Reboots vs. Remakes: Understanding Movie Lingo

 There's yet another misunderstanding in language that's on the rise at the moment.  Being able to distinguish what movie is a remake or a reboot.  In some cases, people are confused about which is which, and in other cases they seem to be using the words interchangeably, as if they meant the same thing.  But that's the thing - they don't.  So in today's blog, I'm here to set things straight to avoid any further confusion.

REMAKES - When a movie is receiving the remake treatment, it means that it's going to be a new version of what we already have.  In the musical sense, a remake is basically a cover.

For example: The original 1976 movie, "Carrie" starring Sissy Spacek got its remake in the form of the 2013 adaption starring Chloë Grace Moretz.  And that's another key word to look out for - adaption.

Another example: The 1971 original of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" starring Gene Wilder getting its remake in 2005 with Johnny Depp.

It's basically the same film.  Mostly shot for shot, but not in all cases.  It tells the same story, but with a different cast.  The script isn't always word for word, but you get the idea.

REBOOTS - To understand movie reboots, you need to know the dictionary definition of the word:

 

As you can see from the screenshot above, under the list of verbs you can see one that states a reboot as a form of restarting or reviving something.  In other words, it's a completely different thing to what we already have.  A new story.

 

Example: The "Ghostbusters" franchise now has 4 movies in total.  However, only 3 of those are what the movie industry calls "canon" - following a particular series of stories and events to tell an even bigger story.  In this case, "Ghostbusters" from 1984, "Ghostbusters II" from 1989 and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" from 2021 are all a part of the same timeline.  "Afterlife" may be the 4th movie made, but it's basically the third in the story.

 

The 2016 version of "Ghostbusters" - the one with the female cast - is considered a reboot.  It doesn't follow any timelines attached to the previous 2 movies.

 

Another example: The 1995 movie, "Judge Dredd" starring Sylvester Stallone was rebooted in 2012 as "Dredd" and starred Kiwi actor, Karl Urban as the lead role.  "Dredd" is not one of those cheap, unwanted sequels that had a different cast to the original (that's another movie topic for later).  It's a separate story detached from the Stallone version, as if it never happened.  That is how reboots work...it is the law! 😜

MIXING IT UP - In some rare cases, you may have a movie franchise that likes to tell stories that are canon, and yet it doesn't really matter that much about the order in which you watch certain ones.

For example: "The Matrix" franchise now has 4 movies with its recent addition in 2021, "The Matrix Resurrections".  However, there is a 5th title attached - "The Animatrix" (2003).

In this case, you can get away with binge watching the 4 live action movies from the 1999 film to the most recent and not worry too much about "The Animatrix" and at what point you should throw it in there (but if you're going to, I would recommend watching it before the 2021 film).  "The Animatrix" is kind of a stand-alone movie, as it's just a collection of 9 animated short stories in the Matrix universe that help explain some of the origin stories and lore behind it, to give you a better understanding of things.  But in the end, you can get away with not watching it if you didn't want to.

WHEN BECOMES A HOT MESS & CONFUSING - On some occasions, you might get a franchise that likes to use a weird combination of both reboots AND remakes in a strange series of events that mess with your mind.  They don't necessarily have confusion in mind when telling the story, but when the following example does it, it kind of gets a little out of control.

In the case of this example, a part of the confusion is due to its heavy emphasis on time travel.  The possibility of various versions of the future based on past/present events, and the fact they've had a LOT of movies so far, it's easy to get lost in all that information and go, "What?  Where and when does this happen, and how is it relevant to this?  I'm so confused!"

"The Terminator" started off in 1984 as a potential throw-away B-grade 80's sci-fi, but it got so popular that it would become a franchise through its 1991 sequel, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", which was obviously a smash hit.  After its success as one of the greatest sequels of all time, it was unknowingly on its way to becoming a very confusing series of films.

In 2003, people were excited to see that "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" was coming.  Needless to say, it wasn't as great as the first 2 films, but it was entertaining either way.  Also, no Edward Furlong?  There is no other John Connor (apart from the older version in the opening scene to T2).  Then the franchise continued in 2009 with Christian Bale in "Terminator: Salvation".  This one got mixed reviews as it wasn't quite the adaption of the future war we were expecting.  However, it was the release of the next movie that made it all messy...

