comment #1

bacio says ...

I guess one could make something out of the happy-bunny Clinton years (generation x etc) vs the culture of fear years post-9/11. dunno

comment #2

Edward says ...

Try as I might, I've never cared for "The Big Chill." I've always found "The Return of the Secaucus Seven" more relevant and interesting to me.

comment #3

jeffmcm says ...

Or just reassemble the original cast and everyone can talk about what a drag it is getting old.

Kline and Goldblum still look pretty much the same, though, today. Good for them.

comment #4

Edward Havens says ...

Spoken just like someone who didn't come of age in the 1980s, Dave.

I hate to tell you this... actually, I am loving to tell you this... but us thirtysomethings are starting to have our own Big Chill moments with much more frequently than we wish.

comment #5

Edward Havens says ...

Sorry... meant Jeff. Sometimes, I get confused. I need another shot of tequila.

comment #6

christian says ...

SECAUCUS SEVEN is so superior to THE BIG CHILL you can't even compare them except as a diamond to a piece of glass.

while i enjoy the ensemble acting in TBC, sayles' film is more honest and less tortured -- his characters are still living by their 60's ideals, however limited; kasdan's barely semed to have them.

comment #7

Craig Kennedy says ...

Take away the feel-good Motown soundtrack from The Big Chill and you're left with nothing. It's a nostalgia vessel.

A remake will be a...well it'll be a remade nostalgia vessel.

comment #8

Geoff says ...

Yup, I'm still too young to comment on let alone watch this filma and enjoy it.

comment #9

MAGGA says ...

There is a great deal of nostalgia for the Clinton Years right now. Things did not go from good to bad, but from bad to worse. Most of us felt relatively safe in the nineties, now everyone is getting paranoid, from politicians to the media to fity-something people and I guess young people themselves. Personally I am loving this decade, but excitement makes dull movies I guess.

comment #10

Jay T. says ...

I agree that there's a lot of nostalgia right now for the late 90's vs. today. I graduated in 1998 so I'm on the younger end of the group that could relate, but there's definitely some potential here... although, the film will probably be bad.

comment #11

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Edward Havens: Okay, maybe there's some kind of half-interesting contrast between the mid '90s Clinton years and the post-9.11 terror years...maybe I stand corrected...maybe, I say.

comment #12

Josh Massey says ...

I was under the impression Big Chill had already been remade about 10 or 20 times since.

Dammit, somebody should just remake Indian Summer. Sam Raimi was always a better actor than director.

(Holy shit, until right now - after I typed that - I had no idea Binder directed that.)

comment #13

zoey says ...

Loved the Big Chill. Smart dialogue that was totally something new at the time. The playing of You Can't Always Get What You Want on the organ with the segue to the funeral is still a classic scene.

comment #14

nola says ...

This Screen Gems movie sounds more like THE BEST MAN (the movie Macolm lee directed) with characters that are a little older.

comment #15

le corbeau says ...

"I was under the impression Big Chill had already been remade about 10 or 20 times since."

No kidding! At any given moment, isn't there one of its bastard children in a movie theater?

That's like wishing for Halloween to be remade-- oh wait.

comment #16

Josh Massey says ...

Hey, I think they should remake Die Hard, just put the terrorists in a different locale!

comment #17

LFF says ...

Kevin Smith made "Clerks 2" last year. Didn't that handle the Gen-x "Big Chill" idea?

I guess maybe you could do something with more middle class/financially successful characters- Can someone page Cameron Crowe? Reassemble the cast of "Singles"?

comment #18

christian says ...

SINGLES was awful. making the hero an architect was hardly the pipeline to a generation.

comment #19

nyscreenwriter says ...

uh... The Barbarian Invasions.

comment #20

Mark says ...

The Big Chill was about a change of values/time? I thought it was about the good ol' music, man.

