Remakes, Remakes, Remakes
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a new Tim Burton film, looks pretty good. Few people I know like the first film treatment of the Roald Dahl book, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but I did. Based on the trailer, I'm sure the remake will be worth seeing in the theater. I like the big screen if the art direction is good and the photography, too, as it appears to be in this film. I didn't recognize Johnny Depp in the lead role. He's very adept at morphing himself for a part. Very Boris Karloff-like.
A remake I don't plan on seeing in the theater is The Longest Yard. Maybe because the original was so good that I don't think another would be as good. Maybe because I don't care for Adam Sandler. Based on the trailer, though, he seems to do a decent job. I'm just glad he's not locking himself into the same silly character he often played on Saturday Night Live. It will make a good DVD rental, though. Burt Reynolds, star of the original must have signed off, though, as he's appearing in it. He's also in another 2005 remake that I don't plan on seeing in the theater, The Dukes of Hazzard.
It seems to be a year of remakes. Nicole Kidman is starring as Samantha Stevens in Bewitched. Will Ferrell, another actor from Saturday Night Live who tends to play doofy characters, will be Darrin, her husband. That's probably good casting. I'm glad that Jim Carrey declined the role. There hasn't been a part he's played that I think his mere presence has been a distraction, no matter how good he is in it. Watch the Bewitched trailer, though. You'll see that Miss Kidman hasn't got the nose twitch down.
One remake that isn't really a remake, but a film version of a book, a radio play, and a TV mini-series is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Every version has been great and it's about time a movie was made. The IMDB reports that the film has been in and out of pre-production for some 20 years. I just hope that Mos Def can pull off the role of Ford Prefect. It's a difficult role and any actor would need to be able to pull off droll humor totally dead pan. I suspect many, many more people will regularly carry towels with them after seeing this film.
The Apple QuickTime movie trailer site lists even more remakes and is updated frequently. It's a great resource for film buffs.
