• Thanksgiving movies offer a tasty buffet

    By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC News

    There've been a lot of reports this week about store employees whose Thanksgivings are being cut short so they can work Thanksgiving night. Where's the love for the movie theater employees, though, who will sacrifice turkey-nap time so they can pop the corn, rip the tickets and tell you to "enjoy the show" once more and with feeling? (Except for "John Carter." No one can enjoy that turkey.)

    MGM/Sony, 20th Century Fox, Disney

    Your Thanksgiving movie menu is varied this year. "Skyfall"? "Life of Pi"? "Wreck-It Ralph"? "Lincoln"?

    For some, turkey-trotting over to the cinema on Thanksgiving is an American tradition as great as Grandma's pumpkin pie recipe. But you want to make that theater time count. Here's our movie editor's guide to what to see, and with whom.

    TOP PICK
    'Skyfall'
    For a while, it looks as if super-spy James Bond might have been shaken, stirred and stuck on a shelf. Thanks to MGM's bankruptcy woes, "Skyfall" was trapped in limbo tighter than a Bond girl's cocktail dress. But "Skyfall" finally hit theaters this month, and if you haven't seen it,  you need to. Exotic locations (Turkey, Macau!), thrilling action sequences (includng one on a train!), spy versus spy intrigue, Bond family history, gadgets and more. Former Bond Sir Roger Moore himself told NBC News.com that after he saw the film, he emailed Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and told her she'd saved the franchise for another 50 years.
    Review: 'Skyfall' is a spectacular way for Bond to turn 50 

    TAKE THE KIDS
    Older kids (5 and over): 'Wreck-It Ralph'
    Parents whose 1980s memories are sharp enough that they still can mentally move Pac-Man through that maze will love "Wreck-It Ralph," but kids will enjoy it too. Bad-guy Ralph escapes his game in a quest to be a hero. Parents of tiny tots should know there's a foray into a first-person shooter game -- filled with creepy cy-bugs -- which might overwhelm the littlest ones.
    REVIEW: Visually dazzling 'Wreck-It Ralph' scores high 


    Younger kids: 'Rise of the Guardians'
    Sure, Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy fight evil together. Why not? In this enchanting new 3-D film, they enlist young Jack Frost to help them battle Pitch, a giver of bad dreams. Like "Wreck-It Ralph," this one's also PG, as Pitch and his swirling black nightmare horses might deliver a bad dream themselves. But my preschooler was enchanted more than disturbed.
    REVIEW: 'Rise of the Guardians' is a charming holiday tale 

    FOR HISTORY BUFFS
    If you like modern history: 'Argo'
    Those 1970s mustaches! The dial phones! It's the late 1970s all right, and the wonderful "Argo" thrusts you right back there as the Iranian Hostage Crisis grips the nation. But instead of focusing on the 52 hostages who were held for 444 days, the film hones in on a lesser-known event, the rescue of six embassy employees using a fascinating cover story claiming they were Canadians scouting locations for a science-fiction movie. The outstanding cast (Ben Affleck, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin) appeals to all generations.
    REVIEW: 'Argo' offers tight political thriller with unexpected humor 

    If you prefer the older stuff: 'Lincoln'
    You should know going in: Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" is not a battle film. But you never feel it lacks for action, as the president and his men work every conceivable angle to lobby enough congressmen to vote to abolish slavery.  Daniel Day-Lewis gives us perhaps the most accurate portrayal possible of the great man himself, mixing leadership with his own patented blend of homespun storytelling. (Don't miss the anecdote about George Washington's picture in a British bathroom.) You'll see Day-Lewis' name come Oscar time.
    REVIEW: 'Lincoln' makes backroom politics fascinating 

    FOR BOOK LOVERS:
    If you prefer modern fiction: 'Life of Pi'
    Book clubbers, you remember reading this. Yann Martel's 2001 bestseller-turned-movie tells the fantastical tale of Pi Patel, an Indian boy who finds himself at sea in a lifeboat with some very hungry zoo animals, including a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. If you're the kind of moviegoer who needs everything to feel realistic and explainable, this is perhaps not the film for you. But if you're willing to suspend belief, director Ang Lee has spun a wonderful 3-D fable that doesn't require you to read the book.
    REVIEW: 'Life of Pi' a gorgeous rendering of best-selling novel

