If there's not some technological innovation or a Christopher Nolan-like reimagining that can turn the Adam West Batman into the Christian Bale Dark Knight, what's the point?
"Dancing" isn't a great movie, but it is a perfect distillation of what it was meant to be. Is there one fan of the film who believes it can be made better? Is there some new CGI effect that will make its 1960s Catskills setting more vivid? Can Kenny Ortega bring more to a new version as director than he did as the choreographer of the original?
Let Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze have their moment. If producers want to give audiences a similar feeling to the one their parents got 25 years ago, call a new version of "Dirty Dancing" something else - like "Sexy Salsa-ing," "Rude Rhumba-ing" or "Lewd Lambada-ing." Set it in Atlantic City, the Poconos or at a timeshare in Jamaica. Give the story a new soundtrack and modernize it just enough to feel fresh even though it isn't.
But there's no reason to have two new actors dance to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." It's been done as well as it's going to be done.
Kind of like Hollywood's plan to remake "My Fair Lady." Why? The Rex Harrison-Audrey Hepburn version, directed by George Cukor, isn't perfect enough?
If you want to remake a musical, try "A Chorus Line." That movie totally misunderstood its Broadway source material and is ripe for serious improvement.
Londoners torch DVDs
We all know about how the Asian stock market can affect the New York Stock Exchange, but we got another sad reminder yesterday about how local our global economy really is - how riots in London can have a terrible impact at 2nd and Market streets.
That's the home of the TLA company, which has run video stores and film festivals in Philadelphia for decades.
