Mad Max vs Fury Road
The Mad Max reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), is different to all the other reboots taking place, because the same person is behind both the original and the remake: George Miller. Who could possibly know the character of Max Rockatansky better? Miller was behind the original three movies, and between the last Mel Gibson movie, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and the reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), surely would’ve at times contemplated new stories for the character. Fury Road plays out like a contemporary blockbuster that sparkles with genuine vision, while trying to remain true to the originals. That’s laudable, because it’s something a lot of reboots are missing. Christopher…
Willy Wonka vs Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
When I was growing up in the 1970s, it seemed that three movies were replayed annually: The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Great Race (1965), and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). This was before pay-tv, streaming, digital channels, the internet, rentals, and, well, everything. We had four channels and that was it. Regardless of how often I’d seen these movies, I’d always tune in again, finding something magical in each. They all, in their own way, dealt with the fantastic, and two of them featured children as protagonists. As a kid, who didn’t want to believe in magic, wonder, and boundless possibilities? These are the sort of stories…