Posts with tag Cinematical7
Posted May 27th 2008 11:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Fandom, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Cinematical Seven, Remakes and Sequels
Warning: This post does contain lots of Crystal Skull spoilers. Read at your own risk.Whether you loved
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or hated it, dreaded its arrival or could barely sleep at night in anticipation, I think we can all agree there are some things that we're really glad didn't happen. With George Lucas' oft-quoted desire for "wackiness," and with his
Star Wars prequels being rife with mythology rewrites and well, "wackiness," there was cause for concern. I'm one of the individuals who didn't care for the film, but upon leaving, I knew it could have been a lot worse. My friends, who varied between loving, liking, and hating, agreed -- there could have been so many horrible things. For example, the much-maligned monkeys and prairie dogs could have broken out in a spontaneous and extended dance number, and the aliens could have appeared as Indy's father. So, this Cinematical Seven is the result of our roundtable rantings -- and, as always, I am anxious to hear your own ...
Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Things That, Thankfully, Didn't Happen in 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'.
Posted Apr 29th 2008 10:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Family Films, Cinematical Seven, Lists
Long before I was a Cinematical blogger, before I even went to college, I worked in the children's department of Barnes and Noble. It was a daily adventure, filled with germs, the beginning of the Harry Potter craze, impossible shelving arrangements, and fuzzy character suits (of which I was the inevitable wearer of). But I developed a real fondness for children's literature – or rather, rediscovered it, as I came across every book that had made me who I am today. And thanks to Harry Potter, not only are children's books doing bigger business than ever before, the trend has thankfully been towards literary adaptations on the big screen. So in honor of April's Nim's Island, May's Prince Caspian, and the eventual Where the Wild Things Are, here are the seven children's books that need to be put into production tomorrow. To my surprise, a few of these have already been made, but were either forgotten, badly made, or in need of a remake. (My opinion only -- and I apologize in advance if, say, 1969's version of My Side of the Mountain is one of your childhood favorites, you think it should remain untouched.)
I have to say, though, choosing only seven was incredibly difficult. It was a tough call between The Trumpet of the Swan and The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Jackaroo and The Black Cauldron. As I was writing it, friends and family kept throwing in even more selections. So I hope this reawakens the memories of your childhood favorites -- and I can't wait to hear about the ones you'd like to see onscreen too!
Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Children's Books That Need To Be Filmed Immediately
Posted Oct 4th 2006 1:02PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Classics, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Cinematical Seven, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Games and Game Movies
Just about every big-budget mega-movie gets its very own video game tie-in, from
Harry Potter and
Narnia to
Spider-Man and
Lord of the Rings. Used to be that 92% of these movie-license games were grade-A certifiable crap, but we've come a long way since then. (Nowadays it's only about 55%.) One of the newest (and lovably geekiest) trends in video games is the "retro" approach, which is what I call it when someone says "Hey, you know what old movie would make for a great video game?
Mannequin!" before heading off to design a video game in which you're required to collect hundreds of dismembered mannequin parts while avoiding the affections of a harrowingly annoying homosexual stereotype and thwarting the nefarious schemes of a bizarrely prissy
James Spader.
Fortunately, nobody's gotten it into their head to make a video game out of
Mannequin, but there have been some really slick video games based on some really cool "old" movies. But let's get one turkey out of the way first:
Continue reading Cinematical Seven: The "Retro-Movie" Video Games
