HARD FAST AND BEAUTIFUL-1951-An unscrupulous mother (Claire Trevor) goes to all lengths to promote her daughter (Sally Forrest) in the sport of Tennis. She hooks up with a sleazy promoter (Carlton Young Jr.) and tries to break up a romance between her daughter and the man she loves (Robert Clarke, soon to be THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON). This is a great over looked low budget gem directed by actress Ida Lupino. She made six other films between 1949 and 1953 including OUTRAGE (also with Clarke) and doesn't get the credit she deserves. Later she directed many diverse TV shows including episodes of THRILLER, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and THE DONNA REED SHOW.
WAR OF THE WORLDS-2005-This plays more like some disaster film than an adaptation of a classic HG Wells novel even though they get The Tripods and their mission correct. Tom Cruise is very miscast as an estranged father trying to save his two kids from the Martian invaders. (He and his son look more like brothers!) As his daughter Dakota Fanning screams a lot. Tim Robbins shows up inexplicitly as a loony living underground with a shotgun. There’s lots of SFX and humans are either vaporized or eaten. If you sit through it look for the cameo at the end by Gene Barry & Ann Robinson, stars of the 1953 version. Morgan Freeman does some narration. Steven Spielberg doesn’t do it again.
Thanks for reading!
2 comments:
I haven't even seen the original WotW yet (looking forward to it, though), but I didn't care much for the Spielberg redo. Is it just me, or are the son and daughter two of the most irritating kid characters ever? I had the same problem with the Day the Earth Stood Still remake, where they also made the kid into a complete brat. Maybe they're just "updating" kids to act more like today's kids...
Yeah! Ypu are probably right about "updating kids" and yeas those two in WotW were obnoxious! I liked the original a lot even though the Martians are different. Haven't seen the DTESS reamke yet but the original is a classic! Thanks for commenting!
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