The 411 Top 5 06.13.08: Week 117

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 06.13.2008

The Top 5 Most Memorable Reboots

"RAAHHHRR...HULK SMASH PUNY INTELLECTUAL FILM DIRECTED BY GAY COWBOY MAN!!!"

*ahem*

Sorry. Today sees the release of The Incredible Hulk, which is apparently both a sequel to Ang Lee's less-than-popular Hulk AND a complete rebooting of the franchise - I suppose it all depends on how you look at it. Whatever the case, it's certainly not the first time a franchise has changed course mid-stream. It's happened plenty of times before, with varying results. So join us now as we re-live some of these moments in time, with a look back at:


THE TOP 5 MOST MEMORABLE REBOOTS


Trevor Snyder

5. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

"But wait, Trevor, this wasn't a reboot…it was just another in the long line of cheesy sequels to the original." Well, I won't deny the cheesy part (but hey, I love ‘em all, so who cares?), but I will always consider this a reboot. Think about it. Until this point, Jason had been nothing more than a strong, vicious killer. Sure, he often seemed pretty tough to finally finish off, but there was nothing supernatural about him. Part V teased a Jason who returned from the grave, but as we all know now it was nothing more than a Jason impersonator (LAME!). It was Part VI that finally just said "eh, what the hell…," and went ahead and turned Jason into an unstoppable zombie killing machine (thanks to a well-placed iron rod to the heart during a convenient lightning storm). Without this moment – where the series officially stepped over into the supernatural – the franchise would never have been able to get more and more ridiculous with each subsequent entry (Jason X, anyone?). And Freddy Vs. Jason? Forget about it. Without Part VI, this is just another slasher. Jason Lives brought Friday the 13th over into the realm of the fantastic that Nightmare on Elm Street resided in.

4. Highlander: The Series

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again…the concept of Highlander - the centuries-long battle between a race of immortals – is a great one, just full of endless opportunities and facets to explore. It seems like the only people who didn't know how much potential the idea had as a franchise were the makers of the first Highlander film themselves. How else to explain why they had that film end with Christopher Lambert's Connor defeat the only other immortal, and claim the Prize, thus effectively ending the story. Of course, the movie ended up being a hit, and the producers were forced to come up with some pretty creative ways to bend the rules in order to justify the sequel stories, but these ideas only served to convolute the continuity and upset the fans. Finally, it occurred to the brains behind the franchise that the best way to continue the tale was to create a television series set in an alternate continuity – one where not only did Connor not win the Prize, but there were still hundreds of other immortals running around, including Connor's relative Duncan (Adrian Paul), the focus of the show. Highlander: The Series became arguably more popular than the original film series, and cemented the franchise's place in history…which is almost certainly why we will soon be getting yet another reboot, this one coming in the form of a new cinematic remake from the Iron Man writers.

3. Batman Begins

Remember when you first started to hear the cast that was coming together for this one? Christian Bale? Gary Oldman? Liam Neeson? Michael Caine? Morgan F'N Freeman? Wait a minute, this was still a Batman flick we were talking about, right? Who could believe hat such a stellar cast and director would unite to save a franchise that had last been seen in the form of…ugh…Batman & Robin? In the process, they finally got everything right that even the better of the previous Batman films had gotten wrong. I remember Roger Ebert calling Batman Begins the Batman movie he never realized he wanted to see, which is pretty funny, because it's the Batman movie that we comic book fans always knew we wanted to see – a film that finally thought Batman himself was as interesting as his villains, and decided to explore just what kind of man dresses himself up as a bat to fight crime.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Hey, I liked the movie, but apparently screenwriter Joss Whedon didn't. Since it's his creation and all, I suppose he has the right to call "do-over." As long as someone is willing to help him out, that is. In that regard, it's still pretty darn amazing that a network – even a fledgling one like the WB – was willing to greenlight and finance a series based on a movie that totally bombed at the box office. As we all know, though, it turned out to be a good movie, as Buffy the series became one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed cult series of all time, spawned a spin-off series, and even today lives on in the world of comics and tie-in novels. Not bad for such a failure of a movie.

