Cinema Soldier

New Remake of Stephen King's 'Carrie' Might Not Suck

2012-05-04T21:06:45Z

No author’s work is more popular among Hollywood’s magic makers than that of Stephen King, and director Kimberly Pierce’s (Boys Don’t Cry) latest project is no exception. Carrie is expected to be released March 15, 2013. As with every single King based movie in existence, already one cast member (Chloe Moretz) has gone on record as stating the remake will be “kind of” following the novel more so than the 1976 film. Of course, that means the MGM remake will be keeping as true to the book published over 30 years ago as possible, while also modernizing the story.

'The Raid: Redemption' mini review - Exciting moments, but a lot of gore

2012-04-01T19:50:39Z

I love a good kung fu movie, but things get messy when everyone has guns, knives, and swords. The Raid: Redemption (subtitled in English) has some amazing fighting scenes, but in between these sequences, it gets to be a little much. There isn’t much maming or guts flying, but prepare to watch a lot of people get their necks sliced, get stabbed through the eye, or other disgusting things like that. If slicing and dicing doesn’t bother you at all, you should feel quite at home here. Don’t expect a story though.

'Wrath of the Titans' mini review - Far better than 'Clash of the Titans'

2012-04-01T19:19:55Z

I was not a fan of the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans. It lacked character and failed to deliver on its epic action premise. Wrath of the Titans is still not a smart film — it mostly revolves around Ares, Hades, and Zues having family fights — but this time it delivers on its epic fantasy adventure promise. Perseus (Sam Worthington), the half-son of Zeus, has to go on a big quest to stop Hades and Ares from unleashing the massive Kronos, the father of Zues and Hades who just so happens to be about 3 or 4 times the size of Godzilla. Perseus has some awesome encounters with Titans, cyclops giants, Minotaurs, and two-headed dragon beasts.

'Chronicle' director may helm Venom movie

2012-03-07T04:34:59Z

Sony is feeling good about Spider-Man lately. The series reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, hasn’t yet hit theaters, but the studio is already planning a Venom spin-off, according to the LA Times. The film, based on one of Spider-Man’s most famous foes, could be directed by Josh Trank, who helmed the commercially and critically successful Chronicle — which is still in theaters (and you should probably watch).

A 'John Carter' cheat sheet: 6 things you need to know

2012-03-06T00:22:07Z

Disney’s John Carter will be released soon, but the marketing for the film has been somewhat hit or miss. For those unfamiliar with the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels, the trailers prompt more questions than a paternity debate on Jerry Springer. Luckily, I read the first three novels a few years ago, so here is a John Carter Cheat Sheet to help fill in the blanks. I tried to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but feel free to skip this if you want to go into the film blind.

1,000 small movie theaters may close due to the high cost of digital conversion

2012-02-27T03:34:19Z

As many as one thousand small movie theaters may close as a result of digital conversion, according to theater owner Michael Hurley. The figure, that accounts for almost 20 percent of all movie theaters in North America, is a very real possibility due to the high cost of digital conversion.

'Piranha 3DD' posters and tentative release date revealed

2012-02-23T02:12:42Z

It’s been almost two years since Piranha 3D (a remake of the 1978 B-movie, Piranha) was released in theaters, and the wait for the sequel is nothing if not excruciating. P3D truly had something for everyone: a classic love story, a comically coked up character, buckets of blood, adult actresses, and some crazy prehistoric monster fish shooting out of the screen thanks to the magic of 3D. Still, the question remains: when will the Piranha 3DD (hehe) be released in US theaters?

Netflix inks deal with The Weinstein Company for a bunch of films including 'The Artist'

2012-02-22T05:43:10Z

Netflix’s huge deal with Starz is about to run out, costing the streaming service thousands of films, many of them notable new releases. To pre-empt the massive loss of content, it’s been signing exclusive deals for big television series like Mad Men, developing original content like Lilyhammer, and trying to sign big new film deals. The latest of these deals is with The Weinstein Company.

