While deep down Sony engineered a reboot of “Spider-Man” in an effort to secure the rights, “The Amazing Spider-Man” uses the opportunity to correct the mistakes made by previous franchise runner Sam Raimi. Where Raimi opted for camp and schlock with his installments, “The Amazing Spider-Man” launches a more dramatic approach. Where Raimi opted for the traditional Spider-Man, Marc Webb constructs a more radical re-thinking of the Spider-Man mythos. And unlike Raimi, director Marc Webb opts to side step the camp flavor as much as humanly possible. This reboot is much more true to the Spider-Man we all know and love, and thankfully it’s a superior film that promises to age better than Sam Raimi’s films.
Tag Archives: Science Fiction
The Thing From Another World (1951)
Upon its initial release, John Carpenter’s “The Thing” was poorly received both at the box-office and by critics. It didn’t help that it had been released around the time of “E.T” and its domination of pop culture, and that it had been considered by most to be a remake of a classic, barely flawed monster movie from the fifties. John Carpenter proved you can remake a film and provide your own twist without ruining the integrity of the original. “The Thing” is considered by most to be the closest adaptation to the original short story “Who Goes There?” around, while “The Thing From Another World” is not so much an adaptation and opts to create a hulking beast in place of an amorphous entity that hides inside human beings. Perhaps they thought it’d be too cerebral or dark for its time.
The Faculty (1998)
Robert Rodgriguez’ filmography reads like a bucket list of films he’s always wanted to do. “The Faculty” is a modern teen horror film for the “Scream” fanatics, but tailored by a man who grew up on classic science fiction and horror. The film in essence is abundantly silly, but Rodriguez adds his own flourishes such as casting his favorite actors and combining story elements from “Invaders from Mars,” “The Thing,” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Most of all “The Thing.” Rodriguez includes his own version of the blood test, as well as the detached head moving on its own consciousness much to our shock. Granted, the CGI for most of these effects are nonsensical, and in today’s advances, the more upfront scenes of CGI carnage are just so blatant, but “The Faculty” has an unusual charm to it.
Attack of the Strawberry Jam! Celebrating "The Blob" Remake
I remember seeing you in “The Blob” when I was a wee lad. I used to watch it every other day on WPIX Channel 11 before it was taken over by the WB, and even though most of the film was edited and chopped up, I watched not only because it’s one of the best remakes of all time, but because, well, you’re really hot. I remember being ten always watching “The Blob” before I went to bed. The movies always started at eight and, come hell or high water, they ended at ten for the news, and that’s okay, because that’s when I went to bed. I remember being ten and watching your sweet self running around screaming and just being an all around hotty, even when in the sewer all wet and dirty.
Mutant League: The Movie (1996)
I always get a laugh from people who pretend to be shocked that someone would dare create an animated series intended to tout merchandise to children. Though the series “Yu Gi Oh” was god awful, many people pretended to be appalled that it existed solely to sell cards. Attention people: this has been common practice as far back as the late sixties. Some of the greatest and most beloved animated TV shows in America were created just to sell or market toys. “Transformers” was nothing but a massive toy commercial, for god sake. The nineties were littered with many attempts to create a marketable toy franchise, and there were as many memorable misses as there were hits.
Body Snatchers (1994)
It seems every other decade or so, there has to be a big screen adaptation of Jack Finney’s seminal science fiction novel about aliens that transform in to you when you’re sleeping. 1956 saw the Kevin McCarthy masterpiece that basically explored the fear of McCarthyism, 1978 had the pretty damn good Donald Sutherland creep fest journeying in to the fear of conformity in an age where the free love movement had died, and even in 2007 there was the reworked flop “The Invasion” which attempted to prey on our delirium about biological warfare and terrorism (and failed). 1994’s version is a horror film that’s meant to pretty much just be a horror film.
Dark Times (2010)
Directors Peter Horn and Jared Marshall’s short science fiction horror film is, as the kids say: The shit. “Dark Times” is a rollicking and creepy gore fest that takes every advantage to be unique and original. Foregoing any opening and closing credits, “Dark Times” takes every single advantage of every second to tell a fun story that is just so damn thrilling to behold. As seen through the eyes of a hapless man, a group of workers from the Blue Skies Nuclear Power plant flee from a horrible explosion that is sending them running in to the woods as radioactive debris rains from the skies taking down survivors.