Movies aren't original any more?

There's been a lot of criticism lately about how there just aren't original movies any more that are coming out. "They're all sequels, prequels, reboots, based off of tv shows, based off of games, or remakes" are just some of the criticism I hear repeatedly. 

Yes it's true there are a lot of them, but then I was thinking back to 1985, not even 30 years ago....

According to boxofficemojo.com, 180 major movies were released that year. Out of the top 100 movies of 1985, 25 of the movies were either sequels/prequels, remakes, based off of a tv show or board game, or re-issues (films that were rereleased in theaters.. keep in mind, home video viewing was still in its infancy).

Here is the list:

Rambo: First Blood Part II

Rocky IV

Jewel of the Nile

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment

A View to a Kill

European Vacation

Brewster's Millions

ET (re-issue)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

101 Dalmatians (re-issue)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

Care Bears Movie

Friday the 13th - Part V

Porky's Revenge (Part III)

Young Sherlock Holmes

Death Wish 3

King Solomon's Mines

Clue

Return of the Living Dead

Sesame Street's Follow that Bird

Return of the Jedi (re-issue)

Return to Oz

Missing in Action II: The Beginning

Ghostbusters (re-issue)

Fantasia (re-issue)

So 1/4 of the top 100, out of a 180 film year, were unoriginal movies! That's a huge number!

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, released in 1985, and the remake of the original, released in 2010

If you look to 25 years later, 2010, there were 33 films out of the top 100 that were either sequels/prequels, remakes, based off of a tv show or game (video games have been more prevalent). There weren't any re-issues in the top 100, since most people don't go to a theater any more to see a movie rereleased, thanks to home video. In that year, 536 movies were released.

Here is the list:

Toy Story 3

Alice in Wonderland

Iron Man 2

Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Shrek Forever After

Karate Kid

Tron Legacy

True Grit

Clash of the Titans

Little Fockers

Last Airbender

Jackass 3-D

Robin Hood

Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Yogi Bear

Sex and the City 2

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Paranormal Activity 2

A-Team

Sorcerer's Apprentice (*Loosely based off of the Mickey segment in Fantasia)

Nightmare on Elm Street

The Wolfman

Get Him to the Greek (*Loose sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Predators

Saw 3D

Cats and Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore

Death at a Funeral

Step Up 3-D

Nanny McPhee Returns

I know you might be saying to yourself, "yes but that's 33 movies out of 536 movies. How many more were sequels or remakes?" Well if you look at the next 100 of that year, there are only 8 more sequels or remakes and included in that number actually are a couple of re-issues (Avatar, a hugely successful original movie, even if there is some criticism that it wasn't, and a Twilight movie combo)

In both of my lists, I did not include new movies that were based off of books or plays that have never been adapted to the silver screen before, because since the dawn of cinema, this has been a standard.

What is my conclusion to all of this? Well just the simple fact that it isn't new for Hollywood to be "unoriginal". It's easy for them to look at the safe bet, but also what the general public demands. Can you imagine if Marvel/Paramount/Disney decided to NOT make a sequel to Iron Man, even if it was popular? There wouldn't be Avengers, one of the top grossing and loved action movies over the last few years.

Or what if George Lucas said, "You know what, I think I said everything I wanted to say with Star Wars, no need for a sequel". We would never have found out that Darth Vader was in fact Luke's father, never would have seen a creature named Yoda, or a bounty hunter named Boba Fett, or simply quote the movie like crazy, even if you've never seen it!

There are still original movies out there and Hollywood will continue to make them if the demand is there! So go out and see "Edge of Tomorrow" or "Neighbors" or "Chef", all original and all showing that critics and the public alike want to see them.

It's a Wonderful Life

I guess I've taken the "It's a Wonderful Life" marathons Ted Turner gave us throughout the 80's and early 90's (both in Black and White and Colorized) for granted. I assumed Turner stations were still doing the marathons, so on Christmas Eve after my wife and I got home at 11pm, I searched all over our cable for it, and found nothing.
I thought, "fine, I'll rent it onDemand. It has to be available there." Nothing! Not on any onDemand station, not even available to rent! So what happened? Did the stations already air it?
In fact they did. NBC has the exclusive television rights to "It's a Wonderful Life" and we had literally just missed the airing by mere moments on Christmas Eve. So only one television showing per year! That's it!
After researching online, I came to found out that NBC has had the exclusive television rights of "It's a Wonderful Life" since 1994! Wow, I had no idea I hadn't been watching it on any Turner station for that long!
My thoughts are that I had viewed it so many times growing up during the holidays, I didn't even realize that the last time I had seen the film was possibly more than 10 years ago! Of course, this is the year that I wanted to see the film, soon after reading that Rotten Tomatoes had it rated as the number one holiday movie of all time, amongst film critics. I was too late to watch it before Christmas.... well Christmas 2012 anyway. Maybe I can find the Blu-Ray on sale on Amazon, so I certainly will have it to watch for Christmas 2013, or any time I wish. :)

Well at least I can watch the "Lost Ending" to "It's a Wonderful Life" whenever I want.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4267

Happy New Year from the Cinemascapist!

