Before I whip up a storm on remakes, this week's new releases include Real Steel, a story of redemption and boxing robots starring Hugh Jackman and giant robots which do not have robot testicles (thanks Michael Bay for that image). Also we have Norwegian Wood (based on a book about a Japanese student in 1968 whose friend dies and he takes up with his friend's girlfriend) and The Hunter (Aussie drama/thriller starring Willem Dafoe as a man seeking out the Tasmanian Tiger but this is no nature doco). Project Nim is also showing which I'm unsure if it is new out or I just missed it last week - a documentary about a chimp raised as a human until issues arise the resulting difficulty for the humanised animal. Errr, sounds eerily similar to the recent Rise of the Planet of the Apes, only this is a true story of some appalling behaviour by humans. Italian Film Festival is also on at Palace Cinemas at present, check the Palace website for details or google Italian Film Festival. OK now onto my main topic for this week.
Remake hell officially hit today with the release of the remake of Footloose! Why on earth would they remake Footloose, and why on earth would they remake it into a hiphop dancing style? Okay, at least they tried to make it relevant and didn't just do a straight remake. But as my friend P said a few weeks ago, the original Footloose! is not even a great film, so why remake it? If you ask anyone what their favourite 80s film is, they are not going to say "Footloose" are they? Even if they grew up in the 80s it still isn't their favourite film. It's probably Top Gun or Breakfast Club. Now those are movies that could not be remade as there would be too much of an outcry. But then again I would also have put Point Break in that category a few weeks ago. Until I heard they are remaking Point Break. What the????? I hear you say. I agree. This is not a great movie, but it is a great bad movie. How could anyone possibly play the roles filled out so iconically by Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves? Hmmm I think I'll never know.
Let's have a chat about remakes. Why are there so many remakes happening or in progress? It cannot be a lack of creativity as there are so many movies coming out all the time. So many movies are made that never appear in our cinemas, go straight to DVD or don't come out here at all. So many, many movies are made in the world. What I have to put this down to is the money machine that now runs Hollywood. With actor's pay becoming ridiculous, budgets being blown for all sorts of reasons and massive amounts being required to market movies in a world where there are too many entertainment choices, can we really blame the suits for trying for the "sure thing"? If they remake a popular movie, there is potentially a built in audience or at the very least a reason to attend, even if only to see if it really does suck as much as you thought it would. This gives them a chance to make back the budget of the film even if not the marketing budget. Here's some examples of recent flops of original movie ideas:
1) Mars Needs Moms - a whopping $150m budget for this animated movie which only took $39m worldwide.
2) Your Highness - a $50m budget and Natalie Portman couldn't entice the punters, this took only $24m worldwide. I didn't think it was that bad, I had quite a few giggles.
3) The Beaver - cost $20m, took $1m in the United States. I really liked this, don't know why more people didn't see it, even if just for the Mel Gibson and a hand puppet curiosity factor.
4) Green Lantern - estimated cost at $200m and took around $250m worldwide. Sounds like a profit right? However estimates are that it needed to take $500m to actually be profitable after marketing and add on costs. How crazy is that?
So an original movie idea doesn't seem to be getting them anywhere. But let's look at a remake flop. Arthur (original starred Dudley Moore, this one had Russell Brand and Helen Mirren as the female butler) cost $40m and took only $47m worldwide. It seems that being a remake does not guarantee you an audience and a large profit. Or is it just the Russell Brand factor that put people off this? Personally I think Russell has enough fans but the movie itself just wasn't that great (hint - all the good bits are in the trailer). I don't think the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was very successful either.
Well I guess we know the reason why they are trying so many remakes. Now let's think about whether there are any remakes that were actually better than the original. Hmmmmmmm..............tough one. My vote would go to the Halloween remake by Rob Zombie, I think it added something good with the new beginning and was just different enough but still maintained the tension. However I really can't think of many others. Dawn of the Dead by Zack Snyder was a pretty good version of the George A Romero classic. Particularly if you are not overly familiar with the original which looks a little dated these days compared to our mega-malls. I only recently discovered that Scarface was a remake of an old film - I actually thought the Al Pacino movie from the early 80s was an original. Apparently it sticks fairly closely to the original 30s movie's concepts, but spectacularly gives it a new gritty feel with the 80s setting with the suits, cars and fashion. The Departed was a fantastic film and universally acclaimed, but did you know it is a remake of the Japanese film Infernal Affairs? Which was pretty good but the Departed was damn fine.
It seems that the most popular films to remake are either 70s & 80s horror movies as you can reach a whole new generation who haven't seen the originals but love a good scare. Closely followed in second place by Japanese movies which are remade into English films across a range of genres including samurai films that make good westerns, and, yep, horror movies. In third place you have Hollywood classics which can be remade for a new generation without the "remake" tag as the original is pretty much unheard of to the young 'uns. Although it seems that sci-fi and comic book movies are the next big target for remakes.
Most unnecessary remake would have to be the exact shot for shot remake of Hitchcock's Psycho by Gus van Sant a few years back. Why remake an absolute classic film with no points of difference at all other than the actors. No thanks. The remake of Sabrina was also kinda pointless - how can you beat Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden? Not to slight Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond and Greg Kinnear but it just wasn't the same.
Debateable remakes in whether they were as good or better include King Kong (two remakes in fact), The Ring, Assault on Precinct 13, Cape Fear, Fright Night, Let me In (which it seems to make a difference whether you saw this first or the Swedish original Let the Right One In) etc. I think I will have to make a blog post part 2 to list all the good and bad remakes.
Here is a list of remakes recently released or currently in progress that has inspired my title of this post "remake hell" as I really don't think there is a point or it will ruin the original for me: Point Break, Conan the Barbarian, Spiderman (yep another version of the one Tobey Maguire only just made a hit with), The Crow (Nooooooooo), Superman, Daredevil (why? but then again it's in the hands of a very good director), Total Recall, The 3 Musketeers (coming very soon, trailers are showing now), Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (again why?), Evil Dead (which I've heard a rumour that Diablo Cody of Juno fame is writing the script and Sam Raimi is actually involved, but still why?), The Warriors, Highlander, Judge Dredd and Short Circuit (!).
And this is not to mention "reboots" which is a different thing altogether. I'd define a reboot as taking an existing film franchise or character and making a different story completely. So maybe Spiderman and Superman should fall into "reboot" rather than "remake" as I'd define Chris Nolan's Batman Begins as a "reboot" for sure. Same character, different movie, different feel.
So, please, tell me which remakes you are looking forward to, which you hate and which you like. What is the best movie remake?
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