Hugin wrote:

1. The Van Sant Psycho remake.

I'm not against remakes, or reimaginings, or reboots, or whatever. But if you're going to tackle one of the all time greats, have a reason. I'm not picky. It could be as hacky as "Let's examine the same themes but with an all black/female/robot cast" It could be "Wouldn't it be awesome with updated special effects." (though this is not a free pass either, we really do not need any more King Kongs).

It could be "Let's redo this Cold War allegory as a middle east tension/global warming allegory, can switching the bogeyman from Communism to Islam/climate change reveal anything interesting?" But just a pretty much shot for shot redo? Why? It's a no win situation. It cannot possibly surpass the original by being essentially a traced copy of the original, and it's not weird/wacky/charming enough to be interesting even as a thought experiment.

2. All torture porn movies.

I dismiss the hand wringing of cultural conservatives when they talk about the entertainment industry being corrupt or evil or whatever, except when I get to this stuff. I just cannot engage with it. I just cannot understand what people are thinking when they fund it, or write it, or film it, or agree to act in it, or pay money to see it. I worry about the people who enjoy it. Reasonable people acknowledge that some speech is so irresponsible or so lacking in social value that it isn't protected by the first amendment, and while I would never legislate against these kinds of movies, for me personally they cross the line.

3. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

There are a lot of movies and TV shows like this, but I saw this one recently and it's a particular clearly defined version: The plot of this movie is basically two attractive women behaving demeaningly and ridiculously against each other and themselves in order to win the attentions of an unremarkable man.