Monday, June 11, 2007

Has Hollywood run out of ideas?

I was just looking at the list of movies at my local theater. Half of the titles showing right now are sequels: For starter's, there's Ocean's Thirteen, following Ocean's Twelve(2004), and Ocean's Eleven (2001), which was itself a unnecessary and inferior remake of the 1960's Ocean's Eleven, starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the rest of the Rat Pack. Then there's the third installment of Pirates of the Caribean, Shrek the Third, Hostel-Part II, and Spiderman 3. Hollywood is so lacking in creativity that sequels rule the box office.

Then there is the growing number of movies that are based on old television shows. Here's just a partial list:

The A-Team (scheduled for 2008 release)
The Addams Family
The Avengers
Batman (so many sequels I have lost count)
The Beverly Hillbillies
Bewitched
The Brady Bunch
Charlie's Angels
Dallas (announced)
Dragnet
The Dukes of Hazzard
The Flintstones
The Fugitive
George of the Jungle
Get Smart
Gilligan's Island
I Dream Of Jeannie (scheduled for 2008 release)
Inspector Gadget
I Spy
The Jetsons Movie (Live action) (Possible 2009 release]
Leave it to Beaver
Lizzie McGuire
Lost in Space
Maverick
McHale's Navy
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible
The Mod Squad
The Monkees
The Munsters
Mr. Bean
Mr. Magoo
My Favorite Martian
Popeye - live action movie based on the cartoon and comics.
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Scooby-Doo
Star Trek
Starsky & Hutch
The Twilight Zone
The Untouchables
The Wild Wild West

A longer list can be found here.

It is one thing to make a popular show into a feature length film. But Hollywood has clearly gone trolling through the history of television, looking for any old show they think people will pay to see made into a movie. Why? They've run out of ideas! Can the end of civilization be far behind?

Judging from the quality of some of these movies, it has already arrived.

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