One of my most surreal movie experiences was watching the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sinbad vehicle Jingle All The Way dubbed into Spanish with a room full of tots and their parents who'd apparently been someplace where balloons were being given out prior to coming into the theater.

I did get to watch a child repeatedly beat the person in front of him over the head with his balloon for pretty much the entire film while his mom cried, "No, Sebastian!" Funnier than anything that happened on screen.

I was going to try to argue, but I can't actually think of a good example where the Amercian remake has topped the original. Do other countries remake our movies? I'm laughing now thinking about the French version of Do The Right Thing.

Hi Kat!

Not Do the Right Thing , but Mathieu Kassovitz's Métisse ( Café au Lait in the States) was essentially a remake of She's Gotta Have It . Kassovitz is a big fan of Lee. And Jacques Audiard just made an awesome remake of Fingers (1978, with Harvey Keitel).

My students did a project on remakes this semester and one concluded that True Lies was better than the original. I tell you, it was enough to make the Baby Jesus cry.

I actually think the American remake of Ringu was a better movie overall, though the climactic scene was scarier in the original.

megan, hi! I haven't seen you in ages. How's tricks?

I think I would like to see this French remake of She's Gotta Have It. That was back when I still liked a Spike Lee Joint. Although, I haven't seen Inside Man yet. So maybe I could like him again.

the American version of Insomnia better than the Norwegian original.

I didn't realize that was a remake! I did like it, though, whether it was better or not I couldn't say. Still, very good by my eyes.

See, I did not like The Ring at all. Nor did I find it scary. I was just annoyed by all of the people in that movie, especially the wannabe creepy, whispery kid who called his mom Rachel. Thought they all needed a good smack. I haven't seen any of the other Japanese horror movie remakes, perhaps because The Ring left me so cold. I got a bigger jolt out of the parody of it at the beginning of one of the Scary Movie films than I did from watching the actual movie.

aurelia, I believe I will be in town next weekend. And I'm pretty sure I'm on the Chicago mailing list if you take it there.

Excellent. (you are on the list, shrift)

aurelia, I think I'm on the Chi'ista mailing list, but in case not could you also post in the F2F thread so I can find relevant posts easily? Next weekend sounds great, by the way. Ta, ever so!

I don't know if you are on the list, Sail. I just sent to it, so if you didn't get anything sign up already! I'll try to get caught up in F2F and post info there.

Just so you know... you are all doomed if I am the social coordinator.

aurelia, my work email servers are shut down this weekend, so if mine bounces back, don't worry about it.

megan, hi! I haven't seen you in ages. How's tricks?

I know. I miss NY and the NYistas, but I got a quick fix in SF last week. I'm going to try and get up there sometime this summer.

I think I would like to see this French remake of She's Gotta Have It. That was back when I still liked a Spike Lee Joint. Although, I haven't seen Inside Man yet. So maybe I could like him again.

You should check it out. As an added bonus, it stars Hubert Koundé (recently in The Constant Gardener ). Yum.

I think it's on Netflix. It also was quite popular and French teachers love to show it, so you probably could find it on cassette at your local Blockbuster.

While you're there, get a copy of La Haine/Hate a strangely prescient fiction film about riots in Parisian suburbs, also very Lee-inspired but unfortunately not available here on DVD.

I ended up getting the Looza nectar. I had a complete block trying to remember the brand name, but that's what browsing in meatspace is for. I also got two bottles of $7.99 sparkling wine after noticing that the bottles I had were closer to $20 a pop (so to speak), and I'm not really going to shell out THAT much money for a brunch.