Retro Movies Are Fashionable

With Generation Y'ers growing up, Hollywood is striving to please these boomers and those after them. What's their solution? It seems one solution is remakes or reboots of the movies they grew up with. Enter "Get Smart" starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 respectively. And soon Robocop will have it's very own remake. No, he's not the Tinman from Wizard of Oz, but a state-of-the-art android that is also part human. The last two movies were done in 1987 and 1990 respectively, but this Robocop promises to be just as "gory" as the last ones, with an R rating. Co-producer Mike Medavoy says that "it is definitely not a sequel."  Thus, Robocop (2010) will following recent reboots of series such as Batman Begins (reboot of the Val Kilmer and George Clooney Batmans), as well as Casino Royale (reboot of the Bond franchise). Will Robocop be a success now that we have all this technology and movie magic? We'll have to wait two more years to find out.

Before Arnold Schwarzenegger was Governator, he was the Terminator. And before he was the Terminator, he was Conan, the Barbarian (1982 and 1984). But with Schwarzenegger busy with California, he doesn't have time to play T-800 in Terminator Salvation. Enter fellow weightlifter, Ronald Kickinger. You may remember him from FX's "Son of the Beach" as Chip Rommel. But who better to play Arnold as T-800 than a guy who played Arnold in "See Arnold Run" (2005) on TV. The next installment of the Terminator series also features Christian Bale ("Batman Begins," "American Psycho") as all-grown up John Conner. 

But Arnold isn't only absent in Terminator. He'll be absent in Conan. This new Conan is still in production.

Rose McGowan is the new Red Sonja. I think they chose they right actress to play the "She-Devil with a Sword." She was badass as gun-toting Cherry in "Planet Terror" (2007), and judging by these pictures, it looks like she'll be ripping hearts (literally). 

Oh yah, they're remaking "Escape to Witch Mountain" and calling it "Race to Witch Mountain" coming out in 2009.

With all these Retro Remakes, I wonder what Hollywood will think of next. As long as it's NOT "Care Bears: To Infinity and Beyond" or "My Little Ponies, The Rescue Squad" I'll be happy. I only wonder if the only reason for such trends is lack of ideas or thinking they'll make just as much money or better based on the success of their predecessors back in the 1980s. 

Batman, Why So Serious?

Check out the cast and crew here

The Plot: (Beware of spoilers) A new criminal is in town and he wants to raise hell. But he has to face 3 obstacles first: 1) Commissioner Gordon (he'll be commissioner by the middle of the movie) 2) District Attorney Harvey Dent (we all know he's really Two Face). 3) Billionaire Playboy/"Vigilante" Bruce Wayne/Batman. But how does the Dark Knight stop a new breed of criminal who has nothing to lose, who doesn't care about money, and who just wants to wreak havoc to society? Well, you get to find out after 2 1/2 hours of mini battles between Good and Evil.

The Good: Heath Ledger's performance stole the movie. He was not only convincing as the evil Joker, he also had total control of his entire body. You may notice that he licked his lips almost every 5 seconds. There were also a lot of great movie quotes, and director Christopher Nolan seems to be trying to tell us how philosophical he can get when Harvey Dent said, "You can either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." And the sound for this movie--all the crashes, gunshots, etc.--they were all beautifully done. I'm sure this movie will win some kind of award for sound engineering. 

The Bad: The movie was way too long. There were a lot of scenes that just didn't need to be there and were only added for comic effect. I guess that was Nolan's answer to ease the dark tale he was telling. But Nolan, like the Joker said, "Why so serious?" The entire movie was just too serious and too philosophical for people to handle. Well, that may or may not be a good thing.

The Grade: A-, the record breaking $155 million opening weekend for Batman: The Dark Knight certainly speaks for itself.

Other Notes: Pay attention to cameos by Edison Chen (the very same Edison Chen with the whole picture scandal), Senator Patrick Leahy, and Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow again.

For a more opinionated review, check out my friend's website here.

Hellboy 2 Might As Well Go to Hell

Check out the cast and crew here

The Plot: (Beware of spoilers) In ancient times, Humans and Elves battled against each other. Thanks to a Goblin who created an unstoppable army of 4900 soldiers and handing power over to the King of the Elves, the humans would perish. But the King of the Elves saw that it was too powerful and broke the crown which controlled the army into three pieces. 

Fast forward to the present, and Nuada, Prince of the Elves is sick of how greedy humans have become. Humans have pushed the Elves and other magical creatures down underground into hiding. Thus, he wants to punish them by unleashing the power of the Golden Army. Hellboy returns with Liz and Abe Sapien to save the world from impending doom. 

The Good: Aside from all the action movie, it is also a love story. And it also continues the message from the last movie, that even if you are feared by society for being a freak, you need to do what's right and save their lives. The costume design for this movie was beautiful, not to mention the monsters were artistically done. That's why you could see the same touch done thanks to Director Guillermo del Toro, who also directed  the Italian movie, "Pan's Labyrinth"

The Bad: It was a little too cartoony for me, although I understood many of the scenes which showed the ancient epic battle between Humans and Elves were done for the sake of art. However, that doesn't excuse the predictable plot. A

The Grade: C+