Saturday 14 July 2012

Stay out of trouble!

That was Robocop's standard advice to the public; and with news of a remake (yes, yet another remake!) currently in the pipeline it could be interesting to take a quick peek at it.

The cast includes big names such as Gary Oldman and Samuel L Jackson, along with our own 'House' export to Hollywood, Hugh Laurie, while Murphy/Robocop is being played by an unknown to me: Joel Kinnaman.

As usual with these things, I cannot as yet see the point in re-working something that worked so well (if somewhat violently) in its first incarnation – but shall reserve judgement until it's released. Most but not all 're-imaginings' (as they are often termed these days) have been relatively poor, and the originals have usually worked better.

Sometimes the new version stands on its own as merely a different take on the same theme, without either invalidating or being overshadowed by the original work. The newer Battlestar Galactica series, flawed though it was, is one such. The new V series is also very good, despite some variable-quality scripting and acting,  and can co-exist with the original – which has been shown again only this month on one of the Cable/satellite channels.

In the current case, there are several memorable aspects of the original that will no doubt be impossible to substitute, let alone replicate, including the top-notch performances from the likes of Miguel Ferrer and Ronny Cox, and certainly the outstanding performance of Kurtwood Smith as Clive Bonniker. That's out of reach, I'd suggest...

2 comments:

  1. "As usual with these things, I cannot as yet see the point in re-working something that worked so well..."

    And so quickly after the original!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Relatively, yes, especially as there have been sequels, a TV series and a mini-series since the original film.

      However, the real question has to be: what is to be gained by re-doing on old story? Flashier effects? That seems to be the main driver behind a lot of re-makes during the past decade or so, though not all, thankfully...

      Delete

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