Remade

"How much to add a third hand?"

Weary of remakes? Not so excited about a classic Schwarzenegger epic being reduced to a watered down PG-13, cgi filled  (don't forget the slow-mo) "reimagining" that features the actually really good Colin Farrell? I like the guy, but after Miami Vice, Fright Night, and now the upcoming (re-upcoming?) Total Recall (available at all Videoramas dec.18th), he's apparently Hollywood's go-to guy for starring in the already made.



"Me throw girl in water."

Well, I hate to say this but it's really nothing new. Since the dawn of movies, the same idea has been re-used and recycled and re-tuned into the same old story that gets regurgitated into different shapes and sizes, which is how we get different shaped Frankenstein's Monsters heads.





"You talkin to me?!"

The first version of Mary Shelly's classic tale of science gone mad was made in 1910, produced by Thomas Edison and featured a very unframiliar version of the Creature, which resembled The Hunchback more then anything made by Dr. Frankenstein. Kind of looks like his malformed assistant. You know, the dude who stole the wrong brain?

Charles Ogle as The Monster.



           Some people are balking at the upcoming Sam Raimi directed Oz: The Great and Powerful, yet the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz, the classic we all know and love was actually the 3rd version of that story. The original was made in 1910. I mean, I guess a case could be made about these movies being based of novels, which kind of brings up the argument that it's a story written for a different medium, thereby giving different filmmakers lisence to interpret the material in their own way.

But how many times has the same story been retold and retold in a mirror effect like when you look in a mirror with a mirror behind you and the Mirror People are inside whispering to you about invisible children in the walls? You know what I mean? Guys?......*echo

CONTINUED IN PART 2!! Coming soon!!!!

Oscar Predictions for the Final Year of 2012

The pieces are in place for Oscar at Videorama, we have special sections for past winners of the coveted Best Picture category set up at the Lombard and St. Johns locations. That's right, this year the aging (or some might say decaying) dinosaur known as "Oscar" hits the stage on our television sets for the 84th time. It sounds like they're going at it from a whole new angle: Billy Crystal is hosting again,

though whether or not he is actually a human is up for debate. Is he an android? A melting clone? Well, undead vampire seems just as likely. But I kid! Of course then there's the nominations. Best Picture nominees include a Steven Spielberg film! a Woody Allen film! a Martin Scorsese FAMILY film (??!?), while George Clooney and Brad Pitt are up for Best Actors (NO WAY!) and Glenn Close and Meryl Streep are both up for Best Actress (anyone else get them confused with each other?).

Well if it sounds like this years Academy Awards will be another self congratulatory name dropping has been schmooze fest, I might suggest you head down to the nearest Videorama and rent something that is awesome, and perhaps overlooked by this so-called DECIDER of what is an award winning performance! Dennis Hopper in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (found in Kristopher's Picks at the St. Johns location) is commonly known as one of the greatest overlooked performances of the last century. Who could forget the huffing, puffing, cursing lunatic known as Frank that he portrays? Or the tortured genius of Robocop, the cyborg-cop epic directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Peter Weller (which happens to feature that one guy from ER melting!)? Or maybe you wanna go the way of the renter who wants to see the past winners, like Tommy Lee Jones in his Best Supporting Actor performance in The Fugitive! I DIDN'T KILL MY WIFE!!!! * Harrison Ford growling.

You might as well rent 4 previous winners if you're looking to save money, it's still rent 3 get a 4th one free on everything but New Releases at the St. Johns and N. Lombard locations, and New Releases are still $2 for overnight. As for the Best Picture nominations, I kind of think that the Academy is going to decide that it's been a while since Woody Allen has won anything, they like to decide when "it's time" for certain people. I think it's too bad they don't like movies pertaining to outerspace or other dimensions. When has a movie about goblins from outerspace won anything other then Best Visual Effects?!?! Exactly!!