Not All Remakes Are Bad

[TheMacB]

Here are my favorites:

Cape Fear (1991) by Scorsese
original: Cape Fear (1962) by J Lee Thompson
Scorsese brought back Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum and used Herrmann's original score

Ocean's Eleven (2001) by Soderbergh
original: Ocean's Eleven (1960) by Lewis Milestone
Thankfully, Soderbergh omitted the musical numbers. I can watch Sammy, Dean, and Frank sing and dance. Not sure how much I would enjoy Pitt and Clooney doing it.

Heaven Can Wait (1978) by Warren Beatty & Buck Henry
original: Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) by Alexander Hall
changed the boxer to a football player. Jack Warden is my boy!

Welcome to Collinwood (2002) by the Russo Bros.
original: Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) by Mario Monicelli
Pretty much the same movie. I like the invented crime lingo. Fun cast.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) by Hitchcock
original: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) by Hitchcock
add Jimmy Stewart :) But subtract Peter Lorre :(

[Richard J. Johnson]

I agree. I liked:

Heat
The Texas Chainsaw massacre
The Thing
I Am Legend
Cape Fear

[CallaghanFilms]

http://dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=82816&highlight=ladykillers
&
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=54538

Steve Martin has basically made a career outta making remakes. A few weren't bad reincarnations at all:
-Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (remake of Bedtime Story)
and
-Little Shop of Horrors was better than the original
but
Most have paled in comparison:
-The Out-of-Towners
-Cheaper By The Dozen
-The Pink Panther

A few remakes that were better than their parent film:
-The Thing over The Thing from Another World (even though James Arness' Thing was scary as hell)
-The Fly
-The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitch outdid himself with the Jimmy Stewart version)
-The Birdcage over La Cage aux folles
-Always over A Guy Named Joe
-The Magnificent Seven over The Seven Samurai (debatable)

However, most fall short of the picture that sired them:
-The Flight of the Phoenix
-Scarface
-Sabrina
-The End of the Affair
-Henry V
-The Ladykillers
-House On Haunted Hill
-The Manchurian Candidate
-Meet Joe Black over Death Takes A Holiday
...and so on and so forth

And some had no business EVER being remade:
-Mr. Deeds (Capra's classic Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is sacred stuff)
-Miracle on 34th Street
-Mighty Joe Young
-The Time Machine
-and of course Psycho :eek:WTF?!

[J.R. Hudson]

I toaly dig Van Zants remake Cal.

These come to mind

My fav remakes

Casino Royale
The Departed
3:10 to Yuma
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Cape Fear
Invasion of the BOdy Snatchers
Dawn of the Dead
Blowout
Scarface
The Fly
Little Shop of Horrors
The Bounty
Psycho
The Thin Red Line
The Thomas Crowne Affair
12 Monkeys
The Thing
War of the Worlds




My worst remakes

Carrie
King Kong
Ocean's Eleven
The Fog
I Am Legend
Planet of the Apes
Halloween
The Amityville Horror
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The INvasion
The Stepford Wives

[Nektonic]

The Good

THE THING
My favorite John Carpenter film, and I like a lot of his films.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990 remake)
Although the original is easily superior, this color version was still a lot of fun.

DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004 Zack Snyder remake)
This was really fun and well written in my opinion.

THE RING
I haven't seen the original Japanese version yet. Shame on me.

I AM LEGEND
While I did enjoy The Omega Man, I thought this films execution worked better for the premise.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978 Donald Sutherland one)
I love the original black and white version from the 50's as well.

TRUE LIES
Apparently a remake of a French film called La Totale, which I haven't seen but I liked James Cameron's attempt at lighter fare in this action comedy.

BATMAN BEGINS
Okay, not an official remake but a "re-imagining" of Batman and Gotham City. I liked this more than Burton's films, although the 1989 Batman is still great too.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2003 miniseries and 2004 - 2009 series)
Okay, not a film but simply amazing and riveting epic science fiction drama. The producers call it a re-imagining, but that's just another term for remake. Either way, this show, next to Mad Men on AMC is the best show I think I've seen on television. Easily better than Star Wars -- even the original trilogy. Yep, it's that good.


The Bad

BODY SNATCHERS (1993)
Another remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

DUNE (2000 miniseries)
I actually enjoyed the acting and script, and the production design and costumes were inspired, but they just didn't have the budget to do Dune properly. Needs to be done with a real budget and a director that knows epics and sci-fi = Ridley Scott?

