When I was eight years old I watched the movie The Karate Kid for the very first time. It’s a classic hero’s journey story starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso and Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi. Even though the movie was made in 1984, it was pretty good. As an eight-year-old, the whole “wax on wax off” and the classic crane kick at the end was really cool. Two years later, when I was 10 years old, a remake of the classic film was made. The protagonists were Dre Parker, played by Jaden Smith, and his teacher Mr. Han played by Jackie Chan. Yes, as a 10-year-old I thought it was cool. At the time I was a purple belt in Tae Kwon Do. But now as a 17-year-old, that 2010 remake of The Karate Kid was really not that good.
Every few years it seems that classic movies from the past 30 years are remade. Ghostbusters was released in 1984 and this summer the remake of the classic film, with a gender bent cast, was released in theaters. The original film it did way better than the new one in the box office. The budget was 30 million dollars and earned 295.2 million dollars. Whereas the 2016 remake had a budget of 144 million dollars and only earned 228.7 million dollars. Even though, as a female, it is nice to see comedic women on screen; the original Ghostbusters is better. The original may have been extremely cheesy with animatronic creatures, but a recycled story and state of the art CGI ruins the beloved Ghostbusters.
In 1982, the Tony award-winning Broadway musical Annie was adapted for the silver screen. The film starred Aileen Quinn as the title role of Annie and Carol Burnett as Ms. Hannigan. Even though the film only earned 7 million more dollars than its 50 million dollar budget, it is way better than the 2014 remake. In the pitiful excuse of a remake, the movie still takes place in New York City, but it is modernized for our time. There are still the same songs still but all of them are auto-tuned, and honestly, plain disgusting. They took the classic Charles Strouse music and tore it up and made a dumpster fire out of it. They even cut out Ms. Hanigan’s song “Little Girls.” Who wouldn’t love to see Cameron Diaz singing about how much she hates little girls? Even though statistically the 2014 remake did quite well at the box office, it is not a good movie.
Hollywood, please stop recycling your material. It is a sin upon the art of film making. You’ve made good original films, You’ve even made sequels. Lord of the Rings was astonishing, then ten years later you gave us The Hobbit. But remakes of good quality, respected, and classic films is a sin to the art of filmmaking. The Goonies is a fun adventure movie, it does not need a remake. The Godfather is a great classic film, and again, it does not need a remake. Remakes are a hit or miss for audiences and most of the time they do not have the same quality as the original.
