It's Just Movies

— by ROB COX —

Remakes have been around almost as long as motion pictures themselves. In recent years, though, they’ve grown increasingly pervasive in Hollywood, as executives seek titles with built-in recognition and fan bases that will give each film a better chance at financial success. This weekend’s “The Karate Kid” remake is a prime example, as is — to a lesser degree — “The A-Team.” The “A-Team” is a TV adaptation, of course, but, based on reviews so far, it’s faithful enough to the source to be termed a remake.

Both “Kid” and “A-Team” are in keeping with a remake trend in recent years that’s seen Hollywood become infatuated with ‘80s cinema and TV. Late 2009 saw the release of “Fame” and in 2010 we’ve already seen the release of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Clash of the Titans.” According to a recent article at thewrap.com, other ‘80s remakes either in the works or soon to be released include: “Real Genius,” “Red Dawn” and “Overboard” (starring Jennifer Lopez, no less — ugh.)

And that’s not all. According to articles at both tampabay.com and denofgeek.com, the following ‘80s titles are in various stages of conception and/or planning for big-screen adaptation:

“Arthur”

“The Last Starfighter”

None of these, mind you, take into account recent ‘80s cartoon adaptations, including “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe” — with several others in the works.

What titles not included on these lists might the public be interested in seeing remade? If you answered with, “hopefully, none; there have already been far too many of these damned ‘80s rip-offs,” I certainly can’t blame you. Contrary to the cynicism that gives rise to such sentiments (or pragmatism — you decide), movietickets.com recently released a poll wherein they asked users “to vote for the 1980s films they’d most like to see revamped.”

The winner? Taking more than 53 percent of the voite was 1985’s teen-treasure-hunting adventure “The Goonies” — with 20,580 respondents taking part in the poll.

The next highest vote-getter, “Weird Science,” was also from 1985; that film, the final collaboration between teen-movie auteur John Hughes and Anthony Michael Hall, scored a distant 26 percent. Oddly, the third highest vote-getter was also from 1985; the Michael J. Fox-starring “Teen Wolf” took 14 percent of the vote (those people may be happy to hear about the “Teen Wolf” TV show MTV is making).

Will it ever end, then? Probably not — not until Hollywood falls in love with some other decade. Even recent original titles such as “Hot Tub Time Machine” seem fascinated with the ‘80s. Who knows, though, maybe someday Tinseltown will turn its focus on the decade we just finished.

Until then, movie-goers should set their hot tubs on tacky and settle in for a long, repetitive trip back to the ‘80s.

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