> Whatever happened to the good old days, when studio would trot out tired sequels
> to terrible franchises, instead of tired reboots of terrible franchises?
> Batman Begins and Casino Royale were great movies, but their net contribution
> to the world of entertainment dwindles as each new reboot is unleashed.

I think we might get this again in a few years, when Nolan leaves the Batman franchise and McG is brought in to helm a new sequel.

Of course I would have thought that would happen to Spider-Man, but I guess it's going into reboot mode.

> May 28 - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
>
> I thought while playing the game that this would make a pretty good movie.

I hope it will portray the games accurately. Like Gyllenhaal goes to jump onto a ledge and misses and then rewinds time and tries again.

Or maybe there's a scene where he walks into a huge vertical room and there's something he needs several stories up and then he spends 10 minutes trying to figure out which wall he can run up in order to jump to the ledge that's just slightly out of reach.

> June 11 - The Karate Kid

[snip]

> But I also think that even if it's good, it will be quickly forgotten. The
> thing about the original movie is that it *wasn't* just another cheesy 80s
> movies. It had a certainty of tone, an elegance, and dignity that made it a
> great film.

Is this... serious? Really? We're talking about this movie, right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBktYJsJq-E

I can get digging the Karate Kid, but elegance and dignity? It's like the epitome of cheesy '80s comedy, complete with ridiculous music and dialogue ("somebody get him a body bag!").

> July 30 - The Adjustment Bureau
>
> This Philip K. Dick adaptation stars Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Terence
> Stamp. It's the first directorial effort by the screenwriter George Nolfi.
> This is the second movie this summer that brings Dark City to mind. I'm
> interested. The only problem is that Philip K. Dick stories are notoriously
> difficult to adapt into film.

It's weird, I thought this too, but then I looked up the list. It's not as bad as you might think:

Good PKD adaptations:
1. Blade Runner
2. Minority Report
3. A Scanner Darkly

Bad PKD adaptations:
1. Total Recall (though the story it's based on has some cool ideas it's really a kind of lame shaggy dog story, and honestly this movie is the best of the bad ones)
2. Screamers (also fairly weak source material)
3. Paycheck (the biggest travesty -- great story, lame movie)
4. Next (another weak story basically ignored by the filmmakers so it barely counts as an adaptation)

PKD adaptations I haven't seen:
1. Confessions d'un Bario (French so it must be good)
2. Impostor (almost certainly bad)

This means that at least 3/9 of them are good. Maybe this one will make it 4/10?

And it really seems that when you start with solid source material, you get a better movie. I haven't read the one this is based on, but I probably should.

(There was also a Canadian Total Recall / Blade Runner TV show that I keep meaning to track down that is allegedly pretty cool.)

> August 6 - Step Up 3-D

Every now and then Sam busts out some crazy, very well considered analysis of stuff like the Step Up franchise. I find it both bewildering and delightful.

I did one time accidentally buy Step Up (or was it Step Up 2: The Streets?) from the DVD club when I forgot to send in the little card. I think I threw it away in silent protest.