Stan Winston 1946 - 2008

Special effects genius, Stan Winston died on Sunday. I wasn't always a fan of the films he worked on, but even so, I think his talent for creating the impossible was beyond compare.

10 Most Historically Innaccurate Films

Can you guess what they are? I'll give you a clue - Mel Gibson appears in two of them. Why am I not surprised?! Go here to see the rest.

Thanks to Claire at LOL History for the link.

More Movie Dog Trivia

Apparently, Lassie was a boy. I've heard this before, and I'm guessing it's true. The logic behind it being true certainly works, and a search of the urban legends sites turned up nothing to say otherwise.

Random Movie Dog Trivia

Some time ago, I saw Jonathon Ross interview Mickey Rourke who mentioned that he owned a number of Chihuahuas. At the time I did wonder if the Chihuahua in Once Upon a Time in Mexico was his own. Today, I finally got around to checking and according to this thread on the IMDB, yes, it was.

I bet you are glad I shared that with you LOL

Are remakes always rotten?

There is a scary rumour doing the rounds that Madonna plans to remake Casablanca. I must admit, as a rule, I'm not a fan of remakes of films which were actually good the first time round. It just smacks of arrogance. Obviously, some films do benefit from advances in technology - for example, John Carpenter's 1982 remake of The Thing from Another World, does improve on the original - but many do not, and Casablanca is in the latter category. So why bother?

I agree with Filmstalker that the idea does sound like a good one but will it work? Maybe it will be a good film, but even so it will still suffer from constant comparisons with the original which is so enormously popular.

What do you think? Are remakes always bad? Do you think this particular one will work? What are your favourite or most disliked remakes?

Question: Films from a by-gone age

I remember that when I was a little girl, BBC2 used to show old black and white films on a Saturday afternoon. I loved to curl up on the sofa and watch these, while waiting for the football results to come on, which were followed by tea. (Don't worry, there is a point and I'm getting to it) Although, I enjoyed most of these films (with the exception of musicals) my favourites were the old Ealing comedies, they had a style and charm that was very much a product of the age in which they were made, one which would be hard to replicate nowadays.

So, my question is do you think certain films are representative of a particular time? Do you think it would be possible to reproduce such films in the modern world?

Foreign Language Films: Dubbing or Sub-titles?

If you are a fan of films in a language other than your own, do you prefer to watch them dubbed (a sound track is added in your language) or sub-titled? If you have a preference, why?