disturbing trend?

Several people have pointed out the long tradition of moviemakers retelling the same old stories updated for different media or times... 'nothing new under the sun' and all that. That's pretty much a given, but the disturbing trend is not the mining of old stories for ideas, but lame attempts to cash in on nostalgia with poorly done re-makes.

Most of the re-makes we're seeing today have very little artistic merit and are obviously dreamt up by the marketing people before writers even get involved. I'm not saying a good movie can't come out of a process like this, but it's rare when it does and obviously not required to get people into the theaters.

And of course that's the problem. As long as people keep coughing up their money for these turds, they'll keep making (and re-making)them.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Originally posted by SergeantX:
not the mining of old stories for ideas, but lame attempts to cash in

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Good point, well made. The art is not in the story, but in its telling.
If only the spoiler-mongers could take this on board, Whedon might not suffer prepartum paranoia - well, not so much

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Originally posted by est120:
just a short list of released, rumored or confirmed "remakes":

starsky and hutch
superman
bewitched
amityville horror
akira
assault on precinct 13
charlie and the chocolate factory
miami vice
the manchurian candidate

also, what is the deal with all the comic book/cartoons being made into feature films? of course, the big ones:
spiderman
hulk
batman (the new one)
scooby-doo
and then the others:
catwoman
elektra
fantastic four
gi joe
garfield
speed racer
spy hunter

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Batman and Superman have been around forever, so they're exempt from my theory. Bewitched is as well.
Alot of the stuff listed isn't baby boomer stuff. It's Gen X, mid-70s -80s stuff. Everyone I know watched GI Joe, Spiderman, Speed Racer cartoons when we were younger,and let's not forget Justice League (Wonder Twin powers, activate!), and Scooby-Do, of course. If you sit through all the credits on both Spiderman movies, you get to hear a whole version of the cartoon theme song, actually, besides the fact that it's actually sung by people in the movies.
There's also the Hulk tv show and Starsky & Hutch,which everyone I know watched. Honestly,I don't know a single baby boomer who knows what Assault on Precinct 13 or Akira is (and WHY does Akira need to be remade?), though I'm sure there are some.
Willy Wonka as well is more a Gen X thing,the fact that it was a book first notwithstanding.
Plus, if you check out toys lately, you'll see that He-man, Transformers, and Strawberry Shortcake have all made a comeback.
I think there's two reasons for this - the marketing people have realized that a large chunk of Gen X now has kids, and is indirectly marketing to the parents through the kids (He-Man? I played with He-Man! My kids'll love it!), while directly marketing with stuff like Speed Racer movies.
Second - with movies, I suspect there are Gen-Xers pitching the ideas, and they're the ones gettin' a bit nostalgic. Frankly, I'm expecting an A-Team or Dukes of Hazzard movie any day now.

"You two are the two who are the two! I'm the other one!"

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Honestly,I don't know a single baby boomer who knows what Assault on Precinct 13 or Akira is (and WHY does Akira need to be remade?),

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assault on precinct 13 was not a high profile movie, but it was actually quite good. i agree, though. akira does not need to be remade EXCEPT if they do the ENTIRE manga series in the new movie.

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Second - with movies, I suspect there are Gen-Xers pitching the ideas, and they're the ones gettin' a bit nostalgic. Frankly, I'm expecting an A-Team or Dukes of Hazzard movie any day now.

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as i understand it, there is a dukes of hazzard movie in the works with a 2006 release date.


"i can't comprehend the ways that i miss you, they come to light in my mistakes."
-neko case

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Originally posted by PopeBob:
Actualy the whole Comic Book side of movies really came thru with Batman. it just took it a while to pick up some Steam. And dont for get Daredevil and the Punisher. I actualy want to go see the new Punisher Movie. It's got crazy Shark Hunter guy from Deep Blue Sea.

"Crime and Politics, little girl. The situation is always...Fluid."
"The only fluid I see is the puddle of piss, refusin' to pay us our wage." -Badger and Jayne , 'Serenity'

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What about the original "The Crow"? The sequels were horrible, but the original with Brandon Lee and Michael Wincott rocked.

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est120 wrote:

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as i understand it, there is a dukes of hazzard movie in the works with a 2006 release date.

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Yes, and this chills me to my very core, as it has been foretold in the Holy Apocalypse as the final sign of the undoing of the Dark One's prison. Weep for the future.

Jayne: "You got yourself lookin' mighty hideous!"

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Sequels haven't just been around since the beginning of movies - they've been around since the beginning of any sort of storytelling. It would seem they've been around since the beginning of *time*. Homer followed up his enormous hit poem "The Illiad" with the still-popular "The Odyssey".

S.A.
"Everybody's trusting in the heart, like the heart don't lie."

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