Ramakes: Hate them or love them?

With my thoughts on remakes today -- I wonder what the general consensus is.   Are they worth while?

Here are some remakes I hated:

• Amityville Horror.  Oh yeah, they said they were going back to the book.  They didn't.  But the book is pretty awesomely stupid.  It's like kids telling a story; ". . . and then she was levitating off the bed, and then we saw a ghost, but the ghost was a pig, and then there was black goop, and then the pig left tracks in the snow, and then we found a secret red room, and then. . . "
• Psycho.  Using the same script as Hitchcock used, and the same pacing -- the only thing different was  that it was in color.  And something just didn't feel right. 
• Annie.  Did we need to remake that?  No.
• Miracle on 34th Street.  The remake is sweet, but the  magic couldn't be reproduced. 
• Mr. Deeds was petty good for its time in 1936.  It wasn't so good for its time in 2002.
• Freaky Friday.  Did it need an update?  Maybe, but it had already been redone in so many ways. 
• The Parent Trap.  Disney does this to get new viewers, but I think they had a strong story the first  time.
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  In the first one leatherface runs around with a chainsaw, as opposed to the new one where leatherface runs around with a chainsaw.
• I Spit On Your Grave.  Roger Ebert refused to give it any stars the first time around.  Why remake it?  I don't know.  Might as well remake Plan 9 From outerspace. 

Here are some remakes I liked:

• The Man who Knew Too Much.  Did you know Hitch made this film twice?  Of course,  I think we are more patient when the director himself is remaking his own work. 
• Carrie.  This was a solid film that brought Carrie into  the modern age.  And it deserves to be moved up, since the story itself is pretty ageless.
• The Shining miniseries.  Not a Kubrick remake at all, it actually went back to the book.  I liked it.
• The Ten Commandments.  It was a silent film first.  Now I understand remaking films so they have sound!  And why doesn't someone put the words at the bottom of the screen  on silent films instead of blacking out the entire screen?  We can do it with subtitles now.
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Which was also a silent film first. 
• Superman.  I like them all.  Really.  Even Superman Returns, which had lots of openings for sequels.
• Spiderman.  I think the term is "reboot" these days, but it sure feels like a remake.  Anyway, I like it each time it comes around.
• Cheaper by the Dozen was a lot more fun than the first go-round.   Though, it was far from the book the second time!
• King Kong remake was fun in 2005.  Long, but I liked it that they went back to the 30's.  The 1976 version was just boring.  In that version, Kong climbed the world  trade tower.
• Red Dragon was originally put to screen in the form of "Manhunter."  Then when Harris got super famous, they remade it --  and this time it was scary!
• Father of the Bride.  I like the remake with Steve  Martin better.
• The Time Machine.  Two very different movies, as the updated version made some pretty radical new turns.  Our family likes both incarnations.

What I notice going through remakes is that a lot of horror movies get  remade.  I'm not sure why. How many times have we done Frankenstein and Dracula?

By the way, I didn't know until today that Don Knotts The Shakiest Gun In The West was a remake of Paleface. 

What remakes do you like, and which ones do you hate?
Here's a list: wikipedia.org

Interview with ANDREW RAUSCH

I am really excited to have the opportunity to interview the very prolific an energetic Andy Rausch.  Husband, Father, writer and producer. . . this guy is one busy fella.  

Andrew J. Raush is the author of The Suicide Game, Riding Shotgun and was the screenwriter for the movie Dahmer vs Gacy.  He is also author of Turning Points In Film History, Making Movies With Orson Wells, The Films Of Martin Scorsese And Robert De Niro.

He is also author of The Stephen King Movie Quiz Book, and editor of The Wit And Wisdom Of Stephen King.

INTERVIEW

Talk Stephen King: Hey, thanks for agreeing to this interview. Tell me a bit about yourself.

Andy Rausch: I'm 39, married and have five children. I love writing, and I write every day, from screenplays to novels to non-fiction books to film criticism. I read a lot, and I watch a lot of movies. I don't know, I'm pretty boring. Not really much to say here.

