What Is It with Today's Remakes?

I must be getting old, because what people consider good entertainment these days totally astounds me. I was born in the early 1960's, so I guess that makes me officially middle-aged now. When I was growing up, there were many good movies to watch, and although the special effects are not nearly what they are today, they were still enjoyable and somewhat believable.

So, why did Hollywood feel a need to remake all of those movies? Not only are they doing remakes of old movies, they are also making movies out of sitcoms from the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. Hollywood screenwriters make good money, so they should at least have some original ideas for today's movies. For example, “Planet of the Apes” was an interesting movie in the 1970's, because at the end of the movie, it is revealed that Charlton Heston's character was on Earth the whole time, and the nuclear holocaust had occurred. In the remake of “Planet of the Apes”, the apes were from a whole different planet. That's ridiculous. For me, that kind of ruined the whole plot, and I was no longer interested in seeing the rest of the movie.

“King Kong” was remade twice. Like the first remake wasn't bad enough? Now I admit that the second remake was far better than the first remake, but it was still a ridiculous thing to do, in my humble opinion. One remake that I DID enjoy was “Cape Fear” with Robert DeNiro. Only I didn't know it was a remake, until I saw the original version one night on Turner Classic Movies, which I really enjoyed. Another movie they remade and totally bombed on was “The Postman Always Rings Twice”. And Godzilla? Call me old-fashioned, but I totally loved those old Japanese versions where the dubbing was so bad that the words didn't match the movement of the actors' mouths. That somehow made these movies more enjoyable to watch.

Now, there were a few movies that I thought were pretty hilarious that were remade from old television shows, for example the “Brady Bunch” and its sequel, but I only enjoyed it because the movies poked fun at the show. The problem with movies made from old television shows is that today's generation of kids growing up may never know what they were missing, unless they watch TV land at night, that is.

Well, I'll tell you one thing. If they ever make “The Andy Griffith Show” into a movie, this old fogey is leaving this planet. Hmmm….maybe I can go live on the Planet of the Apes, if they'll have me!