I just saw a trailer for a new movie today... "One Missed Call". It looked good...stylish... scary...oh...and completely unoriginal. It is a remake of Takashi Miike's Japanese horror movie of the same name. Let's see now...how many remakes have been churned out of Hollywood lately? War of the Worlds, Dark Water, The Fog, Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, Pulse, Oliver, Pride and Prejudice, The In-Laws, The Hills Have Eyes etc. etc. etc. I think I see a trend here.
Even though it isn't anything new to do remakes, (when Hollywood was brand new they remade some foreign films), it is now getting out of control with the huge number. So I have to ask myself, why? I would like to be angry and just say that Hollywood has become lazy and uncreative, that a lot of the people running the studios have become stagnate and should be immediately replaced. But even though I believe that is a part of it, I think it is more than just that. To be fair, movies are over 100 years old now. (1895 or 1903 depending on what you count as a first movie) It really is getting harder and harder to come up with something new. Almost everything has already been done! Maybe remakes are one of the only ways left to keep the movie people in business!?!?
A second reason is even more disturbing...US! That's right! Hollywood makes movies that make money. These remakes are making money. They make money because WE see them! So now the question is, why do we see them? I have thought of three reasons and none are good, I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this but here it goes. 1. A lot of people simply watch whatever is before them, good or bad. They have become so addicted to media that they now have an insatiable desire to watch more and more. 2. They have never expanded their minds to watch foreign films so they haven't watched any of the foreign originals. 3. If it is new, it must be better. We are so used to modern things that we don't want to waste our time with old stuff any longer. This line of thinking is popular but usually wrong. Very few remakes are as good as the original. In fact most don't even come close.
To sum up, the remake blame is on both sides. Yes, I believe Hollywood is starting to stagnate and remakes are less work than an original idea, but I think maybe we need to learn to be more choosey of what we see too, or else we can't really complain of what Hollywood is doing.
If you have any comments or counter arguments, feel free to jump in!