1. Casino Royale

There is some debate (even within this very column) of whether it can be considered a reboot every time a new actor takes over as Bond (One argument against: there were occasional references to past films with different actors throughout the series. One argument for: shouldn't this guy be like 70 by now?). But there's no denying this was a reboot – the most scrutinized reboot in film history, in fact. What was most impressive about this one was that they really didn't have to re-start the series. Sure, Die Another Day had its detractors, but it still made a butt-load of money, and it's not like the franchise was in a bad place. And yet still the producers realized how interesting it would be to finally show us the origins of the man we have watched for 40 years, and damn, they were right. I wish I could say I wasn't one of those who originally criticized the casting of Daniel Craig, but instead I'll happily eat crow and give the man his due – his performance made this not only the most memorable, but also the best reboot I've ever seen.



Owain J. Brimfield

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Freddy vs. Jason - I'm not a fan, but it did manage to successfully resurrect two supposedly passé horror icons.

GoldenEye - still probably my favorite Bond movie (and favorite Bond), this did a great job of updating the character for the 1990s.

THE TOP 5

5. Superman Returns

I can hear the moans from the fanboys now. "Blah blah Superman is a stalker blah blah Kate Bosworth sucks blah blah Chris Reeve blah". Quiet you. Returns did a solid job at reintroducing Supes to our screens after no small absence, not to mention updating a character who was intrinsically tricky to market in the current global climate. No mention of "the American Way" as with the Superman of old, y'see. It was roundly criticized for a lack of action, but frankly, that whole wonderful airplane/shuttle set piece near the start could well have been enough. More please, Mr Singer.

4. Battlestar Galactica

Argh... you know, I'm going to have to confess that I still haven't properly sat down with the season one boxset I bought a few months back, so I'm pretty much including this one on the basis of hearsay and its reputation. There's no denying the critical acclaim the show has received, and it has easily cemented its place in sci-fi lore in the space of just a few short years. An unqualified improvement on the original series, BSG is arguably the most memorable TV reboot of all time. Well, I did say arguably, so take a look at my number one pick for an alternative view.

3. Batman Begins

Chris Nolan + Christian Bale = success. An unequivocally perfect pairing for resurrecting the Dark Knight after his screen reputation had slipped into the bowels of ass following Joel Schumacher's involvement, while Begins was by no means a perfect comic book movie, or indeed a perfect Batman movie, it was certainly pretty damn fine. Everyone's favorite caped crusader (yes, really) has never seemed more compelling, and with sequel The Dark Knight soon to be upon us and already looking like the best movie of the year, kudos to Nolan for spearheading the revival of one superhero who really did deserve a genuinely good movie franchise.

2. Casino Royale

Most likely the highest profile reboot in history, given the months of pantomime and pandemonium that preceded it and the relentless debate over whether Daniel Craig would make a worthy Bond. Turns out he did, so boo sucks to the people who derided his casting. Hmm, wait, that includes me. Still, I was more than happy to eat a slice of humble pie after seeing Craig in action, and it was no small help that the film itself was one of the best Bond flicks in recent memory, erasing all traces of the giant pile of wank that was Die Another Day and firmly staking out the fact that, even in a post-Bourne world, Bond is a big-screen force to be reckoned with.

1. Doctor Who

Everyone knows by know (well, assuming they read my stuff, and I'm certainly egotistical enough to believe that everyone who matters does) that I'm a sizeable Who fanboy. Even my apathy towards the choice of Chris Eccleston (don't get me wrong, he's a terrific actor, but I maintain he was wrong for the character) to spearhead the Doctor Who revival didn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying the first run of the show in its new incarnation. The show managed to meld enough of its old-school sensibilities with contemporary sci-fi and still manage to be the best drama on British screens, and it's pretty much gone from strength to strength since the casting of David Tennant. Although the current run has been pretty weak - mind you, it does look to be picking up now we've crossed the halfway point - - the modern iteration of the show has been vastly enjoyable and has earned it's place in SF fans' hearts.



