Observer » Corey Feldman

The Week in DVR: Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, an 80s Classic, and Doctor Who All Gussied Up

Hillary Frey — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:25:08 -0400

Monday: Notorious
Some say Rear Window. Others, Vertigo. We say Notorious when asked to name our favorite Hitchcock film. Ingrid Bergman plays a boozy, sad beauty who must redeem herself—and her family name—by turning spy for government agent Cary Grant. The action takes place in 40s Rio de Janiero, where Bergman must marry a suspicious German in order to turn up secrets for Grant, who is both in love with her, and repulsed by her unladylike behaviors (which we found, for the record, totally awesome). [TCM, 8 p.m.]

Tuesday: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares
In America, Scottish celebrity chef is best known for his cartoonish, abusive outbursts on the Fox reality cooking competition Hell's Kitchen. But across the pond, his far superior television show, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, showed a softer side of the rough-and-tumble chef. That program, which follows Ramsay as he tries to help failing restaurants, has also been remade for a U.S. audience (also for Fox), but skip that and DVR the BBC America reruns of the original. Today, Ramsay travels to Paris to help a Scottish woman who's opened up a vegetarian place—with an uncontrollable chef, a bratty waitress and terrible food. Expect tough love, and Ramsay's signature short fuse. [BBC America, 1 p.m.]

Wednesday: Hand Behind the Mouse
This documentary about Ub Iwerks, one of the early geniuses of animation technology, offers a sort of alternative history of early cartoons, focusing on Disney's 'go to' guy rather than the more recognizable names associated with our early animated friends. The film also features tons of old cartoons that, despite an entire cable channel devoted to Disney productions, are rarely broadcast on tv. [Ovation, 8 p.m.]

Thursday: Stand By Me
Oh, Corey Feldman before he was a mess. Wil Wheaton before he became a computer nerd. Jerry O'Connell before he got skinny. And River Phoenix before he became an icon. The Observer can still quote this 80s classic, based on Stephen King's short story "The Body," about four boys coming of age in the 50s who set off on a day's journey in search of a teenager's dead body. Scary, hilarious, and unbelievably sad. [AMC, 12 p.m.]

Friday: Doctor Who
We're totally obsessed with the remade Doctor Who series, which stars adorable, foppish Scottish actor David Tennant as the well-dressed time lord (bespoke suits! Chuck Taylors!) who zips around in a police box fighting aliens and rooting out bad extraterrestrials. Today, the first part of one of our most favorite episodes airs on the SciFi channel. In it, the Doctor and his season 3 companion, Martha Jones, appear in Britain in 1913 where the Doctor has been forced to forsake his time lord self and become human in an attempt to evade some alien pursuers. There are also scary scarecrows. Trust us: this is not the Doctor Who of your youth. [SciFi, 5 a.m.]

Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll High School Forever?

Joe Pompeo — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:36:33 -0400

So Howard Stern is producing a remake of Rock ’n’ Roll High School, the classic 1979 B-movie starring P.J. Soles as the rebellious Riff Randall, a Ramones-obsessed teen who stages a punk rock coup against the repressive administration of Vince Lombardi High. Apparently Mr. Stern is a huge fan of the original movie—for which the Ramones filmed an actual concert as part of the plot—and has been known to talk about it on his radio show. But wasn’t there already a remake, albeit a forgettable one, of Rock ’n’ Roll High School?

The answer is...sort of.

As some of you may recall, in 1991, Corey Feldman starred in the deliciously atrocious sequel Rock ’n’ Roll High School Forever, which followed a similar plot, except instead of the Ramones we got a fictionalized rock band, fronted by Mr. Feldman’s character, called the Eradicators, and instead of Vince Lombardi High we got Ronald Reagan High. (Although in a nod to its predecessor, the character who played the evil principal and nemesis to all things rock ’n’ roll, Ms. Togar, returned—for some reason with a hook for a hand—as the far more militant and butch Dr. Vadar.) All told, the movie is horrid, but in that “I would totally watch this if I stumbled across it on VH1 on a Saturday afternoon” sort of way.

So it’s up to Mr. Stern to give us the amazing remake that Rock ’n’ Roll High School deserves. Can he do it? Probably not. But! In the meantime, we give you the trailer for Rock ’n’ Roll High School Forever in all of its over-the-top early '90s glory.

Corey Feldmen Trumpets Lost Boys Sequel

Gillian Reagan — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:45:35 -0400

Cinematical points us to a new blog post from our favorite 80's child actor/trainwreck Corey Feldman gabbing about the sequel to Lost Boys, Lost Boys 2: The Tribe. He pointed to two production photos and admits "they are already talking about doing a third... ..;)." Yikes.

Monika Bartyzel writes:

I have been fully expecting to hate this whole production, but I must say -- seeing these two pictures did tap into some of my old Lost Boys fangirl glee. Maybe this could be a good, fun sequel. ...Maybe?

The first pic has Feldman throwing up the serious vampire-fighting finger at Tad Hilgenbrink, who you might have caught in last year's abysmal Epic Movie as Cyclops. The second picture has Feldman armed, poutingly serious, and patrolling a dark tunnel. I'm not expecting a masterpiece, but at least it looks like Corey found his way back to his inner Frog. The actor also threw up a blog post, and in between prayers and chatter for fans, he talks a bit about Warner Brothers' plans for the film. DC Comics will be releasing a 4-issue series to fill in the blanks between the first and second films. (How will they explain away Corey Haim? Did Mama Weist collect them off to a safer city?) And get this -- from the fingers of Feldman: "they are already talking about doing a third... ..;)" The optimist in me wants to believe that this decision is because of how very well production is going, but the pessimist is certain this is just one of those crappy sequel decisions.