More Rehashed Movies to Come!

Movies. Most people love them right? Well of late, I have become rather disenfranchised with Hollywood. Why? There is nothing original under the sun (heh, sorry could not resist). Seriously, though, they are releasing more crap-rehashed movies than ever before!

Now I have heard the age-old adage that there are no new stories, they are only six plot variations for any actual story, but that is not what I am talking about. Hollywood is just dumping rehashed and remade movies for us to consume… and you know what?

It works.

They no longer have to take risks on some new IP material new directions in story telling you have the same old movies being remade after an appropriate cooling down period.

They sell at the box office enough for them to post a profit and continue. The only problem is I do not want to see that shit. My in theater viewing experience has dropped from one a week to about one every six months or so. If I watch a movie it is when it hits the streets on normal television or the odd pay-per-view, I rarely even rent DVDs anymore. It is not because I do not like or enjoy movies, there is just such schlock being released it is not worth my time.

Here is quick list example list of movies for this year and next year and I am sure if I took the time I could flesh out a nice and robust listing too, keep in mind this is just what I can think of off hand and pluck from a page or two on Google.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
War of the Worlds
King Kong
Don’t Look Now
The Pink Panther (2006)

Then there are plenty that have already been remade in the past couple years

The Ring
Ransom
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Manchurian Candidate
Dr. Zhivago

Now when it is not a remake of an already good classic movie, then it is a sequeldom of a moderately successful new IP plot.

Blade 1, 2, and 3 (Okay, based on a huge plethora of stories from the comic book, a bad example perhaps.)
The Santa Clause (1, 2, and soon to be 3)
Austin Powers 1, 2, 3
Stuart Little 1 and 2

What is the moral of this little rant? Well just this… Hollywood, if you want a shot at my money do not create another meaningless sequel, do not remake something already made, and if you need ideas for some good and fresh IP (intellectual property – The modern term for stories and ideas) to bring to the big screen, by all means give me a call and my agent will get back to you.

Tom's Hardware Guide Business Reports: Dual Core And The Future of Gaming - Introduction

Tom's Hardware Guide Business Reports: Dual Core And The Future of Gaming - Introduction

I previously blogged about an interview GameDailyBiz had with Mark Rein about next generation consoles, rising development costs and more. Tom’s Hardware guide recently posted an article which explores some of those concepts as well.

There is no clear direction or guidance provided by either articles and leave more questions than answers, but you can start to see some of the trends in gaming industry and what is more interesting the clear technological advances already present and those just around the corner.

This holiday weekend (BTW: Hope you had a good Fourth of July!) G4’s show Icons highlighted the history of Star Wars games starting back with the Atari 2600. I always knew there were many Star Wars games, but I had failed to realize how many they were and how well these products can also parallel the technical advances of the gaming industry in terms of platforms on both the consoles and the PC. If you have an interest in looking at the advances in game play and of the Star Wars gaming universe this may well be worth catching a replay.