As Nenge Mboko (aka Eddie Murphy in Trading Places) would say:

"Merry New Year!"

I wish everyone a very Happy and Safe New Year's Eve!

My resolution for 2013 is to post more on the Cinemascapist blog. I will start with a new one on New Year's Day.

May everyone have a joyous and prosperous 2013!

Disney Acquiring Lucas, is this "Twice Upon a Time"?

Last week Disney announced they are buying up Lucasfilm and all other Lucas owned properties (ILM, LucasArts,Skywalker Sound, THX, etc...) There was a lot of excitement over the announcement of new Star Wars movies and the possibility of more Indiana Jones movies. There are a few other Lucasfilms out there like the American Graffiti films; the Ron Howard directed fantasy, Willow; the Francis Ford Coppola directed bio-film, Tucker: A Man and his Dream; the 80's bomb Howard the Duck, based off the Marvel Comic that Disney also owns; Radioland Murders, a comic murder mystery center around a radio serial...

The one I'm interested in is the cut-out animated film, Twice Upon a Time. Released theatrically in 1983, the story is about two unlikely heroes, one a silent tall figure and the other, a dog like shape-shifter (who coincidentally looks a little like Finn on Adventure time) who are sent on a journey by a fairy to stop an evil man who has stopped time and wants to give the world only nightmares. It's a zany film with some great voice talent, like Lorenzo Music (animated Garfield), Paul Frees (Rocky and Bullwinkle and Disney's The Haunted Mansion), and Hamilton Camp (Gizmoduck) among others.

Twice Upon a Time was only released on vhs a few times, once in the 1980's and again in the early 1990's (also released on Laserdisc). According to Wikipedia, it was once shown on Cartoon Network in the late 1990's, but that had been it's last known television broadcast. I have always been an animation fan and I had heard of this movie in a brief statement in Leonard Maltin's "Of Mice and Magic". Maltin states that in the 1980's Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were moving into the animation game. "Lucas was the first of the two to actually produce an animated feature, but TWICE UPON A TIME (1983), a hip, offbeat film using cut-out animation (called Lumage) and directed by John Korty, didn't generate much interest in its first theatrical bookings, and quickly disappeared."

Based on this statement, I was on a mission to find it and luckily found it on VHS at one of our local video stores. I loved the movie. I thought it was funny and it looked different than any other animated film I had seen. Plus, it was much more adult than any kids animated feature I had seen at that time and it may be one of the first animated films to use pop culture references, like Lucas' own Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, not to mention the Muppet Show, which of course was created by Jim Henson, who later collaborated with Lucas on Labyrinth.

Ibor is one of the villains sidekicks and he has TV for a face. Often showing popculture clips. 

It's difficult to see in this image, but he has Miss Piggy on his "face".

Some folks that worked on the film are now associated with a few Disney and/or Disney-Pixar classic, like Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, who was a Sequence director on Twice Upon a Time. Harley Jessup was the art director and who has since gone on to being a visionary at Pixar since their first film, Toy Story. Bruce Heller is one of the top special effects animators in the business, having worked on Hunchback of Notre Dame, Atlantis and Treasure Planet. The film was directed by John Korty who would later direct the Return of the Jedi spin-off TV movie, The Ewok Adventure.

This would be a great time for Disney to take advantage of releasing this film on DVD or Blu-Ray for the cult following it has already gained, for the animation fans who have never had a chance to see it, and for those who just want to see a visually different looking film with funny and interesting characters.

Argo

Argo: B+

I've always loved movies about making movies. The Player and The Muppet Movie are two of my favorite movies of all time, which making movies is a major story point in both films, yet that's not what these movies are really about. The Player is actually a thriller about a movie studio executive and The Muppet Movie is a road comedy/musical about characters who "want to be rich and famous". Argo is also a movie that's not just about making a movie, in fact, it's about making a fake movie to save hostages in Iran and the amazing thing is, it's all TRUE!