Ben Piper

5. Queen of the Damned

Since this is a "most memorable" and not "best" listing, I'm going to include this here to provide a negative aspect. While Neil Jordan solidly if unspectacularly adapted the first of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles novels (Interview With The Vampire) to the big screen with big name stars (Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Bandaras), this movie seemed to have no interest in letting anyone who hadn't read the novels in on the fact that this was indeed a sequel. Seriously. Not one word was uttered during the promotion of this flick that it had anything to do with the previous incarnation. The entire cast was jettisoned for no-names for the most part, Pitt's character was written out only to have another character take his place in the interest of streamlining the story, and while the storyline of the novel for the most part remains intact, it was bastardized to the point that I just couldn't stomach it. In Rice's novel, Lestat's concert took place at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. In her narrative she told of a harrowing escape through the backroads that actually exist behind the venue. In the movie version, all that great suspenseful stuff was jettisoned in favor of an easier to film action set piece that takes place in the middle of a desert. It was all sizzle and no steak. And as far as Aaliyah playing the title role? While I don't wish to impugn someone that is no longer with us, she in no way lived up to the notion I had in my mind when I first read the novel with regards to the character.

4. Lost

Before anyone calls me to task and pulls out pitchforks and ropes to string me up with, hear me out. While this great show has focused on the same characters and is telling an overall continual storytelling mosaic, basically each season has been a reboot in that the focus of the story and the overall theme has radically changed each time. Season one was about surviving upon the island. Season two was about the Hatch, the tailies, and Michael willing to do anything to get his abducted son back. Season three was all about the Others, and getting to know more about them and their society. Season four brought flash-forwards into the mix, as well as shown us that several people did indeed get rescued off of the island, but that the story is indeed not yet over, seeing as THEY HAVE TO GO BACK! Who knows what is in store for season five?

3. Battlestar Galactica.

A seriously cheesy late 70's show that was nothing more than a piss poor attempt at being a Star Wars ripoff completely reimagined thoughtfully and carefully. A lot of people consider this the best thing on TV today. Based upon what I've seen, I'd have a hard time arguing with them, as this reboot has a whole lot more emotional and psychological depth than most of the stuff we're presented today. Quality TV is hard to find. And this incarnation is indeed quality, all the way around.

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation

When it was announced that a new Star Trek series would begin to air in syndication without the original cast over a decade after the original series was cancelled, a lot of people cried "bullshit"! And during the first few episodes, the critics were right in that assumption, seeing as the early episodes weren't all that great. But then, a funny thing happened. The showrunners and staff writers began to get their shit together and gave the assembled cast something to work with, and the cast gelled as a result. The show ran for seven years and was nominated for a best drama Emmy for it's final season. Two more spin off series resulted and TNG cast headlined three theatrical movies thereafter.

1. Batman Begins

I'll admit that I liked both of Tim Burton's Batman movies when they were first released. They were entertaining, certainly. No argument there. But there were the nagging thoughts I couldn't help but harbor. One, no origin story. Michael Keaton was simply Batman. He had his shit together, had all his wonderful toys already, but how did he acquire them?

Number two. While Burton took a most certainly darker approach to the Batman character than the 60's TV series ever did, it was still not the same character from the comic books. It was still played far too light and non-serious. It was all "hey, look at the pretty eye candy! Wow, there's Jack hamming it up as the Joker! What a great make-up job! Isn't he funny?"

The series of films that resulted quickly devolved from there. To the point that Batman And Robin was forced down all our collective throats.

At that point, the franchise was dead, and the last Batman to wear the cowl, George Clooney, was continuously publicly apologizing for the egregious misstep.

Enter Christopher Nolan. He not only reinvigorated the sagging franchise that was mostly considered dead, but injected it with renewed vigor, in that he stayed true to the comic book's gritty origins. He gave the Bat his balls back. He was no longer a comic (as in funny, ha-ha) hero character prone to one-liners and asides. He was a complex character dealing with not only his own emotional turmoil due to his childhood tragedies, but one that was feeling out who he was, and what he was capable of achieving.

While I'm more of a Marvel guy, Batman Begins is the closest representation of a true comic book adaption this side of Sin City.



Shawn S. Lealos

HONORABLE MENTIONS

ECW - I'm going with some wrestling here. ECW went out of business and therefore the show was cancelled. Then Vince McMahan decided to bring them back and they got a new television contract on Sci-Fi, and were officially rebooted. This new show pales in comparison to what it once was.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - They take one of the most beloved franchises of all time and created a show that would surpass it in almost every area. What more could you ask for?

Superman Returns - I didn't have a problem with the movie that most audiences did. I do think there was not enough superhero action, but it was not the abortion people act like it was.