TSK: You've done everything from producing to casting to acting. What is your favorite part of the filmmaking process?

Andy Rausch: Nothing beats the first time you see the final film. It's a rush, even when the film is bad.

TSK: What is the most challenging aspect of filmmaking?

Andy Rausch: Dealing with fifty different people, all of whom have their own ideas of how the scenes should be shot and how the dialogue should be spoken. There are many egos at war on a movie set. Lack of sleep is pretty challenging, too.

TSK: Do you have an all-time favorite movie?

Andy Rausch: My ten favorite films in no particular order are: Pulp Fiction, GoodFellas, The Godfather Part II, Sunset Boulevard, Yojimbo, Rolling Thunder, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Thin Red Line, and Solaris. I enjoy chop-socky movies, chick flicks, spaghetti westerns, samurai pictures, horror, you name it.

TSK: You've written two books about Stephen King. Is he your favorite writer? What other writers do you read consistently?

Andy Rausch: Stephen King is in a three-way tie for my author along with Elmore Leonard and Kurt Vonnegut. I also read a lot of Max Allan Collins and Richard Stark.

TSK: Do you have a favorite work by Stephen King?

Andy Rausch: I love Pet Sematary. It was the first book that really scared the shit out of me. I was only eleven or twelve at the time, but it scared the bejeezus out of me. I've read it several times since, and have loved it just as much every single time. I'm also a big fan of The Shining. And Blaze. And Cujo... The list goes on and on.

TSK: What is your favorite Stephen King movie?

Andy Rausch: The Shawshank Redemption, hands down. I'm also a big fan of Kubrick's The Shining. I know that's blasphemy to King fans, but I really love that film. Stand By Me is pretty damned good, too. But if I'm being truthful, I have a soft spot in my heart for just about all of the King adaptations—even the crappy ones. Not the sequels, though. Most of those are garbage.

TSK: So long as we're dealing with Stephen King movies, I might as well ask: What King movie do you absolutely hate?

Andy Rausch: Hmm, tough one. How about the original Children of the Corn? And maybe all of its sequels. They're all pretty terrible.

TSK: The new Carrie trailer just came out. Did you see it? What do you think of this project?

Andy Rausch: I think it will be a good movie, but I think it's completely unneeded. The original is a very good film and the TV remake wasn't bad, either. Do we really need another Carrie film?

TSK: I see you've done some acting. If you could play any character from a Stephen King book on the big screen, who would you portray?

Andy Rausch: I'm no great actor, although I was relatively proud of my performance as a drug dealer in Evil Ever After, which virtually no one has seen... Usually I'm the guy in the horror film who gets one scene and then promptly gets killed. I got my heart ripped out and eaten in Zombiegeddon; I died a pretty gruesome death in Evil Ever After; I think I got killed by a scythe in The Ancient... So sure, if I had my choice I'd play someone like Jack Torrance in The Shining, but if I'm being realistic I would probably be that guy who shows up and dies immediately; the character whose name we don't even know!

TSK: Are there any King books that you think would adapt well to the big screen but just haven't made it yet?

Andy Rausch: Again, I'm really fond of Blaze. I know that one tends to get lost in the shuffle, but I think it's really great.

TSK: You seem to focus your writing energy on quiz books or compilations. This seems like it would be quite a different process from writing a novel. How long does it usually take you to put these projects together?

Andy Rausch: I've written almost 20 books. I'm currently working on my 18^th and 19^th books. Five of those are quiz books. I really hate to be pigeonholed as a quiz book writer, even though it's my fault for having written so many of them. Quiz books are kind of the ghetto genre of literature, maybe two steps below Harlequin romance novel. As for the compilations, those were interview collections, and I wrote those because I really enjoy meeting people whom I admire. For my book Fifty Filmmakers I got to meet all kinds of directors, from Budd Boetticher to Frank Darabont, and that was an amazing experience. I interviewed 79 directors for that and then whittled that down to the 50 that appear in the book.

I've also written some more serious books that I'm really proud of. I wrote a book called Turning Points in Film History that was used as a textbook in college film classes. Usually you have to be a professor to write something like that, so I really lucked out with that one. Another book I'm extremely proud of is The Films of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. Both of those were difficult books to write and they required tons of research.

