On Saturday night I went with The Girlfriend© to see Back to the Future in Concert at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. She purchased the tickets as a birthday present for me because she knows that (spoiler alert) Back to the Future is one of my favourite movies.
To see it for the first time on the big screen along with a couple of thousand other fans was certainly a great moment for me, and one I won’t forget. I was a little disappointed that nobody was dressed up as Doc Brown, or sporting a red life preserver like Marty McFly, but I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity, so I sat down with my nerdy movie-specific tee shirt.
Having said that I was initially apprehensive about how it was going to work – about how the orchestral score was going to be integrated into what was happening on screen – but The Royal Scottish National Orchestra performed the music with gusto and did not let me or the legacy of the movie down. They were absolutely flawless. For a lot of the running time I actually forgot those few dozen people with the instruments were even there, and it was only when they began playing again that I remembered. The orchestra just became a part of the whole experience… and I guess that’s the point.
As a new twist on an old experience, this is hard to beat, and one that I heartily recommend to new and old fans. I don’t think anyone should see Back to the Future for the first time in this manner though, just because it is something a little different. It’s like watching the bonus features on a DVD, or seeing the movie from another angle.
But then again, if you haven’t seen Back to the Future yet, what the hell are you waiting for?
The release this week of Pet Sematary is just the latest example of the lack of creativity in Hollywood today. Admittedly, it’s been getting great reviews, and the original was an average movie at best, but I don’t think there were many people screaming for it to be revisited in the first place. Well, perhaps Stephen King was on board with it, but he’s certainly not averse to the odd retake anyway.
I guess, if we must see things a second time, the very least a filmmaker can do is polish up something that wasn’t very good in the first place. The object of the exercise should be to improve upon the source material. If it isn’t, why are you wasting everyone’s time?
Of course, there are some examples where the revision is better than the first try (Scarface, The Thing, The Fly), but for every smile there’s a frown. Does anyone think Jude Law’s version of Alfie is superior to Michael Caine’s effort? Or that the Poltergeist from 2015 is greater than the classic 1982 movie it’s based on? Hell, I didn’t even know that was a thing until recently.
So, with all the remakes, reboots and reimaginings that have done the rounds over the last few years, here are ten properties (not exhaustive, by any means) that I never want to see redone, because I do not believe it is possible for them to be bettered:
-- Purveyor of Imagination -- 