Thread: The Remakes Thread

i can actually watch Highlander. Zardoz... not so much.

Zardoz is awesome!!!

Zardoz is horribly dated and it's a tough sell. Too off-kilter to be everyone's cuppa tea.

Harry loves Craig Brewer's Remake of FOOTLOOSE!
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[QUOTE][/QUOSPOILER ALERT !!


I've seen a lot of remakes this year. Last night, I saw a rancid piece of bull**** called STRAW DOGS, that is basically STRAW DOGS in an utterly retarded South with prettier folks than in the original - but is utter ****ing bull****. I hate it.

There's a remake coming, that I can't even hint at that I loathe at a level of complete rage.

Both of these two films are made by people that fundementally didn't understand the material, the casting requirements or the original source material in any way, shape or form! However, that's definitely not the case with FOOTLOOSE by Craig Brewer.

From the opening sequence, Craig goes somewhere that the original did not go... He shows us the original town trauma. How it happened, what it took from the community. This creates the hard nosed reality that small towns have to deal with. How do we protect our kids? This whole country went through that when 9/11 was broadcast and seared into our consciousness. How do we protect ourselves? Well, usually... those in charge grotesquely overreact. Instead of accepting that we will have tragedy in our lives, and that that's ok. WE DON'T HAVE TO REACT, we can simply take the hit and keep on living, honoring the memory of the fallen and move forward as a country or community. But at the heart of FOOTLOOSE - this opening scene gives us everything.

Dennis Quaid's Preacherman is a different animal from John Lithgow - who was frankly a little scary to me as a kid. Lithgow truly invokes GOD and is acting from a personal directive from God. Quaid is an open wound. He's festering and bleeding. It has made him intolerant of his daughter, and the happiness has gone from his life.

His daughter is "Hot to Trot" as we would say back in Seymour, Tx where I went to High School... You know the girl. She's got an itch that every boy would like to scratch, and she's used to turning her attention and getting what she wants. Some of this is out of a desire to get her father to actually engage. To see her and not the ghost of her dead brother.

Then you have REN hitting town. He's not Kevin Bacon. Unlike in the original, they take away his mother, giving Ren a very bitter back story. This is a boy matured. He's had to go through something that no High School kid should ever have to go through, which is a slow lingering death of a parent. It gives this Ren a soul and a deep-seeded anger that's more than just a town not letting him dance. Ren's life isn't ****ing fair. Everyone blames him, thinks he's a ****ty town bad boy, but not getting to dance or play music loud... that's the straw he won't allow to break his back. Kenny Wormald is new to the screen really. He's gonna make folks swoon. Not only has Craig coaxed a great performance out of this kid, but folks... HE CAN DANCE! Watch his Angry Dance? Watch his dance with his best mate, Willard - played to utter ****ing perfection by Miles Teller, who you may remember from his excellent work in last year's RABBIT HOLE.

If I were running Paramount, I'd sign Kenny and Miles to a long contract, and then team them up for a series of Musical/Dramedies - their charisma together is just exciting and fun to watch. They play off of one another in a way that echoes some classic musical buddy comedy could. In fact - there's a tad of Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin from ON THE TOWN going on between these two - and that ****ing owns!

Craig doesn't crank out dispassionate work, he crafts films that give a ****. It is so relieving to see... Someone coming to previously told material, but with a geniune desire to update and make it live as vibrantly if not more so than the original.
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**** that. When I went to see Contagion, they did a spotlight on Footloose during the pre-show "entertainment".

I ****ing hate musicals.

I liked Craig Brewer's last two movies, especially Black Snake Moan which was channeling Southern Gothic writers like Flannery O' Connor. With that being said, I probably won't want the Footlose remake anytime soon, lol.

That's pretty much why I posted the review. Kind of a head scratcher. I like Brewer as a director. I thought this was an odd choice. I have no interest in seeing it, yet part of me is curious just because I like his work. I'm glad it might be good despite what seems like a general lack of interest. Hell, I have never seen the original.

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Denzel Washington Offered Lead In Pointless ‘The Secret In Their Eyes’ Remake > The Playlist

It seems casting is moving forward as Twitch reports that Denzel Washington has been offered the lead role in the film, which is set up over at Warner Bros. The plot involves Benjamin Esposito, a retired criminal court investigator who’s haunted both by an unsolved murder, and by his unrequited love for his former boss. The story unfolds through a tricky dual structure, cutting between 1999 and 1974.

The original won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2010. So you knew this was coming.