Whatever Happened to Originality?

Today, yet another classic television show from years gone by opens in theaters as the latest summer movie blockbuster.

The A-Team movie opening today is a remake of the 1980’s action television show of the same name. Also this summer, MacGruber, a Saturday Night Live movie spoofing the MacGyver action show from the same decade has already begun.

Remaking classic television shows is nothing new for Hollywood – past summer movie seasons have opened with remakes of Charlie’s Angels, Miami Vice, Starsky & Hutch and The Dukes of Hazard.

But enough already!

Although some of these remakes aren’t bad – the first Charlie’s Angels movie was very well done, and the remake of Starsky & Hutch was so close to the original series, it felt like I was at home watching an old re-run on TV – leave the past in the past.

When I go to the movies, I want to get lost in a completely new world, with characters I’ve never met before, dealing with situations or subject matter which is new and different.

If I wanted to watch a classic television show, I’d just buy the DVD/Blueray – in many cases those even come with NEW material of their own, such as never before released outtakes, cast and crew commentaries, actor and character bios, behind the scenes footage and more.

SO, if the old original television shows can come up with new material, how come Hollywood’s biggest and brightest movie-types can’t?

Whatever happened to originality?

Is it really true that everything that will be thought of, already has been?

Truth is, although watching a remake of an old television show brings back warm and fuzzy memories, something completely different would have caught my eye more.

And this summer, the movies are anything but original.

Aside from remade television shows of the A-Team and MacGyver, this summer’s list of movies are based on plots, storylines and characters we’ve already seen before.

Morning Glory – due out in July – is the story behind the lives of a television cast and crew trying to put together a morning news and entertainment show each day. Sounds a lot like 1987’s Broadcast News, which is still recommended viewing by any broadcast journalist students today.

Killers which opens this month is about an undercover assassin that gets married and soon discover each others hidden lives. Remember Mr. And Mrs. Smith anyone?

And although vampire movies are cult classics, most follow the same storyline, and share the same commonalities of the living undead. So this month’s opening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, has undertones of The Lost Boys, Interview with a Vampire and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Again I ask – whatever happened to originality?

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Sarah Palin’s Well Managed Book Tour Misses Key Cities

You just knew it was coming – despite her botched attempt to become vice-president of the United States of America, Sarah Palin has written a book.

As with many political scribblings, a managed book tour is the norm. But with Palin, the book tour is being more controlled than managed, as her handlers aren’t sending her to cities and towns where she’ll probably cause more hairs on the backs of people’s necks to rise, than books to be sold.

Image via Wikipedia

And that means she’ll be skipping over some of the biggest cities in the States – usually the ones key to the success of a new book.

The former Alaskan governor will NOT take her book tour to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. Instead, if you want to catch up on how her teenage daughter is doing as a new mom, challenge her on her stance on American values, or just grab her autograph, you’ll have to go to places which welcome her often backwards thinking type of politics.

Fort Wayne, Indiana, Washington, Pennsylvania, Roanoke, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida are just some of the smaller, and more conservative areas where Palin’s pen will be scrawling her name into covers of her book.

Although the book’s publisher says more cities may be added to the tour, don’t count on any place that may cause Palin to defend her views.

This book tour is being very controlled, partly because of Palin’s own outspokenness, and partly because her views aren’t always immediately accepted.
After all, no one wants their star author being yelled at, cursed, or even being spoofed. Though Palin has already been spoofed many times on Saturday Night Live. It would be quite different if a wild New Yorker not agreeing with her conservative views got into a shouting match during a book signing.

That’s why her publishers aren’t taking any chances and limiting her book tour to cities and towns which will be more accepting of Palin’s old fashioned – some would say dated – conservative family values.

One such view which bit her bottom during the election, was about abstinence instead of sex education for teenagers. She boasted about the benefits of telling kids that it is better to wait for the Mister or Miss Right, rather than teaching teens how to protect themselves from Sexually Transmitted Diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Then, during the later-half of the campaign, she ann

Image via Wikipedia

ounced to the world that her young, teenage daughter was pregnant.

She had even gone so far as to ban condom vending machines from public high schools in Alaska, when she was governor. Maybe if her daughter Bristol had used one of these banned devices, she wouldn’t have made a spectacle out of the ex-governor from America’s northernmost state.

They even orchestrated a very shot-gun-type of wedding between Palin’s daughter, and the young man who would be the father of the kid’s kid. Though a few months later, the wedding was called off, and both teens went their separate ways.

Though Sarah Palin was pretty good at making a scene all on her own – she didn’t need her family for that.

Palin’s book tour ironically kicks off in Michigan, where she publicly disagreed with her presidential running-mate, John McCain on pulling resources out of that state, which earned her the dubious title of the “Rogue” candidate.

Most recently, she’s been promoting her credentials – and possibly looking for work – by creating her own online profile on the social networking site LinkedIn, which is geared for professional development and job hunting.

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