75 - Josie and The Pussycats

Connection To SIN CITY - Rosario Dawson

I feel like I should put this bit first before I go any further - I have so much affection for this movie. When I first saw this movie it was love at first sight.

The fact that the IMDB rating is 5.3 and a 53% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (which I guess is the exact same score) makes me think only a small number of people will think it's average will some would have gave it a poor score, whilst others have give it a high score.

I know I heard of the Hanna Barbara cartoon before seeing the film for the first time I can't really remember if I ever saw it, me thinks it must have been on Cartoon Network or similar at one point in the UK and I have seen it (but to be fair certain Hanna Barbara cartoons can merge together).

While the film takes digs at advertising and the like, you could make an argument that it would have hit the nail right on the head if they didn't use actual real companies but still I guess it adds a sense of realism in the film that's not really there otherwise.

The film opens with the boy band Dujour (featuring Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison) performing Backdoor Lover, which does indeed sound like a genuine boyband song from around the time the film was made in 2001, on a plane ride to Riverdale, the boys tell their manager Wyatt (Alan Cumming) that they noticed an hidden message strange in their recording, Wyatt decides to parachute out the plane and let the plane crash, in which he lands in Riverdale's home town and needs a new group to latch on, it's then he comes across the girl band then called The Pussycats and begins use them as the new vehicle for doing sublime messages to youngsters.

The pussycats are played by Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie, Rosario Dawson as Val and Tara Reid as Melody - and Say what you want about Reid and the subsequent decade plus but she's absolutely adorable here as the air-headed Melody, I am not saying the makers of Victorious took the character for Cat but you can't certainly see the similarities. I liked the relationship between the three girls and the jealousy of Val towards Josie is built up well throughout the film.

The film villains are Cumming and Parker Posey, I enjoyed them and it seems like there was having a lot of funny going a bit OTT, though the film is usually better when the Pussycats are the screen, Posey has an awesome scene with a Senator. The best Pussycat related scene is probably the TRL scene.

Overall, the songs are catchy (I really like Pretend To Be Nice) and it's very funny even now after multiple viewings, the girls are pretty too look at and like I said have great chemistry, it's just a shame it didn't set the box-office alight and we got a sequel. I still love this film some 12 years after first seeing it.

7 - 21 Jump Street

Connection To LEAVE IT TO BEAVER - both are based on TV shows.

I have no problem at the end of the day with all these remakes - be it of an older film, a foreign film or an update of a TV show - the reasoning being nobody is forcing me at gunpoint to watch any of these - they don't effect my enjoyment of the original in anyway, the same way a film based on a book or comic doesn't effect what you once enjoyed there still there (I also hate the term raped my childhood which has been banded about), and I'm curious often then not to see how an adaptation of the same material attacks it (okay, a fair bit of the time it ends up being a lame duck).

21 Jump Street, was a show I was familiar with but never seen - I knew it starred Johnny Depp and Richard Grieco and knew it was about cops going undercover as high school students but that was about it, it probably also had something with Depp choosing to take interesting roles to avoid the pin-up moniker he would get with this show.

21 Jump Street works totally as a movie in it's own right, it's maybe because the show's concept can be boiled down to so few words, it also like the better TV remake movies sort of makes fun of some of the concepts (in a loving way) while being it's own thing. This film also feels like the first high school film in a long-time to acknowledge the world is a bit different now - that jock and geek are not quite how they are always presented anymore.

One of the stars Channing Tatum, actually went from hey I tolerate him to hey your actually a pretty good actor, so it's awesome when a movie pretty much changes your precipitation of people, who has great chemistry here with the other undercover cop Jonah Hill.

SPOILER(ISH) AHEAD - but do you want to know one of the most awesome things about this movie it's not actually a remake of the TV series it ends up being a stealth sequel and we get the cameo of two original 21 Jump Street actors in cameos playing their original characters which I won't spoil here END OF SPOILER

The supporting cast is actually filled out nicely with Dave Franco and Brie Larson cool as students and the ever adorable Ellie Kemper as a teacher among others in a pretty well cast film.

Overall, it's funny and the action scenes are cool and features great chemistry between the leads, this actually has me looking forward to it's sequel (22 Jump Street).

6 - Leave It To Beaver

Connection To THE RICH MAN'S WIFE - Shooter McGavin Christopher McDonald.

I remember watching Leave It To Beaver on the original Comedy Channel in the UK in the early 90's, it left such an impression on me that I don't really remember it besides the name - and enough of an impact then that in Scrooged - the Father Loves Beaver bit, I thought was just a reference to this and this alone, my kiddie mind didn't make the other connection.

So maybe choosing a movie version of a sit-com I barely remember might not the same memories for me if I watched the movies based on The Addams Family or The Brady Bunch for example, they where shows I remember very well (and love the films too boot).

The first question I have to ask myself about this film is what decade is this movie set? This is of course a rhetorical question with it's references to Brad Pitt and Gameboy it's obviously set in the decade it was made - the 90's, but the characters all act like, well... a sit-com from the 1950's.

I'm not sure that's where the problem lies, but it feels like say the opposite to The Brady Bunch movies, it doesn't want to make fun (even in a loving way) of the original show and it's conventions and seems more like a 50's sit-com script updated to the 90's with a few minor changes.

The jokes mostly miss the spot, really because they are so gentle - you wouldn't even say they are unfunny, I think they just aspire to be safe and soft. I thought most of the child actors where pretty poor - not quite as bad as most of the kids from the 94 Little Rascals movie but there just on the weak side, I hate having a go at kids performances but just it's noticeable when a cast is top-heavy with younger performers

Overall, the film just falls flat, mainly because other TV updates have just done it better. Maybe if I loved the original show I might have viewed differently - to be honest though I don't really think that would be the case