Well… with our free Cinemax preview for as long as it lasts, I have been able to DVR a few movies I have been interested in seeing.  I always liked the original A-Team tv series but somehow missed the big screen adaptation so that is one movie on my list.

Another is the reboot of the 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street.  I am sooooo glad that I did not shell out the money to see this senseless remake in the theaters.  I thought it would be good for a tv screening, if that.  I admit that these movies are about the furthest thing from high art as one can get but I for one expect to go in and be a little entertained and (Heaven forbid) scared.  Except for a few bits, this was an almost exact copy of the original.  Several of the few killings made me believe that I was watching the original.  The names of the characters (save for our heroine… “Nancy”) were changed from the old movie.

I did not like the new Freddy, at all.  He sounded quite reminiscent of Christian Bale’s Batman growling.  The finger-knives did not screech giving the nails across the blackboard effect.  Instead, they produced sparks as they glided over the steel pipes of the boiler room.  I also did not like the addition of Mr. Krugger’s complete backstory.  It painted him to be nothing more than a pedophile who was hunted down by a group of “justice seeking” parents and incinerated.  OK… so he was in the old movie as well but to actually see it played out?  Not sure of the intent of the backstory but it did nothing to endear itself.

All in all, this masterpiece only almost PUT me to sleep without any fear of the boogyman slicing me to bits.  Should have stuck with The A-Team.

My sister just informed me of some trailers she just saw on youtube.  Some fake and others I knew about already.  The reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street is due this Spring.  I had to laugh when she swore that she saw an official preview for Jaws V.   Even more telling was the fact that she said that Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss were going to reprise their characters from the original.  Hilarious, because Sheriff Brody was killed sometime between Jaws 2 and Jaws 3-D. And once again, following the debacle that was Jaws: The Revenge (tagline: “This time, it’s personal.”), I ask: WHY?! Especially when it’s been a good 25 years since the last one.

Finally, Spider-Man 4 is about to get underway.  Something very strange: after only 3 films in the last decade, we are getting a re-haul of the franchise.  A new director is taking over which will probably mean a new cast.  But why reintroduce the series when it has only been a few years since the last film was released.  While by far the worst of the trilogy, Spider-Man 3 still had moments of fun and it did have a lot to live up to following the phenomenal second installment.

I love a good scary movie and I was recently sent a list of the 20 Scariest Movies of All Time according to Entertainment Weekly.  I must say I agree with a large portion of them.  I think during the 80s and 90s, the scare went more to slash with popular endless series such as Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street (the series became so popular that Jason and Freddy eventually combined into one film… by that time I had long lost interest).  I did enjoy the original Nightmare though.  I think Wes Craven was appalled by the rather comedic silliness that plagued the later sequels and eventually returned for the rather creative Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.

That being said, I enjoy a fright more than seeing people being mindlessly chased by some psycho that is the work of some idiot out to make a few dollars with a movie that appeals to teenagers.  I like the classics more than most.  Hitchcock’s best: Psycho (the shower scene is still brilliant… not seeing is definitely scarier than seeing).  The original Exorcist still freaks me out.  Funny how many times the originals should have stood on their own.  Rosemary’s Baby is one I have not seen in sometime.

Moving on to more modern fare.  The Silence of the Lambs is in my top three scary movies.  Not too wild about the sequel, and prequels (I actually prefer Manhunter to Red Dragon) but Anthony Hopkins scares the jeebies out of me.  I also liked The Ring a lot.  I have not yet watched any of the Saw movies which seem to be going the way of past franchises although the series still continues yearly.

Of course, I haven’t forgotten the real classic movies: the numerous versions of Dracula, Wolf Man, Frankenstein, and all the classic misunderstood monster movies.  Those are good, too.  However, that is only scratching the surface.  Nothing better than sitting back in a dark room, popping on a good suspenseful yarn, and getting that heart pumping. [poll id=”11″]

Ok… it is official. It seems that every movie FRANCHISE is getting reworked, redone, or the more popular term, rebooted. James Bond, Batman, Star Trek is on its way, and now, The Man of Steel himself (any that I am forgetting?). After Superman Returns failed to live up to the extreme demands of the Warner Brothers bigwigs (apparently the $389 million dollar domestic was not acceptable), it was recently announced that the series would be given a redo. I am not entirely certain what that will ultimately entail. If it means starting completely from scratch with the entire origin story, I am sorry to inform them that there will be thousands of upset fans who believe that the Christoper Reeve 1978 blockbuster was the true take on the beginning of the series. It has also been mentioned that the Last Son of Krypton may be developed into a darker character ala Batman. No thank you. Superman has always been the polar opposite of The Dark Knight. Supes stands proud and tall like the red, white, and blue while Batsy is a character of the night working in the dark shadows and instilling fear in the criminal underworld. Hopefully, the darker tone will refer to the movie itself and leave the character as is. While the most recent film in the franchise did have several problems (the introduction of a boy who is possibly the love child of Superman and Lois Lane being the biggest), I do not see them warranting a total dismissal and a face lift.

Other rumored senseless movies that are rumored to be in the works: BOTH giants of the 1980s horror genre: Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I don’t think it worked well with Rob Zombie’s re-imagining of Halloween, so why not? ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

You can skip the insanity of the revenge of the killer reboots by renting the originals at Blockbuster.com.