Expelled Grey Matter

When you mention any '80s film there is inevitably rumors that a remake is in the works.  Not surprising, as even '90s movies seem fair game right now, and certain franchises, like Spiderman and Batman , seem to get rebooted every few years.  The problem is that certain movies can only belong in the time period they were made.  It has nothing to do with quality, but simply the fact that certain genre films only work in the era they were made. The '80s contain many of these, and one of the foremost being action films.  Yes, the first two Expendables  movies were fun, but they still felt like modern action films.  All the old guys get together for one more round.  It still feels way too much like, "Remember when?"  And, yes, many of us remember when rather clearly. That doesn't mean I remember everything fondly.  At the time Road House came out I consider Patrick Swayze another up-and-coming pretty boy without much substance.  I was forced to watch Dirty

There are many movies and TV shows that glamorize serial killers as evil geniuses that weave complex webs and stay one step ahead of the law for years as the body count piles up.  The truth is more along the lines of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer than it is The Silence of the Lambs .  There are some undoubtedly reaching supervillain status, but the average killer relies on a combination of being able to hide behind a respectable facade and police incompetence.  A bit of isolation, usually in a place where police don't want to be, doesn't hurt. John Christie was certainly no genius.  He was, in fact, a violent thug with a penchant for prostitutes (their usual services, not murdering them, although one of his later victims did work in the profession) who managed to somehow keep many of his baser instincts hidden for awhile after being released from prison, but for some unknown reason finding a new hobby in murder as World War II raged on and the bombs dropped on London.

Sam Raimi has had quite a journey, from pounding the pavement to make and promote The Evil Dead , to making two excellent  Spiderman films and then, finally, to the point of making a Disney film.  For Raimi, it is definitely a success story, and proof that hard work and perseverance can occasionally get you somewhere, even in Hollywood. Still, he has had his ups and downs.  Along with two great Spiderman films came Spiderman 3 , and such vanity projects as For the Love of the Game .  Through it all, everything he has done, whether successful or not, felt like the works of an individual that really cared for the craft of filmmaking and wanted to make the best movie he could.  Unfortunately, with Oz the Great and Powerful , it feels for once that he is merely coasting through.  It's probably no surprise that the next thing he did after this is return to the universe that introduced him to the world. Oscar Diggs (James Franco), also known as Oz the Great and Powerful, is a shab

I hate to call the current spate of remakes a trend.  In truth, Hollywood has been remaking films since its Golden Age.  I would say in most cases these days they are just unnecessary.  I think a bigger problem that someone like me has is that it makes me feel a bit old when I start complaining.  "Why remake Total Recall ?  That's a movie I saw in the theater.  As an adult even!  Heck, the movie is only twenty-two... um... shut up, kid!" Yes, twenty-two years between the original and the remake is not that much.  There were three versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde within that same time period from, the first only 11 years after the original.  Looking back at that time, it brings up more of a point about current remakes.  The 1931 remake was a sound picture, while the original, as great as it is, was silent.  The 1941 version may seem unnecessary, but it feels more like a modern film than the 1931 version simply because the art of making movies had changed that much