Movies-- An industry. An art. My love.
Like many people, movies are my favorite escape from the troubles of the world. Few thrills compare to getting lost in the great romances of the silver sceen or watching Bruce Willis kick the crap out of bad guys or Jim Carrey use his zany humor to get out of another strange debacle.
But my love of movies has recently begun to struggle with my need for something new. After three years of working in a business that allows me to rent and watch a plethora of movies, I've begun to doubt Hollywood's ability to produce new quality work. Nowadays great movies come along once in a dozen and that wouldn't be so bad--if the other eleven weren't so predictable, improbable, or just all around a waste of time. With a shortage of great new ideas coming out, the Entertainment Industry is falling back on the old idea of taking something old and making it new. That means remakes. Hundreds of remakes have already been produced in years past, but more are definitely to come. One source claims there are currently 55 remakes in the works. 55.
This sudden surge of revamping old ideas has sprung to life an old battle. Should movies even be remade? Is it just a way of cashing in on the past successes of others? Or does the idea of taking something old and bringing it into today's world hold enough creative integrity to be respected?
We've all seen remakes-- Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and War of the Worlds are just a few popular ones to come out pretty recently. There are some movies that most people probably have no idea even are remakes because the originals are either far in the past or from a different country. Did you know that The Departed is a remake of a movie from Hong Kong called Infernal Affairs? How about that Guess Who (Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher comedy) is a flipped remake of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Sidney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracey's controversial film from 1967). If you are under the age of 25 chances are you have no clue who Sidney Poitier even is...sigh.
Some remakes flop. Some remakes soar. Opinions on this don't always agree.
So I'm going to put the movies in the ring to see which was better: the original or the remake. By comparing the them hopefully I can come closer to answering the remake riddle and deciding what makes remakes work and what makes them fail.
If you're thinking, "Who are you to name a winner in these battles of new vs. old?" well please don't be put off. I don't claim to be the Official Home of Correct Movie Opinions (that's TheMovieBlog's job). I'm just a college student who loves movies and is trying to enlighten herself on a recurring trend in the movie making business. So please share your knowledge with me as much as you'd like-- and don't be hurt if I disagree.
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