2012: Sequels and Remakes Strike Again *Take 2*

    Sequels and remakes aren't all bad, there are some of them that still capture our hearts and give us hope for the future of sequels. So far this year we have received a solid list of announced titles, one we are all looking for I'm sure, with titles like "The Hunger Games" and "Chronicle" coming out how can one not be excited about what this year will bring. A side note, we will not be covering Twilight within this article, though we are about to be faced with the fourth movie this series does not apply as a sequel, for its a series, the books were written before the movies began to be released and the whole story was already developed, thus its not a sequel but a story told in parts, like "Lord Of The Rings" was a story told in parts, anyway, here we go:

   Superhero Movie Extravaganza

     We are being bombarded with superhero movies this year, some are original like "Chronicle" which comes out next week, but the majority of them are sequels or remakes. Let's start at the top shall we, the "Avengers" a sequel of sorts, here we have a combination of various other movies puzzled together over a period of time and thus creating a sequel, an elaborate sequel but a sequel none-of-the-less, this movie will be amazing, or so we hope. "Batman Rises" this actually happens to be the sequel of a remake, yeah Nolan rebooted the Batman series brilliantly, and thus we look forward to his conclusion this year, but don't forget that this was a sequel of a remake done well, a rarity. Finally we reach our webbed hero who desperately need a reboot after Toby did the whole emo Venom thing, "The Amazing Spider-man" will be coming out this year, complete with web shooters, Gwen Stacy and the Lizard as a villain, this movie looks legit, guess they figured that if the new ideas were bombing they should go back to the roots to get inspiration, a good move over all we think. 

   MIB III

    We have not had a "Men In Black" movie in a long time, the first one came out in 1997 just so you get the picture, yeah it's an old series but its a good one for sure. This is the role we all loved Will Smith playing in, the role that complimented movies like "Independence Day" and "Enemy Of The State" so well, and now we have old Will back doing another MIB, we can't wait. The preview looks really good and its being surrounded by a good cast which always helps, as long as they keep it simple like the first one and avoid tons of twists like the second one we feel that this movie will come out great. The great thing about the MIB series is the element of humor combined with action, we haven't had a good action movie that was centered around humor for a while, not slap-stick humor but intelligent humor, like the ones found in the first installment of this series. We can't wait for this movie, if you haven't seen the preview yet then do yourself a kindness and go watch it, it looks really good.

    Skyfall

   
     There was a time where we would receive a James Bond movie per year, those were good times, though we're ok with waiting two years for a Bond flick if Daniel Craig promises a repeat blockbuster performance he has shown us in the previous two Bond movies he has done, rather impressive really. One cannot help but be excited about "Skyfall" here we are seeing a complete evolution of the series taking into account our culture of today, our technology and so forth. Though many of us were skeptical about Daniel Craig being the new Bond we could not have braced ourselves for how awesome of a Bond he was, there were some minor quips with the last movie, like no gadgets, but that feels like a minor detail when you take into account the performance shown within the movie. One has only to watch some of the older Bond flicks to see how far we have come, truly a movie to look forward to.

      Oh The Brashness

   What year would be complete without some brash movies to entertain us along the way, this year we are being hit with the father of brashness, "Expendables 2". Before we even start talking about the movie let's review the cast: Liam Hemsworth, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Jet Li, Charisma Carpenter, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Scott Adkins, right, this movie perspires brashness to a level beyond understanding. There is one way that this movie could drive the nail home and that is if they had recruited Liam Neeson to this little brash party, surely that would have blown our minds even more so if they had included Steven Seagal to the cast as well, guess they are saving those and others for "Expendables 3", either way this movie is sure to be the brashest movie of the year, no way anyone could even compete.    

Would be the runner up for sure

    And there you have it, proof that not all sequels and remakes are a bad thing, so when you look at the upcoming movies list and begin to feel noxious by all the horrible sequels and remakes, remember that though those will cause us pain, that there are others out there that will bring us plenty of joy.  We also hope you liked the new look for the blog, we are growing more and more so thank you for your support.

