Does everybody remember how terrible the movie Flightplan was? I do. I actually liked the premise of the mystery: woman and daughter get on plane, daughter vanishes, and no one believes the mother or admits to having seen the daughter, until mother and audience suspect she might be crazy, only to find out there is a dark conspiracy at hand. On the other hand, the other day, I saw a great movie. It's called The Lady Vanishes and it's directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on a novel by Ethel Lina White. I've been watching a lot of Hitchcock's early work lately (fished from the $5 DVD bin at Wal-mart!), and it's a lot better than I expected. I was shocked and a bit disapponted to discover that this earlier Hitchcock movie (The Lady Vanishes) not only has the same plot as Flightplan, it's also a much better movie. Apparently, the people responsible for Flightplan deny that The Lady Vanishes was even an influence.
I can see how they might think that they made it original enough to stand on its own intellectual property footing: they changed a train into a plane, an old lady into a little girl, and a conspiracy headed up by an underhanded political enemy of Britain posing as a brain surgeon into a conspiracy headed up by a political enemy of the United States posing as a Federal Air Marshall. Also, the new one is in color.
Is anyone making original movies anymore? I know that they must be, and a few squeeze through the bullshit every year, but what the hell? Here are a few of the movies currently playing in the US: The Dark Knight (a really great movie--I have nothing bad to say about it, but it definitely falls under the "remake" category), Mamma Mia!, The X-Files, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Hellboy II, and The Mummy III. Seriously. At least, I guess, those movies admit that they're based in other material.
4 comments:
Hitchcock was a directing genius, and I have seen several of the "remakes" of his films, where the premise is nearly identical and the title is changed. As a huge Hitchock fan, I have seen nearly all his films, and nearly all of the 30+ remakes, all of which were terrible. (Even Gus VanSant couldn't remake "Psycho," despite the fact that he shot the movie in an attempted identical fashion, scene for scene. I blame the horrendous miscasting.) "Disturbia" was praised by all as a fantastic film, but I can't understand what all the fuss was about. There was no suspense, and my complete apathy towards the characters made it tiring to watch them come to the happy ending.
I could go on and on, but considering that I've already made myself look like a complete loser, I shall descend my high-horse.
BUT if you're a fan of Hitchcock, or if you like the Twilight Zone, I highly recommend the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" anthologies. Mini-mysteries and other wonderful nonsense.
Aw, you're not a loser to me, Sara. Just kind of a little nerdy. In a good way.
There were a couple of "A. H. Presents" episodes included in the disk set I have, but I would indeed like to see more.
i thought Gus Van Sant was a made up person in sex and the city until like a month ago
To Amanda: Thank you.
To Steph: lol.
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