"Terminator: Genesys" in 2015 came along and started to shake things up by having future versions of the original characters going back in time to as far back as 1984, during the events of the first movie.  This idea alone should be considered a sign that things are about to get out of control when it comes to holding all that information in your head.  What you watched in the first movies was about to get thrown out the window, if not walked upon.  By the end of this reboot within a sequel within an original film (see what I mean?), you're wondering what the heck just happened.  Also, there was a post-credits scene that hinted towards another sequel to follow, but the actual follow-up we got went in a completely different direction...again.

"Terminator: Dark Fate" in 2019 decided to push the reboot button, taking you back to the end of "T2" and basically removing the existence of "T3" and beyond at this point.  Therefore, making this franchise have both remakes and reboots as one big, happy and massively dysfunctional family.

CONCLUSION

So, a summary of what is and what isn't a reboot/remake.

A remake is a retelling of the same story from either a different or the same perspective, but with different cast members.

A reboot is a completely new story altogether as if the originals never happened.

So, next time you discuss movie franchises, look further into whether or not the story of the newer films fit with the older ones.  That way you should be able to tell what's what and how you should watch them if you wish to binge them at any point.  In short, "remake" and "reboot" are NOT the same thing, ladies and gentlemen.  Knowing this will make discussions run a lot smoother and be easier to understand.

FOOTNOTE

If you want my advice on the order in which to binge watch the movies I've mentioned above, here's an overview:

"Ghostbusters" - 1984, 1989, 2021 (you can get away with not watching the 2016 reboot - I hear it was bad anyway).

"The Matrix" - 1999, "Reloaded", "Revolutions", "Resurrections" ("Animatrix" can go anywhere before "Resurrections").

"Terminator" - Timeline #1: 1984, "T2", "T3", "Salvation"; Timeline #2: 1984, "T2", "Dark Fate" (I wouldn't even bother with "Genesys").

As for remakes and original versions, it doesn't matter what order to watch them.  They're the same story anyway.

The Unfriended

If you've been using social media long enough, you have most likely experienced this.  You have a connection with someone you met in either real life or online.  Things go well for so many years.  You see their posts in your news feed once in a while.  Then at some point, without really thinking about it at first, you realise that you haven't heard from them for some time.  Concerned for your friend's well-being, you decide to look at their profile to see if they're OK.  To your surprise - depending on their account settings - you see they have indeed shared posts in recent days/hours, but only ones set for public viewing.  Then moments later, you realise as your eyes move towards a particular area of their profile page (it may differ depending on which social media platform you're on), the truth is staring at you in the face - the "Add Friend" button has returned.

 

By this time you begin to hear Take That playing in your head.  "Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it.  I just want you back for good."

But your mind also very soon starts to think about how offended you are that someone you thought was fairly close (in some cases) would decide to ditch you without saying why.  You begin to contemplate some of the most recent posts you shared and whether it may have triggered something.  In the end, you're never really sure if that's what happened though, because you don't know when they decided to unfriend you in the first place.  If it was a post you shared, it could've been days, weeks or even months ago, and I know you're not going to spend the next few hours going back on the posts you shared that far back, just for the sake of figuring out what went wrong.  So, you're now left with a choice between 2 options:

1. Confront them.  Send a message to them in private.  It's not like you can comment on their posts anyway (some profiles may have public posts, but the ability to comment can be limiting if it's for friends only).  Now, this option could go either way.  On the optimistic side, you might actually come to an understanding of what happened.  And who knows?  You might actually convince them to reconnect with you.  Maybe it was a misunderstanding on their part and they made a decision without thinking about it, or even talking to you about it in the first place.  In which case, it's on them.  Communication is a very important part of a friendship, people.  Start talking!  But on the pessimistic side, however, it could open a very messy can of worms.  Maybe there was a big issue there somewhere, and instead of resolving it, it makes things worse.  It's not very common that it goes in this direction though.  If anything negative were to happen as a result of your approach, the worst that could happen is that you don't get a response - or maybe they decide to block you (if their profile seems to have disappeared at this point, this is a sign that they've gone that far).

