Welcome to Respawning’s new regular feature, Club Articles! These articles have been created as a way of all us guys getting together every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and generally waffling on about whatever takes our fancy!
Today we’re talking about what we’ve watched over the last week, and what films or TV shows we feel deserve a second chance, either through a new series, a new season, a reboot, or a whole reimagining!
James
A film I watched recently which I haven’t seen for a number of years is John Carpenter’s dystopian classic Escape From New York. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell were a great pairing in the 80s, also making Big Trouble In Little China and The Thing together, their chemistry seemed to be a big part in making some of the more interesting genre films of the 80s. Going back to Escape From New York the world and the characters is what really stands out, with really fun performances and dialogue throughout.
After watching the film I also discovered that a remake is in the works currently with an all new cast and actor playing Kurt Russell’s iconic character of Snake Plissken. Deep down I would much prefer to see John Carpenter and Kurt Russell teaming up again to show us an even more run down world and an old, withered Snake Plissken still trying to survive. However, after seeing how incredible Mad Max: Fury Road turned out, changing Mel Gibson for Tom Hardy in the role of Max, there is definitely opportunity for something that is as enjoyable as the original.
Luke
This week I have been watching Inside Number 9 and catching back up with Black Mirror in anticipation of the new series and I honestly can’t wait for to be drawn back in to the dark worlds of Charlie Brooker & Co.
Other than this, most of my time has been taken up with starting a new JRPG so TV and Movies have fallen to the wayside a bit, though I did manage to finally get around to watching IT this weekend which I thought was fucking fantastic. Pennywise in the current iteration I actually found far spoopier than the Tim Curry version and it had me almost shitting myself more than a few times.
Plus currently, all media is made better by Finn Wolfhard.
Also managed to catch Shot Caller this weekend starring my very favourite Lannister as a white collar middle class fella who gets into a car accident and goes down for man slaughter. In order to survive 7 months of his Jail sentence he slowly becomes more and more ingrained in the prison system before ending up extending his prison sentence to 7 years. I found it to be an incredibly interesting commentary on the justice system whilst making me feel quite uncomfortable throughout.
Will
I’ll be honest, I’ve watched naff all film and TV this week. Since finishing University for the term, I’ve instead been pouring myself into my old love Overwatch instead. However, I have been watching the trailer for ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ a minimum of seven times daily since it was released, and that’s got the part of my brain that feeds on misery thinking about times I’ve been let down by superhero movies in the past.
Which brings me to ‘Suicide Squad’, which was conveniently named after both the main characters and the group of friends I saw it with as we left the theatre. So much went wrong, but what made me red with anger over the greasy pizza in the car home was the squandered potential this film shows. After all, when your Oscar-winning film has a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes you know that you’ve messed something good up, big time.
The fact of the matter is, Suicide Squad wasn’t just a pile of turds: it was a delicious Wispa Bar hidden inside of a pile of turds; and as delicious as that choccy may be, I’m still not going to eat it when it’s covered in turds.
What do I mean here? Well, the cast mainly. Margot Robbie was probably the ideal actress for the lead, Harley Quinn, perfectly capturing her unique blend of cutiesie, childish, and oblivious with her twisted, abused and obsessive side. Controversially enough, I even believe Jared Leto had huge potential as The Joker; his mannerisms were exactly the right mix of weird and unsettling I was expecting and exciting for, and it’s only the screenwriter’s fault that he ended up screeching “Honka Honka Honka!” at a roomful of straight-faced gansta types. Poor Jared. Jilted at the editing suite.
Enter Suicide Squad 2, which is currently slated for a 2019 release; the studio is clearly already giving the franchise a second chance, so why am I talking about it here? Well, it’s the audience that needs to give this film a second chance, I think. The fact of the matter is, that had Suicide Squad 1 embraced the interesting characters and colourful personality it had laid out in front of him, focusing on a Joker-Waller duel antagonist affair with the major themes of control played out in a slightly more elegant fashion, the original would have been a treat. Now, if we can find some story reason to scrub all of those god-awful tattoos from Leto’s face and throw out the “We’re baaahd guys, it’s what we do”-level cringe in the screenwriting, I honestly believe the Suicide Squad sequel could be a genuinely enjoyable movie that won’t leave me wondering where I can buy a noose at 11pm.
Salman
I still haven’t been watching a whole lot lately cause I’ve been really really busy with all my school work but I guess I can note that I watched the movie Malcolm X for English class and it was pretty damn good. It had some weird bits in the beginning that were not there at all in the later half which was a bit off to me but all in all a pretty solid and entertaining film.
Even though I don’t celebrate Christmas I sure do love me some Christmas movies and almost every year I watch Jingle All The Way which is just one of the most entertaining movies ever to me for some reason. And that is pretty much all I have seen these past couple of days.
Now as for what I think should get a reboot it just has to be Berserk. Berserk to me has been done dirty too many times in the manga and especially in the anime. The original anime that focused on the Golden Age Arc is just really good although lacking in animation. While the movies covering that same arc are good but have some really gross CGI at times. But then, we come to the recent new seasons which try to go beyond the Golden Age Arc and it makes me wish they had never even tried. This abomination put me off Berserk for a long ass time just because of how goofy and stupid it looks, it makes the films look like a work of art compared to this piece of crap. But yea I guess what I’m tryna say is that I would really just love a Berserk series that actually is as good as the original or even better. It could help that they actually pay the animators money and not just half a hot dog or whatever. But yea, good animation, no CGI and no cutting story bits. Go do that Japan.
Javier
This week I’ve been watching kiddy type films to get me into the Christmas spirit. These include Paddington and Sing, both of which i thoroughly enjoyed. I like that children’s films now have something for adults in them and often have some good comedy moments. Both were enjoyable films with good messages about famils, and hard work, definitely recommend them before Christmas. I’ve also been watching the Punisher series which i am loving, and quite gladly so after the disappointment of the Defenders series (why couldn’t that be good!).
One series that 100% deserves a second chance was the Sarah Connor chronicles. It’s easily one of the best spin off series that I’ve ever seen and did not deserve to be cut. It came before we had series like Game of Thrones but had a movie type feel to it and a great story, ending on a massive cliff hanger.
I think that the Fantastic 4 need to go to the MCU to finally get a decent film, my only issue would be this probably mean that the rest of the Fox heroes would go across as well. I wouldn’t mind the X-men being rebooted. But as much as it would be awesome to see them all together can we get a better Deadpool? Also i can’t wait to see what happens with X-23. Super hero universes and the rights to them really interest me and it will be very interesting to see what happens if Marvel manage to purchase Fox entertainment.