> June 15 - Another Perfect Stranger

>More importantly,
> why isn't any of these movies about the big screen hijinks of Larry and Balki?

Yeah, where are Larry and Balki these days? I know Larry has been appearing in a couple of Broadway shows, but I haven't heard anything since the early aughts.

And mr Pinchot? No idea. But I would TOTALLY go see a Perfect Strangers movie.

> June 15 - Nancy Drew
>
> Obviously I'm not the target audience for this movie. But I read the Bobbsey
> Twins and the Three Investigators and the Hardy Boys, growing up, and I have an
> affection for these kinds of stories. But once glance at the trailer makes
> my stomach churn. Does EVERYTHING have to be updated to the immediate life
> experience of its target audience? The power of the movies is their ability
> to make us feel, see, and experience things outside our own lives, like the
> pulpy adventures of Nancy Drew, et al, as they were originally written. If
> you're going to take such a iconic character, how about staying true to it?
> I know, I know -- crazy talk! Sorry. Ok, I've come back to reality now.
>

I seen the trailer, but I see the poster everywhere I look, and it doesn't impress me that much. My sister was into Nancy Drew, and I read a few of them (I was into the Hardy Boys, of course) and I read a few of the "Hardy Boys AND Nancy Drew Mysteries" but honestly, I don't expect this to be worth it. Ned Nickerson will probably turn out to be some sort of horny high school guy, which is just wrong. And plumply pretty Bess and George who is proud of her boy's name? I don't even want to think about it.

> August 3 - Underdog
>
> Underdog was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid.

Mine too.

> In the years since, it has
> not aged very well, unlike, say, Rocky and Bullwinkle, animated in a similar
> style but with razor sharp writing and dozens upon dozens of jokes kids will
> never get. Regardless of my own feelings about it, though, Underdog is very
> much a product of its time and its medium and its style. You can't take
> Underdog, transport it to a new era and a new style and expect to retain its
> charm. But you ESPECIALLY can't turn it into a simpering slapstick live-action
> stupidity and expect to get anywhere. The mere thought of this movie makes
> my skin crawl. Who are the producers trying to appeal to? The target audience
> has never heard of Underdog, and the core fans of the show out there are going
> to avoid this movie like the plague that it probably is. Never mind the
> trailer, which is lethal -- just look at the poster and try not to retch.

That was TOTALLY my first reaction on seeing the poster. I turned to one of the guys I work with and I said "That's going to be a terrible movie. You can't do a live action Underdog. You just can't."

His response was, "Who the hell is UnderDog?"

-Rifty