1) If you could ask anyone in the world a favour, and they had to comply, BUT you had to perform a favour of similar value in return...who would it be, what would you ask, and what would you offer in exchange?
2) What is the point of having a justice system at all if the makers of the film Sea Ghost are allowed to walk around unpunished?
Would you rather be with the person of your dreams their entire life but have to wear a shirt made of their pubes OR be eternally lonely but wear whatever you want?
1) I hope you won't be too disappointed in my low moral fibre but my initially inclination here is to go with the crude; asking/offering reciprocal sexual favours from, let's say in the interest of appropriate vagueness/discretion, Rosario Dawson. Or Charlize Theron.
If you'd rather a less sleazy answer, I might call upon David lynch to attend a little party/dinner on the occasion of my 33rd birthday, which would be his 66th, and, were he still alive, Fellini's 99th. Not sure what I'd offer in return but, I can't imagine he'd be depserate for my attendance at a social gathering. Maybe I'd just promise to leave him alone in the future.
2) You speak of justice but a brief investigation reveals the director of Sea Ghost (which i have sadly neither seen or heard of before now) to be Jim Wynorski, whom I recall is the director of the rather charming Chopping Mall. A quick look at the decline his career took after such promising beginnings (discounting the fucking awful The Lost Empire) I think it perhaps unfair to suggest he is living a life without punishment.
@ sonicexam : Given I'm already resigned to the latter, and as a fashion philistine don't really feel extensive clothing choice to be one of the most fulfilling elements in life, I think I'd probably give the pubeshirt a go.
I might need to hear more specific definitions of the conditions though. How tight the weave is, how soft the fabric, whether I would be able to wear other shirts some of the time, whether it could be laundered, whether it could be removed for bathing or romantic liaisons with the dream lover in question etc. All of these things could have a bearing on my long-term tolerance.
@ L'il_p'rat fall : While invisibility certainly stirs my curiosity, and would probably have been my choice as a younger man, the financial practicality of being able to travel under my own steam to distant lands gives flight the major edge currently. Assumedly my ability covers me to carry luggage and not grow tired and plummet into the sea during a trans-Atlantic journey or anything?
@ Skanko: I'll have to think on this one and get back to you.
I have yet to see the remake but I felt Friday the 13th was in principle a good idea, mostly because I thought the original, barring the fine work of Tom Savini, was massively over-hyped crap, and the hockey-mask or sack-headed Vorhees is a far more powerful and successful icon than the original film's murderous protagonist.
I'm not fundamentally against the prospect of remakes; Kurosawa has proved rich pickings in the past with Fistful Of Dollars (Yojimbo), The Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai) and Star Wars (The Hidden Fortress) all successfully reimagining the original material with style and originality. Plus look at Carpenter's The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13 (famously imagined as a contemporary take on Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo).
It's a tricky question to propose appropriate material to be remade though. The right people being appropriately imaginative and creative can do wondrous things and so it's hard to rule out a lot of stuff. By the same token though there is always a question of what value there is in reworking something that already functions as exceptional.
Obvious candidates would be films which had decent premises or some particularly charming idiosyncrasies but were either poorly handled first time round or for some reason didn't gel into a good film. I'll try to think of some good examples.
A few that spring to mind potentially are:
- The Scaremaker (aka Girl's Nite Out) which is fucking terrible, but has a killer wearing a bear outfit with a claw made of steak knives, which I feel has the potential to be amusingly awesome given an appropriately dry (yet ridiculous) script and decent budget. I'd actually quite like to make it myself given the opportunity.
- The Keep, A curious Michael Mann with a superb premise and which is visually and sonicly interesting, has a great cast and fun 80's neon special effects (which are very dated) but as a whole, for some reason, just doesn't really work. Not sure it'd be better a second time round but it could be worth a shot with the right talent.
- The Stuff (1985) I think could work. I think the original is great but it could be played more satirically or with more piercing social commentary to great effect.
