In Hollywood, "what's old is new" seems to be the mantra. Great movies from the '80s seem to be a treasure trove of great ideas for the studios to reboot, remarket, and unleash upon a nostalgic audience.
There's a difference between a long-awaited sequel and a remake. Take Tron and Tron Legacy, for example. I enjoyed the updated sequel and thought it was a great continuation of the original storyline. And then there's Karate Kid 2010, which was a complete bastardization of a film I hold sacred (bowing my head and saying a prayer to Mr. Pat Morita). And don't even get me started on Arthur, Clash of the Titans, Miami Vice, and The A-Team.
A remake of Red Dawn is already in the works and I really don't know how they're going to pull that off. The film was released during the Cold War, so it made sense. Originally, they had the Chinese invading us, but they've since changed it to North Koreans coming to take us over--but not before a group of high school kids foil their plans (think Home Alone but with machine guns).
Here's just a tiny sample of '80s movies that are being planned for a complete reboot:
- The Last Starfighter (1984): still speculation whether it's a sequel or reboot
- Footloose (1984): will be released in October of this year
- Poltergeist (1982): "They're baaaaaack..."
- Weird Science (1985): this one makes me want to cry
- WarGames (1983): not the same without the telephone modem and floppy disk
- Robocop (1987): this project has changed hands so many times. It'll be a CGI bonanza for sure. Yuck.
- Ghostbusters (1984): absolute outrage!
- Short Circuit (1986): Johnny 5 is alive... again
- The Goonies (1985): they are spreading the original over 4 new films. That's so wrong.
- Dirty Dancing (1987): this has gotten a lot of press lately. They should just leave this one in the corner.
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