Hollywood's Ode to Recycling-The Remake

I tried to find a list of all the remakes that have come out recently or are coming out within the year, and here is what I have come up with: Bewitched, Dukes of Hazzard, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bad News Bears, King Kong, War of the Worlds, The Longest Yard, The Amityville Horror, House of Wax, and I'm sure there are a lot more but you can go find them. Again, I don't want to argue what a remake is, but let's agree that all of these had a movie or TV show already. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? I'm not sure but in my opinion there are four reasons why a movie should be remade, and here they are.

1. Good idea, poor execution. This to me should be the pillar of remakes. Hollywood seems to want to remake things that were successful in the first place. Guaranteeing them a recognizable product to their customers who then are already sold. But these films don't need to be remade. Films that flopped the first time because they were executed poorly BUT, had a good idea or story, should be given to new directors, new writers and given a new life.

2. Technology- Though the original had a good story, the technology at the time did not lend itself to proper visualization, due to lack of CGI, special effects, etc. You would think this would be a common occurrence, but honestly, I can't think of a movie that this would apply too. Most good movies are so good that one can look past poor special effects, and if the movie is poorly written, then better CGI will just make it a crappy movie in a prettier package.

3. Because a director wants too. This may sound crazy but if a director is sitting back at home and watching a movie and says "I could tell this story way better than that," then he should. Great movies come from talented individuals with drive. And if one of these guys(or girls) has the motivation to make a better movie than someone else, then we, as an audience would benefit. This should not be confused with a studio saying "that movie did well, we could make money off a remake."

4. Introduce the movie to a new generation. This is perhaps my favorite and maybe the only one Hollywood comes close to today. Some movies are so old, so removed from today, that no matter how good they are, your average fan is not going to seek it out to watch it. A remake however could bring the film up to date(without changing too much of the story we hope) and introduce a lost treasure to a generation that would have missed it otherwise.

The problem is I tried to find remakes that fit into one of each of these categories and it was tuff. As mentioned before the predecessors of most remakes were good movies in themselves, and few were improved on by their remakes. Making money from a remake is not the worst thing in the world, we all hope movies make money, it's good for everybody. But, when it costs roughly 100 million dollars to make one, why not put all that effort into telling new stories that we have never heard before. Of course the argument could be made that if I'm spending 100 mil then I want to spend on something that's proven and has more of a chance at getting a return. I'm not putting down the remake, just how and which ones are chosen to be remade. Here's a list of movies that I think they should remake and why. Let me know what you think, and what movies you would like to see revamped.

Tron - Not for the reason you think. In fact if they were to remake this one I would hope they would use the same process for simulating the "computer world." It looked awesome then and still looks pretty cool today. No, I think this should be re-done today because when it came out(1982) computers were a novelty to the general public. Today with at least one in almost every household, computers have a new meaning to us. Given to someone like George Lucas, I think this would be a big hit.

The Philadelphia Experiment-I have four words for you; based on true events! Do people even know this. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but if you throw those words in front of a movie like this in today's market, whew! Big money. Oh yeah, we're not doing it for the money. Seriously, the original is good, but it almost has a B movie feel to it. It's one I would categorize under good idea, but not executed to it's fullest potential. Sign Mr. Spielberg up for this one.

Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter-I'll have to admit I was up at about 2:00am when I saw this one. But, I was impressed and couldn't believe I had never heard of it. To me it's what Van Helsing should have been. This one has a different take on the vampire genre and doesn't try to drown you with as much blood as possible as current vampire flicks do. I just think all Vampire movies are all the same now(Blade was different sure enough but still relied heavily on the blood and gore factor)

Paycheck- I know what you're thinking, I've gone crazy right. No, these are the ones that should be remade, the ones that stunk. This could have been an awesome sci-fi classic but...It's not. This is one of those that had an awesome idea, just listen. After being told that he had his memory erased an engineer discovers he gave up a large sum of money in exchange for 19 ordinary items. He must piece together this puzzle while being chased by the authorities. Let's give the screenplay to Steven E. de Souza(Die Hard, Running Man,48 hrs), or Scott Rosenberg(Gone in Sixty Sec, Con Air) and let's get a decent actor and I'm in line with my $8.50.

O.K., I'm done. And for heaven's sake, don't just read, leave a comment!