There seems to have been a wave of remakes from Sony Pictures that I have been utterly unaware of – and I suspect many of you are as well. The studio is now preparing to release two of this unheralded remakes for release on home video – April’s Fool Day and Sleuth.

April’s Fool Day used to be great black-humored slasher-film spoof from the 80s that had a lot of charm, but that doesn’t mean this “updated” remake will follow suit accordingly.

Each April Fool’s Day, fabulously wealthy young Desiree Cartier (Cole) hosts the most killer coming-out parties at her to-die-for southern mansion. And this social event is never complete without one of her patented pranks. But when this year’s joke turns deadly, Desiree, her brother Blaine (Henderson) and five of their friends all become the targets of a twisted killer who begins hunting them down one by one in this chilling tale of seduction, betrayal and revenge.
“April’s Fool Day” will come to DVD on March 25 with no extras to speak of.

The other film in question is Sleuth, a remake of the wonderful 1972 classic murder mystery movie, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. It has evidently been remade featuring, once again, Michael Caine in a role-reversal, and Jude Law. The story has also been “updated” and now plays in a high-tech English manor, bound in a deadly duel of wits, Andrew Wyke (Caine) and Milo Tindle (Law) come together as English gentlemen to discuss the matter of Wyke’s wife: the woman both are sleeping with. But as wit becomes wicked and clever becomes cutthroat, Wyke and Tindle’s game of one-upmanship spirals out of control, in an escalating chess match that can have only one outcome: murder.

The film will come to DVD and Blu-Ray Disc and contain a number of bonus features – the same for both releases. You will find there a Commentary Track by director Kenneth Branagh and Michael Caine, as well as another Commentary Track with Jude Law. Also included is a Behind the Scenes Featurette called “A Game of Cat & Mouse” and the Featurette “Inspector Doppler: Make-up Secrets Revealed”.

Arriving on March 11, the DVD version will cost $26.96 while the Blu-Ray Disc will cost $38.95.

The big question I have to ask is, do all remakes have to be “updated” – which typically results in nothing but incoherent and nonsensical scripts – and more importantly, do all these films need to be remade? Wouldn’t a completely new murder mystery story that is as equally well-plotted as the originals were, be even more exciting than watching a film whose outcome we’ve seen 35 years ago? I mean, where’s the fun in that? Questions, questions, questions…