Chatting about… Hollywood’s Time Loop.

Welcome to the epoch of the remake. Where blockbusters come from retread ideas of the 1980’s. And geeks, say goodbye to your childhood.

As a child, my mother was a single parent with a nerdy kid. She took us to the movies often, in fact, my entertainment magazines were the guide posts for my Saturdays for years. Movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ghostbusters. The Empire Strikes Back.  Gremlins. Goonies. Clash of the Titans.

Fast forward to 2010 and there are big screen remakes in the works for Ghostbusters, Arthur, Police Academy. Theaters will soon be showing remakes of the Karate Kid and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Movies like Transformers and G.I. Joe were on-screen last year, not to mention the upcoming A-Team film.

Really?

Let me say for the record something Hollywood doesn’t seem to understand. Just because you can make something look better doesn’t mean you can make it more significant.

Again, I am for freedom of speech and expression. Film like this should most certainly be made if people so choose to pay for them. But I’d love a little entertainment that I have never imagined before. Here’s a few reasons why.

1. Nostalgia.

You know, as I strolled through the toy store with my son yesterday, I noticed a prominent item I’d never seen in any toy store in a long time. A Slimer Doll. Do you remember him, the green mess from Ghostbusters who flies at you at the end of the movie? And there he sat on the  shelf in an obvious attempt to market and mainstream him again. Because we’d all better get ready for the movie coming out next year. *sigh*

I hate the idea of a Ghostbusters remake. The first one was not only silly and visionary, it did something you rarely see in the movies today. Featured a lead character who was unabashedly a Christian and a hero. And mentioned Jesus and religion in a positive light. In 2011 when that movie comes out, well, I’m not expecting the same.

I know they have to make money. But can’t we leave some stuff alone and pure? The original stands so well by itself that it makes you miss it.  I know their bottom line isn’t dependant on our memories being intact. But can’t my kid have memories of his own that are original?

2. Training.

Once upon a time artists in film churned out masterpieces after long quests for the chance to film their screenplays. They went to film schools, directed crappy test movies and learned the craft of film directing and acting the hard way, as they climbed to the top.

Now all you need is a reality show or multiple babies. And you’re  a star.

Thus our generation has so very few actors who can hold a candle to those of days long before, which is why there’s little trans-generational respect anymore. I may have been born in the 1970’s, but I knew who Katherine Hepburn was. I learned about Jimmy Stewart and Lena Horne and Sinatra. We weren’t just living in the now.

With the exception of really geeky kids, no one is respecting old school art in the movies anymore because there’s a new school version to check out instead. 

This is why my three-year old can sing a Men At Work song on cue, but also prefers his teachers to many of the kids in his class who have no idea what he’s talking about half the time. “You’re making it hard for him” says my husband the indie music buff as he plays Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man on YouTube for the baby. Yeah. It’s all me. And Night Ranger.

3. Wonder.

I was very young  in 1977 when Star Wars came out. I left the theater on a cloud I can still remember and have been a Star Wars lover ever since. (How proud was I when my son burst into spontaneous John Williams music yesterday in the toy aisle?) The themes had been on-screen before to be sure. The look hadn’t. It was new, refreshing and incited glee because of those things.

My children, almost 16 and three, have yet to see a movie that grabbed them like this. Because they’ve seen it all on the Disney Channel or Nick Jr long before they go to the movies. This saddens me.

I want my children to have that monumental moment in the theater that burns itself into your memory and stays there as a good one in a world so full of poor memories.

Come on Hollywood. Put out something new and original, family focused and wonderful. We’re waiting for you.