Asides

Seminal?

By August 1, 2012No Comments

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Because of a schedul­ing glitch, I’m not going to be able to review this week’s “big” release, a PG-13 rated remake of Paul Verhoeven’s delight­fully gar­ish R‑rated (and with good reas­on) Total Recall. Which is tough, because I’m kind of curi­ous as to what reas­on (aside from the obvi­ous depress­ing one) a PG-13 remake of Total Recall (as opposed, per­haps, to an actu­al adapt­a­tion of the Philip K. Dick story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale) needs to exist. Anyway, I hope I’m not giv­ing up a “spoil­er” for the rest of the week when I say what I’m review­ing for MSN Movies instead is largely dreck, begin­ning with The Babymakers, star­ring the above-seen Paul Schneider and Olivia Munn, a deeply dis­ap­point­ing fer­til­ity com­edy, con­sidered here. 

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No Comments

  • lipranzer says:
    August 1, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    I don’t under­stand the need to remake TOTAL RECALL either (I don’t under­stand most remakes these days, but that’s anoth­er story). I know Philip K. Dick fans were unhappy with it, and I can under­stand that – and I acknow­ledge the hypo­crisy of not being upset with Arnold being cast in this while fum­ing at Robert Redford play­ing the title role of THE NATURAL when, in both cases, the cast­ing changes the ten­or of the story – but it’s Arnold’s best film, I think, and it was anoth­er example of how Verhoeven could make enter­tain­ing big-budget films while keep­ing his satir­ic­al eye. I don’t see how a remake is going to touch that.

  • Oliver_C says:
    August 1, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Which is more depress­ing, a PG-13 ‘Total Recall’ or (so the stor­ies go) Rob Bottin abandon­ing Hollywood for real estate?!

  • DeafEars says:
    August 1, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    Shit, Rob Bottin abandon­ing Hollywood, hands down. Stupid remakes have been going on for a while.

  • Simon Abrams says:
    August 1, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Byoobs.
    What, some­body had to say it!

  • David Ehrenstein says:
    August 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm

    Paul Schneider is truly ter­iffic in Christophe Honore’s “Beloved” – which will be get­ting it’s U.S. release shortly. He plays a gay drum­mer in a rock band who Chiara Mastroianni falls madly in love with even after lear­nign he’s gay and HIV+. Tragedy results.
    And yes – it’s a musical.