Grand Theft Auto V: Judgement Day

The geekier contingent of our customer base might dig this Grand Theft Auto V remake of the killer truck chase scene from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. It's a really impressive recreation that makes you appreciate just how awesome that original chase scene is (and that there are people out there who have enough time on their hands to do things like these).

Our RoboCop Remake

It turns out that the dreaded RoboCop remake that just came out wasn't as bad as most fans feared to be. Critics lowered their expectations and were surprised, though few -- if any -- would rate it above the much-loved 1987 Paul Verhoeven original. But there was another remake that popped up around the same time, albeit an entirely different beast altogether. Cheekily called Our RoboCop Remake, it was a crowd-sourced project in which 55 different filmmakers, both amateur and professional, came together to do a "scene-for-scene retelling". The scenes were split up amongst the participants, and the result is a totally off-the-wall, goofy, but totally sincere endeavour that uses everything animation to puppetry to re-interpret the movie. It's insane, watch it here.

Trailer: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

After starring in three consecutive mediocre films -- Little Fockers, Tower Heist, The Watch -- it looks like Ben Stiller might be getting back on track with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Stiller directs and stars in this remake of the 1947 classic, about a meek, day-dreaming LIFE magazine photographer who gets swept up in a larger-than-life adventure.  I got strong warm-fuzzy The Truman Show vibes from watching this great-looking trailer, which doesn't spell out too much plot-wise, but gives us a sense of its protagonist's penchant for getting lost in vivid fantasies. Kirsten Wiig and a crazy-bearded Adam Scott co-stars.

Trailer: Oldboy

Park Chan-wook's Oldboy remains one of the most electrifying, stylish and gleefully twisted revenge thrillers of the '00s. Its ingenious plotting all but guaranteed an English-language remake, but the road to getting there has been an incredibly long one, with names such as Justin Lin, Will Smith, Christian Bale and Steven Spielberg attached to and passing through the project at various points since the rights were secured. Spike Lee was finally given to the job to direct it, and though I generally do not care for most of Lee's work, I'm somewhat curious to see how different the two films are, other than the fact that the American version, understandably, will be sans the infamous octopus-eating scene of Park's. If you have not seen the original, I definitely urge you to catch it first, but subtitle-phobes will probably just want to hang out for Lee's film. Here are the trailers for both (they look pretty similar to these eyes):

Trailer: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The first trailer for David Fincher's remake for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has arrived. It's just a green-band trailer, so no sexy and violent stuff. Not sure how I feel about this one: I'll probably check it out because of Fincher's involvement, but it looks almost exactly like the original film, maybe with added Fincher-esque visual sleekness. Funny how it's being sold here as "The Feel Bad Movie of Christmas" - will this really put bums on seats? Anyway, everyone knows the books now and the remake will be welcome for those subtitle-averse viewers.

For The Star Wars Fan With Everything - Nick Frost & Simon Pegg Edition

Bizarro Re-Make of the Week...

Famous sixties director Jean-Luc Godard once famously said "All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun."

Apparently not, as this rather odd Asian remake of The Coen Brothers' Blood Simple attempts to prove:

The Reboot Blues: Alien

These days Hollywood aren't content just to remake films - they're now REBOOTING them (whatever that means). The Incredible Hulk, Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation, the forthcoming Predators... The latest example of the studios' dirth of imagination is a proposed upgrade of the original Alien film produced by none other than its original director Ridley Scott, along with brother Tony. But hold on - before you start crying, it's actually a PREQUEL, so it's not technically a REMAKE. Carl Rinsch, a commercials/music video dude, is going to be directing the film for Fox, who apparently feel the recent Alien spin-offs - the ones with more than one alien - didn't really work. Top solution, guys. This Polish Alien poster sums up my reaction to this news:

PS: A Tomb Raider reboot/prequel/whatnot is on the way too.