Redo my opening.

I'm not going to do my opening remarks again. I don't have to redo everything that's already has been done before. It seems that it might be a safe bet for a movie studio to remake what was once a hit and duplicate that success. Movies like The Karate Kid and Total Recall, both made good money at the time of their release, would be considered box office bombs if they made that same amount in todays market. The movies that worked then don't necessarily mean they will work today. A movie like Total Recall fits great as an early 1990s science-fiction action adventure and doesn't need to be a $100 million+ budget blockbuster made with todays technology and have it end up being almost exactly the same movie from before. Also the year of this writing is 2009 and Total Recall was released in 1990. Not even twenty years and they want to remake it.

Some remakes are good but they now go by the term "reboot". An example would be Batman Begins, the film went back to the true roots of what makes him so awesome. The studio tried again the following year with Superman Returns and that failed to excite people for a couple of reasons. The mains reasons were there wasn't enough action, and Lex Luthor isn't that big a threat to Superman like Brainiac or Darkseid. Superman Returns also had Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was coming out 5 days later and would end up being the highest grossing movie of the year.

I do believe that revamps, reboots or whatever they will call them, could be good if handled correctly. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland looks incredible and has been getting a lot of buzz via Internet and the recent San Diego Comic-Con. Then you have films getting redone that are uncalled for such as The Day The Earth Stood Still. The point behind that movie was to make it bigger and louder. It did that to a point but the movie plot was pretty stupid. It seemed like a it was funded by Al Gore, Captain Planet himself.

Opinions are usually already made up before the movie trailer even gets released. They are based on the people involved with the project and what there approach is for the film. If you have somebody involved like Tim Burton, the movie should be in good hands. Then again Superman Returns had Bryan Singer and that turned out to be a huge disappointment.

The thing that gets me annoyed with all these remakes is that there are ORIGINAL scripts written and handed into major movie studios almost everyday. For all they know they could have another movie like Forrest Gump floating around but it won't get made for twenty years because remakes are more in demand. I always make the joke if a remake gets pulled from a release date or holds on filming. I say, "don't worry it's a remake so it's a priority". 

I leave this blog with this thought. If you're sick of the remakes and what Hollywood is offering to movie going audiences, then don't see the movie. Jay Sherman of the short lived and beloved animated series The Critic said once, "If the movie stinks, just don't go".  If you don't like how a movie looks then don't see it. Rent it or order on-demand but don't waist $10 a person on something you don't want to see. Maybe the studios will get the idea that we aren't happy with all of these remakes to movies that aren't that old.