Hitchcock's Rope maybe. It's a technical masterpiece as is so, it'd be perhaps be pointless (in a similar way to Van Sant's Psycho) to mimic the single continuous shot idea but the rest of the premise is maybe strong enough in itself to stand being looked at again.
I'll think on it a while and see if anything else comes to mind as fitting.
(While on the subject of remakes though Friedkin's Sorcerer is great. Also it's worth remembering Evil Dead 2 and Heat are essentially remakes of Evil Dead and L.A. Takedown respectively)
@ Skanko: Also, I read a really good assessment of that late 70's period of extreme horror we were discussing the other day, remind me and I'll type it out/send it on to you.
@Make Art: as someone who has seen Sea Ghost more than once, I am the last person who should (or could) condemn another person's low moral fibre. (Perhaps you should have a moral bran muffin.)
Thank you for your excellent answers, and for this thread!
@ -J. : Given that the last film I watched was the 1982 Chuck Norris vehicle Silent Rage, a film that seems like it's screenplay was the result of a 14 year old musing upon what might happen if Chuck Norris fought a maskless Michael Myers, I feel like I am ripe for some condemnation. But please, please yourself.
@make art - Those are all pretty good suggestions, after having looked them up, and now I want to watch the original.
I brought that question up b/c I finally saw the trailer for the remake (aka AMERICAN VERSION) of Let the Right One In, and I was fucking appalled. They seem to have changed the the entire tone of a great movie and made it "SCARIER". Why? It wasn't supposed to be SCARY per se. ugh. HERES A GOOD QUESTION, WHY DID ANYONE CHOOSE TO FUCKING RUIN SUCH A GOOD MOVIE ONLY 2 YEARS AFTER IT CAME OUT???
This may falter immediately given I will be going to bed soon then busy until Saturday but, you know, fuck it.
Yay, more Make Art!
1) If you could ask anyone in the world a favour, and they had to comply, BUT you had to perform a favour of similar value in return...who would it be, what would you ask, and what would you offer in exchange?
2) What is the point of having a justice system at all if the makers of the film Sea Ghost are allowed to walk around unpunished?
Would you rather be with the person of your dreams their entire life but have to wear a shirt made of their pubes OR be eternally lonely but wear whatever you want?
invisibility or flight?
Is there a movie that you think could actually BENEFIT from a remake right now and would actually do well?
Oh, and by do well I mean critically and awards wise, because box office numbers are just ridiculous at this point.
@ -j. :
1) I hope you won't be too disappointed in my low moral fibre but my initially inclination here is to go with the crude; asking/offering reciprocal sexual favours from, let's say in the interest of appropriate vagueness/discretion, Rosario Dawson. Or Charlize Theron.
If you'd rather a less sleazy answer, I might call upon David lynch to attend a little party/dinner on the occasion of my 33rd birthday, which would be his 66th, and, were he still alive, Fellini's 99th. Not sure what I'd offer in return but, I can't imagine he'd be depserate for my attendance at a social gathering. Maybe I'd just promise to leave him alone in the future.
2) You speak of justice but a brief investigation reveals the director of Sea Ghost (which i have sadly neither seen or heard of before now) to be Jim Wynorski, whom I recall is the director of the rather charming Chopping Mall. A quick look at the decline his career took after such promising beginnings (discounting the fucking awful The Lost Empire) I think it perhaps unfair to suggest he is living a life without punishment.
@ sonicexam : Given I'm already resigned to the latter, and as a fashion philistine don't really feel extensive clothing choice to be one of the most fulfilling elements in life, I think I'd probably give the pubeshirt a go.
I might need to hear more specific definitions of the conditions though. How tight the weave is, how soft the fabric, whether I would be able to wear other shirts some of the time, whether it could be laundered, whether it could be removed for bathing or romantic liaisons with the dream lover in question etc. All of these things could have a bearing on my long-term tolerance.
