To Make or to Remake - That is the question?

It is unfortunate that most movie makers feel the need to remake classics of yesteryears. Surely there are some movies that needs to be redone, some that simply should not be touched. Freedom of artistic expression is very much a valid point, but there should be some sense that must prevail when it comes down to this.
Strangely two classics have been remade and coincidentally released on the same weekend.
The first happens to be from the Indian Film industry. To be, undoubtedly the greatest entertainer of Hindi cinema, SHOLAY that brought out characters and dialogues which even todays kids imitate, has gone into the hands of Ram Gopal Varma. The man too is undoubtedly one of India's finest. However with his latest RAM GOPAL VERMA KI AAG, he has churned up one major disappointment. He made a boring mockery out of one of the best entertainers.
Similarly a classic in the Hollywood horror genre is HALLOWEEN. Fans of this genre knows what it means to be afraid of Michael Myers. However musician turned director Rob Zombie who has carved a name for himself in the horror genre lately, has decided that he too needs to take on bigger deals. And so he decided to redo a classic like Halloween. And as many feared, he too ends up making a disappointing version that seems to be pale even when compared to the numerous sequels that the original spawned.
Interesting to note is that both originals, unknowingly made legends out of villains, still remembered to this day. But correct me if I am wrong, they are not eventually the heroes of the day. But both these directors get so obsessed in bringing back these characters and giving them back stories and stuff, that they forget about the other characters in the film. In other words, they forgot the 'good' of these good vs evil tales.
On that same note, if you really want to pay homage to something of the past, take some notes from the other Hollywood release of the week - BALLS OF FURY. While it pays its respects to the Hong Kong action genre of the 70s, it does it with new innovative form and disguises it into a sports flick giving us something new at the end of the day. Not that it is the best thing around, but atleast marks for trying!
And then there are some...who does justice to this concept of remaking. Next week's 3:10 TO YUMA might just answer how to go about it! And probably with that, a new lease of life for the genre called 'Western'!
Ram Gopal and Rob Zombie has showed us the way and hope the producers, studios and moviegoers have learnt their lesson from these fiasco. Leave the classics alone!