Flickgrrl

What with The Bourne Ultimatum, Ocean's Thirteen and Pirates of the Caribbean 3, 2007 was definitely the year of the three-quel, industry slang for the third installment of a movie trilogy. Might I am Legend (that's Will Smith pictured, with the last dog on earth) usher in a season of the three-make, my coinage for the scenario so durable it gets made three times?
The first time around for Richard Matheson's sci-fi thriller I am Legend was The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price in the title role. Second time was The Omega Man (1971) with Charlton Heston.
If the highly-anticipated Legend becomes the canonical screen version of this story, it wouldn't be the first time a three-make surpassed its prior two iterations. The most famous example of this phenom is The Maltese Falcon (1941), John Hustpn's classic with Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, which followed the 1931 version with Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels and the 1936 Satan Met a Ladywith Warren William and Bette Davis.
I have screenburn this week from seeing too many movies. The only other threemakes I can think of are The Front Page (1974) with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau that wasn't as good as the 1931 original with Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien or a fraction the fun as the 1940 Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell remake His Girl Friday. (It was made again in 1988 as Switching Channels, with a broadcast-news setting and starring Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner. Another is Love Affair (1939), with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, remade as An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, three-made as Love Affair (1994) with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. A third is Anna and the King of Siam (1948), the excellent Irene Dunne/Rex Harrison account musically remade as The King and I with Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner and three-made, as Anna and the King (1999) with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat.
What is it about these stories that make them evergreens? Can you think of other three-makes as good or better than the first two versions?

John Travolta strutting down the street in Saturday Night Fever. Julia Roberts dishing up pies -- and attitude -- in Mystic Pizza. Al Pacino shivering in Panic in Needle Park. Michelle Pfeiffer, in an emerald satin slip dress, descending the elevator in the 1983 Scarface. Denzel Washington's backtalk in Glory. America Ferrera insisting to her parents that she go to college rather than the sweatshop in Real Women Have Curves. All of these actors had been around the block -- Travolta and Washington respectively on the hit TV series Welcome Back, Kotter and St. Elsewhere -- but in these privileged screen moments, a movie star was born.
Likewise when Ellen Page (pictured above left, with Olivia Thirlby), strolls through a Minneapolis neighborhood in Juno -- an improbably upbeat comedy about the decidedly unfunny subject of teen pregnancy. It's been years since performer and performance so captivated me.
Is there a moment in your moviegoing life that you fell in love with an actor you'd never before seen or appreciated? Are you more drawn to movies with stars -- as opposed to those where the narrative and character dominates -- than not? Your thoughts about solar performers, please.

Just another night or one that sets the tone for the upcoming 365 days?
Whether a cocooner or social butterfly, misanthrope or romantic, felon or lawman, there's a New Year's Eve movie to match your mood or alter it. From Strange Days pictured above, Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett) to ...When Harry Met Sally to Ocean's Eleven , the New Year's movie comes in many flavors.
On the spectrum from bitter to sweet, my favorites:
Strange Days (1994): Fiennes as as an L.A. drug dealer addicted to virtual reality "playback" and Bassett as a cop who tries to redeem him on December 31, 1999. Catch those allusions to Y2K.
The Apartment (1960): Jack Lemmon as the insurance actuary in love with a suicidal elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) and who ends up hosting the best New Year's party in town.
La Bonne Annee (1973): Jewel thief Lino Ventura falls cases out a diamond boutique, falls for the antique dealer next door (Francoise Fabian) and gets arrested New Year's Eve. Will he be paroled by the next?
Ocean's 11 (1960 and 2001) The Rat Pack (Frank, Dino and Sammy in the opriginal, George, Brad and Matt in the remake) rob Vegas casinos on the last night of the year.
Trading Places (1983): Eddie Murphy and Philly con man and Dan Aykroyd as Philly blueblood who team up to play a commodities scam.
That Hamilton Woman (1940): Laurence Olivier (as Lord Nelson )and Vivien Leigh (as Emma, Lady Hamilton), kiss each other across two centuries on December 31, 1799.
Waiting to Exhale (1995): Four friends (Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Whitney Houston and Lela Rochon) stop worrying about men and start loving them.
Rich and Famous (1981): Best of friends and worst of rivals Jackie Bissett and Candice Bergen decide on New Year's there's no conflict a flute of champagne can't resolve.
Bell Book and Candle (1958): Kim Novak, a lovely Greenwich Village witch, bewitches publisher James Stewart as her warlock brother Jack Lemmon plays the bongos.
...When Harry Met Sally (1989): Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal learn how to make lovers of friends.
The Holiday (2006): Lovelorn film editor Cameron Diaz trades homes with heartsick journalist Kate Winslet and everyone is happy by New Year's.
What am I missing? Your favorites? Why?
And Happy View Year!