Remakes- the good, the bad, and the awful!

How much description does it take, when the whole thing is called "Movies", hm...?
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  Remakes- the good, the bad, and the awful!

Post by Tyler Blake »

I thought I would open this thread up because there were references recently to the remakes of I Am Legend and The Andromeda Strain. So, just for fun- what is the worst remake you can think of? And why?
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Post by Morten Aalykke Pedersen »

Would have to be my wedding..... means i get my mother in law for the second time.... The wife should be welcome
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Post by Ron May »

If this includes TV series turned into movies, I would have to say, "The Wild Wild West". It was horrible.

Movies, "Roller Ball".
There's tons more but this one pops up at this time.

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Post by Tyler Blake »

Morten, :)
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Post by Tyler Blake »

Off the top of my head:

I Am Legend with Will Smith- because they took one of the greatest vampire novels of all time and made it about angry computer generated bald people. Also, they watered down the character's suffering - Will Smith's Robert Neville got off easy. The movie contradicted itself horribly- all the bridges to Manhattan are destroyed, but the girl hears his radio broadcast and drives from Rhode Island.... does the writer know what an "island" is? And they go on about how they've degenerated to the point where there's no social construct but there is an alpha male and they have somehow domesticated bald computer generated rage infected dogs. Bleh!

The Time Machine with Guy Pearce- as with most remakes, they changed the main idea of the story, and the worst thing about this, is that it was directed by H.G. Wells grandson. I had hopes that he would have respect for his grandfather's great story, but No.


I'll come back to this later....
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Post by Ron May »

I googled movie remakes that failed in doing so, I would have to add these too :

Total Recall, Psycho, Godzilla, Poseidon Adventure, Robo Cop, and The Thing.

The most egregious of these to me were, Godzilla, Psycho, and The Thing.

Godzilla because it was a ground breaking classic in special effects.

The Thing because it didn't need to be remade. It's first pre-release title was "Halt Who Goes There".

Last but not least, Psycho. It did not have to be remade to "make it relevant to today's youth". This is a clear arguably one of the best classic suspense thrillers of all time. How can you improve on that?

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Post by Robert Gage »

Ron May wrote:Last but not least, Psycho. It did not have to be remade to "make it relevant to today's youth". This is a clear arguably one of the best classic suspense thrillers of all time. How can you improve on that?
Ron, I am convinced that most of these re-makes are due to poverty of imagination. If people would only think, and use their imaginative faculties, they'd be coming up with new, original films....

One re-make I have seen was 'Red Dawn'. The original, with Patrick Swayze, was based on a fairly idiotic idea, but had a certain 'class' to it. The remake was so utterly boring that I turned it half way through....
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Post by Tyler Blake »

Ron, I completely agree about Psycho- if they wanted to remake it, I feel the thing to do would make a version that more closely matched the book, instead of trying to ape Hitchcock.

Which Godzilla remake do you mean?

And, I have to nerd duel with you about The Thing- that was not a remake, but a prequel. If you pay close attention, there are several clues that it is set in the 80's...for instance, the girl listening to music on a walkman. In John Carpenter's The Thing, it opens up with the scientists from, I believe, a Swedish installation coming after the dog. The prequel was leading up to that opening. I read the original short story "Who Goes There?" And it is Awesome! I would love it if they made a movie that followed that more closely.
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Post by Ron May »

Mr. Robert, I agree totally with the laziness part.
I loved "Red Dawn".
It's not as far fetched as one might think.
I agree the remake was a snooze fest though.

I also think that it's all about the money.
Someone trying to cash in on the previous hits name, branding and reputation.

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Post by Ron May »

I stand corrected. I was even wrong about the title of the book.

"The thing From Another World" (1951) , staring James Arness as The Thing, is the one that I consider the original.
It is based on the 1938 book, 'Who Goes There?' by John W. Campbell (writing under the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart).

