Reboot or Re-Boo? 12 Best and Worst TV/Movie Reboots
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'Hawaii Five-0' (Best)
Nobody could ever top Jack Lord’s McGarrett, but, much to everyone’s surprise, the updated version — which for some reason swapped out the letter ‘O’ in the title for the number ‘0’ — has been an exciting action/procedural from the get-go, and provided CBS with another ratings hit.
Oh, where to begin with this complete and utter mess of a reboot? How about with a number, which truly doesn’t lie in this case? Four: the amount of episodes that aired before ABC could take it no longer (about three more than viewers’ collective threshold).
The original, though conceptually fascinating, wasn’t hard to beat, but the reboot went the extra mile, rendering the late-‘70s version obsolete if not almost nonexistent — and cementing a spot in the unofficial sci-fi-TV hall of fame (and providing one of the best lines ever on America’s 'The Office').
An unnecessary reboot from the start, the trashy (and quickly trashed) 'Melrose 2.0' sputtered out of the gate thanks to a way-too-dramatic murder-mystery kickoff. Oh, spoiler alert.
The only way this isn’t the consensus pick for worst small-screen reboot ever (worse than the neo-'Wonder Woman,' whose pilot never even made it to the air) is if you consider it more of a sequel.
'The Love Boat' and 'The Love Boat: The Next Wave' (Worst)
There’s “good” cheesy, and there’s “bad” cheesy. And below that there’s this reboot, which UPN inexplicably gave a second season against all odds and logic.
The 1981, Laurence Olivier-starring “epic entertainment spectacular!” was far from perfect, but the 2010 update managed to, uh, bottom the original. With inferior special effects, no less!
The first entry in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy (the last, of course, is this summer’s 'The Dark Knight Rises'), 'Begins' is everything a reboot should be: a fresh take on an old story, and a movie that fully revives a franchise. Amazing, and yet it may go down as Nolan’s worst Caped Crusader effort.
'The Thing' (Best [1982 version] AND Worst [2011 version])
That’s right — John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece is a reboot of Howard Hawks’s solid 1951 sci-fi film 'The Thing from Another World,' while last year’s quasi-update of Carpenter’s classic represented a major step back. Maybe a circa-2040 reboot will restore legitimacy to the franchise?
Nic Cage’s inane sorta-remake of the delightfully bizarre (and scary) Christopher Lee starrer from 1973 could be the most unintentionally funny movie of all time — which is presumably not what director Neil LaBute was hoping for. Just do yourself a favor: YouTube “Not the bees,” and call us in the morning.
It’s easy to forget — perhaps thanks to the dilution of the movie’s impact by its airing on basic cable seemingly daily — how successfully Peter Jackson’s daunting undertaking of a remake turned out, financially and critically.