THE TOP 5

5. Casino Royale

It could be argued this was not a reboot. There have been five James Bond's, and it is silly to say every time a new Bond is signed, it is rebooting the franchise. Batman and Robin was not a reboot just because Val Kilmer left and George Clooney came aboard. However, I do consider it a reboot because they changed the style of Bond movies with this one to great critical success. Out were the gadgets, the invisible cars, the ice castles and all the prop weapons that just were over-the-top and in was a gritty fighting style more influenced by the Bourne movies than anything that came before. To say that Bond was influenced by a movie that was influenced by Bond is kind of strange, but it worked. Daniel Craig brought an everyman feel to the stuffy character that Pierce Brosnan portrayed. It seemed like a completely different character and helped raise the floundering franchise to a new level.

4. Transformers

It was originally intended to be a cash-in for a toy line. In much the same way Hasbro created the G.I. Joe cartoon to tie in with their toy lines and comic book series, the same plan was set in motion for the promotion of the transforming robot toys. The storyline would pit the good guys (Autobots) against the evil robots (Decepticons) and was originally designed by Marvel Comics head honcho Jim Shooter and editor Dennis O'Neil. The television series would air for five years and sell a shit load of toys. There was also the movie best known for Orson Welles' final performance. In 2007, Michael Bay set out to reboot the Transformers franchise and talk swirled that it was a waste of time and would probably suck. It very much did not suck. The film was one of the best summer spectacles I had seen in a long time and it was obvious Michael Bay was the perfect man to make this movie. The film presented some of the most mind blowing robot battle action I have ever seen and even included a solid performance by an actual human in Shia LaBeouf. Michael Bay is a God when it comes to shooting action and this movie delivers one of his most satisfying films to date.

3. Battlestar Galactica

The original show was schlocky fun, with metal Cylons who had destroyed almost every human and the Battlestar Galactica picking up the surviving humans and setting out to find a mythical colony called Earth. It starred Lorne Green (Bonanza) and Dirk Benedict (The A-Team) and would be more campy star fighter fun than intense drama. It was spawned from a TV movie, lasted one season and spawned a sequel series that would only last one season. In 2003, something special happened. A new Battlestar Galactica movie was made for the Sci-Fi channel with Edward James Olmos taking over the Lorne Green role and Dirk Benedict's role being changed to a female and given to Katee Sackhoff. The movie was extremely successful and quickly spawned a television show that would become critically lauded. In the new series, the Cylons were still the enemies, but a twist allowing them to mimic human forms made the show more intriguing. The enemy could now be anyone, bringing to memory the Invasion of the Body Snatchers story. The Star Trek type storylines were also thrown out, making the show more of a military science fiction format, with battles and wars that provided more drama than anything in the original series. Battlestar Galactica is one of the greatest shows to ever air on television and the best reboot ever to a television franchise.

2. Batman Begins

Joel Schumacher did something to the Batman franchise that was unfortunate. He made it colorful and cartoony and took away the intriguing, brooding Dark Knight and brought back memories of the zany Batman television show. Tim Burton may be more fondly remembered for his first two movies, but they were also a little more on the comic side and a little less what made Batman great, or at least what made Batman great during the Frank Miller run. Batman didn't use to be a dark, foreboding creature of the night. He used to be a cartoony super hero with a partner who wore leotard tights. The television show provided what many people knew as Batman and Schumacher did not do anything worse to the character than what those shows did years before. However, for comic book fans, Frank Miller recreated the character and they wanted the dark, grimy Batman from the new wave of Batman comics. Years had passed and finally word came down that director Chris Nolan (Memento) would be making a new Batman movie with actor Christian Bale (American Psycho) in the lead role. Word also came they would be using Miller's Batman as the fashion plate for the new series. What came about was a perfect Batman movie. People complain about the wild, superhero type ending battle, but that is what mainstream audiences want. Look at how they shit on The Hulk for being too cerebral. Besides, everything before that climactic final battle should allow it to be forgiven. Christian Bale is the perfect Bruce Wayne. Nolan, who has created some great movies over his short career painted a Gotham City that should have any Frank Miller fan drooling and even went so far as to pattern the story after Miller's Batman: Year One. Next up is The Dark Knight in July and it looks to be more of the same. Batman Begins did what Superman Returns only wished it could have done. It presented a reboot to a popular character that was a success at the box office and a critical success to the fans of the comic as well. It is the perfect reboot.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The original Joss Whedon scripted movie was a campy, fun failure. Looking back on the movie, what I remember most was Paul Reuben's having his arm cut off and making a quip about his jacket. Move forward five years, a successful Toy Story script, a not so successful Alien Resurrection script and a bunch of un-credited doctoring of other writer's scripts and Whedon was ready to try again. What occurred was a phenomenon that would never be seen again (until Battlestar Galactica did the same thing). He took a failed, campy original and made it into the smartest show on television. For years, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best thing on television and it would soon spawn a show that was even better in Angel. The success of Buffy also gave us the brilliant Firefly. But those are the results of the great show. Now let's look at the show itself. The characters of Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles represented some of the best written, smartest characters on television. The show approached serious subject matter with an honest and deft touch. The show did more for girl power than Alias, Dark Angel and the Power Puff Girls combined. The movie was so-so, the television series was brilliance. While following the season eight comic book, I hear The Ripper might be coming down the pike. That would be great and I also can't wait to watch Dollhouse with Eliza Dushku this fall. There can never be too much Joss Whedon. Thanks to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I don't think we'll ever have to worry about that. It was the best reboot and one of the greatest shows of all time.



