in honor of the summer movie season, we celebrate the film industry’s lack of originality. Watch any movie that is a remake of a previously produced picture and review it by the end of the month.OR Watch any original movie that has since been remade and review it by the end of the month.You get bonus points if you watch the original and the remake and compare and contrast the two. Also, just to cover all our bases, it’s fine to include “reboots” of existing movie franchises (such as Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies) if you wish to do so. Re-adaptations of books (novels, plays, poems, etc.) previously adapted into films also count as remakes. For a starting point, check out the best reviewed remakes of the past 50 years (according to rottentomatoes.com). Finally, the MMC has a new feature this month, so VOTE IN THE POLL if you want a say in next month’s viewing criteria.
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Post by zee on Jul 1, 2011 10:07:53 GMT -5
Great topic, will definitely chip in this month.
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Post by AD on Jul 3, 2011 1:06:38 GMT -5
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Philip Kaufman, 1978) Netflix description: The brilliance of Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers is that it seems to remain relevant in every socio-political climate we encounter. From the commies in the 1950’s to the terrorists in the 21st century, we Americans seem to always be terrified that some evil force is going to destroy our way of life. So I guess it’s no surprise that filmmakers have mined this material on a number of different occasions over the years. Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version of the tale is filled with a healthy dose of post-Watergate paranoia. It has more in common with the popular conspiracy thrillers of the time, like The Conversation or The Parallax View, than it does with other sci-fi movies of the era ( Star Wars, for example). The promotional tagline for the movie was “Watch out! They get you while you’re sleeping!” That pretty much sums up the metaphor by itself. “We have to stay awake,” as the Donald Sutherland character shouts on a number of occasions. The characters in the film have to literally stay awake to avoid becoming pod people. What we as the audience take away is that the Richard Nixons of the world can’t form conspiracies and seize absolute power as long as we stay alert to their activities. Not exactly subtle, but hey, it’s a sci-fi/horror film. Anything going on beneath the standard thrills and chills of the genre is an added bonus. Another interesting aspect of the film is how they used plants as the vehicles for spreading the “body snatching” parasites. This relates to all those kooky theories going around in the seventies about how plants had personalities and they needed to be stimulated by music and interaction with humans in order to grow properly. But it also makes this film a precursor to all the global-warming-inspired eco-horror movies being made these days. It’s been too long since I’ve seen the 1956 Don Seigel film of the same title for me to make any intelligent comparisons between the two versions. I’ve never seen the 1993 Abel Ferrara film Body Snatchers, so I obviously won’t be going there. I think it goes without saying the this film is vastly superior to the most recent reworking ( The Invasion, starring Nicole Kidman). Kaufman’s film is often cited as the best film adaptation of Finney’s book, and given how much I enjoyed it I’d say there’s probably a good reason for such acclaim.
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Post by RyanGoslingFan99 on Jul 7, 2011 10:00:35 GMT -5
DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) If you ever watched a zombie movie after 1968 chances are that it was influenced by George Romero's style of zombie films. There were zombie films before Romero's Night of the Living Dead but his took the genre to a new level and even created it's own sub-genre of films. Dawn of the Dead (1978) is the best zombie film he ever made, it shocked a generation of movie goers ( and still is) not only because of it's violence but also it's through it's social commentary. Just like the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead (2004) gave the rotting corpse of the zombie genre a breath of fresh air. It was very slick and hip. It takes away much of the social commentary in favor of more action driven sequences which worked surprisingly well. It really depends on the viewer and what he prefers his movies to have. The original Dawn of the Dead focused on it's story and characters and the choices they had to make in their situations, while the remake of Dawn of the Dead gives us plenty of action and focuses more on knee jerk reactions than thought out plot points. I would personally go with the original not "its better cause it's the original" argument but because the first time I sat down to watch this film, I was utterly amazed and breathless. I can't say the same about the remake, it's not that it was a bad film at all it is actually pretty decent. It's just that the remake didn't have quite the same impact as the original did. You will not be disappointed in either film but you should really go out of your way to watch the original first simply because it's a classic. -side note I recently went back to watch both films since they air them on tv just about every other day. The original was alittle more slow than I remembered it but still had quite the impact. While the remake felt kinda corny and wasn't as entertaining the first few times I watched it. 2004 Wraku thought the Dawn of the Dead remake was truly great film-making while 2011 Wraku thought it was just...meh.
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