Where do you put that on your resume?

[trinityvixen]

Veronica Cartwright was not told about a significant plot point involving her character in two movies. You might have heard about the trick that Ridley Scott pulled on her (and the rest of the cast save John Hurt) in Alien. But did you know that she was also not informed about what would happen when she ran into Donald Sutherland in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers? (Um, spoilers at that last link!)

Is that a salable talent or an insult to her abilities as an actress?

The remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) was decent. I enjoyed Kevin McCarthy's cameo, but it really made me wish that Donald Sutherland had had half of McCarthy's suave slyness at the outset. I guess they didn't want a lead actor who would compete with Leonard Nimoy for having the most soothing, slick voice. Nimoy, for reals, yo, that shit is distracting. I know people with British accents who can't schmooze so gentle. (Regarding that link: I will fight to the death over Virgina Madsen's superior Dune intro. I don't care which version of the movie you like better, but I will fuck your shit up if you don't get props to her Irulan versus Princess Whiny from the miniseries.)

I even really liked the change to the ending from either of the two the original had. The original original ending was awesome. (The studio-demanded reworking, with its reCOCKulous frame story, was less so.) So I consider it doubly impressive that they went the route they did and had it work. (Well done, Ms. Cartwright, I might add.)

I think I'm ready to move onto the less-well-received remakes of this classic. I sincerely doubt that Body Snatchers will be notable for much more than the fact that it stars that awesome IRA chick from Burn Notice, but what the hell? I'm going to watch The Invasion at some point (probably), so I might as well watch them all. While this logic has led me, in the past, to watch some truly tedious bullshit, I will point out that being thorough got me to see the Dolph Lundgren version of The Punisher which is possibly the most wonderful bit of schlock action ever, so there's that.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

When I get through either Body Snatchers or The Invasion, I'll chime in on the double feature. As it is, it would seem a bad idea to put the movies together. It's not like Body Snatchers was a spectacular failure the way The Invasion was. Also, wasn't it supposed to be Invasion?

I hear good things about Candyman, and I know it has my man Tony Todd in it. Worth taking a look, I gather?

There is no end to the awesome of Leonard Nimoy. He just is. You should have seen him in his 1970s getup, too. Wow.

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

Candyman is great. As I mentioned, it has a goofy ending, but the rest of it is pretty amazing. It has great performances by Virginia Madsen, Kasi Lemmons and Tony Todd, and it's one of the more intelligently written horror films I've seen. There's a surprising amount of racial tension in it, which sets it apart from other slasher films, and the psychological angle they play up in it is really cool too. Sweets to the sweet...

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

Conveniently, Candyman is available online to watch for free, if you don't mind commercials.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I might just do that when I've got a free hour or two. Cheers.

Hijack!

[saturn-shumba.livejournal.com]

Candyman scared the SHIT out of me when I was a kid. I couldn't look in a mirror for a month.

My friend also carried over some childhood trauma concerning Candyman so we decided to bite the bullet and watch it again when we were older and more scared of Republicans rather than bogeymen. Not as scary as we remembered (of course) but it's still pretty fucking good. I was impressed at how it held up, most 90's horror movies don't really do that for me...

Re: Hijack!

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

It's got atmosphere, which so many horror movies lack.