Alternate Suggestions for the Ridiculous Remake Announcements This Week

Even by today's standards, it's been a pretty strange week for remake announcements. Sandwiched in between seminal films in both the buddy cop and Sam Peckinpah genres, we've also got remakes of two classic musicals with Jay Z and Willow Smith attached to one and Beyonce and Clint Eastwood to the other. Not to mention Westworld! Actually, go ahead and remake Westworld. That's fine. Anyway, in celebration of Friday, let's step once more into a Hollywood fantasyland where content and quality are priority number one (or at least not so low on the list), and look at alternatives to several of these high profile remakes.

The Remake: Sam Peckinpah's untouchable Western Classic, The Wild Bunch.

The Alternative: Convoy

The Logic: Sam Peckinpah's uneven, late-career film about a sheriff antagonizing a group of truck drivers isn't as bad as some reviews suggest. But unlike The Wild Bunch it's not, you know, already almost perfect. Besides, the truck driver sub-genre is just as neglected as Westerns these days!

The Remake: Lethal Weapon.

The Alternative: Amos and Andrew

The Logic: I don't really understand the logic of remaking Lethal Weapon since pretty much every film in the buddy cop sub-genre could already substitute as a remake. Oh right, the name recognition and inevitable built-in interest of the title. But back to fantasyland! Let's give the E. Max Frye's satirical flop another go! It can still feature guns and witty banter about race relations, plus after that wrongful arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr, the plotline is more culturally relevant than ever!

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