Two More Unfortunate Remakes

Sadly, two more enjoyable films are recieving the remake treatment. It has become all to common for quite some time now, to pick old properties that were remotely popular or made a good chunk of change and reboot or remake them for a new generation to enjoy. Most of these films have been terrible, a couple have been fun or even comparable to the original film. More than not though remakes have simply frustrated us. Today's news is no different....THR is reporting that both The NeverEnding Story (1984) and Total Recall (1990) are the next to fall victim to the remake syndrome.

I can't say that I am shocked, all too many of my favorite movies growing up have already fallen victim, but I am definately outraged! One of the coolest films of my childhood, next to E.T. or Star Wars was The NeverEnding Story. What kid growing up didn't want to find that book? The film is in it's truest sense a classic and should be enjoyed regardless of it's age. Sure, if you watch it now, it looks old. The animatronic wolf, the huge turtle, Teeny Weeny who rode the superfast snail and the rock guy who looked like styrofoam. Who can forget falkor? The huge flying dog! I know I dreamed of flying on him all the time as a kid. It is sad to think that all of those awesome creations will be replaced with a computer generated characters.

Total Recall definately does not hold anywhere near the place in my heart that The NeverEnding Story does, but it was a kick-ass film that is still highly enjoyable to watch today. The idea that a $261 million dollar blockbuster Arnold Schwarzenegger film is being made is a bit of a head scratcher. It is 19 years old now and technology could definately amp up the look, but without Arnold, the film is just another generic scifi film. Columbia Pictures along with Neal H. Moritz and his Original Films banner believe, "the advancements in technology and state-of-the-art visual effects can help tell the "Recall" story in a fresh way." Of course they do....while else remake such a already great film. All I know is they had better keep the three breasted hooker!

Both of these remakes can just be added to the growing list of classic films that will one day be forgotten by our future generations. Movies like The Karate Kid, Rosemary's Baby, Grease, War Games, Child's Play, The Omen, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, RoboCop, Footloose, Poltergeist, Adventures in Babysitting, Pet Sematary, Spies Like Us and Romancing the Stone. I can just see kids asking, "whose Ralph Maccio, didn't Will Smith's son play the Karate Kid?" or "who the hell is Kevin Bacon, Zack Efron is in Footloose!" or even worse, "whose Matthew Broderick?"

What say you? Do either of these films need remakes? Should the original stand the test of time? What is the next favorite film to fall under into the remake machine? Strikeback....