Featured image: (Pacer Story by Brandon Mochrie/Pacer Graphic by Sophia Phillips)
It’s hard to know what makes a movie good. Is it just the plot or the actors? What about the nostalgia we get when we remember when the movie was first made? All of these are acceptable answers.
The consensus that everyone gets to is that each piece of media is unique in its own way. Although, just because some songs, like Christmas songs, are covered many times, that doesn’t mean every version is good.
Movies are a little more unique and harder to nail down than songs. While a cover of a song will mostly have the same lyrics and musical characteristics, movies have too many moving parts to make direct replicas possible. Sometimes a movie is remade and is done really well; most of the time, however, that is not the case.
Going back to 1989, we have “Roadhouse”, an action movie that starred the timeless Patrick Swayze as he fights people and blows stuff up. The incredible execution of this seemingly simple concept made the movie the classic it is today. In 2024, a remake of the same film that starred Jake Gyllenhaal and UFC fighter Conor McGregor was released. It had very different characteristics from the original.
This is just one example of why remakes often don’t work. Every couple months brings a remake no one asked for. This is especially true for animated films and their live-action remakes. Films such as “Lilo and Stitch” or “How to Train Your Dragon” are good examples of this. These are two classic animated movies being remade with a completely different style. These films are staple pieces in movie history, in large part due to their animation. The remakes of these films, however, don’t capture that same essence that their original works do.
If no one likes them, why are movie remakes made? The simple answer is that Hollywood likes money. The films being remade all typically did very well at the box office the first time. One could argue that remaking movies and re-releasing them in theaters helps bring these movie classics to new generations. While it’s important that all generations get to see a Mr. Miyagi and the life lessons he brings, the performance of the original Pat Morita in the first “Karate Kid” from the 1984 version blows away the 2010 version starring Jackie Chan in the iconic role.
Take other classic films for example. No one would think to remake a film like “Pulp Fiction” or “Casablanca.” These films are cornerstones of the movie world and will forever be such. The bottom line is that most people don’t care for when movies, that we already know and love, get re-released in a lazy, cash grab attempt from these big studios.
In the end, it is important to look at what made the movie so good that it just had to be remade. It is often the spectacular casting that leaves such memorable impressions. Disney is especially guilty when it comes to lacking new and original ideas, preferring to make live-action remakes of the films that have already brought them great financial success. With movie streaming as big as it’s ever been, there’s no need to remake the movies we already love.
