Happy Thanksgiving!

So it's Thanksgiving day and I’m back with another entry! Before I get started with my reviews of the films of late summer and fall 2005, I’d like to briefly mention an older movie that I finally got around to watching – School of Rock. This was a movie that I was pretty sure I was going to like (I’ve always liked Jack Black – can't wait to see him in King Kong), but I have to say, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. This movie was just really, really cool! It was fun and light-hearted, and filled with rock music. What more can you ask from a movie? If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do. And if you have seen it – well then, go see it again!! It’s just that good!

And now, on with the reviews for this year. After the tragic and painful weekend that brought us War of the Worlds, the next weekend brought with it two more movies that I’d really been looking forward to seeing (and thank God neither one was the horrid disappointment that War of the Worlds was) – Fantastic Four, and the US remake of Dark Water starring Jennifer Connelly. Let’s start with Fantastic Four. This movie I loved! It was everything a good summer comic book blockbuster should be – it was action-packed, it had some really good special effects, it actually had characters you could identify with and root for, it had a great bad guy, the works. Admittedly, it’s not what you’d call a Best Picture nominee (but what summer blockbuster is?), and I know a few people that thought it was kind of silly, but I loved it. I think what most drew me into the movie was the characters. While they did update their origins (which is to be expected), and they did mess with Dr. Doom’s origin, and gave him powers I don’t believe he ever had in the comic book, they still did a fantastic job (pardon the pun) in getting the personalities of the characters right. And to me, that’s what counts more than anything in a good comic book movie.

Bottom line, you can’t keep the story perfectly true to the source material. It just isn’t possible. You’ve got decades worth of stories that you’re trying to condense into a 2-hour movie. You’re just not going to do it. Not to mention that science has evolved enough since these comics first came out that you have to update them to make the movie more believable, and not appear dated (hence Peter Parker gets bitten by a genetically enhanced spider as opposed to a radioactive spider, for example). So the goal instead should be to stay true to the essence of the original stories, and more importantly, to stay true to the personalities of the characters. Fantastic Four does a wonderful job of this, and for me that more than anything made it a great movie (this is the same thing that made both the Spider-man and X-Men franchises so great, and was partly why I was somewhat disappointed with Daredevil). The critics didn’t like Fantastic Four, naturally, but what do they know? Admittedly, it wasn't quite as good as some of the earlier superhero franchises that are out, but considering how incredibly amazing those movies are, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Let's face it– it's going to take quite the movie to be in the same league as the Spider-man and X-Men films, but just because this doesn't quite reach that level doesn't mean that it's not a really good movie.

It’s a toss up for me as to which I preferred more this year, Fantastic Four or Batman Begins (I like the fact that Batman Begins was a darker, more serious movie, but being a really, really big fan of the Batman comics (and not much of a Fantastic Four reader), I’m also a lot more picky about how the movie versions for it are done), but they were both definitely great movies worth seeing again. I haven’t picked up Batman Begins yet on DVD (mainly because the initial DVD release was a completely no frills rental release version that I refuse to pay money for, especially when it’s almost a certainty that at some point they’ll release a special edition filled with all kinds of extras), but once a special edition version is released, I almost certainly will.

Our other beginning of July release was the remake of Dark Water. Now first I have to say that I have the original Japanese version of Dark Water on DVD and I absolutely loved it (it is directed by Hideo Nakata, director of the original Ringu films, as well as The Ring Two in the US), so the remake was going to have to be pretty damned spectacular for me to enjoy it more than the original. Sadly, it wasn’t. Which isn’t to say that it was a bad movie, because it wasn’t. It very much built up the tension well (although not as well as the original), and I think Jennifer Connelly did a great job with the character. I think you really get to know the characters well, and take an active interest in what’s happening to them as the movie plays out. The big problem, though, is with the ending. The original film’s ending completely hits you out of the blue and really throws you for a loop. And the epilogue at the end is beautiful and touching and wonderfully handled. The ending to the remake, however, just feels rushed and it doesn’t surprise you at all (even if you haven’t seen the original). And let’s face it, when it comes right down to it, a movie is all about the ending. You can have a great movie all the way through, but if the ending falls flat, that’s the biggest thing the audience is going to take away with them when they leave the theater. And that’s what happened to me when I saw Dark Water.

The critics actually gave it some pretty good reviews, especially for a horror movie, which I like, and I have to agree with. If I hadn’t seen the original, I’d probably have rated the remake a little bit higher. But having seen both versions, I’d have to say 2 1/2 stars for the remake, and 4 1/2 stars for the original (if you like Japanese suspense/horror movies at all, I’d highly recommend seeing the original).

