Total Recall
Five Remakes That Suck and Five That Don’t
The disturbingly more frequent trend of remaking or recycling classic or popular films and/or properties into vehicles designed to appeal solely to a target demographic without any consideration given to quality or whether a remake is actually warranted or needed has really got me annoyed. Witness the recent release of Dredd, the remake of Judge Dredd which starred Sylvester Stallone or this year’...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: The Expendables 2 Tops the Box Office, But with an Opening Less Stellar Than Its Cast
With a lineup of legendary action heroes (including a handful who only made cameos in the first film in the series), hype was big for The Expendables 2, and critically was more well-regarded than the first film. However, it did not translate into big money as, while The Expendables 2 opened at the top of this week’s list, it only made an estimated $28.8 million, about $6 million short of its prede...[Read More]
Weekend Box Office: A Legacy Continues as The Bourne Legacy Opens On Top
Could the Bourne series survive without star Matt Damon? Quite possibly…though rising star Jeremy Renner has proven himself quite handily in other films (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and The Avengers), his The Bourne Legacy has not performed as well with critics as the previous Bourne films. It did have the third highest opening of the four films, earning an estimated $40.3 million, and he...[Read More]
Weekend Box Office: The Dark Knight Need Not Rise; Stays Well Ahead of Competition
While it was not the Avengers-killer that DC was hoping it would be, director Christopher Nolan still brought in big numbers with The Dark Knight Rises, which, with an estimated $36.4 million this weekend, puts its on solid footing as the third most domestically successful film of 2012, and at $733 million in worldwide sales is doing well pretty much everywhere it is being shown. Total Recall, the...[Read More]
Trailer Trashin’: Total Recall Looks Slick But Soulless
In the debut edition of Trailer Trashin’ last week, I talked about my excitement for Rise of the Guardians, this week we’re looking at something completely different – the upcoming remake of the 1990 Paul Verhoeven/Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Total Recall. Premise: In the dystopian future of 2084, the countries of Euroamerica and New Shanghai vie for political power. Douglas Quaid (Colin F...[Read More]