If it's not broke, don't fix it

One thing I was taught at a young age and have come to realize tends to hold true is the old motto "If it's not broke, don't fix it." Usually, in most cases, you end up doing a lot of unnecessary work producing a product that's either not nearly as good as the original or just ends up being mediocre. Rarely is the "new" version better than it was before.

Today I finally heard/saw the remake of the classic 80s mega-hit "We Are the World" - "We Are the World 25."

"We Are the World 25" with a brief forward by Jamie Foxx

While it's neat that the proceeds from the song are being donated to Haiti and that they use footage of Michael Jackson from the original I still don't think it was necessary to remake this classic from my childhood.

In the original, 43 artists (plus Dan Aykroyd) were conducted by Quincy Jones. And looking at the names, these were all big name artists - many of which have still stood the test of time. In this new version, there are OVER 85 ARTISTS including well-known artists with lesser nobodies (sorry, but there was a handful I did not recognize) as well as several actors (Rashida Jones?? Really?). This one seems to have an element of overkill to it. In the original, you could see and recognize everyone in the video, however in this one, there's just too many people in the chorus that half the names on the list you don't even recall seeing! It was neat to see Janet singing a duet with Michael again, however this one seemed a bit awkward, unlike her performance last fall at the VMA's where she did the song and routine from the Scream video with her brother's image. I also think T-Pain's auto-tune/pitch/whatever-it's-called was an unnecessary addition to the song, and the rap... while I get it, it just seemed weird with the classic song.

Now don't get me wrong, I didn't *hate* it, but I wasn't really impressed or blown away either - it's impact didn't even come close to the impact the original had. Honestly, I found myself giggling a few times, which felt wrong, but I couldn't help it!

And enough with all the classic movie remakes! Sure, some remakes/reworkings turned out great (ie: Christopher Nolan's Batman reboot, Rob Zombie's "Halloween" remake) but most others... why???

Recently, Matthew Brodderick gave the go ahead for a Ferris Bueller remake (although he refuses to touch it and has said he thinks none of the original cast should be in it - I can still see Ben Stein making a cameo though!). Go to your local movie theater and you'll probably see posters for the upcoming Will Smith produced Karate Kid, starring his son Jaden. Footloose is being remade with one of the guys from Gossip Girl since Zach Efron declined it. Oh and a Red Dawn remake is due out soon too, as is a Nightmare on Elm Street reboot.

Conducing a simple Google search, we can soon look forward to remakes of Red Sonja, Short Circuit, Weird Science, Conan the Barbarian, Poltergeist, Hellraiser, Robocop, Porky's and Escape from New York. The Spiderman series is also getting a reboot in the near future as well, despite the last one just coming out a mere few years ago.

What's next? A high-tech CG1 remake of The Neverending Story or a Labyrinth with either Lady Gaga or Adam Lambert playing David Bowie's part? I also heard there's talk of Dakota Fanning starring as a Dorothy character in a "dark" reworking of The Wizard of Oz - really?

Yeah, I pass on all of these... leave classic things alone. If it ain't broke, don't mess with it!