And BTW, post 9/11 paranoia is a myth. It doesn't exist. Remember how everyone was saying post 9/11, that the world had changed and we couldn't have newsstories anymore that focused on Britney Spears? Yeah, nothing has changed.

comment #21

Rod32303 says ...

According to USA Today, the "remake" will have an African-American focus. Which is cool for those of us African-Americans who loved pictures like "The Big Chill," and, god help me, "The Breakfast Club," and "St. Elmo's Fire" (Remember how they called them "The Little Chill"?). Will be interesting to see if it's a bunch of brothers and sisters being nostalgic for the late 60's...which was a very different time for black folk than it was for others. It would be foolish to mess with Kasdan's masterpiece, but it will be cool to see if changing ethnicity brings anything fresh.

comment #22

LFF says ...

"Singles" was not awful. Saying it is calls in to question your very Gen-x-ness.

comment #23

MickTravis says ...

Even Cameron Crowe admits "Singles" didn't work the way he wanted it.

I do enjoy the Eric Stoltz scene. In fact, an unfortunately large percentage of my personality is based on that character.

I'd love-love-love to see Kevin Costner out-take flashbacks in TBC. I've heard the 60s wigs the characters wear are hysterical.

Seacaucus 7 has a purer heart, but the 85% of the performances are absolute shit.

comment #24

bmcintire says ...

I guess, from a musical point of view, that this remake could be either set in the present-day or as a period piece. The glossy Jheri-curled R&B of the 80's was looked upon with about as much derision by old-school Motown fans as was the glossy 80's new wave/white pop. But the current turn of sexual aggression in rap and hip-hop could be viewed with the same sense of mourning by those longing for the smooth stylings of El DeBarge and Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson. It would also be a bit more interesting if they could stay away from the hyper-affluent characters that peopled the original BIG CHILL and re-treads like THE BEST MAN. I think we caould all do with a little less Architectural Digest porn.

comment #25

Josh Massey says ...

Please be better than The Inkwell...

comment #26

christian says ...

i really like the acting in SECAUCUS. the characters become more raw and gordon clapp is terrific along with david strathairn's debut. i particularly love mark arnott's character, especially when he discusses rush and reveals the group's arrest record. everybody has their moments in this wonderful film. i really hated TBC when i first saw it as i thought it was so self-pitying. i was a bad gen-x'er, thank god.

comment #27

BurmaShave says ...

You know, the average People Magazine article is written to be read while you're on the toilet.

(The moral of The Big Chill)

comment #28

lipranzer says ...

I like both Secaucus and TBC (though I prefer the former; it's my favorite movie of the 1980's). Even though they're both ensemble pieces about the "60's generation," the fact that Secaucus deals with people who are basically still keeping faith with what they believed in, while TBC is about people who feel they've strayed from their past makes it different. That, and Sayles' film is less slick than Kasdan's in filmmaking.

I can't believe they're remaking TBC, but whatever. It would be interesting if they decided to just use the basic plotline of the friends taking stock of their lives when the one friend commits suicide if they decided not to make any generational-type statement at all. Doubt that will happen, though.

And for the record, I loved Singles. After Almost Famous, it's my favorite Cameron Crowe movie. And I used to get really angry with those who called it a "slacker movie." Hello! All five main characters have jobs! And one of them decides to go back to school to get a better job, and another one, after losing his job and going into an understandable funk, at the end of the movie is getting ready to apply for another one.

comment #29

christian says ...

that's why it's not cool:] SLACKER more accurately captured that gen x moment. SINGLES was basically a more literate romantic comedy. but i agree ROTS7 is one of my faves of the 80's and my fave sayles script. fantastic dialogue.

comment #30

Arran says ...

I don't recall there being an architect in Singles. Wasn't Scott an engineer?

Which is even less exciting than being an architect, I guess.

Carry on...

comment #31

le corbeau says ...

Yeah, who the hell wants to make a movie about someone in a real profession...

comment #32

le corbeau says ...

