Sequels, Prequels, Reboots, and Series

It's interesting to me how there often appears to be this air of negativity around sequels - yet this weekend Hangover 2 (2012) set box office records for a 5 day opening of a comedy and an R-rated film (beating another sequel, Matrix Reloaded (2003)).
- Sequels and prequels should be expanding on an original story, continuing a story, or giving us background to a story we have not yet been exposed to. This unfortunately is not often the case. What we instead see is a production company trying to make a quick buck while a movie name, specific actor(s), or movie franchise is "hot". With this in mind we then see this idea of having to "one-up" its predecessor in some way, shape, or form with the results usually being not so great.
- Series, like James Bond, or Harry Potter usually come from previously written books, so a decent groundwork is already set down for a movie. What usually gets in the way of those movies being good or great is poor direction, poor casting, and poor editing.
- Reboots - we seem to be seeing more of these as digital special effects, new actors, new direction, could, in theory, revive a previously good, but otherwise limited (for whatever reason) movie. I think there is a place for all of these types of movies, but, in most cases (at least for the first 3) the product compared the original will be inferior. This is not to say that sequels, prequels, reboots, and series are not entertaining -in fact, in some cases they great productions. A recent reboot that,in my opinion, was very entertaining and well made was Star Trek (2009). In fact, I would rather watch it over Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) any day of the week. Examples of a sequel/series that are not in the inferior category are; The Godfather, Part II (1974), and the various James Bond movies.

I really like horror movies, and as my wife has pointed out on several occasions, over half of the movies I own could be considered horror, but it is this genre that I generally believe has driven sequels, prequels, and reboots down to almost laughable status. It seems that an every borderline decent horror film can launch multiple sequels which often results in dumbing down characters, and very lame stories.

Why I like movies : soundtracks /scores

A movie soundtrack / score can make a good movie great, and great movies epic.  Or one could also look at it like a great movie makes the soundtrack more memorable.
Is Jaws the same movie without that foreboding orchestration?  Can you hear 10 notes from the Star Wars overture, and not know that one of the Stars Wars films is playing in some other room?

-An example of a not-so-great movie with a great soundtrack : Sliver (1993)
-A song that made a movie memorable, or the other way around(?) : Say Anything (1989), In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel.  What does anyone remember about that movie?  John Cusack holding up the boom-box playing that song.
    - In the John Cusack vibe, who could forget the song Everybody Wants Some by Van Halen, in Better Off Dead (1985)... awesome comedy, great rock n roll song

Why I like movies, part 1

First and foremost, entertainment. One way we escape the tedium and stresses of our daily lives is to watch and listen to some other "reality" captured and by a production crew and actors and boxed for our enjoyment .  And I do use the word reality very loosely.
There are so many genres - action, horror, documentary, foreign, etc...  that it seems impossible not find something out there for everyone to enjoy.

final Memorial Day film pick

Dick Tracy (1990) ... based on 30's comic strip and radio show, it's a fun summer type action film.  Very much like a comic-come-alive.  Some of the bad guys names are entertainment in and of themselves....

Memorial Day weekend pick #2

Raider of the Lost Ark (1981).. Simply a great action flick.  You root for the good guys, and hate the bad guys.  My only question is what really happened between Marion and Indy that they were arguing about in Nepal :)

first movie pick for this weekend

Gone Baby Gone (2007) ... the Affleck brothers found something in this movie - I cannot really verbalize it beyond to say this is very good movie, and definitely not a "Hollywood ending".

this weekday recommendation, since weekend was missed

The Maltese Falcon.. all time classic.  There are just not actors like Bogart anymore.  Review coming, as always.

weekend movie picks

sorry i missed picks for this weekend, i will make some weekday picks... having computer issues

my recommendations for this weekend

still working on reviews - (I do not want to post 1 at a time, without having a nice foundation).  I look forward to this, I think it will be fun

my recommendations for this weekend

Sci Fi/Action/Adeventure - Serenity (2005); Comedy - Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion (1997); Classic/Mystery - The Third Man (1949)

my recommendations for this weekend

Mystery/Classic: M (1931) ... Comedy: Clerks (1994) ... Action/Sci Fi: Aliens (1986) ... Cartoon: Alice in Wonderland/Disney (1951).   Reviews will coming on all these films, and more.

coming soon ... Easy Guide to Movies by James

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