Three of December's most heavily promoted and seen movies are remakes ("King Kong," "The Producers," and "Fun with Dick and Jane").
Over the last year, there has barely been a month without two or three remakes. Two of the biggest moneymakers this year are remakes - "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "War of the Worlds." Going on the widely held critical assumption that all remakes must be bad, this spells trouble for a good portion of future releases.
Hollywood has been plagiarizing itself even before movies started to record sound. In 1940, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell starred in "His Girl Friday," a remake of "The Front Page," which was made only nine years earlier. Today, "The Front Page" is hardly remembered, while "His Girl Friday" lasts because of the Grant and Russell's masterful playing of a script full of funny, biting dialogue.
"His Girl Friday" is defined as a remake, even though it has many changes from "The Front Page," including a gender change of the second lead.
So what is a remake? Tim Burton argues that "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is a re-imagining of the book, having nothing to do with the 1971 movie.
Cameron Crowe described his 2001 film "Vanilla Sky," as a cover version of "Open Your Eyes."
On the other hand, Peter Jackson makes no attempt to distance his version of "King Kong" from the 1933 original. He even sets it in the same time period.
A remake is really not that much different from an adaptation of a book.
The filmmaker or studio takes the elements they like, throws out the elements they don't, and it becomes impossible for the movie not to be different, because of the filters of so many different people working on it, and the different time period it is made in.
What motivates studios and filmmakers to attempt remakes? The understood answer is money, usually the original movie was successful (at least at the box office) so it follows that an updated version should work.
If the filmmaker puts the wheels in motion for a remake, often their reasons are wrapped up in trying to reclaim something that moved them in their youth.
However, beyond nostalgia (real or imagined) by a small amount of people, the remake can only be financially successful if (like any original movie) it is marketed well, is entertaining, or both.
The best art is supposed to be original, groundbreaking work.
But artists have always built on the work before them, from paintings to pop songs.
And in the biggest industry where art and money are tied so strongly together, getting an original, groundbreaking work out there is hard enough.
Just because a movie is a remake, doesn't mean it doesn't require these qualities (even though, like every other film genre, it happens rarely).
In the end, a movie has to be judged on its own merits, remake or not.
Notable DVDs this month:
"Broken Flowers" (January 3) - Bill Murray puts the capstone on his recent midlife crisis performances with his portrayal of a businessman looking for his son.
Minimalist almost to the point of nothingness, the DVD carries the same vibe, with almost no extras.
"The Constant Gardener" (January 10) - Fenando Meirelles' follow up to "City of God," in which he fractures time to give a new angle on the political thriller. Rachel Weisz gives her best performance (mostly in flashbacks) as the woman who forces her husband to open his eyes. The DVD includes some deleted scenes, and a documentary on John Le Carre, the author of the book the film is based on.
"Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room" (January 17) - This documentary on the corruption and resulting corporate scandal includes a commentary by the filmmaker and deleted scenes. The best extra might be the full length skits produced by Enron executives that sarcastically questioned the legitimacy of some of their business practices, years before the scandal broke.
• Alex Mechlin writes on the first of every month, exclusively in Lumino Magazine.