Every book is different. I once wrote an entire book in six weeks. But then the Fifty Filmmakers book took eight years to complete. I worked on my first novel for seven or eight years. It really just varies. It could be six months or it could be six years, depending on the book.

TSK: What made you decide to write quiz-style trivia books?

Andy Rausch: Well, my buddy and mentor Stephen J. Spignesi had published a couple of extremely successful Stephen King quiz books. I was still trying to break into publishing at the time and I thought, I could write something like that. I was still trying to find my footing and was unsure at that time about my abilities as a writer. But I thought, I know I can do this. So I wrote The 100 Greatest American Films: A Quiz Book, and it sold to the first publisher who looked at it. I really didn't want to write anymore quiz books, but the publisher offered me a contract for two more quiz books, Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars and The Greatest War Films of All Time. I was still new to all of this, and I thought, well, I may never get the opportunity to publish another book. A bird in the hand, you know? So I wrote those books. Then years later I got suckered into writing a fourth quiz book, Obsessed with Hollywood, and that book made me a ton of money. You would not believe how much money I made from that book, and it was funny, too, because I initially considered turning the project down. So that's how all of that happened.

           

The Stephen King Movie Quiz Book was mostly written way back around 2001, but I had never published it. It would have been my second book, but my publisher hadn't been interested in the idea. So I tucked it away. Then, years later, I came across the manuscript and thought, Why hadn't I pursued publishing this one? So I convinced a writer pal of mine, Ron Riley, to watch the last ten or so films and write quizzes for them. He did it, we found a publisher for the project, and the rest, as they say, is history.

TSK: Which of the books you've written is your favorite?

Andy Rausch: My novel, The Suicide Game, which was published last year by Taylor Street Publishing, is my favorite. It took me nearly a decade to write it, and it is a much more personal experience than writing non-fiction. My favorite non-fiction book is Making Movies with Orson Welles, which I wrote with Welles' cinematographer, Gary Graver. That was a great experience and I had the good fortune of becoming close friends with Gary and his wife, Jillian, before they passed away.

TSK: Which of the films you've worked on is your favorite?

Andy Rausch: Dahmer vs. Gacy, which I wrote. That one just turned up in Maxim magazine this past month. That was pretty cool. Working with producer Chris Watson and director Ford Austin was a great experience.

TSK: Since you participated in the Welles book, I'll ask you this... I've always been fascinated by the 1938 War of the Worlds fiasco. Do you think anything like that could ever happen again?

Andy Rausch: No. Today we have so much information—maybe too much information—at our disposal at any given moment. I think you could maybe fool a few people here and there, but convincing that number of people that aliens are attacking seems unlikely.

TSK: What projects do you have coming up?

Andy Rausch: I'm currently working on books about both Ed Wood and Tony Scott, who passed away a couple of months back. I'm also preparing to write a screenplay based on my book Making Movies with Orson Welles. It will be about Gary and Orson's friendship and the making of The Other Side of the Wind.

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Books By Andrew J. Rausch:

• The 100 Greatest American Films: A Quiz Book
• Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars: A Quiz Book
• The Greatest War Films of All Time: A Quiz Book
• Turning Points in Film History
• Fifty Filmmakers: Conversations with Directors from Roger Avary to Steven Zaillian
• Obsessed with Hollywood
• Making Movies with Orson Welles (w/ Gary Graver)
• Reflections on Blaxploitation
• The Films of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro
• I Am Hip-Hop: Conversations on the Music and Culture
• The Suicide Game (novel)
• The Wit and Wisdom of Stephen King
• The Stephen King Movie Quiz Book
• Dirty Talk: Conversations with Porn Stars
• Riding Shotgun (novella)
• The Godfather of Gore Speaks (w/ HG Lewis)
• Gods of Grindhouse

Movies (incomplete list, but the better ones)

• Zombiegeddon, executive producer, actor
• Minds of Terror, executive producer
• Slaughter Party, executive producer
• Evil Ever After, executive producer, actor
• Dahmer vs. Gacy, screenwriter
• Dead in Love, executive producer

The magic of Famous Monsters

photo credit: tgdaily.com

I really enjoyed David Konow's article, "The Magic of Famous Monsters" at tgdaily.com. 

