triticale - the wheat / rye guy

Danger Has Robinsoned

I haven't followed a TV series in decades and I'm not much of a movie watcher. Neither do I pay much attention to anything at MSN beyond my hotmail account. Despite all this I want to expand upon this article about made from TV movies. It is perfectly logical that substituting franchise for creativity, which Hollywood does in more ways than just copying television, can result in sucky results, but in the course of making this point, Paige Newman totally ignored some of the good stuff.

I have never had any use for Start Reck, but my understanding is that at least some of the movies from that universe had merit beyond being trekkie food. At a minimum, they were something more than bringing a TV story to the big screen. The Blues Brothers were originally no more than a spot on Saturday Live, and the plot was just the old Mickey Rooney - Judy Garland "Hey kids, lets put on a show" plus car chases, but it was a masterpiece. Much of this was the inspired casting; there could for example have been nobody better than Princess Leiah for the vengeful jiltee.

A complete discussion of this topic needs to include live action remakes of animation. I saw only the trailer for the Flintstones movie, but I was impressed with how well the look and feel of the original was captured. I doubt that anyone who wasn't a kid hooked on He-Man or a parent thereof has seen the Masters of the Universe movie, but I was amazed at how much it didn't suck. There was a lighthearted approach to the subject matter but no mockery, and the bit with the microwave oven was downright inspired.