Hollywood Remakes

The paper I write for gives out free movie passes every now and then, this week it was "The Pink Panter." Not one to pass up free entertainment (being a poor college student), I snatched up four passes so me and my girlfriend could go tonight with some of her friends. I can't really imagine this movie is going to be any good, despite Steve Martin's involvement. What the hell has happened to Steve these days? Better yet, what's up with Hollywood? I'm really getting sick of these damn remakes. As someone who writes (and stuggles with coming up with material that's both well written and original) I can't help but get a little peeved at these studios that keep re-hashing old movies.

"King Kong"
"When A Stranger Calls"
"The Longest Yard"
"Herbie: Fully Loaded"
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
"War of the Worlds"
"Yours, Mine, and Ours"
"Amnityville Horror"
"House of Wax"

Not to mention all those crappy TV show movies, honestly who goes and sees these things?

"The Dukes of Hazard"
"Bewitched"
"The Brady Bunch Movie"
"The Honeymooners"
"The Beverly Hillbillies"

Why? Why? Why do this? Simple. Money. Everything in this world, I'm sorry to say, is all about money. These remakes are popular among Hollywood types because they come pre-loaded with a fanbase. We don't need complicated advertisements to know basically what these remakes are about...because we've already seen them! This is such a nasty trend...but the only people we have to blame is ourselves (the movie going public) who pay to see this tripe.

I'm familiar with the notion that there's "nothing new under the sun." But this love affiar with the remake is getting a bit ridiculious! They're going to make a "Smurfs" movie! Yes, that's right. Why?

There are some good remakes, I'll admit it. I enjoyed the amazingly unpopular PeterJackson "King Kong" remake. I even liked the "Charlie and the Chocolate" re-imagining done by Tim Burton. I think what constitutes a good remake is what constitutes a good movie in general. Good remakes are faithful to the original, yet at the same time take advantage of the current film technology. A good example of this is Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" which both stayed close enough to the spirit of the original text (and '50s B-movie) while improving over the original thanks to modern CGI.

In general, however, I find that (just like the music industry) the more the film industry complains about slumping ticket sales the crappier/more derivitive the movies become. If only these pinheads could get it through their heads that people will come out and see a movie if it's GOOD. Not familiar...but GOOD!

Anyway, I'll be sure to report back on how crappy (or good) the "Pink Panter" remake is. Who knows, maybe I'll be surprised.