The new movie I Am Legend is based off a 1954 novel of the same name. ALSO, The Omega Man, a creepy movie from my youth, was also based off said book, albiet more loosely. For some reason, my family thought it was pretty much the coolest movie ever. All I remember from it is creepy albinos who talked funny, Charlton Heston in his usual pose (making wise cracks and firing a machine gun), and my sisters trying to cover my eyes so I wouldn't see a woman's bare buttocks (they were marginally successful).
The new movie, starring Will Smith, comes out in two weeks. I am going to see it. In IMAX. And guess what is being shown right before it? The first 5 minutes of The Dark Knight! But only in IMAX... While some may have a small amount of defensiveness regarding their memories of The Omega Man, or even Jack Nicholson's Joker, this is a rare time when I'm excited for the remakes. Even Michael Caine, one of the coolest actors ever, said Ledger's Joker is going to impress: “I tell you the big surprise in the new ‘Batman’ — Heath Ledger as the Joker. He’s fantastic. He’s gone in a different direction than Jack (Nicholson) … Jack was like a really scary old, nasty old uncle with a funny face. Heath is like the most murderous psychopath you’ve ever seen on the screen,” Caine said.
Monday, December 3
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Fond of the Omega Man though we all are, it is a bit dated and seems to suffer more now from the presence of Charlton Heston than it did when we were all so young. Furthermore, the Omega Man itself was a remake of a 1964 Italian-made film "The Last Man on Earth" featuring Vincent Price. My point being is that we can go see "I Am Legend," and enjoy it if it's good without feeling disloyal to some sacred relic of film history. Because I don't think it is. It was good family bonding time though. I originally wanted to see Omega Man because Mom told me it was the scariest movie ever. Before Alien came along, that is. But that's a story for a different blog, perhaps. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to watch the Vincent Price version. Seems to be a whole different idea: with Heston you didn't mind that he died (sorry about the spoiler), and Will Smith is so likeable that you always want him to succeed (think Pursuit of Happyness) or defeat the ugly aliens (Independence Day). Price, on the other hand, may be creepier than any number of vampires or ghouls all by himself...
ReplyDeleteI wonder how the story would be if they put Tom Cruise, Paris Hilton, or even Rumsfeld in as the main character...
"The Last Man on Earth" is in Public Domain and can be had for free from Archive.org:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.archive.org/details/the-last-man-on-earth *
I picked up a "Classic Horror" DVD from Target last year for $1 that had this movie and "Night of the Living Dead" (free download: http://www.archive.org/details/night_of_the_living_dead ), for which I viewed around this most recent H'ween with J.
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*(the mpeg2 version should be DVD burnable using Toast)
Cool! Thanks for the links!
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