Jeremy Thomas

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Halloween (2007): A lot of people hate Zombie's re-imagining of Michael Myers. They cited too long of an intro before getting to the killing spree, or pointlessly brutal, or what-not. Personally, I found this to be one of the few times an iconic movie villain was given a back-story that worked, and it did so largely due to the cast and Zombie's vision. The entire film is unquestionably Zombie, with his personal style all over it, and that, in the mind of a man who considered The Devil's Rejects to be an engrossing, amazing film, is a good thing. Filled with many of his personal cadre of actors loyal to him (William Forsythe, Shari Moon Zombie, Danny Trejo, and more), Zombie knew exactly how to pull amazing performances out of them, particularly Moon Zombie as Michaels mother. Malcolm McDowell fills Donald Pleasance's shoes well as Sam Loomis; the only misfire is Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode, who comes off as annoying and unsympathetic. All in all, the best remake of a horror film yet.

Battlestar Galactica (2003 - 2008): There's simply no doubt that the reboot of BSG from the schlocky fun of the 70's was a wildly new direction. While I will argue against the merits of it being called "the best thing on TV" for hours, I certainly can't deny it's an incredible improvement over the original. It's great television, awesome sci-fi, and you sure as hell can't argue its success.

Godzilla (1998): Clearly, memorable doesn't always mean "good," and the Matthew Broderick-starring reboot of Godzilla is memorable primarily for its disappointment. With an absolutely enormous marketing campaign around it--the memorable teaser trailer of Godzilla foot smashing a T. Rex skeleton was released almost a year before the movie came out--and expectations that it would be the biggest opening of all time, it ended up floundering. Yeah, as it turns out, people didn't really want to see a Godzilla film where the focus was on the humans and the big girl's babies, particularly one that sucked at those parts, too. The film is so apocryphal to fans of the original that it's officially known as "Zilla" by the original studio that made the Godzilla films, because it "took the God out of Godzilla." While it broke even in the US (and became profitable thanks to overseas), and even spun off into an animated series, this one is known because of how spectacular of a let-down it was.

THE TOP 5

5. Stargate SG-1 (1997 - 2007)

Some might argue this as more of a spin-off, but the completely new cast, both in old roles and new, and very different direction the TV show took from the movie lands it in "reboot" territory for me. I know a lot of people who are SG-1 fans...I know a lot of people who are absolute haters of the series. One cannot deny it's memorability, though, as it took a poorly reviewed and moderately successful sci-fi film and created a series that lasted ten seasons, earned eight Emmy nominations, thirty Saturn nominations (and five wins), more Gemini and Leo noms then I care to count. Not only that, it inspired a spin-off series of its own, two Direct-to-DVD movies, a role-playing game, a trading card game, an MMORPG and a line of Hasbro toys...not to mention being included on TV Guide's 2007 list of the top 30 Cult TV Shows of All Time. Personally, I always kind of enjoyed the series, which explained the Stargate mythos well while having an almost Whedon-esque quality to the writing. But whether you like it or hate it, you cannot deny its memorability. I'm sure someone will crucify me for putting this ahead of BSG, but this is most memorable, not best, and all of the above beats four seasons of Starbuck.

