Hi Jeff,
Nice to hear from you ....
You're right - what were they thinking?? ... Just by slapping on a famous and successful TV name to an almost completely unrelated movie, are the studios thinking this will make the movie more appealing, more of a draw?? Playing the "Name-recognition" game works only so far .... and it defeats any gains, if it results in getting the devoted followers of the old TV series far more angry than disappointed. And as Mona said, lands the movie right into the 50¢ DVD bin at the video store. "Wild, Wild West" and "Miami Vice" are only two of the candidates on the long list of
"What Were They Thinking?" out there in Hollywoodland.
I think "The Avengers" re-make ranks up there with your choices, Jeff. Even the talents of Sean Connery, Uma Thurman, and Ralph Fiennes couldn't save this one. It was plain bad.
The 2 "Get Smart" movies WITH Don Adams in them were not great, either ... so having the original star in re-makes doesn't always help.
Made for TV Movie re-makes of series just don't seem to fare that well. The best things you say about "I SPY Returns" and "The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E." - were that they gave you a chance to see the original characters and actors re-united one more time!! So all was rather forgiven in those circumstances and problems totally (though grudgingly - oh that dreadful synthezied music) overlooked, just to be able to see these guys together again!
(And being on the FORUM, we've had the opportunity of hear some unique insights into what the problems and circumstances were facing the production team putting together "I SPY Returns.")
Though the well done, block-buster "Mission:Impossible" movies had little to with the TV series except for their name - what they did to the Peter Graves/Jim Phelps character (Jon Voight) in the 1st movie was truly unforgivable.
On the other hand, there have been some notable successes -"Star Trek," "The Untouchables," and "The Addams Family" were all very good - and Harrison Ford's "Fugitive" gets high marks also, though it lacked the real flavor of David Janssen's weekly run from discovery ....
The movie "Maverick" worked so well only because of James Garner's charming part in it ... and it was actually more of a sequel to the TV series than a re-make for me.
I didn't see "Charlie's Angels, and didn't watch the series much, so I don't know how that fared in Movie Re-make-land? "Dragnet" with Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks was a fun movie, but again was pretty removed from all of the dead-panned uniqueness and flavor of the original TV series.
And according to an article I recently read you may need to get your large-sized bottle of Pepto-Bismol ready - because these series are up next for a movie version treatment:
24
The A-Team
Baywatch
Dallas
I Dream of Jeannie
Knight Rider
More comments and opinions out there???
As always,
Tatia
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