You might be tempted to check out the new blockbuster, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (2008), if you go to the movies this weekend.

Except that it’s not actually new.

In fact, it’s a remake of the 1951 version of the same name.

These days, you are hard pressed to find a list of movie releases that does not include at least one remake of a film no one is old enough to recall or a film basically ripped off from overseas.

The widely successful “The Departed” (2006) won numerous awards, including Oscars for “Best Motion Picture” and “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.”

Yet, it was a blatant rip off of the Taiwanese film, “Infernal Affairs” (2002).

So much for “Best Writing.” The only thing “adapted” was the language.

Don’t get me wrong.  “The Departed” was wonderfully cast, with big names like Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mark Wahlberg, performing superbly, as one should expect.

But it doesn’t change the fact the film wasn’t original or even adapted.

And “The Departed” is not the only rip-off.

“The Eye,” “Shutter,” and “Bangkok Dangerous” are all taken from Asian movies of the same name.

When I dish out $11 for a movie, I usually want to see something I haven’t seen before, unless, of course, I’m on a date. Then it doesn’t really matter.

But it’s not hard to figure out what is behind this Hollywood trend. Cinema is a multi-million dollar industry. And its main concern is money:  how to make it and how to spend the least amount in doing so.

It is cost-effective to make a movie that has already been made. All the studio must worry about is how to update it or how to make it appealing to American audiences.

So when you’re out filming your home movies or posting up a new YouTube video, just be careful:  Hollywood might decide to remake it.