This Has To Be A Joke
Posted by Stropp on March 1, 2009At least I hope it is.
This report by Gizmodo is suggesting that Hollywood is planning a remake of one of The Guvinator’s best known movies, Total Recall. At the time Total Recall generated quite a bit of controversy. It was a spectacularly violent film for the time, with lots of neck snapping and bone breaking action with a liberal dash of red sauce. In Australia, this controversy caused the movie to be released in two cuts, one was rated M — I don’t think they had MA at the time — and the other was R rated, so that it could get a bigger audience. Ironically, it’s only ever been the R rated version that has been on TV, but I digress.
It also got a little prophetic. Remember that screen at the station that x-rayed pedestrians as they walked past revealing weapons? Well a version of that is being trialed now. Some scientists are even speculating that it may be possible to alter or influence memory, either chemically or electronically, to reduce guilt and the emotional effects of trauma.
Total Recall has stood the test of time film wise. Sure, the effects might not be as good as they are these days, but the movie stands up with what it has.
It was a decent action movie with a good story, and even an interesting philosophical question at the end of the story. Was what Quaid experienced real, or the result of a faulty procedure? Did it matter? After all could the memory be considered reality even if it didn’t really happen?
Regardless of all that, why are Hollywood recycling so many old movies? It wasn’t all that long ago I saw The Day The Earth Stood Still and while it wasn’t a bad movie, it wasn’t anywhere as good as the original. Do we seriously expect that the Hollywood of the 21st century can do a better version of Total Recall?
If it doesn’t have Arnie, whose presence was responsible for much of the movies greatness, who will it star? Duane “The Rock” Johnson?
But back to my main question. Why does Hollywood insist on recycling the greats?
There are tons of great stories already out there in book and comic book form that would work extremely well in translating to the big screen. And Hollywood doesn’t even need full length novels for inspiration. There are plenty of movies based on short stories, and there is no shortage of short stories — pardon the pun — that can be used.
As a movie consumer, I don’t want remakes, I want new original content much in the same way as I want it in my games. See how I brought the post back on topic?
The story is good because it’s based on a Philip K Dick short story (“We can remember it for you wholesale”), who for all his quirks was generally spot-on about the absurdities (and possibilities) of the shape of things to come.
As for Hollywood’s Remake-o-Mania, don’t get me started. I think Hollywood has become, in the last 5-8 years, ridiculously terrified of making anything that might fail — thus, REmaking something that worked before must sound perfect. That and Hollywood is now run by suits who have even less of a clue what makes a good movie than the previous generation did, which means they can’t pick a good project from a bad one — which means they’ll go with the remakes.
And I guess sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into a movie that may tank just doesn’t appeal. Yet another example of bloat throttling an industry’s creativity. Can you say M M O development?
Have heard that this isn’t the only remake on the cards regarding Arnie films, can’t be sure of where I heard it but The Running Man is due too.
Remakes I can take but only if they add much more to the original rather than a lite-version of the original.
I’ve read about this too and I can’t say I’m very happy about it. Hollywood hasn’t shown much creativity lately has it?
Dammit Cohegan! Give dem der airah!
Jason (resident drunken idiot of Channel Massive who likes to sign his comments because it makes them 10x more valid)
Unfortunately it’s not just Hollywood that’s doing this. It’s the music industry as well. The problem is that it’s not the creative types that are in charge, it’s the bean-counters and marketing dweebs that call the shots.
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