Tag: Remake

Lon Chaney’s A Blind Bargain is No Longer Lost. Instead This Movie is Remade!

Crispin Glover delivers the goods in A Blind Bargain, a resurrected piece of lost cinema where Lon Chaney was the star.

A Blind Bargain - POSTEROpening May 8th at select theatres.
More screenings TBA. Please see below for locations:

Fans of Lon Chaney will most likely know about A Blind Bargain. It’s a film where the actor played two roles. Not only did he become a mad scientist chasing the fountain of youth, but he also played a hairy man ape! Sadly, no surviving print exists, and film historians must rely on stills and past reviews.

Based on those materials, many critics hail it as brilliant. Not every piece of horror cinema featuring the Man of a Thousand Faces can be deemed truly haunting, and when this work concerns mutating the human genome, anything can happen. Chaney played a “good doctor” whose experiments promised hope but delivered torture. That premise isn’t quite the same in the modern remake written by John Falotico and Bing Bailey and directed by Paul Bunnell, but the DNA is still there.

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How To Train Your Dragon – Weighing in on the Good and The Bad With The Remake. It’s Never As Intense The Second Time Around.

As beloved How To Train Your Dragon is for long-time fans, this one gets the attention of today’s kids rather than appease those who grew up following the original.

How to Train Your Dragon 2025 Movie PosterMy theory on why a live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon exists is that DreamWorks Animation/Universal doesn’t want to lose their license to this profitable franchise. Rebooting the series with a live-action adaptation, rather than letting it go, makes business sense.

As a fan of the original series—and having covered it extensively—I still find it hard to accept a new actor playing Hiccup. Mason Thames does a decent job in the role, and Gerard Butler is excellent as Stoick, a role he seems born to play. However, the supporting cast doesn’t capture the humor and charm I loved in the animated versions.

For instance, Fishlegs’ (Julian Dennison) relationship with Hiccup feels less defined. Snotlout (Gabriel Howell) doesn’t provoke Hiccup as much, and The Twins (Bronwyn James as Ruffnut and Harry Trevaldwyn as Tuffnut Thorston) come across differently. While the performers are competent, their roles lack the comedic impact and screen time of their animated counterparts. As for Astrid, Nico Parker doesn’t quite match the fiery presence America Ferrera brought to the role.

Continue reading “How To Train Your Dragon – Weighing in on the Good and The Bad With The Remake. It’s Never As Intense The Second Time Around.”