Konow explores the first issue of Famous Monsters.  This is a magazine that King has said qite a lot about, and seems to ahve influenced him deeply as a young man.

The article cites King's book On Writing, in which King recalls the "bright memories" associated with this magazine.
Konow quotes King:

King wrote the introduction to Mr. Monster's Movie Gold, one of the many books Forry had penned over the years, and in it he recalled the first time he ever picked up the magazine at a local newsstand. "I didn't just read my first issue of Famous Monsters," King wrote. "I inhaled it... I poured over it... I damn near memorized that magazine and it seemed eons until the next one."

It wasn't long after King discovered the wonderful world of Famous Monsters that he sent Forry a story he wrote in 1960. It was the very first time King ever sent anything out in the hopes of being published. Ackerman was also a literary agent, he represented Ray Bradbury, L. Ron Hubbard and Ed Wood, and he could have added King to his roster, but unfortunately he rejected the story.



I guess King survived being rejected by Ed Wood's agent! -- Haha.

The article recalls a touching scene in which Ackerman met Kingat a book signing in L.A. and had him sign the original copy of a story King submitted in the early sities!
Go read the entire article.  I've actually linked to the second part, but both are a great read.

11.22.63 Journal #6: Suspicions

Reading a good book is like eating a good meal -- don't rush!  I'm enjoying 11.22.63 quite a bit.  I'm in the final days, headed quickly toward the BIG day.  So, of course, all the answers are near by, I hope! 

Remember the guy who used to hang around Ed Wood named Criswell ? He was famous for saying, "I PREDICT!" And he would say crazy things. Well, I have a few to offer. and if you don't know who I mean, google Criswell. No, I don't mean the pastor of 1st Baptist Church of Dallas!

It is worth writing down some suspicions I have at this point, before I know the outcome.  So. . . here are some not so educated guesses!  Those of you who have read the whole thing, don't correct me! 

So. . .

1. I suspect this will turn out to be a dry run.  That is, our friend is going to reset history again once he sees the outcome of his efforts.

2. I suspect Sadie will help George carry out his mission.

3. I suspect on his second trip, George will protect Sadie better.  the best face lift would be a reset in the timeline.

4. And if he does do this all again, I think he should do a LOT more study before heading into the past. George jumped too quick!  He needed to spend some time with his friend google and wiki. 

5. I suspect saving Kennedy will do nothing to save MLK. 

6. And for the changes that would happen if Kennedy did live:

--Without LBJ, I suspect the civil rights movement might take more time. 
--I do think Vietnam would be avoided all together if Kennedy lived.
--With no Vietnam, I am left wondering about other wars.  Gulf Wars and various police actions.  No idea on those!  I hope King deals with them.

7. I know the yellow-card man will be back.  He is always lurking near by.  But what kind of wrench he will throw in the mission, I don't know. 

So there you go.  Notes from a guy who actually knows nothing!

Does Stand By Me = Super 8

Jeff Jensen has one whale of a math equation! 

Stand By Me
+ Dazed and Confused
+ (Day For Night x Ed Wood)
+ (Jaws x ET)
x .5 Bambi
+ Cloverland
______________________
= Super 8

Fuzzy math, you say?  Maybe, but it's more fun than I ever had in math class.  Check out the article and try to follow that math equation -- there might be at test.

The answer -- does the equation work -- is "no".  Reason: the equation is incomplete. And, it has extra numbers -- Cloverland, come on! 

IT was a fantastic mini-series, minus the stupid adults!  And Super 8's club is nothing short of a "losers club."   Also, the formula does not need Cloverland.  That belongs on another chalkboard as a separate equation.

Here's the correct equation:

Stand By Me
+ Dazed and Confused
+ (Day For Night x Ed Wood)
+ (Jaws x ET)
x.5 Bambi
+ (IT - minus the adult actors and Pennywise)
______________________
= Super 8

Okay, go check out the math. It is fun reading. . .