The following weekend brought us two of the absolute best movies of the summer – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Wedding Crashers. It was pretty much a given that Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was going to be a great movie – when you combine the talents of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp with such a wonderful, classic story, you know you can expect great cinema (then again, a lot of people figured that would be the case with this year’s Spielberg/Cruise team-up, and look at how THAT turned out. Luckily such was NOT the case here). I would have to rate this movie as easily 3rd best for the year so far (after Serenity and Sin City). And it came really, really close to tying with Sin City for 2nd place. Let’s start with what was easily the best part of the movie – Johnny Depp. The man is brilliant. That’s all there is to it. He completely inhabits the character (at times you have to remind yourself that it is actually Johnny Depp that you’re watching). And unlike Gene Wilder’s happy-go-lucky Willy Wonka from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Depp very much presents us with a character that you can easily believe has spent most of his life by himself locked away from the rest of the world. The way in which he interacts with the children and their parents is inspired.

The story here is much closer to the book, and anyone expecting the original movie is likely to be highly disappointed. But for me, this version is leaps and bounds better. About the only thing I’d say I preferred with the original (and don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the first one and think it’s a great movie; the new one is just much better) is the oompa loompa songs. In the new movie they tried to update the songs and make each one a different style of modern music, which isn’t necessarily bad, but the originals were just such timeless little tunes that I don’t think you can really improve upon them. But other than that, I don’t think there’s anything bad I can say about this movie. And it’s finally out on DVD!! I have it in my hot little hands and will hopefully be watching it today! And unlike Batman Begins, they actually released a 2-disk Special Edition at the same time as they release the boring, no-frills version for the Wal-Mart crowd.

Next up we have Wedding Crashers, a surprisingly good (and surprisingly R-rated) comedy. I went to this mainly because I loved Vince Vaughn in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and expected another goofy, fun-filled movie like that. It fits that description, all right, but I didn’t pay attention to the rating, and so was expecting a PG-13 film (since that's become the rating of choice for movies these days to try and attract the widest audience). So when the first topless women show up early in the movie, I was very surprised (pleasantly so, mind you, but still surprised). Of course, that also made me initially nervous, because once I realized what it was rated, I halfway expected it to turn into a gross out comedy along the lines of the American Pie films (not that I have anything against those sorts of movies, per se, but some of the gross “humor” in those sorts of movies I can do without). Luckily this is not what you get with Wedding Crashers. It is much more like the old cheesy sex comedies of the 80s, that were goofy and funny and nudity filled and politically incorrect without being juvenile and disgusting and trying their best to push the boundaries of good taste like most R-rated comedies these days are. This is the sort of R-rated comedy that I’d love to see more of. And considering that it was a very solid hit at the box office (especially considering it’s rating), we can only hope that more movies of this type will follow.

Well, that’s probably enough for today’s entry. This puts me halfway through July. Next entry we’ll finish July up and maybe move into August (depending on how many movies are left in July that are worth commenting on). See you all then! :-)

Oh, one final quick comment. Went to the midnight premiere showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last Thursday. That movie rocked!! It was SO much better than the previous one. I can't wait to see it again. If you haven't seen, what are you waiting for?!?

War of the Worlds -- What a Waste!!

Finally got another post completed! It’s amazing how much time you lose when you take a few trips out of town and then the new TV season starts and you’re enjoying your new DVR WAAAAYYYY too much (I actually think I had something like 70 or 80 hours of TV shows & movies recorded at one point. Admittedly, I'd been out of town for about 4 days, but it was till pretty out of control). But I’m FINALLY getting back to it. I'm caught up on my TV watching, I've watched quite a few of the movies (although lord knows I've got plenty left), and now it's time to get moving forward again with my blog! Of course, the first thing I had to do was go in and clean out some of the comments on my blogs and turn on word verification for comments to deal with the wonderful spammers out there (what a joy!). Those of you actually reading my blog on occasion should please post comments on now and then, just so I know you’re out there. Or not. Hell, I’ve been talking to myself for years, so why change now? ;-P

So two weeks went by after Batman Begins before I saw another movie at the theater. In the intervening period, 4 movies came out that I didn’t get around to seeing: The Perfect Man, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Bewitched, and George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead. Of those, there was only one that I actually had any interest in seeing at all (and if you guessed anything other than the last one, you obviously haven’t been paying much attention to my previous blog entries). It’s one I still want to see, but I just never got around to getting to it while it was at the theaters.