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Post by Robert Gage »

Ron May wrote:Mr. Robert, I agree totally with the laziness part.
I loved "Red Dawn".
It's not as far fetched as one might think.
I agree the remake was a snooze fest though.
Ron, I don''t mean I didn't like it. I did! It's just that, given America's satellite warning devices, etc., the sheer improbability of a surprise assault on the scale portrayed in that film requited a particularly large 'suspension of disbelief'! :)
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Post by Rachel McCollough »

How many Alamo movies are there??
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Post by Sven van Leeuwen »

I don't know which movies are all remakes but I do remember Robocop and Total Recall, as mentioned by Ron, to be very good examples.

I remember the original RoboCop very well and have watched it many times, I even have it in my collection. I also watched the remake, but can't remember a single detail of it.
I do remember thinking that it was fun to watch, as a one time evening filler, nothing more nothing less.

I like the original Total Recall and watched the remake not so long ago. I remember thinking how it could be a remake, they changed so much in the story. The original had such a good ending, whether it was all a dream or not, I don't remember the remake to be anything like that.

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Post by Jeff Roseborough »

The remake of Dune I found to be much better than the original, although I liked them both, especially the final fight between Kyle Mclaughlin and Sting. The Duke Harkonnen was just way too creepy.
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Post by Jesse Bessette »

I've watched Hitchcock's Psycho, and I've seen Bates Motel, the tv show that prequels the movie. It's not terrible, but doesn't do justice for the original. Honestly, i do have to say, I am not a big fan of the original Total Recall, and am only a fan of the props from the new one. The Kriss Vector and Chiappa Rhino are both featured, with the latter being the revolver carried by my favorite actress, Kate Beckinsale.

As far as Wild Wild West goes, I like the tv show and the movie. But, I view them as separate beasts. I view the movie as a Steampunk reimagining of the tv show.

Worst remake for me: 2010's Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe. The movie was awful, absolutely awful.
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Post by Matt Henderson »

The Italian Job, starring Mark Wahlberg... no more should be said. The Magnificent Seven of 2017, too.

However, there are some remakes that can be pretty good. The original Magnificent Seven, of course, and Ocean's Eleven from 2004. True Grit with Jeff Bridges was also decent.
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Post by Tyler Blake »

I haven't seen the remake of Magnificent Seven yet, but I probably will. Speaking of westerns, I liked both versions of True Grit as well as 3:10 to Yuma.

Ok, I think I have the worst remake ever:

Clash of The Titans with Liam Neeson and .... what's his face. I wanted to like that movie because I do like Liam Neeson and thought he was an intersting choice for Zuess..... but everything about that movie sucked. Part of the reason I have such an acidic reaction to this movie is that the original with Lawrence Olivier, Burgess Meredith, and Harry Hamlin is one of my favorite movies ever, maybe my ultimate favorite. The special effects by Ray Harryhausen really captured my imagination as a child, in fact his films were a huge influence on me artistically throughout my life in inspiring me to draw monsters and dinosaurs since I was about 4 years old. In the original, Perseus has to embark on a series of quests to earn the hand of and then save Andromeda. He has to go through hell and earn everything, for example Pegasus, the winged horse. In the remake, the effects and designs weren't iconic, they made fun of Bubo the mechanical owl from the original, and when Pegasus shows up he just kind of presents himself to Perseus like (this should be read in a Mr. Ed voice) " Hello, Perseus! I'm your magical winged horsey!"
The motivation in the remake is that Perseus is a whiny little emo with daddy issues, bleh. They combined the characters of Calibos and Acrisius into one, and he was lame and made no sense. I could go on and on, it was so Hollywood Vomit. Bleh.
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Post by Matt Henderson »

Nobody should try and remake Harryhausen.
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Post by Tyler Blake »

High five Matt!
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Post by Scott A. Cary »

Matt, I agree - Ocean's Eleven was excellent. It is a fun movie to watch, and I watch it regularly.

My whole family are Disney freaks, so it should come as no surprise that I'm going to throw out Beauty and the Beast. For Disney to remake one of its own movies, you had to know they were going to pull out all of the stops and they did. The animation was excellent and the casting was superb. Emma Watson and Josh Gad were perfect for their respective roles and I would expect that at least one will get an Oscar nod. In fact, I'll be surprised if this isn't a major winner at the next Oscars.
I'll give it a try, Dad, but it's going to be really hard...kind of like trying to saw something in half using a banana.
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