Am I right in thinking remakes are either the tool of the devil or the product of short attention spans?

I was just thinking about the semi-devil watching the Brendan Fraser version of Bedazzled.

I remember an experience I had in a video store. I'd been looking for old horror movies and instead I found nothing from earlier than a few years ago. There was a shelf with three newly released remakes sitting next to each other.

My "now" must mean other people's "when dinosaurs ruled the earth". :P

Hmmm…you have a point. I wonder where they fall on the scale that includes reality tv?

Welcome to the fforum! We're much more active in Nextian Chat, so drop by there, introduce yourself, stay for pie, and don't be frightened.

Reality TV, of course, is on the far end. You've got to involve actual death to create anything they wouldn't show.

Possibly they're in between Reality TV and republished books with either photos or flashy new covers (I can never tell if they're a good thing or not).

No, no, I think they'd show actual death.

I don't mind republished books--so long as they don't eliminate the original illustrations (if there were any).

As a musical theatre fan, I'd also have to add jukebox musicals and musicals based on popular movies with cheesy plots and a few songs and dance numbers thrown in. Ugh. I try to tell myself that Broadway is NOT dying, and then I hear about something like Legally Blonde--The Musical.

But reality tv is definitely the worst of all.

What gets my goat is when it is called a "reimagining" instead of a remake (i.e. the new Star Trek movie). Gene is probably spinning in orbit right now (oh right, he is)...

Oh, they might show actual death, but it wouldn't be the main premise of the show. Yet.

Movies based on musicals are often good in an 'I don't have time or money to go to the theatre and see something that is only shown overseas' way. The opposite, however, doesn't sound like a good thing at all (unless said movie was musically inclined to begin with).

And "reimagining" sounds ridiculous when you think of how little imagination went into it. It seems they just grab hold of something nostalgic and make it into a new movie (bonus points for missing what made the old version lovable).

MuseSusan Wrote:
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>... I hear about
> something like Legally Blonde--The Musical.
>
> But reality tv is definitely the worst of all.


Take a deep breath and read on...
[news.bbc.co.uk]

At least it closed after one show!

Oh, thank goodness.

*shudder* Although I did hear good things about the Jerry Springer Musical a few years back…

It all depends on how it was done.
I mean, has anyone read "Chart Throb" by Ben Elton?
Come to think of it "Dead Famous" was damn good too!
I would go to see movies made from those books.

Well, Jerry Springer was a parody, so it was okay, it's more about whether they do Legally Blond as a parody, or whether they're trying for some crazy broadway version of the Bulwer- Lytton contest.

I have images of luvvies siting around and laughing at how many stupid punters who even thought of coming to Legally Blond The Musical.

Hmmm…a musical version of the Bulwer-Lytton contest, eh? That could be good!

No it would be awful, that'd be the point!

But it would be deliberately and consciously awful. Some good has got to come of that. :)

The late Frank Muir said 'If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly'.

This is the premise that is used by people who 'make' remakes.

the only good thing about it is that if you know it is a reake then you know that it will not be as good as the original and that it will be in the video stores very soon. I unfortunately watch the 'Hitchhikers' movie the other day. I am now going to get out the LP and original books and get the BBC video to restore normal functioning.

Can anybody think of a 'remake' of a movie or TV series that is as good as the original?

Please let us know.

I can suggest one as bad as the original:Lost in Space. Was addicted for a while to the tv series for some bizarre reason, but no amount of delusion could make the addiction last.

I believe that musicals made from movies can be wonderful, and I personally loved Dirty Rotten Scoundrels when I saw it on Broadway. A remake I thought as good as the original was Mel Brooks' movie The Producers, which was made into a musical and then remade into a musical movie. I believe the story worked in all three mediums.