So following these came the highly, highly anticipated sci-fi thriller collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise – War of the Worlds. Pretty much a must see for any sci-fi fan, so naturally I made sure I saw it at the theater. Well, I shouldn’t have wasted my money. And I truly wish I could have gotten this review out soon enough to prevent others from wasting their money. If this movie isn’t worst movie of the year so far, I don’t know what is. Hell, this thing even beat out a certain other horribly, horribly disappointing sci-fi film that came out back in May (that I don’t even want to name, or I’ll start going off on it again). That movie at least had some pretty cool space battles in it, even if they were cut way too short so the writer/director could have more boring scenes filled with crappy dialogue (see, there I go). War of the Worlds doesn’t even have THAT going for it!

Believe me, I wanted to like this movie. I tried to like this movie. Really I did. Even after a good friend of mine who managed to see it before I did warned me that it was really disappointing, I still went in with an open mind, hopeful of at least a fun movie, if not an intellectually stirring movie. Even as the movie got more and more progressively dumber and more pointless, STILL I tried my best to focus on the positive elements. Finally about halfway through the movie I was forced to accept that the movie just didn’t have any real redeeming values (okay, so Dakota Fanning gave a wonderful performance like she always does, but she just doesn't add enough to the movie to make it worth seeing). And it just kept getting worse and worse and worse!! So why did I find this to be such an incredible waste of time and money? Where do I start?!

There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the film yet – well, keep reading so you’ll know why NOT to bother seeing it. In movies like this, there’s naturally a certain amount of suspension of disbelief required. That’s a given. So when the aliens send out some sort of EMP blast that shorts out everything electrical, and Tom Cruise is the only person who knows exactly what part to replace in a car’s engine so that he has a working vehicle when no one else does, you just accept that as standard Hollywood nonsense and don't let it bother you. But when he’s running from the aliens as they’re blasting everyone with their disintegration rays, and they zap people on both sides of him but somehow manage to miss just Tom Cruise, that’s pushing believability a little too much for me, especially when it is as incredibly, horribly blatant as it is in this scene. And it gets worse from there (as hard as that is to believe)! Scene after scene, Cruise and his kids somehow manage to barely escape from the aliens while everyone around them is getting killed.

I can more or less put up with this sort of stuff as part of your standard, cheesy Hollywood action blockbuster. Let’s face it, there are a lot of movies out there that do about the same thing, but there’s enough action and explosions and chase scenes and cool effects that you can forgive quite a lot and just enjoy it as a mindless popcorn movie (although War of the Worlds pushes that limit even for me, and I’m pretty forgiving, especially when it’s not just an action movie, but an action sci-fi movie). But then the movie takes this bizarre morbid twist as it attempts to become a sci-fi thriller or something, and we suddenly find our hero and his daughter in a basement with Tim Robbins. I won’t go into the details, but the scene ends with Tom Cruise killing Tim Robbins. It’s just a weird, grim, pointless scene. And the movie steadily loses coherence from there. And of course it has to have the sickly sweet Hollywood happy ending where we find out that the son who disappeared and was presumed dead halfway through the movie is really alive and well and with his mom waiting for Dad and sister to arrive. How lame and predictable and disappointing is that??? You’d think Spielberg of all people would know better than to deliver such a cookie cutter, by-the-numbers ending, predictable Hollywood ending. Come on, let's show at least a little originality!

The only positive thing about this whole mess is that the original story ended in such a way as to pretty much rule out any possibility of a sequel (which is a good thing, because despite being a horrid piece of trash, it made enough at the box office to absolutely guarantee at least a trilogy if it wasn’t for the fact that the original story doesn’t really leave room for anything further). Admittedly there was a TV show a number of years ago that put forth the idea that some of the aliens DID survive by taking over human bodies and plotting the overthrow of Earth from there (and it was actually a surprisingly good show for the couple of seasons it was on), but somehow I don’t see that idea really working as a movie sequel (thank God!). Well, that’s it for this entry. More to follow hopefully before too long (and looking at the next movies, I should actually have some POSITIVE reviews in store for you). I have decided, however, that because of how far behind I am and how much trouble I’ve been having finding time to work on my blog, my next entry will more than likely just be a quick overview of the rest of the summer and fall, just covering the highlights of movies I saw, as opposed to the full reviews that I’ve been doing. That way I can get caught and actually start writing about movies that just came out! :-)

Serenity, of course (being the greatest film to come out so far this year by a long shot), will of course get a nice long, full review so that I can sing the praises of all things Whedon (it’s a damned shame that Serenity is easily 10 times the movie that Episode III is, but only made a fraction of the money at the box office – but I’ll rant further about that when I get to my review). So, until next time, bye for now! :)

Batman Begins!!

