The Old School Otaku Lounge

I know Sam Jackson is involved with a production for a live-action "Kite" movie...something like that I suppose might translate well, but it could just seem like a typical American action flick after it's all said and done. I guess we'll see.

Personally, I don't like seeing all these "remakes" all the time...esp. when it's an American remake of something from another country. Most of the time, the remake is abysmal, so what's the point of even doing it? I keep hearing they're trying to make live action America adaptations of "Monster", "Death Note", and some people STILL seem hell-bent on doing a live-action "Akira" for some reason..."Monster" I could maybe see, since it's more of a psychological thriller and it takes place in Germany, mostly...but do we REALLY need American versions of Death Note or AKIRA of all things? XD Just seems silly.

"Cowboy Bebop"...if handled well, maybe it could be good. It's sci-fi enough that it could work with the right acting/special effects/etc. I just worry about the story and the casting choices, those would be crucial.

I HATE the very concept of making live-action adaptations of anime (unless we're talking an extremely rare (once in a blue moon) classic, like the recent Yamato movie). I watch anime because I like ANIMATION. It's bad enough that Hollywood is so bereft of ideas that they're making movies out of old TV shows, if you want to make a theatrical version of an animated show, make an ANIMATED MOVIE!

Oh, that's right. I first learned of this Cowboy Bebop movie in the back of a Hobby Japan magazine a year ago. Are they still going to go with Keanu Reeves to play Spike? I am not so sure about that, but if they have the money to throw at Keanu Reeves, I hope they have the money and resources to pull off a convincing movie.

Heero, I am with you. American Superhero movies are usually pretty great, and it translates well. Toys and video games, however, end up as horrible movie conversions. The problem with Americans playing anime characters is that they can only really make a decent attempt at recreating shows that do not really feature Japanese characters and/or involve a plot set in Japan and contains a lot of Japanese culture. When made by Japanese movie companies, they usually suffer from it not looking quite right (aside from Yamato, so many of these Japanese SF movies just look odd).

The problem with these movie adaptations (including the Yamato movie) is that nobody seems to understrand the reasoning of "if it ain't broken, don't try to fix it." Blue-skinned Gamilus would have been better than those monster thingies. The Cobra soldier uniforms and whatnot would have looked so much cooler in the G.I. Joe movie than the dumb designs they come up with. And ignoring the whole drooling moron Michael Bay crap, the Transformers movies would be significantly more forgivable if they had at least made some attempt to make the robots resemble their comics/cartoon character designs.

I'd rather watch a goofy movie by Asylum Pictures, because at least they are intentionally making bad movies. At least I got to relive my 6th grade Debbie Gibson fantasies when I watched Megashark vs. Giant Octopus.