I’ve either pretty much come to terms with the fact that Hollywood will remake anything, even the heavyweights of the film world. Or maybe I’m just too numb (and am coming down with Stockholm Syndrome) to care about treasured movies being given botched remakes. I should be angry, but I’m not. I came to terms with Hollywood’s xerox machine a long time ago. I instead have chosen to take modern remakes and look at them as their own entities, a copy that doesn’t necessarily have to stick to the original source material to be good. How do you remake a nearly seventy year old movie and stick in modern times? It can’t be too easy, and if you’ve seen this remake you’ll realize that most times it’s nearly impossible.
Nice Knowing You (2009)
Director Joe Burke is a man seen around these parts for the last two or three years and he’s a man who has managed to spawn some great reviews from yours truly who has been so far impressed with what his indie shorts have to offer. A man of many genres, Burke best knows how to capture that twenty something sentiment enabling his cast to work within their limits while painting the portraits of cities that are darker than our own and lives that seem to be nothing but heading for a dead end romantically and emotionally. Past efforts like “Coop’s Night In” have proven that he knows how to portray actual characters on screen without any need to exaggerate what we’re seeing.
Cabbie (2009) (2nd Cut)
Back in 2007, director Donlee Brussel submitted a film to our website called “Cabbie.” It was a short comedy about a cabbie played by Steve Gelder who approaches his job with passion and a stiff tongue in cheek attitude. The movie was less than watchable up viewing the short. Two years later, Donlee Brussel has taken his original twenty minute short comedy and reduced it to fourteen minutes with a heavily edited final product that has a more definite and even tone as opposed to the last cut that needed some drastic work on the comedic atmosphere and storytelling. Was this second chance worth it from Brussel? Honestly no.
March of the Penguins (Limited Edition Giftset) (DVD)
Parents looking to experience the lifespan of a penguins with their kids would do best to realize that Luc Jacquet’s wildlife documentary is anything but a sugar coated film. What it really is is a gut wrenching and very realistic look at the plight of the penguins attempting to survive in the wilderness and what lengths they will go through to ensure the survival of their species in the midst of harsh weather, natural predators and genuinely difficult hurdles known as life and death. What is so special about “March of the Penguins” is that though it is intended for younger viewers it never sugarcoats the cruel reality of nature and how hard these animals have to work to live another day.
Justice League: The Complete Series (2009) (DVD)
Though marketed as “The Complete Series,” the Justice League complete sets provides fifteen DVD’s that actually boasts two highly different television series’. I say that because the creators eventually reached a limit to what they could do with one version of their show and eventually provided a second series that was obviously an extension of the show but approached the source material with a different tone altogether. So while reviewing the show I had to take in to consideration that I was reviewing two series based on a single idea stuffed in to a very beautiful boxed set that is protected by a dazzling tin display case.
With the plethora of special features we get to see “Justice League,” a show based around the comic books dressed in Bruce Timm’s signature art style and storytelling. Here we follow seven of DC’s flagship heavyweights who take hold of the first series through epic storylines based around two parter episodes that are often more epic than most of the animated series ever made.
Zombieland (2009)
It’s been precisely five years since the UK tossed “Shaun of the Dead” in to the American shores and so successful was it with fans that most of America’s directors (both independent and mainstream) have tried anxiously to deliver what the “Spaced” clan have. Along the way the after effect of the movie brought us some good clones (Fido) and some just purely awful (The Mad) and the quest to create our own version of what Edgar Wright gave us hasn’t ended, not by a long shot. So here we are again five years later and we finally have a movie that works along “Shaun of the Dead’s” tone while paving its own signature in the horror comedy subgenre.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
At this moment and time I’m still not sure what I thought of “Jennifer’s Body.” I mean it has its high points but in the end I was left completely unimpressed and just all around apathetic to what I’d seen. For one thing I enjoyed “Jennifer’s Body” more when it was called “Ginger Snaps.” Director Kusama’s story of two sister-like friends (who find themselves in a supernatural situation that’s bigger than themselves one of whom is a freak while the other friend is a looker) has already been covered and with much more effective storytelling to boot. That being said, “Jennifer’s Body” is definitely not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, it’s just not going to re-invent the wheel.