Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to the worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we look at alternatives to Fright Night, One Day and Spy Kids 4D.
Remakes, and sequels and adaptations – oh my! This week in theaters another horror remake aims to make you scream, while a novel love story hopes to make you swoon and a family film strives to literally stink up the place. If you crave more retro-fitted horror, romantic dramas and rambunctious kid flicks – we’ve got you covered with a panoply of movies now available online.
Colin Farrell plays the neighbor from hell in this creepy remake about a teen boy (Anton Yelchin) who knows something wicked is lurching next-door. Craig Gillespie directs.
There’s been a ton of horror remakes of late, and some of the more curious cases are currently streaming:
Let Me In (2010) Cloverfield director Matt Reeves courted controversy when he helmed the remake of the cult-adored Swedish vampire drama Let the Right One In. Reset in 1980s America, Kodi Smit-McPhee stars as a young boy who makes a dangerous new friend (Chloe Moretz). How does it stack up to the original? You make the call.
The Crazies (2009) A remake of a lesser-known horror tale by zombie master George A. Romero, The Crazies centers on a local sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) forced to make some tough choices when the denizens of his town become infected with an illness that makes them reckless and relentlessly homicidal. While Breck Eisner nails the gore in horror, does he manage the integrated socio-political commentary Romero’s works were known for? You decide if he does – or if it matters. Radha Mitchell co-stars.
My Bloody Valentine (2009) This remake of a low-budget 1980s slasher flick remains my favorite 3D theater-going experience. With a crazed miner wildly wielding a pick axe, the kills here are gruesome fun that was especially fun with the gimmicky use of 3D. Will this bloody good time translate to the small-screen? It may lose a step, but I bet it’ll frighten and delight.
Lone Scherfig’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated An Education, this adaptation of David Nicholls‘ adored romantic novel centers on a pair of friends (and sometimes lovers) and how their relationship evolves over a 20-year span. Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess co-star.
For more understated tales of love in all its forms, screen this trio of dulcet delights:
Italian for Beginners [Italiensk for begyndere] (2000) In Scherfig’s touching ensemble piece, a group of Danish strangers find their lives forever changed as they begin to bond over lessons in Italian, a language that opens them all to love and its possibilities.
I Am Love [Io Sono L’Amore] (2009) Set in Italy, this gorgeous and sumptuous drama centers on one woman (played by the always awe-inspiring Tilda Swinton) who escapes the staid drudgery of her decadent family life through a passionate affair of sex and food. Luca Guadagnino directs.
Mademoiselle Chambon (2009) In this Spirit Award-nominated drama, a blue-collared Frenchman is exposed to a whole new world when he begins an affair with his son’s erudite and musically gifted schoolteacher. It’s a simple but beautifully captured tale of two ship’s passing in the night.
Jessica Alba stars as a former spy who gets her stepchildren into the game to help her take down the nefarious Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven). What’s 4D you wonder? Well always one for nostalgia over cinema’s low-points, writer/director Robert Rodriquez presents this feature to you in “Aroma-Scope.”
You crazy kids! Here are three more family-friendly adventures:
Spy Kids (2001) The child-espionage thriller that started it all centers on two sibling who have to put their ever-raging rivalry aside to rescue their former-spy parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) from the evil clutches of a twisted kid-show maker (Tony Shalhoub). Rodriquez directs.
Free Willy (1993) In this classic kid’s tale Jesse (Jason James Richter) is a kid with compunction for graffiti until his court-ordered community service puts him up close and personal with a killer whale in captivity. Soon, Jesse hatches a plan to set the mournful marine animal free resulting in an iconic (though far-fetched) moment of movie glory!
The Wizard (1989) In this kid-version of Rain Man, Fred Savage takes his autistic little brother to the competitive gaming expo Video Armageddon after realizing that he is an idiot savant with a gift for video games – especially those using the almighty (and sadly not as cool in reality) Nintendo Powerglove! The showdown round in this drama? The newly unveiled Super Mario Brothers 3! Modern-day indie rocker Jenny Lewis co-stars.
The Art of the Steal (2010) Documentary meets heist movie in the captivating tale of the highly prized Barnes collection, which contains an unparalleled compilation of Post-impressionist paintings that’s value is estimated in the billions. While the premise sounds dry, documentarian Don Argott unravels the complicated and sordid history of the Barnes and its controversial collector with the breath-taking pace of a thriller. See, Barnes himself was a self-made man who fell in love with the emerging art scene, but was cruelly scorned by the elites of his Philadelphian home, and so shunned them in return, slowly collecting 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos (before they were considered masters) and displaying them within his own gallery to a select group of students. But after his death in 1951, the museum curators who once mocked him began jockeying to subvert his will and steal the Barnes collection for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. While I began the film having never heard of this famed collection, by its finale I was literally on the edge of my seat awaiting to hear its fate. It’s Argot’s masterful shaping of the story that inspired me to place Art on my top 10 of 2010.