Lights, Camera, Remake!

“People say you can’t wash away the mud of this world with pure white snow. You need asura snow, stained fiery red.” Lady Snowblood (1973)  A young girl is raised to kill the criminals who destroyed her family.  Lady Snowblood (1974) To avoid a death sentence for her prior acts of bloodshed, the vengeful swordswoman Lady Snowblood is conscripted by the Japanese Secret Police to assassinate politic...

Just click your heels, and end up in one of many stories told in the Oz universe. Return to Oz (1985) a loose sequel that more closely reflects the books by L Frank Baum, Dorothy returns to Oz to find her friends turned to stone and comes up against another evil witch and the Nome King.  *** On each episode we’ll look at a movie and its remake, or sometimes a movie and its sequel, to determine if...

Just click your heels, and end up in one of many stories told in the Oz universe. This was a long one and a lot more editing so....we've broken it into two pieces! You'll see the second half next week. The Wiz (1978) an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz that reflects the African-American experience. Starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell and so many more.  Return to Oz (1985) a loose se...

In honor of Valentines (or, as we prefer, GAL entines) we’re doing two rom-coms! But, these aren’t exactly remakes are they? It’s our podcast and we make the rules.  This time we’re looking at a leading couple in the early 2000s who made several movies together. The movies are The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates , and our actors are Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler.  The Wedding Singer (1998) fea...

He’s built for justice. Let’s analyze RoboCop.  RoboCop (1987) is a dystopian science fiction action film (say that five times fast) directed by Paul Verhoeven. The story revolves around Alex Murphy, a police officer who is critically injured on the job and re-enters the police force as the cyber-enhanced RoboCop. This film served as a commentary on corporate corruption. RoboCop (2014) is literall...

Welcome! You’ve Got Mail! But first, you had a Shop Around the Corner.  The Shop Around the Corner (1940) is an American romantic comedy-drama directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart. It was also originally based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie . In this film, co-workers Alfred and Klara are at odds with each other, but don’t know they’re actually each others...

Who wants a beach vacation? It’s time for Weekend at Bernie’s (1989) and Weekend at Bernie’s II (1993). It’s always best to avoid committing fraud with the corpse of your employer.  Larry and Richard (played by Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) are two low level employees at an insurance agency  who find their boss Bernie (Terry Kiser) dead in his Hamptons home. Instead of …you know, reporti...

Bridget picked The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and Little Shop of Horrors (1986)! Movie description: Down on his luck Seymour works at a rundown flower shop, but when he discovers a strange plant, he has the best opportunity to bring tons of business to the shop and win the heart of the girl he adores. Too bad the plant starts to wilt until he realizes the one thing the plant needs and demands t...

It’s our first episode, and Erica picked Solaris (1972) and Solaris (2002)! Movie description: A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting the planet Solaris to investigate what has led to the crew to lose their minds.  Solaris (1972) was a book adaptation, but that also led to contention between the director of the film Andrei Tarkovsky and the book’s author Stanislav Lem. Some ideas work better...

"There's just no originality anymore!" Sequels, remakes, franchises. The old Hollywood adage for many years has been rinse, recycle and repeat. But is it always a bad thing? Our podcast looks to break it down and see if there's merit to many famous sequels and remakes. On each episode we’ll look at a movie and its remake, or sometimes a movie and its sequel, to determine if Hollywood rehashed it f...