2. Let it slide.  In a lot of cases, sometimes it's probably for the best that you let it remain a mystery and leave them alone.  If you've taken the time to weigh the pros and cons of confronting them, you may have come to this decision for the sake of not coming across as pushy and demanding.  If you know your friends well enough, you may be able to name a few who might read too much into things, and if those friends have unfriended you, you probably agree that they might react that way.  So, the best thing to do in this case is to just step back.  You never know, they might (and that's a big might) decide to send you a friend request in the future.  Maybe they just needed to cool off for a bit?  We don't know everything our friends are going through, no matter how much they may post online.  Social media has a reputation of people who overshare, but believe it or not, those who are notorious of this behaviour do still have their own secrets.

You're probably wondering why I'm talking about this subject.  Why does it matter to me so much?  It's simple.  I've been at the receiving end of the dreaded unfriending without warning.  More than once.

I'm not going to be outing anyone here, but I am hoping that if those who have unfriended me for whatever reason sees this post, maybe it'll get them to think about their actions.  To make sure that they know it's them if they do see this blog post, I will share a few experiences of my own regarding this topic.  Experiences that are somewhat unique to those people.  They were there at the other end of the conversation, so they should know if what I'm about to share is to do with them or not, even though I'm making them anonymous.

Case #1

This person was somebody I met in my final year of high school.  I was in my final year, they were in their first.  It was an interesting introduction.  Long story short, we found we had a mutual love for the TV series, "The Young Ones".  After I left high school, we reconnected a few years later through a now defunct website called OldFriends.co.nz.  We interacted via e-mail from time to time for years to follow, until we discovered social media, gradually joining a number of them until we found Facebook and Instagram.

Fast forward to sometime in the past couple years or so.  There was something I wanted to share with them that I thought they might like (probably something Young Ones related), only to find that their Facebook profile had seemingly vanished.  However, I did notice their Instagram page was still there, so I decided to send them a private message, simply stating that I hadn't seen them on FB in a while.  Moments later, it seemed that my ability to message them had also gone AWOL.  Soon after this, her husband - whom I had also been connected with on FB - sent me a message through FB Messenger.

Long story short, the reason for her removing our connection and eventual blocking was because she misinterpreted my actions on FB.  Those actions?  Liking a lot of her posts/photos she shared.  She thought I was doing it a lot in a short space of time.  In reality, I only like a post I enjoy if it pops up in my news feed.  I don't go to people's profiles and "like bomb" their notifications.  That's not how I do things.  If I were on the receiving end of someone who actually does that, I'd get annoyed too.  So, why would I go ahead and do what I wouldn't wish to receive?  The truth is that I only ever liked her posts as they appeared in my news feed.  It's not my fault if many of them came up within a short space of time.  Maybe she shouldn't have posted so much?  Either way, she misread this as me being a FB stalker, which is bollocks.  We were connected with each other for a little more than 20 years(!!!) before this happened.  Why would I start behaving like that all of a sudden?  And to top it off, why didn't she just talk to me about it instead of triggering the need to get her husband to speak for her?  I repeat what I said earlier - communication is important!

Because of all of this, I ended up blocking her husband after trying to get my side of the story through to them.  So, thanks to her misinterpretation and poor decision making, I lost 2 friends that day.  The thing I hate the most about it though is that I can't look at her name or school photo in the yearbook we share without getting a little angry.  It seems this particular situation offended me deeply, like I had been betrayed or something, and all because of a little misunderstanding that could've been resolved if she had just talked to me in a civil manner.  If you want my interpretation of this, all it shows is that she may have some insecurities of her own to deal with, and if you're the person I'm talking about (based on the unique details I've shared), I'd take that into consideration before you end up taking it out on another innocent bystander.

Case #2

This one won't be as detailed as the previous one, I promise.  If anything, that one was the big kahuna of all the unfriending situations I've experienced in recent years.  The next one won't be as big a case.

I met this person at a small gathering I went to sometime in 2019, not too long before the pandemic hit.  This event was with some people I was already a friend of by this time, and they had some people attending that I hadn't met before.  So, a connection with potential new friends was possible.  And that's what happened.  This one person in particular was someone I teamed up with while playing a particular game (it was a dinner and board games kind of event).  Thinking they seemed like a fun person, I decided to add them on FB after I went home.

