Today, it's hard to imagine that sort of thing could be as scary again because we've seen plenty of found-footage films. And the gimmick of shooting the new film under a false name and then revealing it at the last minute to be a third "Blair Witch" tale isn't the same scope as the elaborate hoax behind the first movie's marketing. We love to be tricked and fooled and shocked at the movies, but we can only see "The Blair Witch Project" for the first time once. It's no longer a surprise, now that we live in the world that the original "Blair Witch" made.
As for "Bridget," back in 2001, it was still a surprise to see Texas-bred Zellweger pack on 17 pounds and assume a British accent to play the London singleton. In fact, it was considered such an astonishing transformation that Zellweger landed an Oscar nomination, a rare feat for a comic performance. It was also novel to see rom-com hero Hugh Grant play a cad. This time around, however, there's no Grant, and Zellweger's iconic role is old hat.
Nostalgia usually mints money at the box office. But this weekend, audiences sat out the return of things they used to like in favor of seeing what is basically a TV movie on a studio budget starring the one Hollywood star audiences love more than days gone by.
