Everyone is a sucker for a good orginal film no matter what genre it is. In the 1990’s I admit I wasnt a big movie goer, but that all changedin 2000 when I moved down to Salford, nr Manchester. I was a 25 year Uni student who wasnt a massive drinker and didnt want to go out to 5-6 every morning so going to the cinema was my fix and since then I have’nt looked back, every friday down to the flicks, but one thing i have noticed and especially the last few years is the amount of remakes that are hitting our big screens.
Go to wikipedia or google list of film remakes, the list is endless. This decade has been very big for remakes and reading movie mags and websites there’s even more to come. 2004 Zak Synder gave us the legendary Dawn of The dead, the George Romero Zombie classic from 1978, The difference apart from the year the new zombies where more scarier due to they could run, make up is more advanced and of course special fx. The thing about these films both were excllent and actually coplimented each other as they where different as well, the year before Texas Chainsaw Massacare was released and some say was actually better than the orginal (1974). Other films Where Assualt on Precint 13 (1976) remade in 2005 was ok, I Am Legend starring Wil Smith 2007 film based on Charlton Heston’s Omega Man, once again both different but good in there own way.
When it comes to classic films people always say its better to leave it as we left it and dont ruin a films image and there’s been a few remakes that fall under this banner. In 1980 John Carpenter created the scary THE FOG movie, which was full of many brown trouser moments like the dead fisherman rising from the morgue and when I heard they where going to remake it i was very optomistic about this. The remake was made in 2005 and it was utter SHITE, It loosly based itself on the orginal but the directors made the biggest mistake aiming it at the young adult age, trying to give it a modern trendy look with having the guy who plays superman in smallville tv show as lead. Other questionable remakes where Keanu Reeves The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) which was enjoyable movie with some excellent effects but shit script.
Another type of remake which has been very popular is the Hollywood remake of classic indie/foreign movies. The Ring 1+ 2 Decent films, The Grudge lame versions starring Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more recently Quarantine a remake of the 2007 Spanish Movie [Rec]. The Spanish version is just so scary and brilliant and back in November 2008 I was excited about a Hollywood remake, and I was so dissappointed with its predictable lightweight script.
When I search for stuff to post on my blog i come accross news,trailers of future films it looks like the there’s many more remakes to come. 2009 Bad Liuetenant starring Nicolas Cage in Harvey Kietal’s role, Barbarella that inspired Duran Duran to name their band after a character from the film, and Sci-fi classic When Worlds Collide . Into Next year we have Nightmare On Elm Street, Clash Of The Titans (first ever film I can remember going to the cinema to watch) and folowing year is the Creature From The Black Lagoon, there’s even talk of remaking the Aliens movies with a pre-equal. This seems to be a big thing also these days to bring back on syndicate films and give them a new lease of life. With recent release of Star Trek which has been a massive success, theres going to be talk of many others coming back but there has been many flops. Superman – 2006, Star Wars episodes 1-3 and the list goes on.
Questions msut be asked about the the thinktanks of all the directors, producers of this world, are the creative juices drying up? is orginality dissappearing? Why do we have to look back to look forward? One point for support for remakes is technology which has indeed improved over the decades and remaking a film using new techonolgy could make that film more spectacular but then again look at the last three star wars movies. If a old film is going to be remade or be translated from a foreign language the first question should asked is “will we do the original any justice?” . You must also get the right production team onboard, are he or she very enthusiastic, full of ideas but with full respect for the orginal script?.
There is numerous questions that should be asked, but us moviegoers all we can do is vote with our feet, or follw the hype or simply follow your heart. Personally if theres another opportunity to city in front of a big screen with my popcorn and be transported into another world Ill be there.
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