ROCKY'S HORROR PICTURE SHOW
Let's Do the Time Warp Again (2016)
Thursday
October 20, 2016

As a general rule, I'm not much of a fan of movies which have been complete unwillingness, or inability, on the part of everyone involved to think for themselves. As with anything, however, there are always exceptions to the rule. For instance, some movies were so far ahead of their time that there simply wasn't anyway to utilize the types of special effects needed to convery the story in a realistic manner. The original telling of the Blob would be a perfect example.Great concept, delivered to the best of the director's ability, considering the technology he had to work with, but a remake of the same movie utilizing today's special effects could really do wonders fot the original director's vision. An inadequate budget in the original is another reason for a remake, as budget always plays a critical role in the success of a movie. Too little, and the people involved have no way of hiring the level of competency needed to obtain success, too much and success is achieved, but there's never enough income generated to make a profit. However, most of directors did an excellent job the first time around, making ay sort of remake fall woefully short.

These were the thoughts running my mind when I heard tha FOX was showing a remake of the Rocky's Horror Picture Show, Let's Do the Time Warp Again, last night. Nevertheless, given the special place in my heart for the original, and my inability to pick and choose what movies are shown given my status as an inmate, I sat down to watch it, with an open mind, hoping that somehow, this would prove to be the exception, and not the rule. I'll be honest, though, it was difficult. For my life, I simply couldn't conceive any way in which they could do a better job then they had the first time around. After all, there weren't exactly any scenes in which there was a call for special effects, whether they existed at the time or not, and the acting in the original certainly wasn't subpar, and if past remakes were any indication of what I might expect, then this movie might have the same basic plot, but with a completely different outlook, at best, a change of scenery, or at worst, a change of lines, which, as any Rocky's fan will tell you, would have been the death blow to a movie which had such a strong following. I'm glad to say that I was wrong, on all counts.

Don't misunderstand me. This isn't to say that the remake didin't show any changes at all, because it did. For those who've seen the movie before, even if only once (seriously, has anyone actually watched this movie only once?), then no doubt you know what I'm talking about. In the original, Frankenfurter was a transexual man with an extremely healthy sexual appetite for both men and women, but in the remake, the part was played by an actual transgender, presumably someone who had both the male genitalia and female breasts (if not, then the actor who played that part was even better than I initially thought), a tribute, no doubt, to society's change of attitudes towards the LGBT community. That one simple change, which was the only real change, so far as I could tell, made all the difference in the world. With it, the director was able to take an old movie and remake it in such a way that kept it true to the original director's vision, while at the same time, making it more relevant to today's audience. I, for one, and in spite of my reluctance towards remakes, couldn't have been any happier, and trust me, despite going into it with an open mind, I was ready to dislike it at the first opportunity.

Then again, why wouldn't I? For me, this movie transported me back in time, to a point in my life in which I was truly happy. Strange, how a song, a smell or a movie can do that to you, even if t is only for a moment, so I was glad to see they didn't ruin it with their remake.

Shawn L. Perrot CDCR# V-42461
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