SPENT a lot of time alone–No body joined me Friday evening or Sat or so on and so forth….did have company for nails on Sat and then the rest of the day on my own….thanks to Alicia had a great lunch and lake side sojourn on Sunday.  Did do some Cajun, had some gin and tonics, watched some Outlander, and some Nascar event.  Reading about Vampires and generally being my old lady self.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMG IF YOU AREN’T WATCHING OUTLANDER YOU ARE MISSING THE BEST TV:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I was straining my brain on what to feature this week I noted an ad for Mad Max….and I thought not again…..and then I thought WHY….and then I thought OK so you have your soap box grab your keyboard and start writing.

Mad Max’s original movie pretty much SUCKED…a lawman in post apocalyptic Australia (as barren as Australia is this didn’t take a lot of staging)  who looses wife and child and goes on an avenging effort—it’s a tried and true formula and though few people outside of Australia have seen the first one, it did bring about a 2nd  movie (Road Warrior) that pretty much made Mel Gibson (who has since totally self destructed himself–but that’s another week theme–how hard do you have to try to fail) and the third with a great Tina Turner role in the Thunder Dome sequel.

The New Mad Max  with Tom Hardy—he had a break thru role in Inception in case you don’t place the name and I’m sorry but he’s another of those actors they produce now that all look alike, but in all fairness I have not seen him act so….—but I do like his co-star:

Chalize Theron who has earned her fame in multiple excellent movies and (as the picture shows) doesn’t mind covering up those famed looks at all.)  Word is she and her co-star didn’t get along very well http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-2015-rambling-reporter-scene-796107  but that’s not my issue….mine is do we need another Mad Max which is described as all the action of the original series but much more craziness.     The movie Fury Road http://www.madmaxmovie.com/   has been panned by some men’s advocates as it added a woman co-hero (as opposed to Tina’s role of villainous ruler of the games where two men enter only one man leaves) which they feel detracts from the genre.

So will it be a success, probably it has violence and no holds barred and more craziness (sounds like an online game) so how can it loose?

I mean there always have been remakes—the hit Three Men and a Baby was a remake of a French Comedy as is

Bird Cage (which was a stage play in the US  with the French title: La Cage aux Folles) but I doubt that one in 100 Americans ever actually saw the French one.

 

    

and then there are the classics like Peter Pan and

 

And War of The Worlds….the first being classic children’s piece that so far has failed to be remade better than Disney did (in my humble opinion only) and the second being done better in the  remake partially because of the new wonders of cinema special effects as well as better acting and production budgets.

 

 

 

The Thing is an example of what can be done with modern movie techniques and good actor–the version with Kurt Russel was a nerve rattling epic from start to finish for those of us that love a creepy movie.  The original doesn’t even deserve a “Boo”—and Arness (he played the title role) was better served as Marshal Dillon.

and what can I say about Dracula    THESE have been made and remade since silent picture days….we have gone from Dracula the heartless blood drinking Villain early on (my fav in these really horror movies of course was Bella Lugosi–no body did it better)…as far as sexy vampire–Frank Lagella—he could bite my neck any day…the best production and stars was the Francis Ford Coppola one who presented the whole thing as a love story for the misunderstood ghoul—come on guys not all of us have stopped reading yet and you are gonna have to twist those between the lines a lot more before you get a Dracula as the lover and hero from Stoker’s story.

Special note—if we started to look at spin offs, inspired and just blood suckers in general it would take you a life time to watch them all…and you’d probably going screaming into the sunset long before that and I don’t mean from fright.

Then there’s THE BECAUSE THEY CAN REMAKES:  When the Rat Pack  made it originally it was because they could—they were a group of stars and Los Vegas phenoms that became legend.  When George, Brad and the rest made it, it was because they were a group of big stars and phenoms.  I actually never saw the first one, but enjoyed the newer version a lot–unfortunately the success of 11 made 12 possible (stink is a kind word for its over all result) and then of course they had to make 13 (which was better, but it would have been kinder to just do one—11 ah….you know what I mean—Just cause you can doesn’t mean you got to.).

Crime always pays:  The Two Scarface movies are as different as night and day, but they both featured well known (and excellent actors) and director–though I think for Producers the older one take the prize–how do you beat Howard Hughes.  Now don’t get me wrong the original is badly dated and won’t appeal to a lot of the present audience (though the Pacino one is moving in that directions as well) still they are both excellent examples of crime and how eventually it doesn’t pay, except at the box office.

Then there I the classic Western like True Grit—I actually never saw either of them, but….I have to stick with John Wayne on this one—though I’ve heard the newer one is an excellent productions.

As I am not big on Westerns so I didn’t see this one either, but I thought it interesting that the remake has (in my opinion) the better actors despite neither of them are American cowboys (Crowe is from New Zealand and Bale from Wales).  By the way the critics agree with me that Crowe and Bale have the upper hand (or the fastest draw) over Ford and Heflin’s performances.

So do we need a remake of Mad Max—no but what are you gonna do—it’s a Hollywood tradition—if it was good once it will probably be good for four or five more tries– and it appears this attitude this has resulted in orgy of remakes which has gotten worse lately in an effort to reduce cost by re-using manuscripts they already own,