Films warmed over: remaking movie magic

Oh, Hollywood; the land of promise where the money flows like water and the ideas haven't been original in years. As 2011 progresses, a good amount of the films we will see are remakes.

Not all remakes are bad; in fact some of them have been done quite well. If you take the movie "The Ring," for instance, the remake was so much better than the original Japanese film. The American remake with Naomi Watts had so much more action, and a story line that you could actually follow.

Another foreign film that produced a really great remake was the Swedish film "Let the Right One In." "Let Me In," the American remake released last year, was both a great tribute to the original film and a great movie within itself.

As Americans remaking American films goes, I don't know if I'm quite as big of a fan of that. Sometimes it can be a good thing, especially if filmmakers want to introduce a new generation to an epic story or if the original was really awful but it was a neat idea. By all means, you should remake that. I'm looking at you, "Eragon."

However, there are instances where you just shouldn't mess with things. Many older movies have a very devout fan base; messing with their beloved movie could put your head on a platter.

Case in point, they're considering remaking "Dirty Dancing."

Really, Hollywood? What in the world would you have to gain from remaking one of the most beloved movies of the ‘80s? I'm fairly certain that if this project is ever finished, hordes of Patrick Swayze fans will flock to the theatres and destroy everything.

The same goes for "Footloose," which just opened. I have no idea how that will go over, but my guess is that it won't be received very well.

Speaking of "Footloose," you have to wonder how the actors feel about these remakes. If a director is currently remaking your film, you, as an actor, might feel like you didn't do as well as what you'd hoped. If they believe that they can make a better film than what you were in, then why should you bother in the first place?

On the other hand, doing a remake can sometimes be quite intimidating for the new actor, especially when they have big shoes to fill.

Either way it makes for an awkward situation.

Remaking films is not a tool that should just be thrown away, because we have gotten a lot of great films out of remakes.

However, filmmakers and actors should be a bit more conscientious about which films they remake instead of just picking the first one that comes to mind. "Total Recall" or "The Crow" don't need remakes, but they're going through with those anyway. Give me a modern day remake of "A Clockwork Orange," though, and I would be all over that.