4. Casino Royale (2006)

One of the best reboots, unquestionably, and one that was much-needed. The Bond series had quickly become stale after GoldenEye re-invigorated it. Tomorrow Never Dies was, arguably, the worst of the Bond films; The World Is Not Enough was blandly forgettable; and Die Another Day went beyond ludicrous with it's plot, set pieces, and Halle Barry-ness. So the franchise-holders went back to GoldenEye's director, Martin Campbell, to reboot the franchise. What they got was (and I'm going to get shit for this from Connery-lovers) the best Bond to date in Daniel Craig, some of the best action sequences in the series, and frankly, the best Bond film to date. From the moment you start watching, you know this isn't your father's James Bond...and while there's nothing wrong with your father's James Bond, this one's damn good, too.

3. Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003)

You know, I'm not afraid to say it...I loved the campy, silly original movie. Paul Reubens is comic gold, Rutger Hauer rocks the camp as the main villian, Kristy Swanson being as hot as molten iron...what wasn't to love? Yes, it's complete B-movie territory, but I loved it nonetheless. And when I heard they were making it into a more serious television show--on the WB, no less--I immediately tuned out until someone made me watch it midway through Season Two. Stupid me. Joss Whedon created a pop culture phenomenon with this show, and Angel after it. While it never got the recognition many (myself included) felt it deserved in awards, no one can possibly deny how memorable it was. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, James Marsters, David Boreanaz...these are names we all know now, thanks to this show. The writing was some of the best that television has ever seen. Yes, EVER seen. While it didn't took itself too seriously most of the time, when it did it was for a good reason, and was just beautifully carried off. If this list were the "Best Reboots," this would probably be top of the list; instead, it has to settle for #3. Even then, I feel like it deserves better, but can't bump it any higher.

2. Batman Begins (2005)

The one that brought the phrase "reboot" into the public consciousness, this was a film badly-needed after the wastes of celluloid that Batman Forever and Batman and Robin were. Joel Schumacher had run the Batman series into the ground after Tim Burton's good first two films, favoring day-glo kitsch over Burton's superior gothic kitsch. Christopher Nolan took this back to the basics and grounded the film firmly in reality, which allowed Christian Bale to give the character the gravitas that he'd been missing since Michael Keaton. While Begins isn't the perfect Batman film, it's allowed for The Dark Knight which, if all buzz is right, may BE the perfect Batman film. For that, I can forgive the few flaws of this one.

1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Lord of the Rings, a reboot? You're damned right. You see, back in 1978, an animator known as Ralph Bakshi--best known for making Fritz the Cat, the first animated film to receive an X rating from the MPAA--directed J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, an animated mess of a film that was supposed to be the first of two parts. The critical assault he got killed the chances of the second part being successful. However, it did do one thing right; it inspired Peter Jackson to pursue the idea of making the story into a good movie. And thus, we got the reboot into the blockbuster epic trilogy that we all known and (most of us) love today. How memorable? Let's see...Oscars, billions of dollars worldwide, two more eagerly-anticipated movies on the way...can anyone possibly deny this is the greatest AND most memorable reboot of all-time?



Jason Chamberlain

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Serenity - Joss Whedon strikes again when he takes a failed TV show and resurrects it as a movie! This man is the king of the Reboot.

Angel Season Five - Yep, reboots can happen within the course of a television series! And since this was my favorite series of all time, it is certainly one of the most memorable reboots for me. Joss Whedon decided to reboot the show for its fifth season. Although season four is considered the show's best by many fans, it was heavily serialized, to the point of seeming like one long episode, making it difficult for new viewers to pick up the show. The network wanted a more episodic fifth season, while cutting the budget of the show, and Mutant Enemy delivered with a season that featured a number of standalone episodes while still managing to weave a season long arc throughout. And the season included some of the best episodes the show ever produced, like ‘Smile Time', ‘Hole In The World' and the finale ‘Not Fade Away'.

