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Entries in Remakes (46)

New Red Band Trailer for 'Death Race' Adds Profanity, Keeps Inanity

There are times I wish I didn't watch so many trailers. For obvious reasons, they influence your opinion on something you haven't seen, and it creates a little judgment where you should really keep an open mind until you sit down in a theater for two hours and let the whole thing unfold.

It works both ways: Some movies are helped by their trailers (just watch the new Red Band piece o' marketing for Righteous Kill), and others are hurt by them. That brings us to Death Race, which I did not have high hopes for, anyway. Having seen the original from the 1970s, I knew there was a pretty low ceiling on this to begin with. Granted, it's not a literal remake, but more of a new version of the same basic story.

But at least the original played up the camp aspect a little bit. And that's the problem with watching trailers sometimes: This Death Race looks very serious. Too serious for its own good. Anyway, I wasn't even going to show you the new Red Band trailer, but there's a bit of Joan Allen dialogue at the end that makes it worth watching. If I ever made ringtones, I'd totally use that clip. That two seconds of dialogue is the only thing that makes this worth watching is the real problem, however.

Death Race gets the Jason Statham stamp of quality (make of that what you will), and it opens next week.

Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2008 at 02:30PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , | Comments2 Comments

New Clip Shows 'Death Race' May Be Stuck in Neutral

IGN has a brand new unrated clip from Death Race, and my, they've gotta be proud. This two-minute chunk of the Paul W.S. Anderson remake of Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 kind of confirms what we've all been fearing, namely that this might absolutely blow.

Unlike most movie critics, I actually do think there is some entertainment value in some of what "The Other Paul Anderson" does (OK, you got me: Just the first Resident Evil movie), because when you make video game movies, it benefits you to be campy. It would figure that, when remaking a Roger Corman movie that featured David Carradine in a junkyard Darth Vader outfit, you'd want that to be campy, too. However, Anderson has gone really gritty for his remake, as if this sort of race would one day sanctioned and televised for real. I realize it's just one clip, but this just doesn't look like it's any fun.

If you go back to last August, Joan Allen played a central role in a film with terrific action scenes. Even when taken out of context, the action in The Bourne Ultimatum is pulse-quickening stuff. The same cannot be said for this parade of fast cars, mindless explosions, and a little bit of death. It's predictable, drenched in a pointless amount of contrast, and loud.

The clip's best moment is the unintentional laugh it generates when Joan Allen says, in all seriousness, "Release the Dreadnought." Sadly, there's well over two minutes of this clip left after that.

Death Race helps wind down summer on Friday, August 22nd.

Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 01:01AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , | Comments5 Comments

New Photos from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'

earthstoodposterold.jpgOf course, in a perfect world, we'd never have remakes or sequels. We'd have one movie that told the whole story perfectly, leaving no questions unanswered, no stones unturned, and there would never be a reason to revisit that idea again because the film is timeless and untouchable.

It doesn't work that way, and we're "treated" to remakes and sequels all the time. Often, these are lousy, although I don't think you could survey the entire landscape of unoriginal ideas and determine that the majority are without their merits. It gets a little tricky when filmmakers want to add something to the legacy of a classic film, say, for example, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

For a lot of us, myself included, it's one of the first great alien invasion movies and an important piece of science-fiction and pop culture. But I don't think anyone can say that it's not outdated. After all, it was released in 1951.

Many contemporary audiences, who might still find quite a bit to like about the basic story, would never be able to sit through the Robert Wise version, even though it informed many, many sci-fi movies that followed it.

The longer people go without seeing it, the less it will mean years from now. So we have two options moving forward: Either let The Day the Earth Stood Still slip further and further into the irrelevance or introduce it a new audience by offering a modern version. And so here we are, a few months away from the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

IGN has some great new photos from the film, and as a service to them, we won't share all of them here. Please check out the source to see them all. But this movie looks pretty damn ominous, if you ask me. Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, the visitor from another planet. The film co-stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, John Cleese, Kathy Bates, and Jaden Smith.

The Day the Earth Stood Still invades on December 12th.

Posted on Friday, August 8, 2008 at 12:52PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , | Comments15 Comments

WTF? Natalie Portman to Star in 'Suspiria' Remake?