Jump forward to the first few weeks/months of NZ first going into lockdown in 2020.  At some point I discovered that they had unfriended me after only a few months.  I decided to approach them in private, using a polite manner, etc, asking if I had said something wrong.  Their answer was something along the lines of them "not knowing me very well".  So I decided to be nice about it and left the conversation with a response like, "I understand.  Perhaps another time in the future."  Deep down, however, my mind was screaming at them - "Well, isn't Facebook one of the ways to get to know somebody better, especially during a lockdown?"  I still stand by those words 2 years later.  If you can't connect in person, how else are you going to get to know someone other than social media?

Case #3 & #4

Because this blog has gone for so long, I'm going to end on 2 former friends that know each other (online only).  I'll try and keep this one short.

In my early days of having my own personal Internet connection (when I moved into my own home in the year 2000), I met both of these people in a now defunct chatroom called Excite (a.k.a. VP or Virtual Places).  The first (Case #3) was a girl from Melbourne, Australia, and they introduced me to the second (Case #4), a girl from the US state of Indiana.  These would be my first 2 online friends that I would never meet in person, and the only 2 to stay connected with me for close to 2 decades.

The fall of Case #1's friendship with me wasn't actually a discovery like the others in this blog entry.  This fallout took place as a result of political differences (seriously, people, don't let politics get in the way of your livelihood).  I don't know the full details, but they seemed to have taken it all too personally about what was going on between NZ and Australia in the first few months of the lockdown in 2020.  There were a few posts I shared about what the NZ government was doing, etc, but at one point, Case #1 commented on it in a way that seemed like it could trigger a political argument.  If not with me, one of my other friends, maybe.  I don't like these arguments, so in an attempt to prevent it from starting a flame war in the comments of one of my posts and endless notifications (which can be annoying, by the way), I removed her comment altogether.  I'm not sure how many times I did this, but it can't be any more than 2 occasions.  It might have been just the once, but I don't remember that far back.  Either way, this led to her sending me a rather fired-up message in private about it.  Not being in the mood to respond to a message of that nature at the time, I deleted it from my end of the Messenger conversation instead.  I'm not sure if she knew or not, but it wasn't long after this that she unfriended and blocked me.

All of that took place only a few months before we were to acknowledge the fact that our friendship was approaching the 20-year mark.  The fact that she let politics destroy the bond that we had offended me quite deeply.  So, if this story is about you and you can see this, you need to grow up.  Why let the governmental system make such an impact on your friendships like that?  What my government does has nothing to do with me as a person.  Get over yourself!

As for Case #4, this was completely out of the blue.  Our friendship lasted longer than Case #3 (obviously), but in the past year or so she decided to vanish also.  No blocking though, just the lack of connection.  It sucks because we do have some good memories.  In fact, we share a musical collaboration together.  So, if you are also out there reading this, I'm not going to make the first move this time, like I have done with others in the past.  I would like to know what made you decide to do that, but I'm not going to do that on social media.  If you see this, you know how to get hold of me in private.

So yeah, I'll wrap this up now.  I think we can all agree that there's too much misunderstanding in this world, and lack of communication is one of the key reasons why it's happening on such a large scale.

Duckman's final thought - start talking.  I will use the title of my latest n-Somnia EP as a word of advice: "Stop Fighting, Start Writing".

April Fool's Day 2022 - The Review

 Everywhere you go, there's always somebody who wants to be a comedian.  Therefore, every year on April 1st, they all come together for one purpose - to make people laugh.  Sure, there are those who do pranks for the sake of humiliation - whether it's to put shame upon others or to cause pain - but those people aren't funny.  It's the ones that make something funny who should be celebrated, and if it's good enough to fool people (at least until 12pm that same day), then they've earned some extra points.  But overall, if you can laugh at it for a long time after the event, you've struck comedy gold.

Below is a list of posts I have hand-picked from Facebook that I think are among the best I've seen in years.  People (or in this case, companies and organisations) have been extra creative and clever in 2022, so I felt that they deserve some recognition.  So without further delay, here are some screenshots (and a few of my own thoughts):

 

1. TVNZ on Demand / The Bachelor

We all know about the TV series, "The Bachelor".  The show watched by women who hate men that see multiple women at once, despite the fact that the show is exactly that (don't ask me why - must be a girl thing).  But, can you imagine "The Chase" / "Beat the Chasers" host, Bradley Walsh being the star of the show, and not the host?  Neither can I.

