No! Just, No!

If you had a dollar for every time I have ranted about this, you could get yourself a really nice seven course meal! I wish that this didn’t aggravate me so much, but it does! So, please let me rant and you can get on with your regular scrolling….

It is all over the internet and on social media that Liam Neeson will be starring in a Naked Gun “reboot.” Before I go any further, I want to say that I REALLY like Liam Neeson! He is a great actor. I enjoy a lot of his movies and I think he has an amazing voice.

That being said, I continue to get angry and frustrated that Hollywood cannot come up with an original story! WHY? Why do we need a reboot or remake or whatever the heck they want to call it of the Naked Gun? The only answer I can come up with is money. But can’t they come up with an original money making idea?!

I understand that the original creators aren’t even a part of this. Paramount Pictures owns it and they can do whatever they want. I heard that Seth MacFarlane is the guy behind it. I’m not a huge fan of his TV and movie work, so perhaps I am biased. I just see this as being something that will be crap.

If you don’t agree with me, that’s ok. I will offer up my reasoning: Airplane 2. Yep. While there are some funny scenes in it, and has a lot of returning cast (and William Shatner), it lacked the original creators and was a lot less funny.

Another lame argument from me is that Leslie Neilson will ALWAYS be Lt. Frank Drebin! Just like Peter Falk will ALWAYS be Columbo and Raymond Burr will ALWAYS be Perry Mason. Why is the argument lame? James Bond and other big characters have been played by other actors or actresses, however, some people just own the role. I can’t see anyone else playing Archie Bunker or Fred Sanford, for example.

I know that Liam Neeson can do comedy. A good actor can do it. I have seen him do comedy in bit parts in movies, on SNL, and such. He will probably be great, but why reboot an old premise or series? Write him a new police comedy. Come up with something new!

A buddy on Facebook said that the Hollywood sign should be changed to read “Lazywood.” I agree. I feel like the ones that are getting all the talk (Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, etc…) are based on books. Rightfully so! I think there are thousands of great stories in books that are ready to be adapted into a movie. Why isn’t this happening? I don’t know. Maybe the folks in Hollywood can’t read?

I will wrap up by stating once again – STOP WITH THE REMAKES!!!! Please!

October 15 is National Grouch Day

Today just might be my day! According to the National Day Calendar:

National Grouch Day on October 15th sends out notices to all the grouches of the world to be their truest grouch. If you are a grouch, today is your special day. According to Sesame Street Magazine, the day celebrates all grouches and their way of life.

Sometimes grumps give backhanded compliments. “Your house looked horrible until you painted it.” Other times they don’t give them at all. Noise, silence, general activity makes a grouch generally unpleasant.

As per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a grouch is described as:

(1) a person who complains frequently or constantly or (2) a habitually irritable or complaining person

It seems that a grouch may be happy (although they would never admit it) only when others are unhappy and grouchy. It is then that they feel most comfortable with having others share in their grumpy, cantankerous, surly world with them.

I’m sure there are people who feel I am the epitome of a “Grouch.” That may be the case in certain circumstances, however, that isn’t always the case. I started to make a list of Famous Grouches and I don’t think I’m as bad as they are!

Oscar the Grouch is probably the most famous grouch. He’s really kind of disgusting. Living in that trash can surrounded by rotting and smelly stuff would make anyone grouchy. I always loved that he used the term, “Scram!”

The Grinch is an overlooked grouch. Yes, he changed his attitude at the end of the story, but here’s a dude who wants to ruin a major holiday for everyone else just because he hates it. He found joy in making others miserable.

stern looking mature man in victorian costume carrying a cane . Model is wearing a dark suit , top hat, glasses and prosthetic make up , the look created is also similar to a Dickens victorian type character .

Ebenezer Scrooge is much like the Grinch. He has a change of heart and attitude at the end of his story, too. However, he was just a miserable man to be around. His whole disposition was grouchy!

Grumpy the Dwarf from Snow White was just an old Grump. Happy was his opposite. I’m guessing his personality would have been the same whether he was called Grumpy or Grouchy.

Speaking of Grumpy, I suppose you have to include the Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau characters from Grumpy Old Men. It is important to point out that they were happy making each other miserable, so while grumpy, not always grouchy.

Two of my favorite grumpy/grouchy old men could be found each week in the balcony of the Muppet Show. Statler and Waldorf were wonderful hecklers who enjoyed tossing insults at the acts and guest stars and offering up not so pleasant reviews and comments.

This list goes on and on…

Fred Sanford

Archie Bunker

Red Forman

Louie DePalma

I’m sure I and probably missing some obvious grump’s or grouches. Feel free to tell me your favorite.

In the mean time, if you see me in a bad mood today.. it’s totally okay!

I hope this is a trend …

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You would think with a cast that includes Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, James Corden, Rebel Wilson, Judy, Dench, and Ian McKellan, that a movie would at least break even at the box office. Not so! According to many articles on the internet, the movie Cats is a HUGE box office bomb that is on track to lose millions of dollars!

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/cats-track-lose-71-million-universal/

Personally, this makes me happy. I truly hope that these movie remakes continue to fail miserably! I am SO done with the lack of originality in Hollywood! It seems that all producers know how to make these days are remakes of something that has already been made. Why?

Hollywood should be ashamed of the crap that they are producing these days! I have posted this argument before and I will continue to do so, as it is one of my biggest pet peeves! It has become painfully obvious that all they care about is money, and will do whatever it takes to make an over abundance of it with little work at all. There are millions of books available with original stories available on the shelves of libraries around the world, yet Hollywood will take something that is familiar and remake it with little or radicle changes (a female James Bond?!). Originality is non-existent in Hollywood today.

If they are not remaking a classic (and believe me, you can do an internet search right now and there are no less than 30 movies currently being considered that are all remakes), then they are throwing together a big cast of actors to voice an animated feature with little or no story line (a friend of mine on Facebook just went to see that Will Smith spy cartoon and said it was awful. That being said, there have been some very good animated features in the past few years, and in order to get in on the money, many studios are just throwing crap together!).

If a remake or cartoon won’t work, then Hollywood will take a film that had great success and make …. a sequel! Look at the number of sequels some movies have had!! Come on people, wake up! 98% of these sequels are just the SAME STORY with a twist or two. It is getting ridiculous! After the 3rd sequel, even the stars of the film don’t care – they know they are going to get their paycheck no matter what!

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It’s not just on the big screen either! Before Christmas, Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel once again did a live show where they redid an original script from All In The Family and Good Times (they did the Jeffersons last time). I blogged about this before, but I will say again … if this is nothing more than a word by word reproduction of shows with new actors trying to be imitate the actors and actresses associated with these iconic roles, why would I watch it? I would rather see the original. Carroll O’Connor IS Archie Bunker, no matter how good a job Woody Harrelson does! Again – NO ORIGINALITY!

I could write an entire blog on the topic of the content of these 70’s shows, and argue that if it is ok to air this reproduction with a warning about content, then why aren’t the originals running in reruns on a regular basis?! I won’t.

For now, let me just say that I hope that Cat’s loses millions – even billions! I hope that future remakes and crappy sequels do the same! I pray that someone in Hollywood realizes that there are so many great stories that would be perfect for the big screen that have NEVER been made into movies. THOSE are the movies that I want to see! Until then, I will continue to save my hard earned money, watch the originals, and hope that people will stop shelling out money to pad your pockets with money that deserves to go to whoever wrote the original story in the first place!

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