Fads and trends part 1

I just saw the most appalling news today. For those who know me, I used to be very enthusiastic about films and the movie industry, being quite up-to-date with the upcoming releases. However I was very surprised and shocked to hear "Fame", one of the most iconic films of all time, had been remade and will be out for release soon.

Some part inside of me wept loudly because it died. Over the summer I saw the remake of "The Taking of Pelham 123", another classic movie, released with big names headlining the thriller. The remake of classics has just proven two things to me.

Firstly Hollywood has finally run out of ideas and are just remaking old films. There was once a rumour, which was featured in "The Island", that there are only thirteen real stories with different variations being made by the studios in Hollywood. I don't think that is true. In the 1970s, Hollywood was making original stuff like Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Nowadays nearly every movie is linked to a true story, a book or some other form of media. It is obvious each film must have some angle so people are enticed to come and see it. I initially thought "Wanted" was an original film, only to find out it was adapted from a graphic novel/comic leaving me very disappointed. There are enough good ideas and writers out there to make original films. Hollywood, just give these ideas and writers a chance.

Secondly the current youth are just far too lazy to watch something "old", no matter how good it is. I seriously challenge anybody to go out and watch the original "Fame" or "The Taking of Pelham 123". Those are very good films which don't need to be remade. The youth of today just want to see anything that is new and trendy, rather than go back to the classics. I hate it when people don't watch movies or listen to music just because it is old. I still listen to the vast majority of my music, even if it is more than ten years old like Blur or The Beatles. The quality of the music hasn't deteriorated, so what is the problem?

Please Hollywood, whatever your do please don't remake anymore classics. If they start to remake movie such as "The Godfather" or "Apocalypse Now", I think I'm going to the mountains to live as a hermit.

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Speaking about being new and trendy, quite a number of people I know own iPhones. I always wondered whether they bought an iPhone because it is a good device, has great functions and applications, or just because everybody else has bought one. I know a friend's sister only bought the new iPhone 3GS just because "it has a white back cover". Don't people know there are other phone/PDA hybrids out there, like the HTC or the new Google phone?

There are other trends and fads out there which I don't understand. People have to understand there are other options out there and they don't need to be like sheep, following the crowd. Please don't buy something or follow something just because everybody else does. I always use this analogy whenever somebody says, "everybody else is doing it" - if everybody was throwing themselves off the tallest building, would you too?

Next time I will write about what fads and trends I hate, except for the iPhone trend which I just mentioned. This ranges from cars to football teams.