I won’t say it’s impossible for Hollywood to do a remake that doesn’t suck, but I suspect that if eliminate things like the Star Trek reboot and concentrate on “the classics” the odds become very long indeed.
The problem with remaking your favorite movies from your childhood is that your childhood self completely missed the point. (How many times have I read “War of the Worlds” without noticing the blindingly obvious reference to British Colonialism? Easily a dozen.)
The new Oz movie isn’t a remake; it is, from what I’ve read about it, an attempt at a prequel.
Ah, that’s an entirely different can of worms. It’s tricky to pull off a prequel if you’re using the main characters of the original, because you know where they have to be when the movie’s over. Though if there’s a big enough gap…
I doubt you’ve even seen the original — which was *not* made by MGM.
Having read the books, I never considered the 1939 movie to be sacred. In fact, all the changes MGM made used to bother me — until I saw the liberties Baum took with his own work in his movies.
I saw it last night. It wasn’t precisely a failure . . . but it needed to be wonderful and didn’t quite make it. Mila Kunis was bland and subdued (and waaay too zaftig) as the Witch. The character motivations were an odd blend of realistic love and betrayal on one hand, with cackling cartoon villainy on the other. Sometimes the characters acted like Baum characters, sometimes they acted like Gregory Maguire characters, and sometimes they just did stuff.
Is there a law that says witches have to be anorexic?
I agree that Franco wasn’t a great actor in this film, but I find it odd that people would complain about things like this while ignoring the gross miscasting in the 1939 film. Dorothy Gayle was supposed to be a *little* girl, not a 17-year-old!
“Is there a law that says witches have to be anorexic?”
Anorexic witches, sparkly vampires. Kids today have stupid monsters.
The modern version of Little Red Riding Hood would, no doubt, be on a low-fat diet or vegan and thus unable to eat Hood.
I’m confused. I thought Trimegistus was complaining that the witch wasn’t anorexic enough? Was she too thick or too thin?
It was worth making the movie just to get that British interview with Mila Kunis. Almost as good as the time she defended Justin Timberlake in Russian at a press event in Moscow promoting their silly movie.
I won’t say it’s impossible for Hollywood to do a remake that doesn’t suck, but I suspect that if eliminate things like the Star Trek reboot and concentrate on “the classics” the odds become very long indeed.
The problem with remaking your favorite movies from your childhood is that your childhood self completely missed the point. (How many times have I read “War of the Worlds” without noticing the blindingly obvious reference to British Colonialism? Easily a dozen.)
The new Oz movie isn’t a remake; it is, from what I’ve read about it, an attempt at a prequel.
Ah, that’s an entirely different can of worms. It’s tricky to pull off a prequel if you’re using the main characters of the original, because you know where they have to be when the movie’s over. Though if there’s a big enough gap…
I doubt you’ve even seen the original — which was *not* made by MGM.
Having read the books, I never considered the 1939 movie to be sacred. In fact, all the changes MGM made used to bother me — until I saw the liberties Baum took with his own work in his movies.
I saw it last night. It wasn’t precisely a failure . . . but it needed to be wonderful and didn’t quite make it. Mila Kunis was bland and subdued (and waaay too zaftig) as the Witch. The character motivations were an odd blend of realistic love and betrayal on one hand, with cackling cartoon villainy on the other. Sometimes the characters acted like Baum characters, sometimes they acted like Gregory Maguire characters, and sometimes they just did stuff.
Is there a law that says witches have to be anorexic?
I agree that Franco wasn’t a great actor in this film, but I find it odd that people would complain about things like this while ignoring the gross miscasting in the 1939 film. Dorothy Gayle was supposed to be a *little* girl, not a 17-year-old!
“Is there a law that says witches have to be anorexic?”
Anorexic witches, sparkly vampires. Kids today have stupid monsters.
The modern version of Little Red Riding Hood would, no doubt, be on a low-fat diet or vegan and thus unable to eat Hood.
I’m confused. I thought Trimegistus was complaining that the witch wasn’t anorexic enough? Was she too thick or too thin?
It was worth making the movie just to get that British interview with Mila Kunis. Almost as good as the time she defended Justin Timberlake in Russian at a press event in Moscow promoting their silly movie.