@ L'il_p'rat fall : While invisibility certainly stirs my curiosity, and would probably have been my choice as a younger man, the financial practicality of being able to travel under my own steam to distant lands gives flight the major edge currently. Assumedly my ability covers me to carry luggage and not grow tired and plummet into the sea during a trans-Atlantic journey or anything?
@ Skanko: I'll have to think on this one and get back to you.
I have yet to see the remake but I felt Friday the 13th was in principle a good idea, mostly because I thought the original, barring the fine work of Tom Savini, was massively over-hyped crap, and the hockey-mask or sack-headed Vorhees is a far more powerful and successful icon than the original film's murderous protagonist.
I'm not fundamentally against the prospect of remakes; Kurosawa has proved rich pickings in the past with Fistful Of Dollars (Yojimbo), The Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai) and Star Wars (The Hidden Fortress) all successfully reimagining the original material with style and originality. Plus look at Carpenter's The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13 (famously imagined as a contemporary take on Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo).
It's a tricky question to propose appropriate material to be remade though. The right people being appropriately imaginative and creative can do wondrous things and so it's hard to rule out a lot of stuff. By the same token though there is always a question of what value there is in reworking something that already functions as exceptional.
Obvious candidates would be films which had decent premises or some particularly charming idiosyncrasies but were either poorly handled first time round or for some reason didn't gel into a good film. I'll try to think of some good examples.
A few that spring to mind potentially are:
- The Scaremaker (aka Girl's Nite Out) which is fucking terrible, but has a killer wearing a bear outfit with a claw made of steak knives, which I feel has the potential to be amusingly awesome given an appropriately dry (yet ridiculous) script and decent budget. I'd actually quite like to make it myself given the opportunity.
- The Keep, A curious Michael Mann with a superb premise and which is visually and sonicly interesting, has a great cast and fun 80's neon special effects (which are very dated) but as a whole, for some reason, just doesn't really work. Not sure it'd be better a second time round but it could be worth a shot with the right talent.
- The Stuff (1985) I think could work. I think the original is great but it could be played more satirically or with more piercing social commentary to great effect.
Hitchcock's Rope maybe. It's a technical masterpiece as is so, it'd be perhaps be pointless (in a similar way to Van Sant's Psycho) to mimic the single continuous shot idea but the rest of the premise is maybe strong enough in itself to stand being looked at again.
I'll think on it a while and see if anything else comes to mind as fitting.
(While on the subject of remakes though Friedkin's Sorcerer is great. Also it's worth remembering Evil Dead 2 and Heat are essentially remakes of Evil Dead and L.A. Takedown respectively)
@ Skanko: Also, I read a really good assessment of that late 70's period of extreme horror we were discussing the other day, remind me and I'll type it out/send it on to you.
@Make Art: as someone who has seen Sea Ghost more than once, I am the last person who should (or could) condemn another person's low moral fibre. (Perhaps you should have a moral bran muffin.)
Thank you for your excellent answers, and for this thread!
@ -J. : Given that the last film I watched was the 1982 Chuck Norris vehicle Silent Rage, a film that seems like it's screenplay was the result of a 14 year old musing upon what might happen if Chuck Norris fought a maskless Michael Myers, I feel like I am ripe for some condemnation. But please, please yourself.
@make art - Those are all pretty good suggestions, after having looked them up, and now I want to watch the original.
I brought that question up b/c I finally saw the trailer for the remake (aka AMERICAN VERSION) of Let the Right One In, and I was fucking appalled. They seem to have changed the the entire tone of a great movie and made it "SCARIER". Why? It wasn't supposed to be SCARY per se. ugh. HERES A GOOD QUESTION, WHY DID ANYONE CHOOSE TO FUCKING RUIN SUCH A GOOD MOVIE ONLY 2 YEARS AFTER IT CAME OUT???
*originals.