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/06/10/super-8-movie-math/

Maximum Overdrive

Good news / bad news -- Hollywood Video is going out of business. Of course, I don't rent from Hollywood Video, so for me it's goodnews/goodnews. They're selling the entire stock. So right now I have King movies all piled up. Summer is usually the time I buy a bunch of King movies, and so cheap DVDs are great. And, guess what they had. . . Maximum Overdrive. We're several days into the sale now, and no one has bought this. Hummm, I wonder why!

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My daughters and I watched this tonight. So, here is our review:

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The characters in this film are certainly not on their way to a Mensa convention. In fact, does anyone in this film have an IQ over 75?

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HITCHCOCK!

According to Creepshows by Stephen Jones (my favorite book on Stephen King movies), King said that the inspiration for the story came from Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film The Birds. So, you get it, right? Birds go crazy and attack people -- machines go crazy and attack people. Subtle. In Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, another cool book, Jeff Conner says, "Like The Birds and Romero's Dead films, the storyline concerns those few plucky survivors; that group of disparate people thrown together in this trying time of fantastical crisis. yes, mayhem ensues." p.119

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Truth is, this isn't a very good film. I know that you're shocked. King said that a reviewer in New York gave it zero stars.

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But I like it. Here's why, in no particular order.

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1. This is so bad, it sinks to the level of Ed Wood bad. Which is a wonderful kind of bad to sink to. Not just any Ed Wood cross-dressing kind of bad. But the lofty position of Plan 9 From Outer Space kind of bad. So bad, it's good. After I wrote that, I read this quote from King in Creepshows, "There was a long period during post production when I thought I had made a worthy successor to Plan 9 from Outer Space." Creepshows, p.46

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2. It's not boring. Lots of action. My kids particularly liked it when the guy sprayed himself in the face with the gas hose. Brilliant. Remind me that when hiding from rogue cars, it is always a good idea to take refuge near a gas station.

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3. Lots of car chases and things blow up. Man food. Better yet, the woman in the cafe yelling at the sky is just great. You really need to see this film -- just for her.

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4. I like the green sky. What is this "comet" made of -- alien farts?

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5. How many movies start with the director getting told he's an a-hole? And, this is no ordinary director, it's the King of horror himself.

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6. No matter what you think of the movie, the AC/DC sound track is well done. My friend actually said that he wore his copy of the sound track out. I wonder if anyone wore their DVD's out.

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7. Listening to Yeardley Smith play a bride on her honeymoon is great. She screams more than Dakota Fanning in War of the Worlds. Of course, you know Yeardley Smith as the voice of Lisa Simpson.

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8. It's nice to peak in at the world of 1986. Very 80's film. I knew cars had changed, but I was unaware that gas pumps had changed so much.

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9. I wish I had seen this as a kid, then I would have had a story to go with all those toy trucks I crashed up -- other than "Crush-Up-Derby."

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10. It's like an evil episode of the Twilight Zone. Jeff Conner says in Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, "The Trucks story is a Twilight Zone kind of affair, pitting Mankind against suddenly sentient, and pissed off, semi-trucks; sort of a Night of the Living Big Rigs deal." p.119

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DVD QUESTIONS:

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Where is the directors commentary? I know King is a busy man, but this classic would be just great with his voice talking over it.

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Where is the "directors cut"? When the movie was rated by the MPAA, it was originally given an "X" for excessive violence. (that would be an NC-17 these days) To get it down to an "R", King chopped a couple of gore scenes.

Plan 9 v. The Langoliers

I read several comments recently that compared the Langoliers to Ed Wood's now famously bad movie Plan 9 from Out Space. "No!" I thought at once. "This wasn't nearly as wonderful as Plan 9!" Of course, Plan 9 sinks so low it can be nothing but enjoyable.

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Just for fun. . . let's do a quick review of Plan 9 and then see if the Langoliers rises to the occasion.

