I will never catch up on my reviews.
So in my obviously ill-advised quest to watch original horror films and then their remakes, I took in both Prom Nights. The 1980 version starring Jamie Lee Curtis ("The Kid & I") and Leslie Nielsen ("Superhero Movie"), sort of a strange combination, is actually very entertaining. The set-up with some kids playing around in an abandoned building is creepy. And then the deaths are okay, with one really great one involving a severed head.
But the remake. I don't even know why these things happen. I don't even know why I go to them. It's a sickness. Anyway, I didn't notice that the new version was PG-13 until we were sitting in the theater. And not that a PG-13 horror movie can't be good, but a PG-13 slasher? The definition of slasher is bloody, violent death. And if you can't see it then the movie must rely on other things, like plot, acting, character development and atmosphere which were all pretty much missing from this mess. It gets two stars just for being so ludicrous. And for some reason I have a soft spot for star Brittany Snow ("Hairspray").
I have pretty much fallen in love with Sidney Poitier ("The Jackal"). To Sir, With Love starts out with a kind of cheesy song that I eventually found myself humming as it played several times during the film. Poitier stars as an engineer unable to find work who ends up taking a teaching job in the slums of London's East End. I enjoyed this inspirational teacher/student story. Poitier is fabulous as he tries to keep his temper and show these kids how to behave as adults. I laughed. I almost cried.
Then I watched A Raisin in the Sun where Poitier is explosive as a man trying to realize his dreams. Based on a play by Lorraine Hansberry ("To Be Young, Gifted and Black"), the story revolves around a poor black family crammed into a tiny apartment and waiting for a life insurance check. The writing is fabulous. I never got tired of the characters and the struggle. And the acting was great. Especially Poitier and Ruby Dee ("American Gangster").
Poitier won his Oscar for Lilies of the Field, and though I thought his performance was good, out of this little Poitier-a-thon, it wasn't the best. The story follows Poitier as a handy-man who stumbles across a group of German nuns who "hire" him to fix their roof. Instead of paying him and letting him go on his way, they lure him into more jobs. This film shows a lighter side of Poitier. And there are many amusing bits between him and the nuns as he tries to help them with their English. I just didn't find the film that entertaining. The end was good, though.