The Island -- mini-rant

[takyris]

Okay, first off, I know that there are no original movie concepts. I know that. I'm aware of that. But stlll.

So here's "The Island", the Ewan Macgregor movie about a guy who lives in an idyllic paradise with other happy people who are periodically chosen to go to a happy place that no one ever comes back from, until he discovers that he's actually a clone of some rich guy being held in the idyllic place for parts, and he has to break out into the real world and find out how to live and stop the evil cloning project or whatever:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078062/

And here's "The Clonus Horror", a 1979 movie more recently viewed on MST3k, about... a guy who lives in an idyllic paradise with other happy people who are periodically chosen to go to a happy place that no one ever comes back from, until he discovers that he's actually a clone of some rich guy being held in the idyllic place for parts, and he has to break out into the real world and find out how to live and stop the evil cloning project or whatever:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078062/

IMDB doesn't list this as an actual remake, which is what has me peeved. At what point does the rip-off factor get bad enough that it's obvious to everyone? I mean, sure, the new movie is going to have lots of special effects. I get that. But the setup appears to be, well, exactly the same. I'm not saying that all cloning movies are ripoffs, and I understand that all cloning movies are going to have some similarities, especially if told from the clone's viewpoint. But I'm not getting this movie mixed up with "The Sixth Day", which, whatever its flaws, didn't rip off a 1979 movie so goofy that MST3k got to shin-kick it for two solid hours.

 

[Crothian]

I think the first link should be this

 

[radferth]

I think this would only count as a remake if the guy playing the chief clone wrangler is a TV actor who formerly starred on "Charmed" or "Sabrina the Teenage Witch".

 

[Henry]

It gets announced as a remake mainly if a significant portion of people remember the original. You can't remake "Walking Tall" and not announcing it, because somebody will call you on it. OTOH, how many people outside of these boards or movie "geeks" will remember "The Clonus Horror?" If it's a remake of a VERY BAD film, you want to keep the knowledge that it's a remake as secret as possible.

 

[takyris]

Crothian: You're right, of course. My bad on the cut-paste.

Radferth: Heh.

Henry: That's true, I suppose, but I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that when you remade a film, you had to pay royalties or something to the people responsible for the original film. Honestly, the fact that it's a remake of a goofy and fairly bad movie doesn't bother me -- it's a summer flick, not an Oscar contender, and it has every right to be goofy and silly itself -- as much as the notion that you can steal a plot wholesale and not pay the original folks a penny.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

IMDB is somewhat self-policing, too. It depends on the knowledgeable visitors to keep it accurate. At the bottom of any movie's page, there should be a button you can click to submit information for them to review.

Edit: Actually, it lists 'The Island' as a remake of 'The Clonus Horror' under 'Movie Connections', so someone updated it recently. And someone mentioned it was a remake under the BBS entries, too.

 

[takyris]

Ah. Missed that. Or it wasn't there when I posted this morning.

Well, then, I'm ranting about nothing then, aren't I?

(cough)

Carry on, then.

 

[trancejeremy]

Stuff like this is why Hollywood is a mystery to me.

 

[Henry]

Stuff like this is why Hollywood is a mystery to me.

Not so much - I have a feeling that the majority of Hollywood producers would probably think this was an original idea - heck, I thought it sounded original until about, oh, 3 and a half hours ago.

 

[takyris]

I guess that if I work at it I can still maintain a healthy level of ire. If the Island people have owned to remaking Clonus, then I can be irate about them choosing to remake Clonus in particular. That wasn't a movie that I looked at and said "This would be an awesome movie if only the effects were better." It's certainly possible that they improved the story, the writing, and the social message, but it's also possible that magical fairies will cast a charming spell upon the film once Michael Bay is done with it, causing it to suddenly become a breathtaking cinematic delight. So, if I'm gonna hope for unlikely events, I might as well go with the magical fairy angle.

If they are remaking Clonus but haven't admitted to it (the IMDB link looks to be user-added, not producer-added, but correct me if I'm wrong, so I still haven't seen proof that they've admitted to remaking Clonus), then I can be annoyed about them ripping off the ideas and not acknowledging it. Regardless of the level of quality of the original or the remake, ripping off an idea shows a lack of class.

And if they are unintentionally remaking Clonus, having legitimately come up with the idea on their own without ever hearing of Clonus, then I can be irate on the level of Apu when Seymour Skinner talks about his idea to make a movie about cloning dinosaurs based on DNA extracted from insects encased in amber and calling the movie "Timmy and the Clonasaurus" -- if you're going to make a movie about clones, do yourself a favor and learn about other cloning movies that have already been done, so that you can write one that at least shows some semblance of not being the exact same movie as one done twenty-five years ago.

Whew. No matter what happens, I can be irked about something. Reality has returned to normal.