Goddamn Brownies

Everyone talks the subject to death, but it seems that no matter what it just continues to plague our entertainment industry. No, not reality. Remakes. Cue Bernard Hermann's Psycho score.

Even though these rehashes are always around it seems a lot of them come out at the same time. A few weeks ago My Bloody Valentine 3D came out, and the only real good thing it had going for it was the 3D gimmick. Right now you have Pink Panther 2 hitting theaters (which is a sequel to a remake), and next week is Friday the 13th. Now, I don't want to go see F13th, but as Peter Griffin says, "it's like sex with Kobe Bryant, you can fight all you want, but it's gonna happen." Maybe I'll see it because I've heard good things online from early screenings written by reputable sources, or maybe because my mind is a glutton for punishment.

they also have other remakes in the works. Most of the ones I know about are horror like Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser and Robert Rodriguez has Barbarella and Predator tapped. Is it selfish of him to be working on two remakes, or just lazy.

To the credit of these films some of them are decent, but not eclipsing the original. Dawn of the Dead was fun, for an action movie, I even liked Tom Savini's early 90s remake of Night of the Living Dead. Platinum Dunes, who are bringing us F13 and NOES, did The Hitcher, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Amityville Horror - all sucked.

There are two examples of damn fine remakes I always give. They both leave the original in the dust and still hold up to this day. The first is one of the best, scariest horror/sci-fi films of all time, John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). Perfectly cast, wonderfully written and expertly shot there are few films which can touch this classic. The second is David Cronenberg at the top of his game with The Fly (1986). Even if it spawned a pretty lame sequel you cannot deny the power of the Brundlefly! Besides, Jeff Goldblum ... is there anything else that needs to be said?

If it's not a remake then the next big thing is taking "hits" from other countries. I just watched Mirrors a couple of weeks ago, which was a 2003 Korean film called Geoul sokeuro. Just a few months ago Quarantine hit theaters, which I haven't seen, and if you haven't seen it please hold out and wait for the source material to be released in the US first. [Rec] was made in Spain and is one of the best horror films I have seen in a long time. Great atmosphere and scares that should not be ruined by our country's take. More and more it seems films get lit to be Americanized before they even come out, sometimes even in their own countries.

I just wish that more original films would hit theaters. Maybe all the new ideas are gone.