I’m back!! Spent two weeks out of state for work (one week in Kentucky, one week in Idaho), and the last two weeks recovering and catching up on things, but now I’m back and ready to work on the blog! So let’s get back to the movie reviews. We’ve reached the middle of June, and our first superhero movie of the summer – Batman Begins. And I have to say, it was well worth the wait. This movie is easily good enough to make one forget about the horrid excuses for Batman movies that were Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. While it’s a tough call for me to say whether it was better than the original Batman movie (but that’s because I’m a big Tim Burton fan, and both Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson gave phenomenal performances in the original), I will say that it was easily as good as the original, and it is a rock solid starting point for reinventing the franchise. The performances were all solid. Christian Bale does a great job as a younger Bruce Wayne, Morgan Freeman is wonderful as Lucius Fox (a Batman character long overdue to be brought into the movies), and Michael Caine is superb as Alfred (although I honestly don’t think any actor, even one as incredibly talented as Mr. Caine, will ever really be able to replace Michael Gough, who so perfectly embodied the character in the previous four films). And let’s not forget Katie Holmes, who is as cute and adorable as ever. Mmmmmm, Katie! ;-)

This movie continues the tradition from the previous films (except the original) of featuring two major Batman villains, in this case Scarecrow and Ra’s Al Ghul, both great Batman villains who haven’t appeared previously in a Batman movie. And I have to say, they got two great actors to play the parts! Of course, historically the Batman movies have done a pretty respectable job of finding the right actor/actress to play the villain; the problem has generally been the parts have been horribly written (it still pisses me off that they found the perfect actor to play The Penguin in Danny DeVito, but then they wrote the character so unbelievably wrong that it completely ruined it. DeVito’s performance was great, but the character that had been written for him was so pathetic and poorly done that he couldn’t really do anything with the character).

Spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the movie yet (and as late as this review is, if that’s the case, shame on you!). The following paragraph gives away one of the secrets of the movie, so if you haven’t seen it yet, skip this paragraph and go on to the next one. You have been warned! So Batman Begins manages to get not one, but two great actors into the role of Ra’s Al Ghul. Liam Neeson plays the real Ra’s Al Ghul (after pretending to be his right-hand man and going by the name of Henri Ducard, which is also how he’s listed in the credits, interestingly enough – probably less confusing that way, I suppose), and for anyone who’s read the comics, he so fits the role, both appearance-wise and performance-wise. He just does a wonderful job all the way around. But let’s face it, he is Liam Neeson, after all; how could you expect anything less? The second actor portraying the villain (the man who is first introduced to Bruce Wayne as Ra’s Al Ghul, who later turns out to be a fake to protect the villain’s real identity) is the wonderfully talented Ken Watanabe, pretty much unrecognizable from his previous role in The Last Samurai. He doesn’t really have much of a part here, but he’s got this great Fu Manchu vibe to him that’s just fun to watch.

The other villain in the film is Dr. Jonathan Crane, better known as The Scarecrow. He is played by Cillian Murphy, a not-so-well-known Irish actor (at least, I’d never heard of him before, although in looking him up I was surprised to discover that he’d previously appeared in Cold Mountain) who does a brilliant job (he’s also great in Wes Craven’s Red Eye, a movie I highly recommend seeing – although who knows when I’ll actually get caught up to the point to do a full review of it). His take on the character (and I’m sure part of that was the way the role was written) was a little different from how I envisioned Scarecrow in the comics (for one thing he’s about a decade younger, but that actually fits considering they’re starting Batman young and new as well), but it was still brilliantly done. I’m thinking this guy is definitely going to be an actor to keep an eye on in the future.

There are two other characters I’d like to mention before I close out this review, just because I’m a big fan of the two actors who play them. The first is Rutger Hauer’s character, who’s listed in the credits simply as Earle. While not exactly a major character in the movie (and not a character from the comics at all that I’m aware of), he does a very good job of playing the amoral, scumbag corporate executive that we all love to hate. And I just have to say that I am so happy to see him showing up in big Hollywood movies again! Combine this with the wonderful job he does in Sin City, and it’s just a great, great year for Rutger Hauer fans! The other notable character is Lt. James Gordon, played to perfection by Gary Oldman. This guy is just such a phenomenal actor!! I can’t say enough about how constantly impressed I am every time I watch the man onscreen. And this movie is no exception. I can’t wait to see how they develop the character through the later movies (and we all know there’s going to be at least one or two sequels); let’s just hope they keep Gary Oldman in the role through all of them.