Clerks 2 - After the failure of Jersey Girl, Kevin Smith decided to ‘go back to the well' so to speak and revive the View Asknewniverse, which was featured in his first five films. So he created Clerks 2, which revived the old series while revisiting his very first film. It was memorable because a whole lot of people criticized him for the move, and he even produced a series of web documentaries called ‘Trainwreck' to show he was fully aware of the prevailing opinion. In the long run though, he created one of his best films, a hilarious and even touching look at two best friends struggling through their thirties.

THE TOP 5

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cross media revivals were few and far between. In fact, Joss Whedon has cornered the market on them! Here he took his failed movie script and turned it into a cult smash TV show that proved his original idea wasn't bad all, just poorly executed. The show will also be remembered for launching Whedon's writing and directing career, and thank God for that!

4. Batman Begins

A very good reboot, Batman Begins returned dignity to the Dark Knight after the two hour gay joke that was Batman and Robin. And I'm not just jumping on the Schumacher hate train, because I enjoyed Batman Forever. I did! But that last one, oh man, it's not even 'train wreck, can't take your eyes off it' bad, it's 'burn your TV and run for the hills' bad. Thankfully Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale jumped in to save one of comic's greatest characters, and his resurrection continues next month!

3. Superman Returns

A year after Batman began again, Warner Brothers tried to catch lightning in a bottle a second time with the return of Kal El. The hype was huge for this film, and you'll still find people arguing today if the film lived up to it. And I should know, as one such argument is currently taking place in the comments section of my latest issue of Casting Call! Yeah, that's a shameless plug, big whoop, wanna fight about it? Anyway, I like the film, a lot of people don't, it made a lot of money but not as much as was expected, and a sequel is yet to be officially announced even though two years have passed. The jury is still out on whether this reboot succeeded or failed.

2. Godzilla

Yep, the attempted reboot of Godzilla is memorable for how big a failure it turned out to be. While I personally like the movie (yeah, I said it), it was a box office and critical bomb of epic proportions. Good soundtrack though.

1. Casino Royale

I don't think reboots get any more memorable than this one. You've got the long, drawn out break up of Eon Productions and Pierce Brosnan. You've got the endless search for the new Bond. You've got the news that the film will be an adaptation of the final untouched Ian Fleming novel (untouched by Eon anyway). You've got the news that this film will essentially forget the first twenty even existed, and yet somehow Judi Dench will still be M. And you've got some skinny blonde guy cast as Bond. And that's before the movie even came out!

Afterwards, you've got an amazing, amazing movie! And an amazing Bond! And people like me eating a whole lot of crow, because what looked like a potential disaster turned into a franchise saver. Bring on Quantum of Solace!



Bryan Kristopowitz

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998): It was quite the gamble back in 1998, releasing a movie based on a TV show that was still airing original episodes that also acted as the next part of that show and as a cold start for people who never watched the show. How the heck was the X-Files team going to pull that off? Well, Mulder was there, Scully was there, Skinner, the Cigarette Smoking Man, the Well Manicured Man, the Lone Gunmen, the whole gang, both good and bad, were there. And the flick did, in fact, work, and work big. It made money. It also showed that these characters could work on the big screen, in a larger environment. Here it is now ten years later and we're finally going to get a sequel. And people have been wanting one not only since the end of the show in 2002, but since the end of summer 1998. The question now is will it all work again? I think it will.

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998): This movie's existence probably has more to do with the smashing success of both Scream and Scream 2 and I Know What You Did Last Summer than the legacy of the 1978 original and its many great sequels (I'm not being sarcastic about that. I love the Halloween sequels). It's a story that basically ignores everything after part two and acts as though this movie is the real second sequel. It brought back Jamie Lee Curtis as the star (Donald Pleasance couldn't come back since he was dead at the time) and attracted some "better" actors ("better" meaning you may have heard of them before. Adam Arkin, LL Cool J, among others). And it had that same smarmy, hip and edgy winking knowing smirk about it, like the Scream movies. And to a degree it all worked. Suddenly everyone, not just the diehards, loved Michael Myers. But then again, this flick allowed Halloween Resurection to be made, and that led to Rob Zombie's piece of garbage, the worst Halloween movie ever made. So H20 has that going for it, too.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003): I don't like this movie at all. I don't like it because it's a movie that's incredibly impressed with itself, thinking it's doing something more than the original, when, in fact, it's just slow, dull, and boring, with absolutely no atmosphere. It's only got two things going for it: a pretty good looking Leatherface and a funny villain performance by R. Lee Ermey. And yet the buzz for this movie was insane. It was the return of "real" horror, it was "equal" to the original, etc. And, yeah, it made a butt load of money and a sequel/prequel was made but, for me, TCM 2003 was an exercise in an outstanding advertising campaign and nothing else more.