Ben Affleck has surprised a lot of critics and movie-goers alike over the last few years as he's taken the roles of writer/director. Gone Baby Gone and The Town are both fine movies, but I think they're really good movies, nothing spectacular. Maybe that's why they've only been nominated for supporting actor roles at the Academy Awards. I think it's more shocking that Ben Affleck, who has had success as an actor, has suddenly taken up the role of writing and directing and the movies are surprisingly good! Yes, Affleck did co-write Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon AND won the Oscar for writing, but I wonder if they won that Oscar for the same reasons I just mentioned.... actors that are suddenly writing and the movie is good!

Argo is no different. Affleck has left the pen behind for Argo, and instead has taken the lead role (like in The Town) and is directing a cast of great actors, most of them known for their television work. Affleck does some clever tricks and storytelling in this film. The movie starts off with the 1970's Warner Bros. logo, and it instantly lets you know when this movie takes place. It also gives us a back story of how the Iran hostage crisis started, cleverly using storyboards. This brought a smile to me, for I work in the animation industry and love looking at storyboards. It's a great way to bring us into Iran and get the movie started. As the audience, you're thrown into the intense nature of what is happening there.

The movie now becomes a "How do we get them out of there", something that can be seen on television on shows like Criminal Minds or NCIS. Nothing spectacular, but it does have it's interesting moments. The movie takes a left turn and almost becomes farce, when it is decided by Affleck and his supervisor, Bryan Cranston, to make it look like they're Canadian filmmakers making a fake sci-fi movie (ala Star Wars) in Iran to get the hostages out. Affleck does a fine job of giving us a glimpse of how films are made in Hollywood and how it's more publicity than fine storytelling that can get a film made. Alan Arkin and John Goodman have very funny roles as the money (Arkin) and the name (Goodman) behind the picture.

The last third or the movie is quite intense and I believe this is what most people are responding too when they are giving the A+ Cinemascores. Other than that, Affleck's acting is nothing spectacular, they did some great casting on the actual hostages as they showed the pictures of the actors next to photos of the hostages so you can see how much they look alike, and I wouldn't be surprised if Arkin gets another supporting actor nomination for this film, simply because he practically steals the show with one line. Affleck even got President Jimmy Carter to narrate a bit over the ending credits on his account of what we just saw in the movie, to give the movie a clear sense of truth.

Argo is a very entertaining movie with a few great lines, an inside look into Hollywood, and a suspenseful ending that will keep you from breathing until the credits run. It's definitely worth the price of admission and I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot about it during Oscar season.

Frankenweenie

Over the last two weeks, I saw two films at the theater, Frankenweenie and Argo. I enjoyed both films and would recommend both movies to film lovers. I started to write this post reviewing both movies, but feel that it's better to write them in separate posts.

Frankenweenie: B+

I've been a fan of Tim Burton since I saw Pee Wee's Big Adventure at the drive-in with my family when the movie first came out. Ok, I didn't know who Tim Burton was, but I loved the movie. Next up was Beetlejuice at the theater, again loved Beetlejuice and I'm sure the advertisements at the time said "From the director of Pee Wee's Big Adventure", which is probably why I saw the movie. The movie was weird and different, and even though Pee Wee's Big Adventure had a few truly weird moments in it (Large Marge, his dream sequences, etc), Beetlejuice was almost completely filled with these weird moments. Something that I learned to accredit to Tim Burton. So over the years, I learned to appreciate Mr. Burton's films more, especially when his popularity skyrocketed with Batman and Batman Returns. I would pick up issues of Starlog and Comics Scene magazines from the local comic book store and I'm sure it was during that Batman craze when I learned who Tim Burton really was. He had a vision for dark, yet reserved characters. The characters tended to mirror Burton himself. So much so, that the character Edward Scissorhands, resembles Tim Burton in his style of hair and black clothing.

(cover of one of my Comics Scene issues)

Then The Nightmare Before Christmas came out....

I instantly fell in love with the movie. The look, the unique storyline, and the music (yes I do like some musicals) all made the movie completely enjoyable to me. It was the first completely stop-motion animated feature film I had ever seen. At this time, I already knew I wanted to be an animator, specifically a Disney animator, and through the articles (so annoying pre-internet you had to find magazines or go to the library to research people!)  I had read about Tim Burton working as a Disney animation artist early in his career. This made me appreciate the director even more! 

In the Cinefantastique magazine above, I had read how this wasn't Burton's first stop-motion project and that he had created a stop-motion short called Vincent. Burton had also directed another live-action short called Frankenweenie at the studio, which ultimately got him fired from Disney because of it's PG rating and dark nature. Well I wanted to see these films desperately! I wouldn't be able to see Vincent until the DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2000. Frankenweenie on the other hand, I was able to rent on VHS from our local library. I loved the short. It was dark, sweet, and funny. Yet it didn't feel like there was enough time to develop the characters in that story. 

