Double Blog Hop! Best and Worst Movie Remakes AND May Monster Madness!

(Quick note: If you're here to Celebrate the Small Things go Here.)  A-hem:
Two blog hops in one day?  What is this madness?  Well, it's movie madness because this is the

with  Alex, Stephen, Livia and Al!  But because I'm doubling up it's also monster madness because this is

with  Annie Walls, Little Gothic Horrors and Wicked Ways Productions.  This was a 7 day blog hop and today is day 7.  SO, today I'm going to be talking about the best and worst monster movie remakes.  It's a good category because there's lots to choose from.

Lets start with the best:  I couldn't choose just one because my monster list wouldn't be complete without the holy trilogy of slasher film stalkers.  Who are they, you ask?  Why it's Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger and Micheal Myers, of course.

In the original Friday the 13th Jason was an awkward, unpopular boy who drowned as a result of staff negligence at Camp Crystal Lake.  In the first movie it was Jason's mother who took vengeance on the camp counselors who she blamed for her son's death but at the end of the movie Jason himself emerges from the bottom of the lake and goes on to wreak havoc for several movies.

The 2009 version was less of a remake and more a reboot as it involves elements of four of the previous movies rather than relying on the plot of just the first one.  But it was great, so I'm putting it at the top of this list.  In addition to pulling in Jason's history with his mother the film also incorporates his iconic mask, settings from the previous films and the famous music to stellar effect.  The kills are entertaining but not too schtick-y and all the things that made you love the original movies are there in plain sight.  It was extremely well executed and a must see for any fan of the franchise.

Next up is the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street.  Freddie is a classic monster- complete with morphing form, supernatural powers and a seriously creepy appearance and Robert Englund did such an amazing job portraying him that many thought it a sin to even consider casting anyone else.  But in the 2010 remake that's what they did and thankfully Jackie Earle Haley (who I know and love as Rorschach from 2009's masterfully done Watchmen) did a fantastic job.  The film maintains everything that was great about the first one and brings another element that never came through before: Freddie was a pedophile before he was a dream stalking monster and that is abundantly clear in Haley's portrayal.  It was a great movie-going experience and fans of the original series will enjoy it.

And last is the remake of Halloween which serves as the origin story for Michael Myers.  In the original movie Michael is seen very briefly killing his sister before the film jumps forward to the night of his escape from the mental hospital.  I.E. it never really goes into or even lets you wonder why he's killing, he just does.  The primary goal of the remake was to dive into the back-story of Michael: his abusive step-father, ill-quipped mother and  bullying sibling all get a little bit of screen time before the child Michael kills them and you do get a feel for the budding psychosis in the character.  But honestly, what really made this movie for me was the Laurie character played by the talented Scout Taylor-Compton.  The way that she unravels as her big brother chases her is brilliant.  It's a quality remake which earns its fans.

But what would the best without the worst?  So with that, I give you: Godzilla.

I couldn't possibly tell you what the filmmakers of this mess were thinking.  Perhaps it's because the Godzilla franchise turned campy and they thought that they could make a campy American version and have it be loved just the same.  They were wrong.  What they forgot, I can only assume, is that Godzilla was, originally, a real horror movie.  It grew out of the unimaginable horrors of nuclear destruction which the Japanese filmmakers witnessed first hand and whatever you may say about the special effects of the time you can't argue that it wasn't about genuine fear over the unimaginable destruction that nuclear explosions brought to the people of Japan.

Sure, by the 27th sequel almost all of the original message had been obliterated but that doesn't mean that you should forget what the franchise started as.  Especially not if you're doing an American version 44 years after the fact.  All-in-all this film was a convoluted mess and a lot of the terribly campy sequels which are just laughable are preferable to it.  Just embarrassing.  I can only hope that the upcoming 2014 reboot will learn from the failure of this earlier American version.

And now I once again invite you to hop along and visit others best and worst lists!  Happy Friday all!

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1. Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh	2. Stephen Tremp
3. Leave it to Livia	4. Father Dragon Writes
5. Rhonda @ Laugh-Quotes	6. Queendsheena
7. Aloha! Mark Koopmans says hi from HI	8. THE WRITTEN WORD OF YVONNE LEWIS
9. Melody @ Refractions and Reflections	10. Heather @ Welcome to the Edge
11. Carolyn Brown	12. Donna Shields
13. Jay Noel - Writer on Fire	14. melanie schulz
15. Donna K. Weaver	16. Spunky L. Diane Wolfe
17. Kathy- Imagine Today	18. Laura Eno - A Shift in Dimensions
19. My Creatively Ramdom Life	20. Entertaining Interests
21. Bouquet of Books	22. Tangent Shell
23. Bird's Nest	24. Pensuasion
25. WRITING IN THE CROSSHAIRS	26. Far Away Eyes
27. Isis Rushdan	28. Mina Burrows
29. Tyrean's Writing Spot	30. Heather M. Gardner
31. Left and Write	32. Michael Offutt
33. Julia King | Writing Jewels	34. Arlee Bird's Tossing It Out
35. Christine Rains	36. LD Masterson
37. Carrie-Anne's Magick Theatre	38. Cath at Dramatics and Words
39. Elizabeth Seckman	40. Behind these Pages
41. J. A. Bennett, A Writer's Journey	42. Sydney Aaliyah Michelle
43. Becoming Layla	44. Lynda R Young
45. Princess of Procrastination	46. Susan Says
47. Just the Cheese	48. Samantha May: Writing Through College
49. M. L. Swift, Writer	50. Writing on the Wall
51. Melissa's Imaginarium	52. The Writer Ambitious
53. However Improbable	54. that girl from around the bay
55. Writer's Block	56. Writing Off the Edge
57. The Angry Lurker	58. beautiful chaos
59. Krista McLaughlin	60. Donna at Musings of a Penniless Writer
61. Birgit	62. Subliminal Coffee
63. Michael Pierce	64. Scrappy Blonde
65. The Beveled Edge	66. It's Rhyme Time
67. The Other Side	68. Reading, Writing and Everything in Between
69. The Writing Nut	70. Trisha @ WORD+STUFF
71. Fiction and Film	72. The Geek Twins
73. Michelle @ Writer~In~Transit