FIFTY remakes? Seriously?

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I beg to differ- they're remaking Drop Dead Fred, and you KNOW that has to involve some serious creativity to convince someone to remake a total critical and financial flop.

I'm trying to figure out which is worse, remaking a classic film (The Birds, True Grit), or remaking a film that was never good in the first place? (Drop Dead Fred? Seriously?)

I liked Drop Dead Fred. But I may be biased.

And right here in this forum, there are folks extolling shows like Chuck, Big Bang Theory, The Good Guys, and other mediocrities.

The rules of the board prevent me from replying. Sorry, I mean to each his own.

Out of curiosity, Felon, which shows currently airing do you consider not to be mediocre?

 

[Felon]

Out of curiosity, Felon, which shows currently airing do you consider not to be mediocre?

Supernatural, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Stargate Universe spring to mind. Doctor Who, when it's on the air.

There are other shows I watch like Smallville and House, but they could also easily be labeled uncreative and mediocre in their own right. The point that some may have missed me saying is that presentation can make a mediocre concept entertaining, or at least watchable.

 

[Felon]

Big Bang Theory not clever or creative? Big Bang Theory mediocre?

This will not stand, Felon! Sabers at dawn. Bring a second.

Johnathan

I'll give BBT credit for one thing at least: their nerds actually look like nerds. They're not going the Chuck route of picking a tall, good-looking guy with high cheekbones and then mess his hair a bit and call that a nerd.

Should he want my company - I shall be his second.

Unless he adds Firefly* to his list, in which situation I'll be forced to stealthily dispose of him before the duel could take place anyway.

No, I'd rate the cancellation Firefly and (to lesser degree) Farscape to be one of the great tragedies of our time.

I'd put RPG adventures either in live action (mindless loot-grab as you phrased it ;-) ) or (and you will have to excuse my crude phrasing as I don't know proper English term) are part of Cinema of Journey. In latter - the McGuffin or truly any goal - is incidental; merely a premise to focus on true story - character development and interaction.

Sure, you could say that about just about any work of fiction. The Death Star was incidental. The Lost Ark of the Convenant just gave Indy an excuse to run around the globe. That observation doesn't counter my position, it reinforces it. An original story isn't as good as a well-presented cliche, because the presentation is where you serve up elements like good dialogue and characterization. Not that the dialogue and characterization is likely to be particularly novel either. I think at this stage of my life, I watch movies not in the hopes of seeing something truly original, but rather something that...gets it all right. Something that be called the apotheosis of its kind.

Not unlike Down By Law - and do you consider it mediocre picture? Is Lost Highway with non-existent goals mediocre? Is Coffee and Cigarettes merely a mainstream pulp?

I'm not familiar with any those works, I must confess.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

No, I'd rate the cancellation Firefly and (to lesser degree) Farscape to be one of the great tragedies of our time.

If we're limiting the pool of tragedies to Hollywood's sphere, we're in agreement.

 

[jonesy]

It's unfair to label all of those films as "remakes". Some are based on books (The Three Musketeers, The Howling, Pet Sematary) or comics (The Crow, Judge Dredd, Death Note). Those are more "adaption" than "remake", IMO.

Yeah, you can't really count translations to other media (medium?) as remakes. Except maybe Sin City.

Supernatural, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Stargate Universe spring to mind.

Supernatural and Dexter are awesome. Breaking Bad I always thought was a bit overrated. Not bad, just not quite that good.

But Stargate Universe? The reason I'm a fan of Stargate is because it's fun to watch. Universe took the fun, stuffed it in an airlock and launched it into a black hole. Universe isn't just Stargate trying to be Grim Dark, it's a whole show made of the Shower of Angst. Except there's no water. And you just sit there in agony.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[Aeolius]

The reason I'm a fan of Stargate is because it's fun to watch.

Which eliminates any episodes without RDA.

 

[Felon]

Supernatural and Dexter are awesome. Breaking Bad I always thought was a bit overrated. Not bad, just not quite that good.

But Stargate Universe? The reason I'm a fan of Stargate is because it's fun to watch. Universe took the fun, stuffed it in an airlock and launched it into a black hole. Universe isn't just Stargate trying to be Grim Dark, it's a whole show made of the Shower of Angst. Except there's no water. And you just sit there in agony.

But that's just my opinion.

I like Breaking Bad because it shows how people can become corrupt by degrees. And how they can start out with a small lie and then just keep digging themselves in deeper. No paper heroes here.

I don't think SGU really takes too much from the original series in terms of tone. I like SG-1, but it's pretty flimsy in its approach to sci-fi, like most sci-fi TV shows are. SGU is enjoyable to me because it feels like the closest thing to hard sci-fi we're likely to see on TV. They take the tools at hand, like the mind-transfer stones, and work within rules and limitations. They meet an alien race, and it's actually alien. There are communication problems, we don't know what they're about right away. I don't think of it as grim or dark, just serious. No winking at the audience, no self-parodying banter, and fairly limited hanging of lanterns.

You say Stargate is "fun", and it is. But what's your definition of "fun"? Light-hearted and swashbuckling? Smart-alecky characters issuing one-liners right before the delivery of some well-timed explosion turns the tables on the villains? I don't think that ought to be a mandate for every adventure show.

 

[Deset Gled]

Creativity is dead in Hollywood. Put a fork in it.

If you think this is any different than the way Hollywood has always been, I think you need to re-examine your cinematic history.

How is this latest rash of remakes any less creative than the barrage of spaghetti westerns from the 50s, or the weekly beach movies from the 60s?. Hollywood has done nothing but recycle ideas and reuse formulas for its entire existence. The only difference now is that they're marketing it differently; instead of trying to pull audiences is with edgy names, they're relying on brand recognition.

Is Akira or The Orphanage remade in english really any worse than when they remade The Seven Samurai as The Magnificent Seven? Is another version of Three Musketeers any worse than another version of Jane Eyre or Shakespear? Is a new edition of Heavy Metal really that different from Disney's original concept of continually creating new additions to Fantasia?

The sky isn't falling. It's always been that color.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I would like a bit more fun in SGU, not because all sci-fi adventure shows should be like that, but because that's what I liked about Stargate. It was fun. And I miss the fun in old Stargate.

But SGU is not old Stargate. It is what it is. Or rather, an approximation of what the writers are trying for it to be. I don't think they're really succeeding. The feeling I get from watching SGU is that the writers are attempting to do a certain type of show, but not really knowing how to do it. I can't shake the belief that if they'd built from the blueprints of previous SGs—the show they knew how to make—and worked from there, we'd have a better show. Instead of trying to do BSG set in the SG universe, they'd do a SG show infused with some BSG grit.

I still like SGU, but mostly in the hope that they'll find their stride.

 

[jonesy]

Which eliminates any episodes without RDA.

Sometimes it seemed like the only reason RDA was there was to make wisecracks. Which was great.

I know people who hate SG-1 exactly for that reason.

SGU is enjoyable to me because it feels like the closest thing to hard sci-fi we're likely to see on TV. They take the tools at hand, like the mind-transfer stones, and work within rules and limitations. They meet an alien race, and it's actually alien. There are communication problems, we don't know what they're about right away. I don't think of it as grim or dark, just serious. No winking at the audience, no self-parodying banter, and fairly limited hanging of lanterns.

A big part of that is that they've so far stayed away from the major pitfall of science fiction. They don't go too far into explaining the unexplainable. I think it might be the first show where it's actually ok to say "I don't know". Technobabble ruined Star Trek for me.

Maybe I'd like the show more if they hadn't tried to remake Stargate, and instead had sold it as a completely different show.