And finally, a review of this film wouldn't be complete without at least a brief thank you to its director, Christopher Nolan. While he's only directed a handful of films, what he's done so far has been pretty impressive, and I must say he continues that trend with this movie. He does as good a job as a movie can of being true to the spirit of the character and the comics. He is just an all around solid director, and I hope they keep him on for future films.

So in summary, Batman Begins is what the original Batman movies should have been and sadly weren’t – very well written, very tightly directed, and starring an incredible cast that truly inhabit their characters and really bring them to life. If you’re a fan of Batman at all (or even just a fan of well-done comic book movies), you’ll really enjoy this film. If I have any complaint about the film, it’s that it doesn’t really capture the deep-seated, intense obsession that Batman’s war on crime is to him. Anyone who’s read the comics for any length of time knows that deep down, Bruce Wayne is a seriously screwed-up individual in dire need of an incredible amount of therapy. He’s cold and distant from even those close to him to an almost frightening degree, and he’s focused to the point of scary obsessiveness. The problem is, this just isn’t something you can capture in a two hour movie without making the character completely unsympathetic to the audience, which is something you just can’t do if you want the audience to connect with your hero. So while I’ve always found it to be a shame that the movies can never truly capture Batman’s personality, I also understand that it’s a limit of the medium that you’re just not going to get around, so it’s not something I hold against the movie at all.

And with that I will call this entry complete!! Now to proofread it and get it posted so that it can be enjoyed by my fans all across the ‘Net! (okay, so it can be read by those handful of friends of mine that peruse my blog on occasion) :-)

More delays!!

Well after having to reload Windows AGAIN (long story that I don’t want to get into), and getting to reload all of my programs AGAIN, I am finally back online and writing on my blog again. So let’s get right to it!!

So I didn’t get a chance to see The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3-D (it’s hard to believe that the same man who brought us Sin City and Desperado is also the creative force behind this movie and the Spy Kids trilogy). But somehow I’m thinking that’s not the end of the world. I’m sure I’ll get around to seeing it eventually. What I did see, however, was Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and I have to say, damn that’s a great movie!! As a matter of fact, since it’s still at the theater, I might just have to go see it again tomorrow (either that, or I’m going to see Wes Craven’s new flick Red Eye).

Okay, I’ll get it out of the way – Angelina Jolie is amazingly, unbelievably hot! And she has the sexiest, most kissable lips of any woman I’ve ever seen. On top of that, she is an incredibly talented actress. She is wonderful in this movie, as is Brad Pitt (not surprising, though – I have yet to see Brad Pitt in any movie that he wasn’t great in). And the chemistry between them really heats up the screen, and makes the movie that much more enjoyable. Of course this leads a lot of people to want to talk about her breaking up Brad Pitt’s marriage, but personally I really couldn’t care less one way or the other (but I must say I’d take Angelina Jolie over Jennifer Aniston in a heartbeat!).

The first thing I have to say about this movie is that it is surprisingly funny. It’s much more of an action comedy than a straight action movie, something I wasn’t expecting. From the very opening scene with Brad and Angelina talking to a marriage counselor, the movie has you laughing. Another thing the movie does that I like that I haven’t seen very often in the past is that several of the scenes in the trailer are actually different from the scenes that are in the actual movie, so some of the things you expect to see from the trailers end up being a little different when you actually see them in the movie. Which is a nice change of pace when so many movies are ruined by horribly put together trailers that give away entirely too much of the plot of the film (not that the final trailer for this movie doesn't give away a little more than I would have liked, mind you).

The action in this movie is top notch, the comedy really adds to the film, the dialogue – especially the back and forth between Brad and Angelina – is great. And Vince Vaughn is great as always (but I’ve been a fan of his for a while now). If you want to see a funny, thrilling, action-packed, all-around kick ass movie, this one fits the bill!! Definitely among my top 5 movies of the year so far.