'John Carter' fan trailer is way better than anything we've seen so far

2012-02-22T04:58:50Z

John Carter is worth getting excited about because it’s based on work by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo) is directing, but the recent trailers and promotional material haven’t painted the film as something original. Badass Digest has posted a fan-made trailer that explains the basic plot setup and concept of John Carter much better than anything Disney has put out yet. It actually even alludes to the fact that John Carter of Mars is a story that predates Star Wars and many modern science fiction staples.

First clip of 'The Amazing Spider-Man' shows a flustered Peter Parker

2012-02-21T03:04:11Z

The first true trailer and information about Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man reboot was released last week, but today we got a look at a clip from the film. Unlike the trailer, this is a scene that plays in its entirety. Here, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is attempting to enter Gwen Stacy’s building to go to dinner, but is stopped by a doorman. Unlike Tobey Maguire’s more distant Parker, this one seems a lot more timid and flustered. His reactions to the situation are quite natural and if I were the doorman, I might be suspicious as well.

Who chooses Academy Award winners? Old white men

2012-02-21T01:55:00Z

One of the main reasons that the Academy Awards are so prestigious is because they are voted on by members of the filmmaking community itself, but who are they? This question is especially pertinant in a year where some of the films and performances that weren’t nominated are as interesting as those that were. To help explore this question, the LA Times spoke with more than 5,100, or 89 percent, of the voting members to uncover some of the demographics of the voting members in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Awesome: David Bowie movie poster mashups

2012-02-21T00:32:39Z

A good day isn’t complete without a bit of Bowie. The Queen Bitch himself has only starred in a few movies like Labrynth, The Prestige, and Zoolander, but some gifted Photoshop users have modified real movie posters to include Mr. Bowie. These pictures were gathered from many sources, but I believe Flavorwire was one of the first sites to post some of them. Below is our first attempt at a photo gallery, but we’ll give it a whirl. Let’s dance!

'Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance' review - The worst Nicolas Cage movie yet

2012-02-19T22:45:28Z

Nicolas Cage was great as a comedic take on Batman in Kick-Ass, but he’s still an odd choice for any superhero role. Ghost Rider is no exception. The first Ghost Rider, directed by the man behind Daredevil, was widely panned by critics and audiences. Five years later, we’re back again with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Again we have Cage at the helm as Johnny Blaze, this time with the duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor directing. If you thought the first Ghost Rider was bad, it only gets worse from here.

This week in sequels and remakes: Beetlejuice 2, Ghost Rider 3, TMNT, Hannibal TV series, and more

2012-02-18T00:29:39Z

This week has tossed up more than a few interesting news snippets regarding sequels and remakes of some extremely well known movies. With all the news circling, it might be good to recap a few of the more notable titles floating around including Beetlejuice 2, a Cabin Fever prequel, TinTin 2, and Ghost Rider 3.

Movie remakes: Which movies deserve a do-over?

2012-02-16T20:20:00Z

I’ve had a lot of different opinions concerning remakes recently. Everywhere I look, another one seems to pop up, from the lackluster Straw Dogs to the hilariously thrilling Fright Night. I tend to see two different reactions to remakes. If you’ve seen the original film, whether you loved it or hated it, you’re wary of another attempt at it again. Either it’ll be just as bad as the original or a botched blasphemy. If you haven’t seen the original, then you stand a chance of finding more enthusiasm.

There have been plenty of great remakes among the disappointments as well. Compared to it’s loud and campy predecessors, The Dark Knight series has been welcome with it’s dark and gritty take on the infamous Batman origins.

The Oscars aren’t exempt from remakes either. As USA Today points out, most of the nominations films are adaptations of books, and the Guardian thinks the adaptations will be favored to sweep most of the awards. Since I double-time as a bookseller, I can vouch that a lot of people come through wanting to read the books before seeing the movies. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a good example. The Artist is one of the only original films up for many awards, and I think it stands to win.

So while we’re talking about the idea that not all remakes are bad, I asked some of the writers here at Cinema Soldier what they’d like to see adapted to the big screen from another medium, or some movies that they would love to see get another chance (or a third). Below are our picks for the movies most deserving of remakes.