TV and Movies

[Jordan2]

Hollywood has gone the remake route often, are there no original ideas out there? There are four versions of A Star Is Born, Ocean's Eleven was remade, The Invisible Man, King Kong,  Planet Of The Apes, new is the upcoming Mulan, and so on. The newest remake coming, is Planes, Trains, & Automobiles which will star Will Smith and Kevin Hart. No disrespect to Smith and Hart, but you can't improve on the late great John Candy and Steve Martin.

[NicksmomESQ]

 @Jordan2  I totally agree. I say it all the time. Hollywood has gone lazy on us.Too many remakes & too many resurrections of old shows. I just read that they are bringing back Who's the Boss.What's next? Bonanza? Happy Days?

[Imaoldhippie]

Yes, I think they have been out of new plots since the 1980's.  The re-makes IMO stink.  Only gore, blowing things up, killing and profanity is most of Hollywood today.

Just my opinion of course.

[Snoopp]

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@NicksmomESQ wrote:

 @Jordan2  I totally agree. I say it all the time. Hollywood has gone lazy on us.Too many remakes & too many resurrections of old shows. I just read that they are bringing back Who's the Boss.What's next? Bonanza? Happy Days?

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Yes, lazy.  Reboots of every old show they can think of.  And the reboots stink.👎

[stevieb]

Movie remakes aside, one need look no further than TV, daytime or prime time, to see that fresh, compelling, competent story telling is a completely lost art.

[LindaSal]

ITA with all of you.  No more original thinking or ideas, it's actually depressing.

[gardenman]

There's so much money involved in making films and shows these days that everyone tries to play it safe. "That movie made a lot of money. We should make it over again and see what happens!" Between franchises and remakes, there's not a lot of new stuff that gets through the pipeline.

A low to mid-budget movie will typically cost around $100 million to make and distribute these days (around $65 million to make, $35 million to distribute and advertise) so they want as much of a "sure thing" as possible. The big-budget films typically start at around $100 million-plus and go way, way up from there. That's some pretty serious money. A flop might not make back 10% of what it cost to make.

Walk into any bookstore and browse the fiction aisles and you'll find lots of interesting stories that could be made into unique movies. Why doesn't Hollywood do that? Because they aren't a sure thing. Movie making is a business and a sure 110% return over cost for a remake or franchise is less of a risk than tossing something new and unproven out there. Hollywood wants to make money and not lose money. Remakes and franchises make money. Anything else is a gamble.

[Sooner]

Hollywood is more interested in celebrities and telling us how to live (no matter how they live) than in entertainment. That train left the station quite some time back as I see it.

When was the last time you saw a good, thoughtful, entertaining, no message intended, literate movie?  I can't even remember. 

[Eileen in Virginia]

Yep, they're getting pretty monotonous. We watched a really good mystery the other night - Tell No One. It's French and has subtitles, but it had my complete attention from the time the villain had struck right up to the end (they took a little while to set the stage before the action started). DH saw it in a theater a few years ago and bought the cd, but you can probably find it online somewhere. I don't usually like suspenseful movies, but this one really grabbed me. 

[wilma]

@Jordan2 

Totally agree with you. My DH & I complain a lot about the horrible remakes & sequels. The originals are usually much better.

Hollywood thinks a remake is a way to introduce an old movie to a newer & younger audience. If I can watch & enjoy a movie made 20-30 years before I was born, why can’t youth do the same? FYI There are some YouTube videos out there of young people reacting to older movies (and music too). They are funny to watch.