The Remakes, Reboots, Ripoffs, and Re-imaginings of Politics

Actor and comedian Sammy Petrillo passed away over the weekend.  Who is Sammy Petrillo?  Good question.  I wasn’t familiar with him either when I heard the news, but after a few minutes on Al Gore’s Internet I found out a lot.

Sammy was a Bronx born actor and comedian who had some minor success in the 1950s.  He took his physical similarity to Jerry Lewis and ran with it.  He became known as the “fake Jerry Lewis” after creating an onstage and onscreen persona that mimicked Lewis’ shtick.  He even went as far as to hook up with a Dean Martinesque straight man named Duke Mitchell.  The real Jerry Lewis wasn’t amused and even went so far as to intimidate others in Hollywood not to feature Petrillo on their shows and bullied Vegas venues into blackballing his act. 

Most reboots are epic fails.

The point of bringing up Petrillo (besides encouraging you to watch his funny performance in “Bela Lugosi meets the Brooklyn Gorilla” on YouTube) is to illustrate that the “trend” of ripoffs, remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings is nothing new. Take it from me, the guy who shamelessly made “Transmorphers,” remakes and ripoffs are part of Hollywood history.  What is more depressing is the fact that re-imagining and remakes are also part of the political culture.

Our society has a sort of “political amnesia”; forcing us to repeat the same economic and policy mistakes every thirty years or so.  What else is the Obama administration but a “remake” of the Clinton administration (with almost half the original cast!)?  You can almost hear the pitch meeting.  “It’s FDR meets Clinton!  We reboot the franchise.  We forget about the Carter episode just like we pretended that Superman III and IV never happened.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Krugman, palin, Reagan, Remakes, superman
Posted Aug 21st 2009 at 5:03 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 20778690 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lscott/2009/08/21/the-remakes-reboots-ripoffs-and-reimaginings-of-politics/The+Remakes%2C+Reboots%2C+Ripoffs%2C+and+Re-imaginings+of+Politics2009-08-21+12%3A03%3A33Leigh+Scott

Reporting From Comic-Con: Overlap

What does Voltron, Gumby, “Gods of War III” and Bone have in common? Nothing and everything. This is the great cultural collision that occurs at the San Diego Comic-con. I moved into my booth as all of the exhibitors to the world’s most popular cultural event prepares to overwhelm, nay, smother an unsuspecting public when the doors open.

The last ten or so years has seen a deliberate migration of Hollywood into what used to be a convention to celebrate just comics. A general sense of grumbling can be heard from the true comic fans who resent the beautiful rich crowd carpet-bagging onto Will Eisner’s turf. But what many don’t realize is that this has contributed to the mainstreaming of comics into the rest of culture. With entertainment’s money comes stability of the comics medium, a broadening of a market, more books sold, artists, writers, publishers and bookstores able to stay alive a little longer this is good for our tribe. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Comic Books, Comic Con, graphic novels, transformers
Posted Jul 22nd 2009 at 10:28 am in Art, Entertainment, Film | 18942259 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/07/22/reporting-from-comic-con-overlap/Reporting+From+Comic-Con%3A+Overlap2009-07-22+17%3A28%3A19Doug+TenNapel

Rise of the O-Bots

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: freedom fighters, iran, Iranian protesters, man-caused disasters, O-Bots
Posted Jun 28th 2009 at 12:32 pm in Art, Political Humor | 1728903 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cmuir/2009/06/28/rise-of-the-o-bots/Rise+of+the+O-Bots2009-06-28+19%3A32%3A13Chris+Muir

Megan Fox: Another Cowardly Conformist Who Makes Things Worse for Women in Hollywood

Megan Fox recently stated that her solution to a real life evil Transformer invasion would be to negotiate and ask, “instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?”

I also found these quotes from Ms. Fox:

“I don’t want to have to go on talk shows and pull out every single S.A.T. word I’ve ever learned, to prove, like, ‘Take me seriously, I am intelligent, I can speak.’ I don’t want to have to do that. I resent having to prove that I’m not a retard.”

And… (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Transmorphers", Bette Davis, Britain, Fan Boys, fraternities
Posted Jun 10th 2009 at 6:39 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, News, Politics | 1550388 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lscott/2009/06/10/ladies-with-balls-2/Megan+Fox%3A+Another+Cowardly+Conformist+Who+Makes+Things+Worse+for+Women+in+Hollywood2009-06-10+13%3A39%3A54Leigh+Scott

‘Terminator Salvation’ Delivers Action but Little Real Drama

The “Terminator” films are about the takeover of the world by machines, and unfortunately the series has itself manifested that phenomenon, being increasingly taken over by special effects and action sequences at the expense of identifiable human concerns.

Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the apocalyptic action series, is heavy on action and sensational visual effects, but weak on the things that originally made this series so popular. It will please audience members who don’t expect too much from it.

