Welcome to the Weekend Watch. Where we try to point you towards the best ways to spend your viewing time (or, at least, steer you clear of the garbage).
Movies
The Space Between Us
Loren: Ah, The Fault In Our Mars. No thanks.
RDT: Gary Oldman, you, sir, are better than this movie. I hope you’re enjoying your boat.
Rick: I like the concept enough that I can look past the sappiness, but not enough to rush out and see it. I’ll wind up streaming this down the line.
Jen: 100% what Loren said.
Rings
Loren: I still can see Amber Tamblyn’s petrified face in the closet from the first one. That movie was good enough, and though I do like the idea of updating the video to an email attachment, it feels like then everyone would be dead. Seeing as how things go viral these days everyone in the world would have seen Samara’s video. I’m looking too much into this, aren’t I?
RDT: Many years ago, around the time it came out on dvd, I actually watched the original, well, not original original, the American original Ring. If you’re a regular reader of this column, this might come as a surprise to you (I, usually, don’t do horror). I was home one random weekday afternoon and I had it from Netflix (this was pre-streaming, but I still get the discs, even now). I popped it in the dvd player, plopped down on the couch, covered my eyes with one hand and hit play with the other.
Mere minutes into the film, the phone rings. I pause the movie, walk over to it (this was in the days of landlines), pick up and no one is there. Weird. Whatever. I got back to the movie. A couple minutes later, we’re still in the opening scene, the phone rings again. Pause the movie, walk over to the phone, answer it. No one there again. I walk back to the dvd player, eject the disc, go into my room and close the door.
That dvd sat on that player for weeks, until one night my then roommate made me watch it with him. We sat in the dark, and were scared by a pizza delivery guy, but I watched it.
Anyway, I will not be seeing Rings.
Rick: Not that you were asking, but here’s The Ring series by the numbers:
Number of novels – 6
Japanese TV series – 1: Ring: Kanzenban – 1995
Japanese features – 7:
Ring, Ring 2, and Ring 0 – 1998-2000
Rasen – 1998, a substitute sequel to the first film from a different company, based on the second novel. (I wish we were able to do that with American films and get away with it.)
Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2 – 2012-2013, based on the fourth novel, no relation to the other films.
Sadako vs. Kayako, the 2016 crossover film pitting the villain from Ring against the ghost from Ju-on (The Grudge, to US audiences). At least we’re not the only ones doing ridiculous “vs.” movies.
Korean feature adaptations – 1:
The Ring Virus – 1999
US adaptations – 4:
The Ring – 2002
Rings (short film that precedes the sequel) – 2005
The Ring 2 – 2005
Rings – 2017
Got all that? Hell, I barely do and I wrote this up. Nevertheless, there’s clearly an audience for this material. Rings got bumped from last year’s schedule to avoid competition from Ouija: Origin of Evil (which is actually decent, unlike its predecessor), a smart move on Paramount’s part. This may just wind up being a cash-in, but at least it looks like a decent evolution of the concept. I’m in.
Jen: You guys have a lot to say about this movie. I actually enjoyed The Ring (the American original version from 2002 as listed out by Rick above.) And the sequel seems to have the same feel – horror but not gross-out horror. I could give this a shake.