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Here's my notes from Plan 9,

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This is the funniest film I’ve seen!
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My favorite channel, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) gave this introduction to Plan 9 From Outer Space: "Here at TCM we pride ourselves in bringing you some of the best movies ever made. Coming up next, we will fail. We have the film that has for years been touted as the worst movie of all time. After watching it, you’ll agree."

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Plan 9 From Outer Space is about aliens attempting to make contact with humans. However, the earth leaders have denied their existence and refused to talk. The angry aliens turn to "plan 9" to destroy earth. What is plan 9?
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Plan 9 was made by Ed Wood Jr., who started the movie with his friend Bela Lugosi leaving his home. Lugosi, who was supposed to be the star of the film, died after shooting that opening spot. So what did Ed Wood do? He got his wife’s chiropractor to stand in. Of course, the chiropractor didn’t look anything like Bela Lugosi – but that’s okay, because he holds his cape up over his face to that we will all think it’s Bela Lugosi. But, we can all tell: "Hey, mom, that’s not Bela Lugosi!"
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Now to get financing to this film, Ed Wood made friends with a local Baptist Church. The Church was going to make 12 movies of the Apostles. But they only had money for one film. Wood convinced them that if they made one popular movie, the profits would be so great they would have money to make their other 12 films. So the Baptist put up the money. The movie was originally called, "Grave Robbers From Space" but the Baptist objected. So, it was renamed Plan 9 From Outer Space. Reportedly the Baptist made Ed and crew get Baptized before they put up the money. I’ll withhold any comment.
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The movie also stars Vampira, who would later sue Elvira for stealing her act. Director Ed Wood was voted worst director ever, and Plan 9 was voted wort movie ever. Wood was a transvestite (wore women’s underwear), but often clarified that did not mean he didn’t like women. No sissy, Wood stormed the beach of Normandy! (He claimed he did this wearing a red bra. Good thing he didn’t get shot and rushed to the hospital.)
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Some really great lines:

Policeman standing over dead body, "This is murder, and somebody is responsible." (Uh, yeah! Beats that murder where no one is responsible.)

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Grave digger 1: "Did you hear anything?"

Grave digger 2: "I thought I did. I don’t like hearing noises. Epically when there ain’t supposed to be any."

Grave digger 1: "yeah, kinda spooky like."

Grave digger 2: "Maybe we’re getting old."

Now wait! Getting old doesn’t cause you to hear things... it causes you NOT to hear things!
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Pilots wife: "The saucer is up there, the cemetery is out there, but I’ll be in there."
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Conclusion: "My friends, you have seen this incident based on sworn testimony. Can you prove it didn’t happen? Perhaps on your way home, someone will pas you in the dark, and you will never know it – for they will be from outer space!"
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Mistakes:

1. The police officer in the graveyard keeps scratching his neck and pointing with his gun.

2. When the UFO flies by the airplane, the string can be seen holding the UFO. Guess that’s it umbilical cord to the mother ship.

3. The scenes keep switching between day and night. That’s right, night turns to day and day turns to night. (9:13 , 9:25 , 28:10, 31:494. The inside of the flying saucer is awesome! What does an alien space craft look like? Why, a desk surrounded by black curtains, of course. See, the aliens have learned that walls are really unnecessary.

5. The outside view of the cemetery is different than the inside.

6. The aliens raise the dead... but he can hardly get out of the grave! Seriously, this resurrection stuff is a tough gig.

7. When the police inspect the grave, notice how shallow it is. Guess that six feet under is the stuff of legend.

8. Colonel Edwards arrives at Jeff and Paula's house with the detective, but he wasn't in the car when it pulled up!

9. Are those tombstones made of cardboard?

10. Ed Wood claimed he used models for the spaceships, but they sure look like hubcaps!

11. The minister at the funeral never says anything, he just stares at his Bible. Maybe it’s his first funeral.

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Now, for the big question: Is the Langoliers this good? Or, more aptly, does it rise to this beautiful level of badness? The comments are open, so feel free to share your deep thoughts on this subject.

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My opinion: Does Langoliers compare with Plan 9? -- Sadly, it does not. It's just not bad enough to fall in line with Plan 9, because if it was that bad, it would be wonderful!