Terminator Salvation is the first in the series without Arnold Schwarzenegger as a primary character, and the series has moved increasingly away from the personal, intimate approach of the first installment (in which the fate of Sarah Connor was at the center of the story and her relationship with Kyle Reese is at the forefront). (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bryce Dallas-Howard, Christian Bale, Gale Ann Hurd, james cameron
Posted May 28th 2009 at 5:10 am in Entertainment, Reviews | 144726No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/05/28/terminator-salvation-delivers-action-but-little-real-drama/%27Terminator+Salvation%27+Delivers+Action+but+Little+Real+Drama2009-05-28+12%3A10%3A10S.T.+Karnick

Conservatives Need to Fire the Marketing Department

I make silly, fun movies.  Stuff you pick up at your local Blockbuster or watch on the Sci-fi Channel.  I’ve always said that most of my films, because of budget limitations, end up being “two star” movies, but with a six pack and some friends, they become exceedingly enjoyable experiences.

One source of endless enjoyment for me and my co-workers is watching how the various buyers (DVD, television, and international) market the films.  The trailers, posters, and commercials  are wildly different depending on who the intended audience is.  As an example, in the U.S. my latest film is called “Chrome Angels.” It’s a sci-fi/action/comedy about a female biker gang that runs into a town populated by evil cyborgs. At the Cannes Film Market, the distributor is calling it “Cyborg Conquest.”  The trailer and poster don’t even reference female bikers, motorcycles, or comedy.  They, instead, are selling it as a serious action film centered on CGI cyborgs that don’t actually appear in the film. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: david frum, megan fox, meghan mccain, shia labeouf, the shinning
Posted May 6th 2009 at 1:18 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 12740218 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lscott/2009/05/06/conservatives-need-to-fire-the-marketing-department/Conservatives+Need+to+Fire+the+Marketing+Department2009-05-06+20%3A18%3A43Leigh+Scott

Review: Fast & Furious

“The Fast and the Furious” came out of nowhere in 2001 to make a ton of money, spawn a franchise and I’d say for about two years afterwards I practically wore out the DVD. That little street-racing melodrama aimed for a target and squarely hit the bull’s-eye. It is everything it wanted to be; a perfect genre grinder.  Predictably abysmal sequels soon followed: “2 Fast 2 Furious” (2003), weighed down with director John Singleton’s smug approach to racial issues and over- the-top CGI, couldn’t even deliver the racing thrills, and 2006’s “Tokyo Drift” (2006) took the muscle out of “muscle car” with a miscast Lucas Black, an otherwise solid actor, in the lead.

Hoping to reboot, the new “Fast & Furious” reunites the four main players from the original and is so stripped down and back to basics the title refuses to make room for even a “the” or an “and.” Within thirty minutes the story credibly and effortlessly reunites the cast (hat tip to the screenwriters for that) and a simple revenge plot is set up to allow for at least five major racing sequences, a couple of which are alone worth the price of admission. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Fast & Furious", Bourne series, cloverfield, john singleton, lucas black
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 at 5:34 pm in Reviews | 9703420 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/04/03/review-fast-furious/Review%3A+Fast+%26amp%3B+Furious2009-04-04+00%3A34%3A11John+Nolte

What Recession? Biggest President’s Day Weekend in Hollywood History as FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH scares up $19.3M Friday and has a stab at $47M for 4 Days!

Although America is suffering through its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, there is no recession in the movie business. Led by the Warner Bros reboot of Friday the Thirteenth and a couple of surprisingly strong chick flicks, Hollywood’s top twelve grossing movies may grab a combined $201.5M over the long President’s Day weekend holiday, which marks an all-time best for the annual 4-day movie-going bonanza.

TOP GROSSING PRESIDENT’S WEEKENDS FOR HOLLYWOOD
- combined gross of top 12 films -
1. 2009 – $201.5M (estimated)
2. 2007 – $167.8M
3. 2008 – $141.1M
4. 2003 – $141M
5. 2005 – $137.1M

Director Marcus Nispel (2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) and the Platinum Dunes production company have gotten the all-new Friday the Thirteenth off to a spectacular $19.3M opening day. That could translate to a well-above-expectations $47M by Tuesday morning. The new Jason restart quickly follows the Platinum Dunes success of The Unborn, released on January 9 to a $19.8M 3-day take. That David D. Goyer written and directed genre pic was made for just $16M, and The Unborn has generated an estimated $42M in the US.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 3-d, a.r. rahman, academy awards, adam sandler, box office
Posted Feb 13th 2009 at 11:02 pm in Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 506709 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/13/estimates-5/What+Recession%3F+Biggest+President%E2%80%99s+Day+Weekend+in+Hollywood+History+as+FRIDAY+THE+THIRTEENTH+scares+up+%2419.3M+Friday+and+has+a+stab+at+%2447M+for+4+Days%212009-02-14+07%3A02%3A02Steve+Mason