THE TOP 5

5. Nemesis 2: Nebula (1995)

The first Nemesis flick starred the great Olivier Gruner as Alex Rain, a gun toting part cyborg on the run from full on cyborg killers in a bizarre future. It was, and still is, a great, low budet sci-fi action flick and one of Gruner's and director Albert Pyun's best efforts. That was all in 1993. So then 1995 came around and a Nemesis sequel was sitting on the video store shelf, ready to be seen. But Olivier Gruner was not back as Rain. Female bodybuilder Sue Price was in the lead role now, and the story was all about Africa or something and featured a shimmering shadow as the villain, and Price ran around in the desert with very little clothing on and a big knife with a laser sight on it for some reason. The movie was, and still is, awful, but it spawned two more sequels, each one worse than the previous one. I have no idea how that happened, but it did.

4. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

This was, of course, the long awaited match up between the two slasher horror icons Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhies. And while it made a huge splash at the box office, remaining number one for multiple weeks (I want to say it was three weeks straight, but it may have only been two), a bunch of people were angry at the movie because it didn't "live up" to the build up. I loved it, because, even if the story was kind of goofy (and, let's face it, no matter what, the story that put these two characters together was probably going to be goofy anyway), it was freaking Freddy fighting Jason! And Jason fighting freaking Freddy! It was finally happening! What the heck else did anyone need? Another fight between the two? It's odd, isn't it, how the first one made so much money, and five years later there's no sequel. There's plenty of talk but no sequel. And now, with remakes of both in the pipeline, we may never get another sequel. That stinks. Are we going to have to wait another decade or so before it happens again?

3. Rambo: First Blood part II (1985)

First Blood seems to be the Rambo movie everyone counts as their favorite of the Sylvester Stallone starring franchise, but, odds are when most people think of the John Rambo character they think of a shirtless war machine annihilating bamboo huts in the jungle with exploding arrows, or the RPG scene on the river, or the exploding bad guy general, or the shooting an M-60 with one arm at a bank of computers, destroying them all, then shooting into the ceiling while screaming, all of which happened in the sequel, First Blood part II. It changed the way we think of the Rambo character because it made him a full on man of action instead of a misunderstood loner pushed to the brink by outside forces. It made Rambo more of a "cartoon" than a "real" person, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. It's the "icon" movie.

2. The Living Daylights (1987)

This was the first of two Bond adventures starring Timothy Dalton, who played Agent 007 as more of a hard edged, dramatic character as opposed to the funny, somewhat light hearted characterization that allowed Roger Moore to play Bond seven times. I certainly remember being shocked at how unfunny and ungoofy Dalton was the first time I saw The Living Daylights, wondering what the heck was going on (this wasn't James Bond!). It was an experiment that didn't last all that long, as Dalton returned only one more time in the awesome Licence to Kill, then was eventually replaced by Pierce Brosnan in Golden Eye in 1995. Dalton just wasn't smooth enough for general audiences, I guess. At least the two flicks he did are now somewhat fondly remembered as great, serious minded action flicks, especially Daylights. I know I love them.

1. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

The last time the world saw a Star Wars movie was 1983's Return of the Jedi, and the movie nerd world was waiting impatiently for the franchise's return with "prequels" to the three original flicks, movies that would delve into the back story of the Galactic Empire and the Jedi and what the universe looked like before the evil Empire took over. The first one, The Phantom Menace, had so much hype behind it it couldn't possibly live up to the somewhat elevated expectations. And so TPM came and went, made a bunch of money, and split the Star Wars fanbase almost in half. There were people who loved TPM, and there were people who absolutely hated it and thought it "tarnished" the legacy of the original trilogy. It's an argument we're all still having today. I personally don't think it tarnished anything. I'll admit it was a somewhat odd way to start the story off, but, really, how else was it supposed to start?

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