I detest remakes. It shows such a lack of respect for the original material and really demonstrates the lack of creativity in Hollywood. Especially when they do things far more for contractual reason rather than creative (see Amazing Spider-man). That being said, there is a movie that SHOULD be remade in my opinion. It’s the 1959 Peter Sellers film THE MOUSE THAT ROARED. Basically the movie is about a tiny European nation that has one export, a wine that their entiry economy is based on. An American company makes cheap knock off and puts the country (3 miles by 5 miles, barely even a town) in jeopardy. Their politicians decide to declare war on the United States in the hopes that the U.S. will defeat them and rebuild their country – a theme far more prevalent today than when the movie came out.

When they send knights in armor to New York to declare war, their army of 12 accidentally take captive a military general, a nuclear physicist, his daughter and a nuclear bomb. They end up winning the war they intended to lose.

Again, the themes are meant to be comedic, but they hit home far too close in that we have been at war with a dozen or so tiny nations that we then rebuilt in our own image. The film itself, being over 50 years old, looks very dated. Peter Sellers kills it as no less than 3 lead characters, including a queen. Normally, I’d say Peter Sellers films in particular are untouchable (still have never seen Steve Martin’s PINK PANTHER, and have no intention of EVER EVER EVER seeing it) and sacrilege to remake – but THE MOUSE THAT ROARED needs to be remade.

Old school satire is on it’s way back. Humor that requires thought never goes out of style. THE MOUSE THAT ROARED was based on a book, which had a prequel and several sequels. Sadly, they made one of the sequels, Richard Lester (Hard Day’s Night/Help) directed THE MOUSE ON THE MOON.

No sequels. Just remake the original. Mike Myers, get on this. It will revitalize your career.

YOUTUBE CLIP FOR PJR BLOG:

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Peter John Ross

A filmmaker, a dreamer, and the world's only Dan Akroyd Cosplayer

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