9 Remakes

David Jimerson said:
Wouldn't exactly consider RoboCop "drama." Satire? Sure. Drama? No.

If there are films begging for a deeper meaning, RoboCop probably isn't one of them.
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So what is it? Documentary? Of course it's drama.
It's basic dramatic writing, you know this stuff I'm sure.
Drama = Conflict. No fiction is better than its drama, no matter the genre.

If you want to have a good movie, you gotta start there.
This is why Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Guillermo Del Torro make better films than Michael Bay, Len Wiseman and Paul WS Anderson. Those guys couldn't do drama if their lives depended on it.
 
Of course it has conflict, but it's not a drama. It's an action flick, and a satire. It's not the kind of movie Aronofsky does. And it's not ripe to be explored for something deeper. It is what it is.
 
David Jimerson said:
Of course it has conflict, but it's not a drama. It's an action flick, and a satire. It's not the kind of movie Aronofsky does. And it's not ripe to be explored for something deeper. It is what it is.
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We're talking about two different things here.
I said Aronofsky is great with drama, meaning he can really play conflict well in his movies and at the same time make us care about the characters as real people.

That's got nothing to do with any particular genre of drama, it's necessary in all of them. Including satire.

Drama doesn't mean "something deeper" is explored, although any well told story is either multi layered or is at least a retelling of a classic myth. Drama is just fictionalized conflict. It's metaphorical. That's where I think a lot of people get the "something deeper is explored" thing confused.
 
No, we're talking about the same thing. Aranofsky does a particular thing. RoboCop isn't it. RoboCop is light on drama, heavy on camp, action, and satire, three things Aronofsky doesn't do.

Any attempt to give RoboCop more drama would be an attempt to deepen it, and that just isn't RoboCop.
 
David Jimerson said:
No, we're talking about the same thing. Aranofsky does a particular thing. RoboCop isn't it. RoboCop is light on drama, heavy on camp, action, and satire, three things Aronofsky doesn't do.

Any attempt to give RoboCop more drama would be an attempt to deepen it, and that just isn't RoboCop.
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We'll just have to agree to disagree on the amount of layers in RoboCop I guess, but let's just for a moment say you're right here.

The same could then be said about Nolan and Batman, or for that matter Burton and Batman.
 
Not really. Not if you're familiar with the comic. If you were just going by the '60s TV show, maybe.

I didn't say RoboCop doesn't have layers. It just doesn't have what Aronofsky does.
 
Yep. All those remakes are bad ideas. It used to be that when a good remake was released, it was actually fun to watch. Some good ones that come to mind: Batman Begins, Dawn of the Dead, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Throw Momma From The Train, and Sleepy Hollow. Sure some of those might not be better than the originals, but at least they were clever or worthy in some way, or twisted expectations by changing genre (Throw Momma From The Train). The problem now is that we are getting way too many remakes every freaking second. At the frequency that all these remakes are released, the whole novelty of remakes should soon be as dead as the western or the old school Hollywood epic.

If Hollywood thinks they are going to get away with this for at most another decade, they've got some hard times ahead. I believe that audiences won't stand for it much longer. The younger generation/tomorrow's teens are going to tune out theatrical films and go directly to indies, TV, and video games. It will be like the hard times the music industry went through with Napster, iTunes, and all the digital download stuff back around 1999-2001, except caused by a different catalyst. So I doubt Hollywood will die or go away, but I think massive changes are in store over the next ten years.

David Jimerson said:
Wouldn't exactly consider RoboCop "drama." Satire? Sure. Drama? No.

If there are films begging for a deeper meaning, RoboCop probably isn't one of them.
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Action/Satire is what I've always thought of being Robocop's genre classification. Not really many films that combine those two elements. Verhoeven does action and satire pretty well, Starship Troopers for another example.

I wouldn't say Robocop isn't a deeper film than most other Hollywood films of the time. It certainly has more depth than most action films out there, both current and ones made in the past.
 
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I think remakes can be good when they bring something new to the table. In some cases, the remake was better than the original(s). More often than not, though, they are just a bad idea as this thread has pointed out.

Here are a few remakes I am glad were made:
No Way Out (The Big Clock - 1948)
The Thing
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Bedtime Story - 1963)
The Departed (Infernal Affairs)
3:10 to Yuma
Casino Royal
The Bourne Identity
Ocean's 11
Father of the Bride
Little Shop of Horrors.
 
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I have no problem with remakes if I like the original and the remake gets it right or close. "Starsky and Hutch" for example. Doing it as comedy was great and very entertaining. I'm looking forward to Karate Kid, they got the general premise correct and it looks good. They are teaching Kung Fu but the "Karate" in this sense of the word equates to martial arts like Kleenex is to facial tissue or Xerox is to copiers. It's brand name if you will.

Robocop I liked but could take or leave as a remake. I liked the A-team, but I'll be seeing the remake on DVD. I'd like to see a remake of American Ninja as an martial arts action comedy starring Owen Wilson and Michael Jai White with a cameo by Mike Dudikoff. The "Last Dragon" remake is welcome. I can do without the horror remakes though.

Also a remake of Pretty Woman with Megan Fox and Ben Stiller. (Yes a romcom).

-Nate
 
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