Bad Movie Remake

 

Hollywood doesn’t make a lot of original movies. It’s not for a lack of creative writers though. The movie industry has some incredibly talented writers in fact. Original content is scarce because most of the original movies that do get made, don’t succeed. Hundreds of movies are produced every year, which means thousands of scripts never get their chance to shine. Most movies these days are literary adaptations, franchises, or reboots/remakes.

One movie I would love to see rebooted/remade is the 1991 flop, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. It’s not a particularly good movie, but it does have some good qualities to it. The movie stars Mickey Rourke, Don Johnson, Daniel Baldwin, and Tom Sizemore. The basic plot as described by IMDB.Com is as follows:

[“Tough biker Harley and his no less tough cowboy friend Marlboro learn that an old friend of theirs is losing his bar, because a bank wants to build a new complex there and demands 2.5 million dollars for a new contract in advance. Harley and Marlboro decide to help him by robbing the corrupt bank. Unfortunately they rob the wrong safety transport and get ahold of a new synthetic drug, instead of money. Now they are targeted both by criminal bankers and killers of the drug mob.”]

Done right, this movie could be a success. Heist movies are typically cheap. They also can transcend age ratings. A good heist movie could be PG-13 or Rated R. Think about some of the best heist movies ever; Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job, Fast and Furious, etc. As a one-off or franchise a new version of Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man could work. Get some popular lead actors, write some witty dialogue, have some memorable stunts and chases, include some beautiful women, and wrap it around an awesome soundtrack. BOOM! Rake in the cash.

Obviously if it was that easy, it would have been done by now. Perhaps the reason it hasn’t been repackaged though, is because the movie isn’t well known. It didn’t do well at the box office and it didn’t receive great ratings from critics. The only reason I know of the movie is because I watched it plenty of times as a child on VHS. I watched it so many times in fact that I remember the whole movie by heart even after not watching it in years. That is how I am able to see so much potential in it.