I agree that The Big Chill has a pleasant vibe and a good cast and soundtrack... but does anyone really think it lives up to its theme? That it dramatizes it in any serious way? What was the idealism that they shared that has gone to hell? What did the friend mean to them, how did their lives go separate ways? I've always thought the appeal of the movie was that it pretends to raise those questions and then completely avoids them in any way that might actually get under anyone's skin or prompt real moral questions.

comment #33

Craig Kennedy says ...

That's pretty much how I remember it, Mgmax, though I admit I haven't watched it for years.

comment #34

christian says ...

sure scott was an engineer. and i went to SINGLES to see exactly what an engineer in love does.

comment #35

Mark says ...

By the time this movie comes out, Hilary will be the president. Good luck contrasting the Clinton years to the Clinton years.

comment #36

thebuddha says ...

I remember liking the movie as a whole, but what really stuck was how awkward all those white people looked while dancing to classic Motown songs.

Maybe for this "African-American perspective" remake they can have the friends dance around to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, reminiscing about the cultural-altering impacts of the LA riots and the million man march. Just a thought.

comment #37

lipranzer says ...

To answer an earlier question, Bridget Fonda's character in Singles studied architecture, and near the end of the movie is planning to go back to school and get her degree, and her first project will be to redesign the fountain in their apartment building so people can sit in it.

Why no, I haven't seen the movie over a zillion times. Why do you ask?

As for SLACKER, it may have captured a certain "zeitgest," or whatever, but I found its stream-of-consciousness storytelling annoying after a while.

comment #38

christian says ...

i adore SLACKER and find it more valid and interesting every year. and by sticking with the film you get that absolutely wonderful final scene with the austin yuts filming each other. if any film captures the alternative spirit of the 90's, it's SLACKER. next to it, SINGLES looks even more bland. and i love crowe.

comment #39

Arran says ...

Ah yes, forgot about Fonda. Still, she wasn't actually an architect.

comment #40

LFF says ...

I think the slacker vs singles preference may boil down to whether you prefer Austin to Seattle.
I have lived in both south east texas and the Pacific northwest and I vastly prefer the wet green land in the north, so that probably colors my perspective on the films. I found the characters in Singles much more relatable and "real" than the characters in slacker.

really though, the best gen-x Linklater film is probably "Before Sunrise" and that one already had its (very good) sequel.

comment #41

christian says ...

compare matt dillon's hollywood style alt guy to any of the truly alt folk in SLACKER. SINGLES is bougie and SLACKER is anarchy. i do love both cities, with a preference for the north country but austin treated me better than any place i've ever lived. man, talk about a great dating town...

comment #42

BurmaShave says ...

Linklater vs. Crowe would be a good debate to have. But instead let's have more Paris Hilton and Sopranos.

comment #43

christian says ...

speaking of crowe, just revisted FAST TIMES -- it's almost an indie art film with its complete lack of shit, pain, vomit and sex jokes. still his best script.

comment #44

LFF says ...

I think the bourgie/anarchy is a fair assessment. It doesn't make Singles any less authenticly Gen-x though. and Austin is a wonderful oasis of life in Texas.

maybe theres a movie in reconciling the bourgeois and freak show elements of Gen-X.

Oh wait... "Old Joy" nevermind.

comment #45

thorsen1nk says ...

The Big Chill is an excellent, classic movie, and Kasdan has made some masterful films in his time.

However, if I hear one more dessicated Baby Boomer talk about how awesome the 60s were and how kids these days haven't really lived, I am gonna reach down their throat and rip out their spinal column like I'm snapping tangled ethernet cable. The level of hedonism I and many of my friends enjoyed in the 1990s makes the 60s look like a tea party where someone went "crazy" and decided to break out a thimbleful of sherry.

Note to Wells and every other self-righteous world-weary ex-flower child: GET OVER YOURSELVES.

comment #46

BurmaShave says ...

To paraphrase the best Law & Order episode ever made, in the words of Jack McCoy:

This film will come out in 2010. The Sixties should be over by then.