A small delay, but we're getting there

So there’s been another little delay in getting caught up with my blog – my new computer was having all kinds of problems with the SATA hard drive I have in it not wanting to run properly. A number of other little issues (and some discussions with a buddy of mine) brought me to the conclusion that I just didn’t have a reliable motherboard. So I ordered a new motherboard, and after a number of delays and problems (including losing just over 3 weeks of e-mail when I re-installed Windows, several days of which I hadn’t even glanced at yet) and the purchase of a second hard drive (that it turned out I didn’t actually need once I figured out what was really going on with the machine, but oh well – it’s only money, I guess, and hey, you just can’t have too much hard disk space, now can you?), I was FINALLY able to get my computer back up and running properly (and running much better than it had been with the previous motherboard – this Abit board rocks!). Of course, once that was done I had to re-install all of my applications and re-setup everything and get things tweaked back to the way I wanted them (which is naturally an ongoing process that I will probably be working on for weeks or months to come, but I’ve got everything pretty much back to where it was with the new machine BEFORE I replaced the motherboard, so now I can continue where I left off with getting the rest of my data moved over from my old machine and the rest of my programs put back in place). But all the key programs – e-mail, web browser, word processor, image viewer, etc. – are all in place now, so I can go about my day-to-day business on the computer just like before with my old machine, and in my spare time (not that I have a lot of that) I can slowly work on getting the less essential programs that I don’t use nearly as much (such as games and the various little utilities and such that I use now and then) put back on.

But enough of that! I’m sure you’ve got plenty of better things to do than read about the day-to-day trials and tribulations that make up my life (and if that is the sort of thing you’re interested in, well there are all sorts of blogs out there filled with just that sort of thing that I’m sure you can track down). No, what you’re here for is movies! Or more specifically, you’re here to read my highly opinionated views on the movies. So let’s get down to it. Now, let me think, where was I. Oh, that’s right, last time out I blasted that less-than-wonderful piece of Pop Culture, Star Wars: Episode III. So now we move on to the following weekend, where it was challenged by two new movies – the Adam Sandler remake of The Longest Yard, and the animated family flick Madagascar. Let’s start with Madagascar. The critics are split on this one, with half of them realizing that it’s a wonderful, fun-filled family movie that’s full of laughs and fun animation, while the other half are idiots who want to critique a kids’ movie as if it were applying for a Best Picture Oscar. If you’re looking for an Academy Award wannabe art house film, well obviously you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re looking for a very funny and enjoyable animated film that adults can enjoy just as much as their kids, then this movie is absolutely worth seeing. Admittedly I’m not a big fan of either David Schwimmer or Ben Stiller, but their voice work here is well done, as is that of all the cast, especially Chris Rock (who, interestly enough, stars in both of this weekend's new movies – and is great in both of them). And the penguins are an absolute riot!! They pretty much steal the whole show (with the exception of a couple of scenes featuring the monkeys, who are fantastically funny).

Before I went and saw The Longest Yard, I went out and bought the original Longest Yard on DVD (it was inexpensive and included a free ticket to see the remake, so I figured what the hell). I was glad that I did. It was interesting comparing the characters and the story between the original and the remake. The original was very much a 70s movie – it’s a darker, more gritty film, very much R-rated as opposed to the current’s PG-13. For example, in the new movie, we see Courteney Cox in a very low-cut, cleavage showing top, whereas in the original, her character is in a nice sheer dressing gown, fully showing off her breasts. Both are blatantly there for their sex appeal, but the new version shows that you can have a woman looking sexy without actually showing full nudity. Another change between the two would be the main character. In place of the fun, goofy drunk that Adam Sandler plays, in the original Burt Reynolds’ quarterback was a tough, mean drunk, who chokes the woman in question and then throws her violently to the floor before stealing her car. The movies play out fairly similarly from there, but the comedy and light-heartedness of the remake isn’t present so much in the original, except for a few brief spots (the scene where the quarterback is teasing the short cop, for example, is in both movies, although the jokes are different).

So which is the better movie? That’s a tough question. All in all I think I enjoyed the remake more, but each movie is very much a product of the era in which it was made, and so it’s hard to make a direct comparison. Both films are very well acted, and feature great groups of actors. The story that is at the core of both movies is very well-written and unfolds in a compelling way. All in all, both are very good movies, and I plan on owning both of them, but I have to say that the remake is going to have a broader appeal than the original, and will find a wider audience.

So the beginning a June brought a series of movies that I never got around to watching – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (chick film – don’t know if I’ll ever see it), Cinderella Man (probably see it eventually, but not in a big hurry), and Lords of Dogtown, a fictionalized version of the true story first brought to the screen in the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (all about skaters – probably won’t ever see either one of them). So for our next entry we’ll jump up to June 10^th, and the release of the wonderful action/comedy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. That’s all for now.