 

 

In addition to this, they temporarily changed their page logo to...

 

 

2. The Australian Food Shop

 

 Ever wondered what Vegemite tastes like as a drink?  No, neither have I.

 

 

 

3. SAFE.org.nz

 

Why buy the cow, am I right?

 

 

 

4. Reading Cinemas (The Palms)

 

Don't expect this to be fully widescreen.

 

 

 

 

5. Pizza Hut

 

If it's chicken pepperoni, I'm sold.

 

 

 

6. NZ Police

 

Our police force has a bit of a reputation on social media for some witty posts from time to time, so April Fool's Day is definitely a time for them to shine.

 

 

 

 7. Night 'n Day

From the chain of convenience stores comes a fake product to challenge the Australian Food Shop's entry mentioned earlier.

 

 

 

 

8.  Mt. Smart Stadium

The only entry in this list from a performance venue, this one definitely had some thought put into it.

 

 

 

 

9. McDonald's

 

This would be sooooo gross.

 

 

 

 

 

 10. Hornby - Greater Hornby Residents Association Inc.

 

FYI, the suburb of Hornby is not in the countryside. 

 

 

 

11. Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa

 

Apparently, this one fooled quite a number of people.  Not me though.

 

 

 

 

12. Gregg's Sauces

 

Not sure if this one really counts as a prank as it appears to be more of a question.  Either way, it's not your average post from Gregg's.

 

 

 

 

13. Golden Sun Jalapeño Peppers

This one fooled a few people as well.  Such comments as "What's the point?", for example.  If this were real, they'd probably use capsicum.  Just saying.

 

 

 

14. Goat Simulator

 

Even video game developers got into it this year.  Can you imagine this being real?

 

 

 

 

15. FMG

 

Rural insurance company, FMG popped up in my news feed in the form of a sponsored post.  This time suggesting the use of leashes on sheep.  This is probably the most Kiwi one of the bunch.

 

 

 

16. Cookie Time

 

This one is probably cashing in on a post we saw within the last few months, suggesting that McDonald's in China were selling coriander ice cream sundaes.  Either way, it's a no from me, dawg.  Thank goodness this is fake.

 

 

 

17. Christchurch Casino

 

FYI, people outside of NZ, this is not legit Kiwi cuisine.  It's not only fake, but an abomination.  But since we're on the subject, kiwifruit or pineapple on pizza?  It's not as bad now that I've put it out there, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

18. Burger King 

Similar to the McDonald's post.  In fact, the posts were a few hours apart.  Makes you wonder if the people at BK saw the Macca's one and had to scramble for ideas.  Since we're asking questions (re: #17), would you want to try these ones or the McDonald's one (Mac sauce)?

 

 

 

 

19. Briscoes

 

Even the Briscoes Lady got involved.  Ned Flanders would've been devastated if he saw this one!

 

 

 

20. Beef and Lamb New Zealand 

The prank in this one was more about the cooking instructions, with the joke being that most people seem to like their meat anywhere between rare and medium well done.  They seem to hate on anyone who like it well done or well and truly dead.  If you're asking, I personally like it between medium well and well done (the pink gone, but still juicy).

 

 

 

 

21. Armadillos Restaurants

You know what?  I actually like this idea.

22. Wattie's

You'll always be a Kiwi / Weet-Bix kid if you love our Wattie's sauce & beans.

 

 

 

 

23. Vogel's

 

Local bread company, Vogel's suggested that we try their take on the traditional dessert (bread & butter pudding).

 

 

 

24. The Hub Hornby

The final entry on this list is an obviously fake energy-saving technique by local shopping centre, The Hub Hornby, using a new form of hydroelectricity through the use of toilets.  I tell you what though, and I speak from my experience as a mall slave...I mean cleaner (and no, not at the Hub, by the way) - the number of times the urinals flush automatically throughout the day, you probably could generate some power.  It's just a shame that they take power to automatically flush.  So yeah, this was an obvious fake.

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed this year's entries for April Fool's Day as much as I have witnessed it.  This was actually kind of fun, so I may end up doing this again next year, depending on the contestants out there.

 

Bring on April Fool's Day 2023!