At this point in his career, Tim Burton made films that were personal to him (especially Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood). I think that's one of the many reasons why I enjoyed them.

After Ed Wood though, it felt like the movies became less and less personal. There were glimmers of something he felt strongly about with Big Fish, Sweeney Todd and The Corpse Bride, but with films like Planet of the Apes and Alice in Wonderland, it seemed that Burton was more making films simply to make money. Which is fine, because that's what the studios want, but I think the fans of Burton, want to see a movie that shows the inner thoughts of Burton. 

Frankenweenie, the feature film, finally feels like he's returning to do just that. At first the film seems like it's almost a stop-motion shot for shot remake of the short, but with a much bigger budget. Burton used his original short as a jumping off point to not only develop the characters a bit more, which he wasn't able to do in the original short, but to also take the story into a different direction, which is a pleasant surprise for those of us who had already seen the short. Credit definitely has to go to John August, Burton's screenwriter on Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride, for writing interesting characters, especially Mr. Rzykruski (pronounced Rice-Kriski) who is Victor (the main character's) mentor. He has some really great lines. 

The film is completely black and white, which I don't feel has ever been done for an animated feature film. It's a vision Burton had for the original short, and Disney trusted him to keep the feature film that way. The movie looks great and you never once question, "Am I going to see any color?" 

The animation is of course top notch and the characters are designed with that Burton look that many people know and love. Credit has to also go to Rick Heinrichs, Burton's close friend who has been production designer on many of Burton's films, going all the way back to the original Frankenweenie short that he also co-produced! 

I saw the film in 3D as well and it looked great! I've seen a handful of 3D movies in the theaters over the years and most of them have let me down, because I don't see the dimension at all that they promise. For the first time since How to Train Your Dragon, I could see the 3D dimensions and it felt like I was in the room as they were filming the stop-motion puppets. 

I really had a great time watching this movie, especially the things that happen near the end, but I don't want to give that away, because I encourage you to see it. 

I did find some story problems with the movie. A major one being that Victor's dad feels that his son is too different and he encourages Victor to play sports like the other kids. So Victor plays baseball, which ultimately gets our story in motion (a bit of a spoiler, so I won't ruin it), but ultimately I feel Victor would now hate his father for pushing him into doing something he really didn't want to in the first place and now something terrible has happened. There is never that moment of animosity between Victor and his father, which is a shame, because it's definitely something that could've been explored. Other story problems were minor and it happens later in the film, again I don't want to spoil anything, but they can be overlooked. 

Frankenweenie is a pleasant return for Burton to create movies that are personal to him again. Hopefully he'll continue to do so. 

Plastic Man movie circa 1989

When I was younger, I collected a lot of comic books. My favorites were Transformers, Fanatastic Four and Plastic Man. The reasons why I loved Fantastic Four and Plastic Man was that they had characters who could stretch and/or change into things. I also loved Elongated Man, but he only had a one-off issue starring him, but the rest of the time you'd have to find him in Flash comics or Justice League America and Europe.

Plastic Man was by far my favorite. He is/was cocky, yet funny and he rarely fought supernatural beings, he would often fight real criminals like the early Batmans. I loved the Saturday Morning cartoon series even, yet his character was drastically different than the comics (where was Woozy Winks???).

I always loved movies, but combine that with my love for comic books, I had to pick up issues of Starlog and/or Comics Scene magazines when I saw them at the local book store or Comic book store. They would have article upon articles about movies and tv shows being made based off of comics. Keep in mind this was during the Batman craze, so every studio talked about releasing the next movie based off of a comic book, but it was rare to see it (Punisher was terrible and flopped and Roger Corman's Fantastic Four was a joke).

I was recently rifling through my Comics Scenes and I saw articles about wanting to make an Iron Man movie, 18 years before it was actually made and another article about director Joe Dante being discussed to direct a Plastic Man movie! I remember as a kid thinking that this movie would be AMAZING!!! I love Joe Dante movies, Gremlins and Gremlins 2 are so great for many different reasons. Innerspace is funny and charming (my brothers and I still quote that movie "Ever see the Outlaw Yosee Vale? Vhat a flick!") Explorers made me want to go to outer space with my friends. And even the Burbs was weird but fun. So combine Joe Dante and my favorite comic book character, that would've been a young Cinemascapist's dream come true. Alas it never happened, but you can read the article here: