Posted on 01/07/2005 9:11:29 AM PST by pabianice
As I predicted, the "remake" of the classic "Flight of the Phoenix" is yet another case of the doofuses running Hollywood thinking they can better their betters.
"THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX" (2004)
Production Cost: $ 25 million
Marketing Cost: $ 20 million (est.)
Total since release: $17,537,973 (three weeks)
Viewer drop-off since release: 85%
Daily revenue per screen week of 3 January: $ 97
Who but the liberal morons running Hollywood would think that they could replace Jimmy Stewart, Hardy Kreuger, Richard Attenborough, Ernest Borgnine, Peter Finch, and Ronald Fraser with yucking-it-up Dennis Quaid, "rapper" Tyrese Gobson, and Miranda Otto?
"Who but the liberal morons running Hollywood would think that they could replace ...."
The original wasn't made in Hollywood? Is it all Hollywood movies you hate, or just new Hollywood movies?
This could be good. The book was far "darker" than the Gene Wilder movie, although there were a few hits of that darkness, here and there.
Mark
When will Hollywood quit making mediocre, PC, remakes of classics??
Actually, the remake was a TV series, with David Soul (Hutch) as Rick. It was the second TV series. The first had Charles McGraw, a great actor who drank too much, as Rick.
The trailers seem ... unusual ... to say the least. Not a musical. I believe Disney changed the original title to showcase Gene Wilder as Wonka. One fun rumor that I had heard a year or two ago: they were looking at Christopher Walken in the lead role. That would have been creepy...but fun.
Actually, there aren't too many new ideas coming out of Hollywood these days. When I took the kids to Lemony Snicket, there were 5 trailers (and a few commercials):
1. Pink Panther remake
2. Bewitched 'teaser' (not even a full-blown trailer)
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (at this point we were wondering if there was anything *new* coming out.
4. Coach Carter (old themes, but based on a true story, so it is a new story)
5. War of the Worlds (glad to see that Tom Cruise could get away from all those Mission: Impossible sequels to make this.)
TS
Yes, he has some weird thing about aliens I think.
Durn your hide!
Now I have this vision of the True Grit remake running through my head. It stars Alec Baldwin as Rooster Cogburn, Natalie Maines makes her debut as Mattie Ross and Ben Affleck as La Boeuf.
Again! Durn your hide!!
Actually, the remake was a TV series, with David Soul (Hutch) as Rick. It was the second TV series. The first had Charles McGraw, a great actor who drank too much, as Rick.
"Another Hollywood flick that goes PC. The bad guys are now Chinese gun runners. The original flick had Ayyyrabs slitting the throats of the happless crew."
Wait till the next remake - the bad guys will be republicans and they will be slitting the throats of old people and children.
The promos I saw for this film showed almost the entire story, including the bit where the plane actually gets off the ground. Why go see the film, when the promo gave you most of the story?
Actually much of Hollywood's early work was movie versions of plays, plays were easy because they were already built around a "camera angle" were already written and often had actors already skilled at playing the characters. Remakes were built into their system right at the beginning.
Now that you mention it, I think I recall. In the end it turns out they are very close to a highway, but they don't realize it til after they go bonkers first.
That was "Queen Nine Will Not Return." Years later it was remade for TV with William Shatner as the Air Force investigator. Nicely done, too.
I miss those TV movies from the pre-cable days. The irony is that now, instead of TV cranking out low-rent copies of Hollywood films, Hollywood is cranking out the low-rent copies (and often of television shows). Up is down, down is up - and I'll bet that Leonard Nimoy even sports a sinister-looking beard these days. ;-)
Anyone else remember another TV movie set in the desert, called (IIRC) Death Race? I dimly recall some sort of duel between a German tank and an American P-40 Warhawk (which was damaged and could only taxi around). Weird, but entertaining.
That was, "I Shot an Arrow." Different story about a space ship crew.
Well, look what they did to "Miracle on 34th Street." They've made at least 2 remakes, and neither could hold a candle to the original. There are a few cases where remakes are better though. IIRC, the movie, "A Christmas Carol" with Alister Simm is the second version of that movie, and that's my absolute favorite version of the movie. And I think that "Scrooged" is a pretty good movie, although it's really not a remake.
Mark
What saves this new Flight of the Phoenix from being entirely unwatchable is its sturdy structure, cannibalized from the earlier film, as well as some routinely impressive effects, and the desert itself, which is always endlessly watchable. Then again, the desert you can get anywhere from Hidalgo to Lawrence of Arabia. Visual effects you can get anywhere. And the rest you can get in the superior original film. Those who have watched that film have no reason to watch this one; those who haven’t ought not to watch this one, which would only spoil their later enjoyment of a good film with a bad one.
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