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| Not Smokey the Cat |
With the Oscar ceremonies still warm in our brains, I’d like
to visit an arena of cinema of which no one speaks: Remakes.
I enjoy movies as much as anyone because they are
commercial-free in their original form.
Remakes are not those tired movies that get recycled like
old newspapers or soda cans rather, they are original movies that are re-made
by someone other than the initial director and cast to improve the film.
The first one that comes to mind is King Kong. This movie was first seen by me as a child
when I was inside on a Saturday morning.
It appeared on TV and enthralled me that such a large monkey was able to
escape in a large metropolitan area.
Of course that was not the point of the flick as I later
learned. Still, I was agog at the
amazing cinematography which, today, looks like it was done with crayons by
baboons. Nonetheless, it was
cutting-edge technology interspersed with real actors, and it was exciting.
Its remake was touted as the biggest thing since the moon
landing. It wasn’t. But, this led the pack in the remake world.
No one would think of remaking Rocky. We’re up to Rocky XXXIV, I think. We‘re also lousy with Die Hard movies, Shrek
films, Rambo, and Saw cinematic works that can be easily distinguished by the
numbers following the title.
James Bond adventures do not fit into these forms as they
are all their own individual adventure, often with a different title character
portrayer.
But movies like The Karate Kid was good. It didn’t need to be remade, but it was.
Arthur is another that had a fine original but, was
painfully contorted into a weak attempt to make money off the original.
It must be a sense of an overinflated ego that feels they
have a better idea as to what the original should have been like. One successful movie is the Wizard of Oz.
The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939 and has enjoyed great
success for decades on both the silver screen and the small screen. It is still shown as an annual event on
television.
Enter Sidney Lumet who directed a black version of the
Wizard of Oz entitled The Wiz. It
starred Dianna Ross, Michael Jackson, and many other black actors because it
was set in Harlem .
Just as The Great Gatsby was remade into a black version
called G. G is a modern day story about
a hip hopper named Summer G. Summer G
spends years making himself into an entrepreneur to entice his wanna-be squeeze
back into his arms. Wow!
Speaking of nutty, let us not forget the remake of that Walt
Disney classic The Nutty Professor. Yes,
that too was remade starring Eddie Murphy.
Not to be outdone, check out the new version of Annie. It seems as though Annie is now a sassy black
girl who lives with her mean foster mother and is taken in by the mayoral
candidate who happens to be a business tycoon.
The originals were just fine. Let them be and please come up with some new,
fresh, original ideas for movies. I’ve
already seen that one you’re trying to remake.