  We hope you all had a fantastic week, and have a glorious weekend,

Love from your humble blogger,

2012: Sequels And Remakes Strike Again

    If you have been reading us for a while you know how we feel about sequels and remakes, 9/10 times sequels are wretched and disappointing, and though some remakes are good others are either remade too soon or they are done so while destroying the awesomeness of the original product. This year's movie list is no better than last year, though we have a lesser amount of sequels coming out this year movie theaters will still be hosting a plethora of sequels, remakes and sequels of remakes, some of those we are looking forward to, but these are the ones we are skeptic/worried/mortified about or disappointed with:

   Underworld: Awakening

    Underworld 4 just got released in theaters, and though the movie was enjoyable it was nothing new. Fans of the series will enjoy it and find it stimulating but for the most part there isn't anything in this movie that we haven't seen in the other three. This movie does beg the question though as of why would a fourth release be something that producers would ever feel like would be a good idea when the third one did so badly. I fear they thought that if only they added some good fighting sequences and added scenes of Kate Beckinsale looking hot that the movie would do well, and that's about all we get in this movie. What the fans wanted was a good story progression, a maturing of Kate's character, we longed for an evolution of the first two movies not a remake, hence this movie was a disappointment, but if you are a fan of the series you will still enjoy watching it, if nothing else just to get a little closure from the series, we give it a 7/10.

Ghost Rider 2

     Nicholas Cage needs to stop this, the amount of wretched movies he is in is astounding, and the fact that he releases one per year, sometimes two, is equally mortifying/astounding. Why they thought making a sequel to ghost rider was a good plan I have no idea about, even the comic book fans cringe when they see the preview, it's that bad. The whole thing makes no sense though, honestly, why would they ever think that this was a good idea, and Cage, how is he not tired of being in the same movie over and over again. Last year Cage released "Drive Angry" which basically was "Ghost Rider 1.5: Now He Drives A Car", meaning he has done three movies with the same premise that all require him to be the same character and all are horrible, yeah, one would imagine that he would learn at some point; that's too much to ask I guess.

Total Recall

     The original movie came out in 1990 and hosted a solid cast of Arnold, Sharon Stone, Rachel Ticotin, Ronny Cox and so forth, it wasn't a fantastic movie but it was fun and had a great original feel to it, now 22 years later they decided to remake the movie with Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, Ethan Hawke and other great actors, which intrigues us but also worries us at the same time. The remake has an astounding cast of actors, a legit group that could stand up to the original cast, Farrell is no Arnold of course, though still it worries us when we see these remakes of movies that aren't even old enough to rent a car yet, it again begs the question of how young does a movie have to be for it to not be allowed to be remade? This is one of the remakes we are looking forward to, but at the same time we cannot help but be skeptical about, I guess we'll find out in August. 

Taken 2 "Taken again"

    Lol, that is not the subtitle though it should be, "she was taken once, now its their turn to be taken, this summer Liam Neeson is, Taken 2: Taken Again *insert explosions*", one cannot express how much we would die laughing if when the preview for this movie comes out it is said even slightly along those lines.  There cannot be any other reaction to the news of this sequel other than pure wholesome skepticism, we just hope they don't ruin the series completely, lets not forget that Liam has been in a few movies lately that were basically Taken 2, like "Unknown", the success of this movie was probably why the producers thought a sequel to Taken was a good idea, we sure are hopeful for something good, but at the same time cannot help but understand that no sequel to this movie could ever compare to the original and thus it will disappoint us, guess we'll find out soon enough.

   Wrath Of The Titans

    So here's a concept let's remake a movie, make it worse by removing all the great things about the original and then lets make a sequel to the remake by adding more explosions and big monsters to it, brilliant! No, not really brilliant, cringe worthy performance guys. The brashness contained within this movie is palpable, *deep movie announcer voice* "one man, one destiny, against all odds, against the gods, will kill every titan, this summer you will be blown away by this sequel of a remake, Wrath of the Titans: Maybe We Shouldn't Have Annoyed The Gods After All *explosion*".  There are very few redeeming factors to this movie, the story is horrible, the acting will be mediocre, the action sequences will be cool, the explosions will be fun, so bottom line is, this movie's brashness is the only redeeming factor saving it, smh.

  In order to be fair we will be mentioning all the good remakes and sequels coming out this year on our Friday post, this year does hold a few good surprises to look forward to, like MIB III.

   We hope your week has been going well, its one of em' slow weeks this one, so brace yourself and face it like a champ.

Love from your humble blogger,