    If you love romantic classics: 'Anna Karenina'
    Maybe you read it in a college literature course, or maybe you just know the title in case it's ever a question on "Jeopardy!." There's a reason Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" has been made into a movie a dozen times -- its tale of a 19th century Russian wife and the way she stumbles into doom when she has an affair is riveting. In this version, Keira Knightley spellbinds as Anna, and director Joe Wright's imaginative, stylish take gives an old story a new twist.
    REVIEW: 'Anna Karenina' is a bold adaptation of classic novel 

    FOR RETRO NUTS:
    Stuck in the 1980s: 'Red Dawn'
    We're not convinced anyone was really begging for a remake of the 1984 Russian invasion drama "Red Dawn," but here it is. This time, the Russians aren't the enemy, it's the North Koreans, who were hastily painted in when filmmakers decided not to risk offending their first choice, the Chinese. But if you're well into the eggnog, grab those pals who knew you back when you wore leg warmers and shoulder pads, and relive those cheesy old lines you screamed back in the day. WOLVERINES! AVENGE ME!
    REVIEW: 'Red Dawn' remake makes silly premise even dumber 

    Longing for the 1960s: 'Hitchcock'
    No, you can't take the carving knife to your pompous Uncle Henry at Thanksgiving dinner. But you can take him, and any film buffs at your table, to watch that knife famously used in the "Psycho" shower scene in the new biopic "Hitchcock." Anthony Hopkins plays the legendary director as he battles to get the 1960 film made, with Helen Mirren as Alma, his wife and muse. You may have to hunt around for this film, as it's more likely to be found in arthouse theaters than megamall cineplexes.
    REVIEW: 'Hitchcock' takes absorbing look at famed director 

    Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is the movies editor for NBCNews.com and the co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s."

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  • 'Red Dawn' remake absolutely no one clamored for has now arrived

    By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC News

    Want to see "Red Dawn" this weekend? Be sure to don your acid-washed jeans, Forenza sweater, Mary Lou Retton-inspired haircut, and jelly shoes. "Red Dawn" first came out in 1984, when Ronald Reagan was president, gas cost around $1 a gallon, and the film's star-spangled vision of a war against Soviet invaders made a lot more sense.

    MGM, Film District

    More cult than classic, "Red Dawn" (2012 version at top, 1984 version below) seems an odd choice for a movie remake. WOLVERINES!

    In the new version, 1980s heartthrobs Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell and Charlie Sheen have been replaced by Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson and Connor Cruise. The role of Russia is being played by North Korea. Neither film version was intended to win Oscars, but the original developed a bit of a cult status, thanks in part to its handsome Brat Packy cast and weirdly memorable catchphrases. ("WOLVERINES!")


    Now times have changed, and the new "Red Dawn" feels as clunky as a pay phone in a smartphone world.

    "There's nothing to take away from this new version that ever feels like it's commenting on the here and now," Sara Michelle Fetters, critic and editor-in-chief for MovieFreak.com, told NBC News. "It just feels like another corporate byproduct, a movie made by people with no artistic credibility sitting in a room saying to one another, "Yeah, 'Red Dawn,' that totally kicked butt when I was a kid.' "

    The Russkie -- er, North Korean-fighting teens of "Red Dawn" aren't alone in their nostalgic world. "Total Recall," "Footloose" and "Arthur" are among cult classics that have been recently remade for a 21st century audience, with "Dirty Dancing," "Robocop" and "The Evil Dead" among those awaiting their turn in the remake mill.

    Few of the remade films have scored high with critics. The new version of "Red Dawn" currently earns only a 23 percent positive critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com, with many critics pulling no punches when it comes to the unneeded remake.

    "Remaking an old film is rarely a good idea, but sometimes the idea is so spectacularly bad that the reasoning behind it defies all comprehension," critic Charlie McCollum wrote in the San Jose Mercury News. "About the only positive thing you can say about 'Red Dawn' is that it is finally coming along on the perfect holiday: Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Turkey Day."

    Movies are often undeniable products of their time, said Fetters, noting that the original "Red Dawn," while "silly and over the top," carried with it some sense of historical significance in a Russia-wary country.  

