Dear Hollywood, STOP!

I am a fan of movies, but recently I’ve found a shortage of high-quality films coming out of Hollywood (i.e. The Spirit, Yes Man, any Saw movie, any movie made by the Wayans family, etc.). The creativity level in Hollywood has gone from interesting to redundant and back to completely wack! I for one am also a huge fan of marketing, because with the increase of pirated films, studios need  some kind of reassurance that they will get their investment back and more (hence anything made by George Lu(suck)cas) But something has to change….

Recently, the Hollywood trend has been to create any type of comic book movie possible. We can take the Marvel and DC franchises as an example, but let’s look deeper. It seems that Hollywood has begun to take on lesser known comics in an effort to reach out to a market that is beginning to become less interested in crappy interpretations of their beloved heroes. The Spirit, another Sin City, another 300, another Wanted flick, Watchmen (I am looking forward to this one) and I bet a thousand other comics (graphic novels) are on their way to the big screen. Now, I am not saying this is bad. Heck, take the Dark Knight! It was superb, fantastic and probably the best drama of the year! But then.. look at The Spirit…..or not. I wouldn’t recommend watching that drunk, high and blind! My point is, that I am beginning to get worried that the quality of superhero films will begin to deteriorate. I do not want the next Batman to become “Nipple-man” like ages ago.

Another point is that the well-known comics already have movies so the studios have to look lesser-known heroes to make buck. There are talks in place for an upcoming Dr. Strange movie… really? Do we really need a Dr. Strange movie?? I am extremely worried about the upcoming Wolverine flick mostly because the script was crafted during the writers’ strike last year and only God knows how that has been manipulated. I think Hollywood has finally learned how to make these films right, they just need to be more selective in what films are being produced.

My last piece of this rant is that remakes need to stop! NOW! In the coming months we will see a remake of The Crow, The Wolfman, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Romancing the Stone, a possible Back to the Future remake and finally The Karate Kid! I don’t know what to say. I am completely speechless! Half of these films were only released a decade or so ago! Isn’t there a time limit to when these films can be remade? To make matters worse, the (new) Karate Kid will be Will Smith’s son and it looks like Jackie Chan will be taking on the role of Mr. Miyagi! As exciting as that sounds, I don’t think anyone can deliver the line “wax on, wax off” as magnificently as the original actor.

In ending, wake the f***k up Hollywood and grow a pair! As much as I enjoy the occassional remake and the relatively unknown comic-book hero movie, I would like to see some originality and creatively spewing from what is considered the best minds in movie-making (ah-ha! Take that Bollywood!). If there is one film I am desperately looking forward to seeing it’s this one: Franklyn. Check it out!