Films seen so far this year: 445
Films seen this week: The Girl in the Park, Fine, Totally Fine, Stuck, Choking Man, Milk, Flame and Citron, I.O.U.S.A., Conversations with my Gardener, Rivals
A plea for more rereleases, not more remakes
Following a massively successful run of classic double-bills (I am still kicking myself for missing Ghostbusters), London's Prince Charles Cinema recently announced a second double-bill season for next year that includes things like Robocop + Terminator, The Thing + American Werewolf in London and The Goonies + The Lost Boys. This got me to wondering just how much money these movies would make if you rereleased films properly. In fact, every time a new remake is announced (for example, Tony Scott's upcoming remake of The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3), I often wonder whether re-releasing the original might not have been more profitable. Did Poseidon make as much money as The Poseidon Adventure? I understand the need to remake foreign horror movies for the American market (see all the Japanese horror remakes or this Friday's [REC] remake, Quarantine) but I don't see the wisdom in remaking perfectly good American movies at all. Hopefully more cinemas around the country will follow in the footsteps of the Prince Charles, because it seems there's a huge number of nostalgia-fuelled people who want to see their childhood favourites on the big screen again.
Films I'm Looking Forward To: Twilight
Certain sections of fandom are already treating Twilight like Harry Potter-in-waiting. Based on the novels by Stephanie Meyer, the film stars Kristen Stewart as Bella, a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire, played by Robert Pattinson. Given that Potter has been put back to next year, the film is well placed to pick up a new franchise-friendly crowd when it opens on December 19th. I'm looking forward to it, although the trailer does look as if it could go either way. Still, vampires seem to be staging something of a comeback, what with this and my current new favourite TV show, HBO's True Blood (also based on a series of vamp-lit novels). One thing giving me hope about Twilight is that it's directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown), who seems to know a thing or two about what appeals to teenagers, but isn't afraid of giving her films a harder edge.
Top 10 Films On Release This Week (as recommended by me):
Two new entries this week, with German drama The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar this year) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Kevin Smith's best film in a LONG time) both making it into the top ten. This is also quite likely to be the last week for OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, so see it now while you still can. (I liked it so much I saw it twice and that hardly ever happens.)
1. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
2. I've Loved You So Long
3. Hunger
4. Quantum of Solace
5. The Baader Meinhof Complex
6. Of Time and the City
7. Mamma Mia
8. Gomorrah
9. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
10. W.
DVD of the Week: My Name Is Earl Season 3 (four discs, out now, RRP £24.99)
This week's DVD of the Week is the season 3 box set of My Name Is Earl, for which View was granted an exclusive interview with Nadine Velazquez, who plays Catalina. If you've never seen the show, it stars Jason Lee as Camden County's Earl, a former petty criminal who's hit by a car and has an epiphany about karma ("If you do bad things, bad things happen"), so he makes a list of every bad thing he's ever done and decides to make amends. The third season finds the writers struggling with some new ideas, so Earl spends the first half of the season in prison (brilliant) and the second half of the season in a coma (not so brilliant), with his head replaying everything like a traditional laugh-track sitcom. Sadly, the extras aren't brilliant: there's a mildly amusing gag reel, a handful of deleted scenes (sometimes only one per disc), a decent featurette on creating the supporting cast and a twenty minute (!) commentary from Mr Turtle (a character's pet turtle that is essentially a single joke stretched over 20 minutes.