http://dimewars.com/Blog/Willow-Smith-Negotiating-Annie-Remake-.aspx?BlogID=40eaf39e-1fe8-45f9-9831-9d53a6a00373

No. I'm already sick of her. She looks just like her nepotistic moron father.

joshwoodzy wrote:

What, was Annie really close to your heart or something? Why would this bother anyone? It's like the definition of easy to ignore.

Actually, it kind of was; it was one of the movies that my sitter would put on when my mother was getting electroshock treatments. More importantly, instead of giving a young and upcoming actress who tries out for the role, it's going to simply be gifted to Will Smith's daughter, much like The Kung-Fu Kid was to his son. It's bad enough they have to re-hash a decent movie from the past, but the fact that Will Smith is involved just makes the rape of a childhood favorite that much more painful, like he's holding my face and making me watch the most degrading parts.

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

Oh they are forcing you to watch it. Those evil smiths.Are they also Burning all tapes of the original?

That's not the point. My ethos is if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it, especially when you're liable to make it worse in the process.

Apparently just me, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith and his kids. I'll try to remember not to have a diverging opinion in the future.

It's difficult not to, to be honest, and it's not a matter of my sensitivity or being overly critical or anything of the sort. More than anything, it's just, hmm, let's say really, really disheartening to see Hollywood take a decent property and turn it into drek, especially as a pet project of a(IMHO) grossly overpaid and equally overrated actor attempting to turn his spawn into another generation of Hollywood elites. I guess most of my dissatisfaction stems from my love of the older movies, especially the ones from the 30's-40's era, where actors/actresses had to be multifunctional; they had to be (decent, unlike any of the Smith clan) singers, actors, dancers and performers.

And GP, not to pick nits, but fiscal success doesn't really have anything to do with this. A lot of people, especially Americans, it seems, will buy any turd if you polish it pretty enough.

joshwoodzy wrote:

Well it's obvious you don't give a shit if the movie is decent or not, you just don't like Will Smith or his family. That is fair I suppose.

Not entirely true. If a new Annie movie were to come out, I'd want it to be good. What I thought my last post illustrated is that I don't believe that's possible with the Smiths' being involved. It'd be the same if they announced a remake of, say, Dark Passage starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit. If you're going to re-do something, do it justice and make it as good as or better than the original.

I'll make you a deal, Klimb. I'll put my preconceptions to the side, and if it materializes into an actual film, I'll swallow my pride and go see it opening night. If it measures up or exceeds the original, I'll write a glowing review on it and post it on the site. If not, I'll feel vindicated and try not to give a big "I told you so" as best as my willpower can muster. Sound fair?

So basically, that's an oblique way to say, "Stop talking about it", right? Fine.

Edit: And this isn't aimed at Klimb or anything (because you're an alright guy, even if we don't see eye to eye) but if I get off on a crazy tangent, somebody sac up and just tell me to STFU about it instead of telling me why I shouldn't care either way. I'm going to go queue Annie up on Netflix now.

Yeah, I realized that, hence my mellowing last post. I've been in a lot of pain from a bad fall lately, and the whole quitting smoking thing still has me a bit more curmudgeonly than I am usually. I don't know, though, when I see a crappy remake, for me at least, it really does tarnish the originals, because I'm constantly thinking about how bad the remake was in contrast to how good the original was. Either way, I'm settling into my Vicodin now, so I'll probably chill a bit more.

Edit: Since someone asked, I fell over the railing midway up my steps to my condo. I'd been trying to coax my shithead cat down off of one of the built-in rainspouts and the leg wobbled. It was only like seven or eight feet, but I landed on my back. The cat eventually jumped down, the little prick.