Unbiased Reviews by Real People
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Unbiased Reviews by Real People
That was then, this is again....Aug 12, 2005 (Updated Oct 20, 2005) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line There's nothing new under the sun...
It seems like every movie that's ever been made is either a remake of an older movie, a re-working of an old TV show, or a re-imagining of a well known story from a novel or comic book. Even many books that come out are either sequels based on previously developed characters, or have plotlines that are stolen, wholesale, from other works. Some are more obvious than others: Spiderman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings... all taken from popular literature of various sorts. Dukes of Hazzard, Starsky and Hutch, Bewitched... all old TV shows re-worked to fit modern sensibilities. Others are more obscure, but still borrowed: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? is a retelling of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey. Sleepless in Seattle borrows many of its themes from the classic film An Affair to Remember. Books, too, have a habit of returning time and again, only with new dust jackets and new titles. There are, of course, the series writers: J.K. Rowling, Janet Evanovich, even Agatha Christie. Many authors start writing a book with the intention of writing either one long story published in several volumes; or else creating characters that can be used in a collection of loosely related stories, each standing as a complete story on its own. There are even authors who have borrowed plots and characters from classic literature and tried to imagine what would come next – both Gone With the Wind and Pride and Prejudice have had sequels written (with varying degrees of success) decades after the author's death. And in music, there are often bands that cover previously released works by other artists. Some call themselves 'tribute' bands and hope to recapture and recreate the look, feel, and sound of past greats. Others are performing artists in their own right who just want to use a song that was once a hit for someone else. Sometimes covers work brilliantly. Other times they make us want to suffer a painful death just so we don't have to listen anymore to the butchering of songs we already know and love (or hate). So what am I getting at, you ask? I'm personally intrigued by the variety – and the sheer volume – of tales that were told THEN that have recently been told AGAIN. So, I'm sponsoring my first-ever write-off. This will be known as the Then and Again Writeoff - or T&A for short. I'm inviting anyone who wants to participate to write product reviews in the media categories – Movies, Music, and Books. The only criterion for selection is that you write reviews on works that are based on previous works. This can either mean writing a single review that compares, for instance, a movie remake to the book or movie on which it was based; or it can mean writing multiple reviews of related works and posting them separately. You get to choose. Anything goes as far as product selection – feel free to write reviews on the Lemony Snicket books vs. the movie. Or you could write a review of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the John Williams soundtrack with music from the movie. Be as obvious or as creative as you like. All I ask is that you post original reviews – don't delete and re-post reviews already written. The one exception would be that if you had already reviewed one of the works to be compared, you could submit that old review with a new review of the remake (or the original as the case may be). So if you reviewed the 2004 version of The Stepford Wives when it was in theaters, you could pair that with a new review of the 1975 version of the movie – or even a review of the book. Most of all, try to write interesting, well-thought-out reviews. Strive to be creative, insightful, and (of course) Very Helpful. There is no contest here to crank out the most reviews, or to find the highest number of related media products to write about – though if you want to set a personal challenge for yourself I certainly won't try to stop you. I'll make a tentative cut-off date of September, 30. That gives everyone 7 weeks to read, watch, listen and write. Send me a comment or an email with the URLs of any reviews you create for this writeoff, and I'll try to keep an updated list on this page. To make things easiest for me, please include your username, your subject matter, and the URL of all the related reviews (try to indicate which one is a 'then' and which is an 'again' if you can) in a single email or post. I can add-on if you send more later, but I'd like to keep things as painless as possible. Feel free to enter as often as you like – I'll post each T&A cluster separately Have fun with this and watch this space for updates. ____________________________________ THEN AND AGAIN ENTRIES Pearannoyed (your humble host) – The Stepford Wives Original movie and Movie remake Heymrdj2k - The Outsiders Book and Movie Sleeper54 - Life on the Mississippi Book and Movie stephen_murray - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Stephen's Then and Again entry discusses this movie that was based on a book. stephen_murray - Glory Movie and Soundtrack Heymrdj2k again - Carrie Movie and Soundtrack jankp - A Separate Peace 1972 Movie with some brief comparison to the original novel ChrisJarmick - Yojimbo 1961 Movie complete with a discussion of 3 remakes ... as well as a bonus discussion of 4 other movies and their remakes. Millinocket - Holes Book and Movie pmills1210 - Dragnet 1954 Feature Film and 1987 comedic remake. * * * * * And a late entry by a brand new user: nubian_cutie - Nine And A Half Weeks Disturbing Book and Creepy Movie  |
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