Positively Ellinwood Street

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

From Box Office to Library Shelf

Whenever a remake or book adaptation is released in theaters, we tend to see a heavy demand placed on the source material at the Readers' Services desk. But the great thing about boasting a collection of over 275,000 materials is there are many similar titles to check out while you wait for something else!

The Host resonates with faithful fans

Although Stephanie Meyer's The Host isn't doing as well as anticipated, fans seem convinced it is a solid depiction of the science fiction romance book of the same name. Check out the book before seeing the movie. Also look for director Andrew Niccol's (superior?) science fiction film Gattaca.

Other movies about alien possessions include the sinister 1970's reboot of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Faculty (which also features Jon Stewart as a hip science teacher!). For another attack on the human race from an opposing force, check out the unintentionally humorous The Happening.

Evil Dead Possesses the Box Office

Although it is rated an extremely well-deserved R, Fred Alvarez's Evil Dead took the weekend box office by storm, grossing $26 million versus an estimated $17 million cost to make.The movie is brutal and unrelenting in its desire to show off its excessive use of practical effects versus CGI and pay proper homage to The Evil Dead.

Be sure to check out Scott Smith's The Ruins if you need a gruesome read about twentysomethings on a vacation gone very wrong. As for similar movies, Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell strikes similar notes with a more comedic angle, and be sure to rewatch Cabin in the Woods to spot numerous references to The Evil Dead.

A classic gets a highly acclaimed makeover: Dinosaurs in 3D!

Jurassic Park 3D is getting a lot of well-deserved love from fans new and old. Of course we have Jurassic Park and its sequels sans 3D, but maybe now is the time to read Micheal Crichton's Jurassic Park. I think you will be interested to see how many things were changed to make it a family movie!

Although it is truly hard to compare any movies to Jurassic Park, try the classic Steven Spielberg film E.T. or another classic family adventure film from the 1990's: Jumanji.

To place holds or check the availability of any items I mentioned, click on the items below!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Pretty as a Cupcake, Tough as a 75-cent Steak

In the process of participating in the afore mentioned DVD move, I've had many an opportunity to glance at movie covers. One thing that stood out to me was the intricate art of the tagline, something I learned to appreciate while setting up movie displays when I worked at a movie theater. I've referred to them before on this blog, but they deserve more attention than a brief mention.

Film taglines run the spectrum from awesome to awful, passing through the mid-line of bromidic and unimaginative along the way. They can either use wit to generate excitement for its movie or be the shoddy result of some marketing exec's uncaring effort to pay the bills. In this age of easy internet access and mass media marketing where movie trailers are almost like little movie experiences on their own, the tagline really has become a vestigial part of the movie-making machine. Many of the taglines that struck my eye lately were from the decades between 1940 and 1970, when a movie poster was all the information someone would get of an upcoming film, short of the coming attractions segment of their theater-going experience. Here are some of my favorites of those:

"This story was filmed on location .... inside a woman's soul!"

"Life is in their hands - Death is on their minds!"


"She's the Private Lady of a Public Enemy!"

"They're here."

(The tagline of the title also refers to "The Damned Don't Cry!")

Now, this is not all to say that there have not been recent classics. The following taglines have a concrete hold in pop culture, where their true value has been not in advertising the film but in serving as an eternal memento of the modern classic: