In Hollywood everything is getting remade or rebooted or re- imagined.
Three movies from the 1980's that I thought were perfect and ripe to be remade have already happened.
1. Clash of Titans (because of the advancements in special effects) which turned out pretty good.
2. Conan the Barbarian (which I loved and hoped would be a brand new series of movies----but it bombed miserably at the box office) I actually liked it and really hoped for more.
3 . Tron which they did exactly right---instead of remaking Tron they built on the original and just made it better with the use of modern special effects.
In the last month Hollywood has announced remakes of both Weird Science (which could be great with today's special effects) and Gremlins (which I know I will go a see- but the original is almost too classic to touch).
Many times in the past Hollywood has made the mistake of remaking things that were great the first time around and the remakes just left people wondering why they just didn't watch the original again instead of wasting their time and money on the remakes. Psycho and Halloween were great examples of this problem of remaking classics. These movie were so much like the originals that the remakes were just a waste of time. If you never saw the original the remakes might be good --but with the original fondly holding a place of nostalgia in your memory it is hard to enjoy them as much as the predecessor.
Other times Hollywood gets it right. I remember watching the premiere of Battlestar Gallactica and being angry and upset at it for the first hour and a half because it had changed things and wasn't the original that I loved. But once I got past those changes from the show (like Starbuck being a girl) I had grown up with the new Battlestar ended up being much better than the original. So like with anything in Hollywood there are hits and misses and remaking things that already have a following is sometimes an easier or safer way to go than actually creating something completely new and fresh. That is why Superman gets Rebooted over and over again.....I guess they think we are too dumb to remember Superman's origin story so rather than just telling us new stories with Superman --they spend half the movie telling us who he is again. They should learn a lesson from James Bond and trust that the viewers already know who James Bond is and just get on with the story.
Anyway since it is going to happened anyway and everything from the 1980's is currently being redone whether we want them to be redone or not ---Here is a list of 3 movies from the late 70's and early 80's that were good ---but with today's effects could be done much better and might be worth revisiting.
Dreamscape from 1984
Dreamscape featured Dennis Quaid as a young psychic that is recruited to protect the President from an killer that is sent into his dreams to kill him. The recent movie Inception was basically a version of Dreamscape, but the plot of that movie was too convoluted with too many layers of dreams withing dreams. I could see Dreamscape either being remade with group of Dreamscapers sent in to protect the president from a group of killers where the Dreamworld becomes a more fantasy playground. Think Where Dreams May Come type special effects where the people sent into the Dreamworld could battle it out. Much better than the killer with the cheesy snake head from the end of the original movie. Dreamscape had a fun concept that could be taken to the next level with a sequel or remake.
Krull 1983
Krull was a fun guilty pleasure from 1983. Part Fantasy and part Sci-Fi and didn't really make a whole lot of sense. The original had some great elements in it, but also had a lot of cheesy and goofy stuff as well. It was kind of a lot of different ideas and concepts thrown together. A prince and a group of companions set out to save his bride from an evil Spaceship like fortress from the Slavers. The movie has a lot of potential if they remade it as a darker more focused film. I would love to see what could be done with this fun movie from the early 80's with modern special effects and tighter more clearly defined plot.
Logan's Run 1975
Logan's run has been rumored to be in the works to being remade numerous times over the past decade and it would be nice to see a true remake of this. Many movies using similar themes have happened which is maybe the reason why it hasn't been remade. Must recently In Time and The Island both shared many similar story elements to Logan's Run and which was an obvious influence to both those films. I would like to see them actually do a remake of Logan's Run itself which will probably happen at some point.
What would you like to see a remake of and why?
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