INDEPENDENCE DAY
Basically a disguised War of the Worlds done in the modern world. A guilty pleasure for sure, but could have been so much better if it was treated seriously throughout the entire running time of the film. Randy Quaid's character was too much. Much too much.

WAR OF THE WORLDS (Spielberg's 2005 version)
I hate to put this one in here because I liked many aspects of this film, and can sit and watch it as a popcorn film. I mean, it's Spielberg. The overall directing is fine. The problems for me were: the heavy-handed commentary on the aliens representing terrorism, the flawed logic -- alien war machines buried beneath the surface for millions of years, and the fact that the alien's war machines just never seemed like they would really be capable of causing so much destruction. They seemed dated. While HG Well's novel is excellent and one of the seeds of the science fiction genre, the transposition of his story into the 21st century just doesn't work as well as one would think. I feel that it would have been much more fascinating to see this done as a genuine period war film taking place in England at the dawn of the 20th century, which is the setting of the novel. It would just happen to have Martians in it.


and The Ugly

No explanations needed, these just flat out did not work, had no business being remade, or in some cases the original is too good to waste time on watching a remake when one could just watch something fresh and original.

Planet of the Apes
The Invasion
The Stepford Wives
The Texas Chainsaw Masscre
Point of No Return (remake of La Femme Nikita)


Ill-Advised Upcoming Remakes and Adaptations

Yes, some of these are real. Look away if you are squeamish.

1984 -- for the love of God, if someone has to do a remake of this, then at least move it into the future and change the name to 2084. 1984 has come and gone 24 years ago Hollywood.
Escape From New York
Dune (without Ridley Scott)
Robocop
Red Dawn
The Birds
Guitar Hero III -- yes, Brett Ratner wants to do a Guitar Hero movie, and since you probably still don't believe me, click this link (http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26569806&part=rss&subj=6197030)


Just an opinion

This list is just what springs to mind. I am sure I could find many more that would fit into one of the three categories above. Now, I am not a complete remake hater. I think that if produced in sensible moderation with original stories that remakes are fine and can be a lot of fun. The problem is that the current Hollywood trend to just remake everything and to push original stories and voices to the wayside is a huge mistake. The reasoning being that when they have completely alienated all of the real writers, who by then if not off writing novels might be busy doing their own films with RED ONE's or Scarlets or whatever equivalent camera gear is available, and the audiences are tired of the remakes and adaptations, then what do they do? I can already see this causing the quality of writing to be going down presently, but just think how bad it will be 5 or 10 years from now if this remake craziness continues and multiplies, not unlike the pods from the Body Snatcher films which have been remade 3 times already.

Now the basic idea of a doing a remake is not bad. When this idea is abused beyond any sense of logic then I'm sorry but I have to protest. Personally the incessant amount of remakes and adaptations has made me question if I should even attempt to break into the Hollywood system. Why on earth would any sane writer pour their heart, soul, and mind into writing a feature spec when the studios aren't even interested in buying specs anymore? When the studios aren't even interested in original ideas, how will we get the next Star Wars, the Matrix, Terminator, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Titanic? How about The Incredibles, Lawrence of Arabia (if they remake this I swear I'll go ballistic), Juno, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, The Sixth Sense, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart, Gladiator, etc? All box office hits that were original specs or pitches. But the times we live in when Guitar Hero III is a possible big budget film, then I'm sorry but I have to really consider switching my focus to novels or short stories if I am going to write something original. Otherwise it seems like a waste of time.

I understand that Hollywood does need to make money. I understand that audiences want to be entertained, but come on. They have a higher obligation to the audience that fills their pockets with cash. I mean, making movies is not the same as manufacturing Twinkies or underwear. If you are lucky enough to work in a position that allows you to influence which films get made and which ones do not, then I'm sorry but if all you think of is the money then you really suck as a human being. Do the kind of people that green light a Guitar Hero movie or Red Dawn remake really deserve to be in the film industry at all? There are many other ways to make money.

[Dingos8mybaby]

Loved it! (Enjoyed these over the originals)
His Girl Friday
Holiday
A Fistful of Dollars
The Maltese Falcon
Hairspray
The Departed
Flesh Gordon (spoof)
My Fair Lady


Hated it... (Didn't enjoy as much as the originals)

The Grinch
Halloween
Flubber
Guess Who
Tortilla Soup
Swept Away
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Parent Trap
The Omen
Night of the Living Dead

Can a spoof be considered a remake?
Does it matter if a work crosses over into different media (from a novel into a play, or from a cartoon into a movie)?