Friday, December 12, 2008

Why Hollywood re-makes movies, and why we shouldn't complain


There are some classic movies that simply would never be good if they were re-made. To me, the Back to the Future trilogy is a prime example. Anybody besides Christopher Lloyd simply could not do Dock Brown justice, and that's that.
Then there are movies that ABSOLUTELY should be re-made.

The Day the Earth Stood Still was made in 1951 and is considered a "Sci-Fi Classic"
From what I read in school "Classic" does not always mean "good"
And yet it got an 85% on RottenTomatoes.com (great movie review site.)

The remake, aptly named The Day the Earth Stood Still, came out today, Dec. 12th, and has a grand 24%.
I haven't seen either of the films.

I know you can't read a book by its cover; neither can you read a movie by its trailer. Just by comparing these two trailers, however, you tell me which movie looks more thrilling and entertaining.




I hope to see both movies eventually. The latter of the two I will hopefully see tomorrow night, but I'm inclined to think the former will be a while.

How about you guys? Any films you think should be re-made? Any ones you hope will never be re-made?

Colin

1 comment:

  1. I'm pretty sure Gone With the Wind will never be remade. I sure hope not. It would destroy the fact that it was one of the first color movies ever. Just because technologies improve, doesn't mean storytelling improves. That just changes.

    There are some things in old movies that I don't think can ever be improved upon, just done differently. For example, there's a horror/drama called "The Innocents" that was done in the 60s in black and white, and I don't think could be much improved upon. What made the movie good was the older cameras, the sped-up, reversed, and slowed-down film, and the way the story was told.

    That being said, movies done poorly based on books can always be redone. I wouldn't mind, for example, seeing a new version of Fahrenheit 451, one of my favorite books. The old one was just lame, and lost the best parts of the story.

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