Thanks to the guys over at /Film for hipping me to this game, 'Short Circuit' is due now to get a remake and the director of 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' will be at the helm.
There's your headline, now without getting into how bad Blart actually was despite it's box office gross let's talk about WHY 'Short Circuit' is the poster child for why some movies shouldn't be remade. First and foremost it's a generational movie, the 80's were a time when technology as we know it now was in it's infancy and one could believe that a robot could be built, struck by lighting, and then become "alive". Could anyone believe this in the age of blackberrys and IMac's with more computing power than Johnny 5 had? NO. Simply NO. Ok, they'll update the story, you say. Well, then I say this movie loses ever single bit of charm that it had to begin with...you'll end up with 'I, Robot' sans Will Smith and with friendlier bots. The 80's were an amazing time for cinema, from the rudimentary sfx to the almost innocent way in which things were portrayed...the 80's were for us what the 50's and 60's were for our parents and Johnny number 5 was an icon of that time. Take a movie like 'Commando' and remake it, take something timeless and update it to make it better, don't take something that belongs in another time and strip it of all that makes it good just to bank on a name.
Problem #2: Unless they are going to revive Stevie Guttenbergs career with this movie you are not gonna get a cast like you had before. Say what you want about 'The Goot' but the guy made movies awesome who's gonna fill that role this time and what about Fisher Stevens? Seth Rogen and Kal Penn?? Please, PLEASE NO DISASSEMBLE NUMBER 5!!
