Chronicles of Narnia: a two hour commercial for the Noble Collection?

[wednes]

Dude, does anybody know why Comedy Central was running so late tonight? And who was that kid they showed at the end who died. He was awfully young. Also, I am again amused at how Howard Stern always fakes nice when he is not surrounded by legions of his ridiculous followers.
Haven't been watching my programs very much lately. I've just been so damn busy. I know...too busy for television? It's absurd. I don't even know if L&O SVU was new or not.

H and I saw Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe on Monday. I was amazed at how much I like it. It was dead on with the book, and done in a manner that is authentic and entertaining, but still family appropriate. The big battle was quite fierce, but didn't have any blood. Good stuff. All of the kids were good, the animals looked much bettr than I expected. Mr Tumnus was really fucking HOT.
The White Witch was totally amazing. I'd love to know what kind of sword fighting style she was using, because she was BAD.ASS. H also loved the movie, and put it in his top 5 films of all time, along with Sin City, Aliens, and geez...I don't know what the rest are. Anyway, England must be the magic and whimsy capitol of the world. I should drop by sometime.

Plus, I love that crazy screen thing they have on the floor at Showcase. It shows various pictures that react differently when you step on them. So there's a ball you can kick, a koi pond where the water movies and the fish get out of your way, popcorn that pops when you touch it, all kinds of stuff. It's quite mesmerizing. We also got to see Scott Brown from the Madstone. He was wearing a vest and a mighty scowl. Poor chap with his terrible job.

Against my better judgement, I have decided to have a NYE party. It's a pot luck (pun intended) and promises to be lots of fun. H has to work though, so he won't be there. Fie.

I hear King Kong is over 3 hours long. But since it's a Peter Jackson movie, I doubt that anyone will notice until they leave the theatre and check their collective watches. I'm certainly not going to complain about 3 hours of Adrien Brody. Although I must say, I saw him on some magazine cover and he looked all weird and muscley. Ick.

Comments

[pyrafire.livejournal.com]

HA! Scott Brown. I was kind of wondering what had happened to that guy. In a way, I'm disappointed. I had hoped he would have gotten the hell outta dodge by now... No such, huh?

Maybe I'll have to break my boycott of Showcase so that I can go harass him about why he's not in LA by now.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

You should. I wouldn't want to ask him that in front of othr Showcase cronies...but maybe you could do it say, dressed at Corey Haim???

[wednes.livejournal.com]

My God...that's so terrible.

[lachupacabra.livejournal.com]

my mom was telling me about that picture.
as much as i liked that look on the usually
skinny edward norton in american history x,
adrien brody looking like that doesnt sound
appealing to me @ all.
;\

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I agree totally.

[1-woman-army.livejournal.com]

Wasn't King Kong already a movie? This is the generation of remakes. I'm not even 30 and damn if I haven't heard a shitload of remade music from my childhood-teen years, seen 80s fashion come full circle, and watched another Bush get into office, go to war, and fuck shit up.

We need new. Refreshing. Something to prove that we're vitally moving forward.

ok, sorry ....I didn't mean to rant in your journal.


I want to go to a NYE party! Especially a POTluck. That's like a fantasy party, if you ask me ;)

[madush69.livejournal.com]

King Kong has even been re-made once before. 1933 and 1976 were the previous versions. There have also been assorted sequels over the years.

[1-woman-army.livejournal.com]

I know, I was being facetious. If you can't create something new...just remake something classic.

[madush69.livejournal.com]

Wonka, etc.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Right...because Wonka sucked, right?

[madush69.livejournal.com]

No, It was sweet. It was a new take on the idea. Other new versions I've enjoyed include "The Thomas Crown Affair," "Amityville Horror," "Psycho," and even "Alfie." It was not as good as the original, bnecause Michael Caine is cool, but not bad.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

No, It was sweet. It was a new take on the idea.

Not really. I assume you haven't read the book.

[madush69.livejournal.com]

It's on the back of the toilet right now. I'm actually reading "Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator" right now. As for "new take" as a concept, if film B follows closer than film A, then it is a fresh take on the concept. Take the "Lord of The Rings" film trilogy and compare it to the Ralph Bakshi version from 1978. It follows the original books far more closely, but is most definately a fresh take.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I guess I can't see it as a "fresh take" if it's aspiring to be like something that's already decades old.

But YMMV, of course.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Here's what I said to Dave regarding this...

