Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If a week goes by and I have failed to add you to the blog roll TELL ME TO DO IT AGAIN, and KEEP TELLING ME UNTIL IT GETS DONE. I can be lazy about updating the non-post parts of this site.
ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy (but now might not be). That is often the reason I fail to get back to people, and on a blog, after a few days, the comments thread dies and I just kind of forget about it. Let's use this space to fix that, because it does need to be fixed; I look like a jackass sometimes, leaving people hanging. I will TRY to respond to any questions here.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore. For example, if you thought of a great quote for the great quote commonplace book, but now no one is reading that, you could put it here.
You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.
Just wanna say, the thread that spun out of your Aug. 26 post, "Criticism in the Comments," was pretty sweet. Lots of good, contentious argument on a variety of topics but with nobody ever becoming jerky. Pretty rare on an internet forum, methinks. This blog rules!
ReplyDeleteCompletely unrelated to anything on this blog (almost): I was rereading Morrison's JLA and came upon a quick little one-liner about the Superman of the 853rd century, just the other day, fighting the Chronovore with our Superman. I didn't think much of it when I read it the first time, but when you take All-star #5 into consideration I thought it was pretty funny. What would you call that? Foreshadowing or like a retroactive callback?
ReplyDeleteThat JLA stuff with the future Superman (and the Mxyzptlk Superman--mentioned in JLA but not seen until the 1,000,000 80-Page Giant, I believe) is more than just a callback. It seems to link All-Star Superman into some kind of Morrisonian continuity.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should point it out, as I just read that stuff yesterday and thought about posting a few thoughts on it.
Maybe I still will.
"Morrisonian continuity."
ReplyDeleteI like that and have been thinking similar things. Between his current runs on All Star Superman and Batman are almost going out of their way to tie into DC 1,000,000 (and by extension JLA) and Seven Soldiers creating his own little part of the DC universe that is more fascinating to watch than what passes for the more mainstream DCU stuff right now.
I just got the Batman & Son hardcover yesterday. Today it struck me how between Batman #666 and For Tomorrow in New X-Men, Morrison is writing his own version of the future, ignoring almost the canonical Dark Knights and Days of Future Past futures.
I'm just really sad that they've decided to remake the Citizen Kane of sci-fi films, The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Keanu Reeves no less. (I don't hate him so much, but between this and Constantine it's kind of hard not to.)
ReplyDeleteDo you think of the posters here as real friends, Geoff? Or Students? Or just words on a screen?
ReplyDeleteAnono -- wow that is a good question. I guess at this point, in a weird way, I would consider the regular posters here to be friends and coleagues. I had not thought of it like that before, but there you have it. I wonder where people like Mitch and Ping33 go when I have not heard from them in a while.
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking I should have some kind of meet up at a bar in Queens, since so many people live in the NYC area.
I think Dawn of the Dead 2004 is a watershed moment for me in terms of the way I think of "remakes". Film studios don't see the original movie as "source material" the way a fan would, they consider that stuff IP's, franchise potential, that sort of thing. The only thing it shares with the original film, marketing-wise, are some thematic elements and the recognition of the IP.
ReplyDeleteHello all -
ReplyDeleteAfter putting my foot in my mouth during the critic comments section of the blog - the timing was right for me to get pulled back into the horror community with the release of Rob Zombie's Halloween this weekend.
I've spent the last few days watching the original John Carpenter film as well as Rob Zombie's new version.
I typed up a rather long-winded examination of the new film to explain how Zombie successfully casts his new Myers as a new Boogeyman for today - fully empowered as the walking Shadow archetype.
You can read it all with non sequitur pictures at my Live Journal or if you want to read it with the accompanying Halloween photos - read the article at my website Mutantville.com
The official Archie website is running a weekly story contest, and I won for Week 12. To read mine, you can follow the link and scroll down to Week 12:
ReplyDeletehttp://archiecomicblogs.typepad.com/winners/
I win some comics and a chance to appear in the printed pages of Archie (that part hasn't been decided yet).
Of course, it doesn't hurt that I'm mostly competing against kids. But hey, I didn't see any age restrictions in the rules...
1) "Morrison Continuity" - How much is REAL continuity and how much is just reuse of the same themes? Is there a difference? (I think so) I mean... he has produced a number of (mostly female) World Eating Deities (Shiva types) Even going so far as to create 2 within months of one-another (Queen Sheeda and Lady Styx)
ReplyDelete2) Day The Earth Stood Still is a great movie... one of the only really liberal sci-fi movies of the 50's. Interesting that they would remake it since nothing really happens. If they did it half right than at least they could piss-off the jesus freaks (Jesus' an Alien?!) but I doubt they will... I expect explosions. On the scale of Bad Ideas this one ranks as being more tolerable than the misguided Watchmen film adaptation but not as bad as the oft mentioned Prisoner remake.
3) That said: I'm tired of slagging off remakes on principal... I can think of a load of them where the remake is better than the orig.
4) Where Does Ping33 go when he's not here? That would be Telling...
"3) That said: I'm tired of slagging off remakes on principal... I can think of a load of them where the remake is better than the orig."
ReplyDeleteDo tell.
Vanilla sky
ReplyDeleteScarface
Battlestar galactica
Casino royale
Solaris
Oceans 11
A star is born
The man who knew too much
12 monkeys
Dirty rotten scounderls
THX 1138
Fistful of dollars
The Thing
ReplyDeleteI want to say Ghost Dog but Le Samouraï is awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ping - and James. In each case, I've seen either the original or the remake but not both, so I can't comment intelligently on any improvement or lack thereof. (Though, having only seen the original Battlestar Galactica, I have NO problem believing the remake is better. God lord, how could it not be?)
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not anti-remake, by the way; I was just curious to see your list.
Fistful of Dollars better than Yojimbo?! Them's fightin' words! Ah, I'm just kidding, but as much as I like Leone, I'll take the original Kurosawa version.
ReplyDeleteAs for several of the others, I don't know how much they count as remakes. I'm thinking of THX, 12 Monkeys, and Casino Royale specifically, since the first was an expanded version of a student film, the second was a takeoff on ideas from a short film, and the third was based on the book rather than the silly original movie. I believe the Soderbergh version of Solaris was also supposed to be based on the book; I haven't seen the original. The Man Who Knew Too Much is also a special case, since it was remade by the same person who made the original (for another case of that phenomenon, Michael Haneke has remade his film Funny Games, with the new version coming out this fall; I haven't seen the original, but I would like to). And while I haven't seen Abre los Ojos, I didn't especially like Vanilla Sky, so I somehow have a better opinion of the former film. That's probably kind of dumb of me though.
I'm trying to think of other remakes that I might consider better than the originals, but nothing is coming to me. I can think of a few that are possibly equal to the original, like King Kong or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but nothing that's better at the moment. I guess I'll have to ponder it and come back later.
The 70's Body Snatchers is a good call.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of people remaking their own movie I would also throw in Don't Drink the Water, as Woody's TV version is somewhat less awful than his Jackie Gleason Filmed version.
That was just the list I came up with on the bus though... f'ing London Tube Strike, I'm sure there are others.