This is one of those stories you want so badly to believe that you kind of think your way out of believing it. Surely, if there's going to be an American remake of Dario Argento's Suspiria - one of the few legitimate pieces of art that wears the horror label - the guy directing it wouldn't be the dude from Pineapple Express, right? And if the dude from Pineapple Express is directing it, then surely he wouldn't be able to grab a star like Natalie Portman, right?

While I still don't entirely believe it, all of those things are reportedly coming together, according to one source. Either way, it gives us a great excuse to post a hot picture of Natalie Portman. Never pass up that opportunity...

Bloody Disgusting has reported and apparently re-confirmed today that David Gordon Green will direct Suspiria and that Portman's production company, Handsome Charlie Films, is producing, and that the Oscar nominee will star in the remake, as well.

In addition to being seriously twisted and just about as scary as a horror movie has ever been, Suspiria is also psychologically complex. I would guess Portman would play the Suzy Bannion character, an American dancer who travels to a European ballet school and quickly learns it's much, much different than that. Visually, the original film is jarring, kind of magnificent in its own way, and definitely gruesome. Can that be achieved again? Maybe.

We built up Alexandre Aja the other day talking about Mirrors, and to me, he's the perfect candidate to remake Suspiria. I thought so while I was watching High Tension for the first time. I'm not sure exactly what David Gordon Green brings to the project that it needs. His Undertow is interesting; maybe the producers saw something there that they like for this remake. But even his involvement isn't as surprising as Natalie Portman's. Would you ever think she'd do a horror remake, particularly this one? I'm still unconvinced of this story's veracity, but it's such an unusual collection of names, it's worth hearing about at the very least.

It's definitely a development we're going to keep our eye on. Bloody Disgusting reports that Portman's people say nothing has been confirmed or signed yet, but the rumor here is much more interesting than the denial.

Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 04:13PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , | Comments3 Comments

QT Casting News: Eli Roth for 'Bastards,' Britney for 'Faster Pussycat'?

In the world of Quentin Tarantino, it's never safe to run with an assumption. That's the reason we didn't even bother reporting on the rumor that QT wanted Leonardo DiCaprio for his upcoming war movie, Inglorious Bastards. Turns out, Leo won't be involved, so that saved us a cozy 30 minutes of writing. However, we did talk about the rumors that Brad Pitt would join the cast; apparently, they're still in negotiations, although I still have my doubts, based on Pitt's schedule and when Tarantino wants to shoot the film.

We do have Bastards casting news, though. It's been officially announced that torture porn director Eli Roth will play Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, a Jewish, bat swinging Nazi hunter. That should tie in nicely with Roth's obvious and untamed thirst for seeing blood in movies.

Now I get to ask a question you should never ask about a big, tough war movie directed by one of the most influential directors of his generation: Can this guy act?

Probably not. Oh, sure, he's been in movies, but he's never been a major player. The trouble is, I can think of talented actors who'd be much better for this role, if only because I know they can act. Now, I won't say this is a mistake, because Tarantino has made a name for himself in part because he makes unpredictable casting decisions. I'll just say it will very likely be a mistake. How's that?

But there's more room on the Tarantino casting couch today. The Telegraph reports that QT wants Britney Spears to star in his upcoming remake of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! She'd play Varla, a lesbian stripper who kills a guy and kidnaps his girlfriend, then has some lesbo sex. As you can see from the picture, she's believable in a fit of rage.

Again I ask, can she act? No, and we've seen plenty of evidence of it. Even her guest starring role on How I Met Your Mother was laughable (although everyone over at Access Hollywood thought she was so cute!)

Plus, think of all the free publicity. Hell, he should just cast Lohan and Paris Hilton to round out the cast.

Of course, you could argue that it matters less with Faster Pussycat! because it has a distinctive camp quality. There are movies that are so bad they're good, after all, and plenty of people would argue that Russ Meyer kind of wanted that out of his movies, anyway.

It's a different story with Inglorious Bastards, or else why would Tarantino blab about Leo DiCaprio, and why won't the Brad Pitt rumors go away? I will say, though, that if the father of the year woke up this morning to change a houseful of diapers and saw that one of his potential co-stars was the director of Hostel, he might have some question how serious QT is about the project.

Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 11:18AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , , | Comments4 Comments
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