    "That's the problem with so many of these 1970s and '80s remakes," said Fetters. "The context and the reasoning behind them has been stripped away. Nobody greenlighting them now cares what the original filmmakers were trying to say, they only care that the concepts were cool, the villains were bad-ass and the heroes were larger than life."

    Remakes may earn money, but they can also actively anger those who loved the originals.

    "It bothers me to think of Gen X classics like 'Red Dawn' being remade," said Jennifer James, an Oklahoma writer who runs JenX67, a weblog about all things Generation X. "Nobody wants their coming-of-age films messed with."

    But James admits that "Red Dawn" doesn't hold a cherished place in her personal pantheon of movie classics. 

    "In my opinion, there are just some movies that can't be rebooted," she said. "Like 'The Breakfast Club' and 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'"

    And James points out that Hollywood's obsession with remakes is robbing a new generation of their own stories.

    "Do not remake 'The Breakfast Club,'" she said of John Hughes' classic 1985 film. "It would be an utter distortion of a cultural touchstone that belongs to one generation -- Generation X. A touchstone can't be remade or inherited. It can't be retrofitted to another generation. To inject current trends into old stories is to rob Gen Y and Gen Z of their own unique coming of age tales."

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    Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is the movies editor for NBCNews.com and the co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s."

  • 'Red Dawn' remake makes silly premise even dumber

    By Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

    REVIEW: The recent failure of North Korea to even launch a missile successfully lends a comic air of preposterousness to the already silly premise of "Red Dawn," the long-delayed remake of John Milius’ fondly remembered 1984 action film. Dan Bradley’s reboot originally featured the Chinese as the villains, but hey, China is a lucrative film market while North Korea barely can keep its lights on, hence the post-production switch. In any case, this version is unlikely to strike a similar chord with young audiences while severely disappointing older fans of the original. It also contains far less resonance today than during the Cold War, with domestic problems seeming far more a threat than foreign invasion.  

    The premise once again concerns a stalwart group of teenagers who band together into a ragtag guerrilla army opposing the nasty North Koreans who suddenly besiege their hometown of Spokane, Wash. Unintentionally echoing Mitt Romney’s campaign pronouncement that Russia is our biggest international threat, the film drops hints that they are also part of the conspiracy.

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    The opening credits are accompanied by a montage of news clips featuring the likes of Obama, Biden and Hillary Clinton warning about the threat of cyber-terrorism. It turns out that they were right, as it’s eventually explained that this vicious sneak attack was precipitated by a total shutdown of our computer grids.

    The filmmakers don’t waste any time, beginning the action a mere 15 minutes in with frightening scenes of tanks and paratroopers led by the bloodthirsty Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee) suddenly occupying the placid town.


    Video: 'Red Dawn' trailer

    Dubbing themselves the “Wolverines” in honor of their high school football team, the town’s teens, raised on a steady diet of war-themed videogames, quickly take up arms to fight the invaders. Led by recently returned Iraq War vet Jed (Chris Hemsworth, who filmed this before hitting the big time as Thor), they include star quarterback and Jed’s kid brother Matt (Josh Peck); Toni (Adrianne Palicki), who carries a torch for Jed; tech geek Robert (Josh Hutcherson); head cheerleader Erica (Isabel Lucas); and Daryl (Connor Cruise), the mayor’s son. They’re eventually joined by a trio of retired Marines led by a gung-ho type (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who utters such macho pronouncements as “It’s a good day to die, gentlemen.” That’s but one example of the generally risible dialogue, which includes Jed’s observation that “Even the tiniest flea can drive a big dog crazy.”

    Chris Hemsworth, Sacha Baron Cohen among British GQ nominees

    Director Bradley is a former stunt coordinator, which accounts for the well-staged action sequences that take up the bulk of the film’s relatively brief 93-minute running time. Unfortunately, DP Mitchell Amundsen, hewing to the now standard formula, uses shaky, hand-held cameras to photograph much of the proceedings, resulting in near incoherent visuals that quickly induce monotony.

    Other than Hemsworth, who infuses his character with a credible gravitas, the young performers are wholly unconvincing in their roles, with Palicki and Lucas somehow managing to look perfectly made-up and beautiful even while engaging in the down and dirty action. Morgan provides his usual strong screen presence, and Korean-American actor Lee, once dubbed one of People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People,” makes for a suitably hissable villain.

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