Movie Remakes . . .

Anyone who knows me know I love a good film. I do. I can easily loose myself for a few hours whilst watching, no matter how bad (with few exceptions for the really bad…that’s just ‘slit-your-wrist-time’ painful). And I'm usually open-minded regarding remakes – although you have to admit, they are sometimes a mute point.

Ok, there's a whole new generation out there, some who wouldn't give an older film the time of day, and so remakes will often appeal more to them (and what they can achieve these days compared to the likes of twenty years ago can really make a difference) but if you're a fan of the original, then remakes aren't always a good thing.

There are three remakes in the pipelines that have won my attention recently, two of which could be good, but one with the potential of being disastrous.  These remakes are:

The Crow

Ghostbusters

Dad’s Army

My all-time favourite is The Crow with Brandon Lee. It was one of the first films with an 18 rating that I ever watched, and was probably responsible the darker side of some of my thinking. I just fell in love with it right away. And the soundtrack, which I run out and bought on CD, is absolutely crazy with the likes of Nine Inch Nails and the Cure. For me, there wasn’t anything to not love about this film.

The follow-ons, however, I haven’t been too impressed about. City of Angels was not too bad. It wasn’t a patch on the first, and I’ve just watched Salvation for the first time. For me, Salvation was definitely verging on ‘Slit-your-wrist-time’ bad. What did they do!! The killed the Crow! As for the Wicked Prayer? I haven’t seen it.

Good thing about The Crow is that the franchise isn’t just about a specific character. It can be any unfortunate person who gains the power of the crow to seek vengeance on those who did them wrong, so the story lines can change, the circumstances can change, and the characters can change. They don’t have to make a 1994 reboot – and we’ve apparently been assured that it’s not going to be, so I’m quite hopeful. Let’s just hope they can get some actors who can act this time, unlike Salvation.


The other film was Ghostbusters.  Again, I'm a big fan of the original with Bill Murray.  And as a kid, not only did I love the film, but I recorded every cartoon episode and never missed one.  For me this could go two ways.  With new CGI technology it could be visually spectacular, but will my love for the first one give the reboot an unfair disadvantage?  We'll just have to wait and see what they churn out.


And last but not least, Dad's Army.  What are they doing?!!! What are they thinking?!!!  This, I think, will be disastrous.  Ok, they have a star-studded cast lined up with the likes of Catherine Zeta Jones, Bill Nighy and more, but come on.  Dad's Army?  Really?  Captain Mainwaring was only adored because of Arther Lowe, and then with the likes of John Le Mesurier, Ian Lavender, James Beck and Clive Dunn, the cast was complete and Dad's Army won it's place in the nation's heart.  You can't recreate that.  You just can't.  It's not like a film where people spend at most two hours and walk away thinking "oh, that's was good," and then look forward to reboot 10 years down the line  This ran for years.  We grew up with these faces, followed their characters and grew to know them.  They were known in every household and still are in many - such as ours.  You can't replace that, no matter how pretty Catherine Zeta Jones may be...

So what are your views on the above?

Heroes & Villains Blogfest

Today I'm participating in the 'Heroes and Villains Blogfest', hosted by Jackie over at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. Check 'em out.

The objective:

•  Post who your favourite Heroes, and yes, your favourite Villains are.
• List as many, or as little, as you like.
• Be creative with it: videos, art, pictures, lists, etc.
• And most of all - HAVE FUN!

So here goes:

How can you define a hero? Someone - or something - who comes along and saves the day? Someone people look up to for hope and inspiration? Someone who makes us feel good and confident about ourselves in hard times? All of the above and many more...

And how do you define a villain? Someone who's the complete opposite of the above; who strives to destroy hope and inspiration; someone to kick you when you're down...

But not all heroes are heroes, and not all villains are villains. A fairytale princess may be rescued by her hero, a gallant knight, and after marrying him and expecting to live happily-ever-after discovers that he's a wife beater and a philanderer. And the man, the villain, who the knight battled against and killed, the man who kept the princess in the tower against her will, may merely have been keeping her there in order to protect her from the horrors that he knew this knight was capable of. This label is more often than not given from the eye of the beholder as opposed to the people themselves.

One of my all-time favourite heros/villains can be listed under both labels. Is he a villain or is he a hero? Only the watcher of this character can decide.

So who is this person?

Some know him as Eric Draven, but to others he's simply 'The Crow...'

I just love this character! But then is it the character that's loved or the curse? Without the Crow, Eric Draven would be just another face in the crowd. There are many films, books and comics that tell the Crow's tale, each with a different person but each with the same tragic premise; a victim of a murderous crime gets given the gift of resurrection for the purpose of justice. He then hunts down those involved, taking their lives one by one and exacting his revenge.

Usually it isn't just the protagonist that's a victim. Usually there's a loved one involved - a wife, a child, their lives cruelly ripped from them and from him - and for this you can feel his pain, your heart goes to him and you want him to exact his revenge on the evil that did this. You want him to kill those who killed him, who killed his family, and preventing them from inflicting the same pain on someone else, thus making him a hero. But this act of a vigilante is also seen as villainy in itself.

So, The Crow: Hero or Villain? I guess that's in the eye of the beholder...