[cmdavi-70.livejournal.com]

It does seem like a good portion of today's movies are retreads, either new versions of old films or movie versions of TV shows. Remakes are nothing new, but it is awfully pervasive these days, and it's getting old for me. I agree we need more fresh ideas.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Remakes often get a bad rap becuase people label them as unoriginal. But many of them are excellent, just victims of expectations.

When a remake is too much like the original, people say it's a copycat. But if it's too different, people say it "butchered" the original. They can't win. If someone tried to make any movie with a giant ape in it that wasn't named after another ape movie already (read: mighty joe young) the comparisons to Kong would be unavoidable. No shark movie in the last 30 years has escaped being compared unfavorably to Jaws. So what should they do? Never make another shark movie? Remake jaws? They can't win.

That said, the themes will probably differ in some ways from the original. But many of the themes of the original Kong will certainly apply to contemporary audiences. Often, doing something fresh with classic material requires more imagination than spewing out some half assed script.

Keep in mind too, that studios are loathe to fund completely new concepts in film because they don't have a guaranteed audience. American Beauty couldn't get funding for yars after it was written.

[cmdavi-70.livejournal.com]

Points well taken. I don't think any movie can be truly original, and it will likely have been influenced directly or indirectly by something else. Without wanting to get into better and worse examples, I just think as a general trend, I hate to see remakes become the rule and not the exception. American Beauty did eventually find an audience and thrived. Many other filmmaking outsiders have done likewise, and it's always refreshing to see those kinds of risks taken in the face of very possible snubbing in the box office.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I love a fresh, new script as much as the next guy. But I also like classic films being updated (if done well, obviously) so that its message can reach younger generations.

[1-woman-army.livejournal.com]

Yes, something fresh...that's all I'm sayin'.
Thank you for agreeing :)

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I hear you. But here's the thing about Kong:

King Kong is a wonderful, classic american film from 1933. They have tried to do several remakes of it, each one sucking more than the previous.

However, Peter "Heavenly Creatures" Jackson has wanted to do it for years. He says it's the movie that made him want to make films. Of course he couldn't get the funding until after the unimaginable success of LotR's.

[stranger-tales.livejournal.com]

I bitched a little about Kong's three hour plus runtime in my own LJ, which you may have noticed. Then last night I caught a Sci-Fi special on the making of King Kong and saw a lot of what contributes to that lengthy run. It appears that Jackson is going to spend a lot more time with the pre-Skull Island stuff. Denham's trouble with the studio in financing his escapades. Darrow's being put out of her vaudeville job and walking the streets all poor and hungry. That sort of thing. Of course, it also looks as though they'll be spending more time on Skull Island than the original. What I saw of the creatures and the effects, that is a very good thing indeed.

Planning to see for myself at a noon showing today.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I did indeed see your post, which is how I became aware of the running time. My theory on long films is that they are expensive, and the studios dont' let them run long unless thre is a good reason. Such will undoubtedly be the case here.

HULK, is a good example of this. The longer running time led me to beleive that it would be a well plotted film and not just a green guy jumping around kicking ass for 90 minutes. And it totally met my expectations.

[spiralwitch.livejournal.com]

i agree, the witch using the swords was amazingly kick-ass!

[everythingtold.livejournal.com]

I need to get out more. I never get to see good movies. Never. I mean, I need to make a list of all the kick-ass movies everyone's seen and get me a video card. Problem is, I rent from the library or Family Video (because they only require a driver's license and a checking account). I doubt half the movies I want to watch will be there. I also need your mailing address so I can send you a Holiday card. I never get to do anything. You know what? My friends here in TOWN don't see me. Next quarter I have 19 credit hours and 20 working hours. It's going to be an interesting quarter. If I get my grades for the quarter today (and they'd BETTER be good) and survive the next two (don't want to jinx myself) I graduate. Then . . . . um . . . I'll have to do something crazy. Definitely.

[madush69.livejournal.com]

If you have the time, getting a few hours work each week at a movie theatre is a great way to keep up on movies. They'll let you in for free once you're an employee.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Right, and between 2 jobs, going to school and raising a son full time, I'm sure Anne wants to run right out and get another job, no?

[madush69.livejournal.com]

I didn't know if she has one or two jobs. I wasn't trying to disrespect.

[slapnticklejr.livejournal.com]

That was last months Mens Health. I thought he looked good. It's lean muscle, not huge man-boob muscle.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

He's too muscley for my taste.