In front of the 3D marvel that is Martin Scorsese's
"Hugo," we see several trailers for movies we've seen before.
Production companies are blowing the dust off of some old favorites and touching them up for re-release in 3D.
It will start in January as Disney puts on a limited engagement of "Beauty and the Beast," one of its finest animation achievements. Honestly, the trailer I saw on the XD screen at Cinemark Movies 16 didn't look all that great. Something just didn't look right about it - the up-converted picture somehow made that gorgeous animation look cheap and quaint.
In February, George "toy boy" Lucas (thanks Kevin Smith) will start re-releasing his six "Star Wars" movies in 3D. Unfortunately, they are starting with "Episode I: The Phantom Menace," which I still grudgingly admit even exists. Would it not have been much better to release them in the order they originally hit screens? I think I may wait for "A New Hope," if I bother at all.
Finally, "Avatar" mastermind James Cameron will release his Oscar-winning (how did that happen again?) "Titanic" in 3D at the beginning of April. I'm not a huge fan of that film, but there are some truly amazing things about it. But it stuck me as extremely morbid that here is a true story about many people dying - and now you can watch them perish in super-cool 3D!
Honestly, I'm still not a fan of 3D, even though I thought Scorsese worked magic with it in "Hugo." That's an exception. I'm certainly not okay with adding cheap effects to classics for a blatant money grab.
Besides, with apologies to "Titanic," hasn't the ship kind of sailed on 3D? Studios can no longer count on it as a huge selling point for movies like they could a year ago. Most movies released in 3D do less than 50 percent of their business off 3D ticket sales, with the exceptions of movies like "Transformers 3."
But I'm curious - are there any old movies you'd like to see get re-issued in 3D? "Blade Runner?" "Casablanca?" "Dumb and Dumber?"
