Movie remakes. I’ve been neutral on this subject for some time; watching decent remakes like Oceans Eleven (with Clooney tastefully modernizing Sinatra) pass by horrendous remakes like Planet of the Apes (with Whalberg going Funky Bunch on Heston’s role). Don’t get me wrong, I like Mark Whalberg, just not here. I don’t mind sequels, or prequels, but this fad of remakes is getting really old, really fast. There are those remakes that are decent films but just didn’t have to be made (Willy Wonka), and then there are those that just really shouldn’t have been made.
Let’s start with horror. Most horror films nowadays are remakes. No, not remakes from 40 or 50 years ago, but remakes from the eighties! Why? What is there in today’s filmmaking bravado that wasn’t there 20 years ago? The worst of the bunch are hands down Gus Van Sant’s Psycho and Rob Zombie’s atrocious Halloween remake, which not only rank in the worst remake category, but the worst films of all time category as well. Now word comes that another Hitchcock classic is being remade, The Birds, starring Naomi Watts in the Melanie Daniels role, and to be produced by…wait for it…Michael Fucking Bay! I have to say, I do like the Dawn of the Dead remake Zack Snyder did, although the original cannot be beat, and I also dig the Hills Have Eyes remake, but the sequel took it too far. Now obviously Snyder can’t touch Romero, but Dawn of the Dead remade was still enjoyable.
Sci-Fi has the same fate as horror, with remakes like Godzilla, King Kong, and War of the Worlds (which I enjoyed) proving time and time again that originality is lacking. People say there are no more original ideas out there. This is a sad notion, one I believe not to be true at all. The fact of the matter is there is so much unoriginal work out there that anything remotely unique gets suffocated by this mass of rehashed, recycled storylines and character arcs.
What really made me want to write this blog was a story I read this week that stated Japanese film legend Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Rashoman is to be remade next year, as is my favorite of his films, Ikiru. The same thing happened with French director Jean Luc Godard’s masterpiece Breathless, being turned into a Richard Gere flick. Godard and Kurosawa had a true genius, a unique and genuine vision. We watched and studied their films in film school like an English major would study Shakespeare. I don’t see anyone reading J.K. Rowling’s take on Hamlet, or Tom Clancy’s take on Richard III, so why do we have to be subjected to this trudging upon of quality filmmaking. I say it’s like having to listen to Hannah Montana sing the Beatles…its sacrilegious. Granted, taking a film and re-imagining it is another story. Kurosawa had his film Yojimbo masterfully rehashed by Sergio Leonne’s epic spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars…unique.
What I’m getting at is this. Look at a shortlist of films slated to be remade in the next few years; Tron, The Evil Dead, The Fly (again), The Thing, Escape From New York, etc. These are all great movies that mastered the effects and techniques of filmmaking for their time. If you want to showcase how technology has changed, don’t show us how King Kong can be better in CGI; show us something new and unique. I know it's all about money and what sells, but don’t always presume moviegoers are stupid, we know how to enjoy an old movie for what it is and what it was for the time it was made. Please...Let’s bring back originality.
Let’s start with horror. Most horror films nowadays are remakes. No, not remakes from 40 or 50 years ago, but remakes from the eighties! Why? What is there in today’s filmmaking bravado that wasn’t there 20 years ago? The worst of the bunch are hands down Gus Van Sant’s Psycho and Rob Zombie’s atrocious Halloween remake, which not only rank in the worst remake category, but the worst films of all time category as well. Now word comes that another Hitchcock classic is being remade, The Birds, starring Naomi Watts in the Melanie Daniels role, and to be produced by…wait for it…Michael Fucking Bay! I have to say, I do like the Dawn of the Dead remake Zack Snyder did, although the original cannot be beat, and I also dig the Hills Have Eyes remake, but the sequel took it too far. Now obviously Snyder can’t touch Romero, but Dawn of the Dead remade was still enjoyable.
Sci-Fi has the same fate as horror, with remakes like Godzilla, King Kong, and War of the Worlds (which I enjoyed) proving time and time again that originality is lacking. People say there are no more original ideas out there. This is a sad notion, one I believe not to be true at all. The fact of the matter is there is so much unoriginal work out there that anything remotely unique gets suffocated by this mass of rehashed, recycled storylines and character arcs.
What really made me want to write this blog was a story I read this week that stated Japanese film legend Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Rashoman is to be remade next year, as is my favorite of his films, Ikiru. The same thing happened with French director Jean Luc Godard’s masterpiece Breathless, being turned into a Richard Gere flick. Godard and Kurosawa had a true genius, a unique and genuine vision. We watched and studied their films in film school like an English major would study Shakespeare. I don’t see anyone reading J.K. Rowling’s take on Hamlet, or Tom Clancy’s take on Richard III, so why do we have to be subjected to this trudging upon of quality filmmaking. I say it’s like having to listen to Hannah Montana sing the Beatles…its sacrilegious. Granted, taking a film and re-imagining it is another story. Kurosawa had his film Yojimbo masterfully rehashed by Sergio Leonne’s epic spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars…unique.
What I’m getting at is this. Look at a shortlist of films slated to be remade in the next few years; Tron, The Evil Dead, The Fly (again), The Thing, Escape From New York, etc. These are all great movies that mastered the effects and techniques of filmmaking for their time. If you want to showcase how technology has changed, don’t show us how King Kong can be better in CGI; show us something new and unique. I know it's all about money and what sells, but don’t always presume moviegoers are stupid, we know how to enjoy an old movie for what it is and what it was for the time it was made. Please...Let’s bring back originality.
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