Remake Fever

I wanted to take a bit of your time and talk about something I feel is a disturbing trend in movie land.; the remake. I suppose in a business sense, it seems safe enough, "this movie did well back when it was original so since we're out of good ideas, lets try and make it more modern or exreme or *gasp* better.


What this all actually means in my opinion is that we lose out. You cant honestly expect me to believe that there's nothing fresh that some aspiring screenwriter has created that could be the next big franchise. But no, Hollywood in its infinte wisdom would rather spew remakes and needless or bad sequels onto the unsuspecting public. Why is that you may ask and I would answer that unfortunately a movie is a fairly financially intensive endeavor, a large part of which goes to the actors overpaid as they may be. This breeds a sense of fear into the producers and executives that stifles creativity, you are less likely to take a chance spending your millions on a no name writer than you are on a production with big stars however mundane or rehashed the idea may be.

Most remakes are of fairly well recieved movies and I regret that. Why try to improve on something that was already good if not perfect? If you wanted to do something revolutionary why not remake a bad movie? Again not a sure fire bet and no doubt an idea that would still irritate fans of the original provided it has some form of cult following. In the long run remaking good movies will only hurt cinema as a whole chruning out drivel while ignoring new uncharted territory that will go to waste.