Remakes are easy. Money-makers are hard. We live in a sloshing sea of those movie remakes but it's rare for one of them to out gross the original. An exception, oddly enough, was the remake of "Clash of the Titans," which significantly outperformed its 80s predecessor.
One of the current remakes,"About Last Night,"continues a trend of transfusing a black cast into an older white vehicle. There's something heartening about that even if the movies aren't always so good.
The subtext is an American black middle class that's gelling enough to feel entitled to its own version of "The Bishop's Wife."
The new "Robocop" movie won't do as well as the original and apparently isn't anywhere near as good, but there's a method behind that particular madness as well.
GUESTS:
- David Edelstein is the film critic for New York Magazine and for NPR’s Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning.
- Linda Holmes is a writer at NPR’s culture blog,MonkeeSee, and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour.
- Sam Hatch is a culture correspondent, the “movie guy” for WWUH’sCulture Dogs and the Damon Scott Show on WTIC
