Hollywood returns to its senses*
For a while now I've been disappointed with Hollywood's remake craze because rarely, if ever, does it make sense. In most cases, the films or TV shows being remade are so old that the kids today don't know about them while the adults have outgrown them. I always thought the more successful "remake" strategy was The Ripoff. Just take a film that people loved back in the day and revamp it. "Disturbia" did that with "Rear Window". Rather than remake the movie and suddenly get people up in arms over Shia LeBeof taking over Jimmy Stewart's role, they simply altered it enough so that they could say it was an original film. "The Fast and The Furious" was nothing more than "Point Break" with cars.
Two new films have recaptured the glory of The Ripoff. The first, coming out this week, is "Never Back Down".
The film is pretty much a remake of "The Karate Kid" with underground MMA fighting replacing organized karate. The film earns extra points for getting Djimon Honsou to play the Pat Morita Mr. Miyagi role.
The other ripoff is the new Robert DeNiro/Al Pacino film "The Righeous Kill". It's basically "Magnum Force" but with the Corleone's replacing one Dirty Harry. Now some might think this is a stretch but there's one thing in the trailer that tips the scales.
The tipoff? The final line of the trailer "Nothing wrong with shooting, as long as the right people get shot" is lifted straight from "Magnum Force".
Now, Hollywood doesn't always get it right, hence the asterik in the tile. They've tapped the writers of internet site Ask A Ninja to remake the cult film "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". This makes no sense to me. If you have faith in the guys from "Ask a Ninja" produce a new script. Don't have them remake a bad movie. In the end, this might actually be the Hollywood execs trying to get back at the Ninja clan for reviews like this.
