Undeserved remakes

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Haha, oh zhao, your animated gifs are one of the things that keep me coming back here. :)
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I was well impressed with the remake of Solaris, seriously. It wasn't what I expected. Not that I can remember any of it.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
Haha, oh zhao, your animated gifs are one of the things that keep me coming back here. :)

it's all about the killer apps baby, it's all about the killer app :)

EDIT: for instance the image of this sour face baby perfectly, and i mean PERFECTLY, correlates to the immediate visceral response of the viewer, and encapsulates the scope and range of complex human emotion, at the moment of seeing Richard Gere boogie down, with no actual music (only in his head), in the last shot of this film.

yes I am a genius i know.
 
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STN

sou'wester
I really thought the original of Solaris was boring bullshit but when I watched it I was around 17 and therefore knew absolutely everything about everything. May give it another go as I loved Stalker. Is the Clooney one a remake or a re-adaptation of the book?

Remake of Funny Games pretty good; quite effective as if you've seen the original the familiarity aspect is quite chilling.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Acceptable, of course - why not."
Sorry, I should have said that I normally feel that I generally autotmatically consider any remake unacceptable and start with a dislike of it that it has to overcome on merit. For some reason I don't think that this is the case with various takes on the same book.

"I was well impressed with the remake of Solaris, seriously. It wasn't what I expected. Not that I can remember any of it."
I dunno, I guess that the story has some interesting twists (isn't there an implication that he is also a hologram or something?) but it seemed so lightweight compared to the original with its plastic looking spaceship, obviously cgi'd fx and lasting about half as long. I guess that a lot of remakes feel the need to put in a few crucial twists to distinguish themselves from the original and these days these twists tend towards removing the depth. On the other hand I saw the Manchurian Candidate remake and I thought that was ok - I think that the original just has the main guy trying to prevent his hypnotised comrade from murdering the candidate but in the remake the main guy has also been programmed which I thought added an extra dimension (although in other ways it was worse).
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I really thought the original of Solaris was boring bullshit but when I watched it I was around 17 and therefore knew absolutely everything about everything. May give it another go as I loved Stalker. Is the Clooney one a remake or a re-adaptation of the book?

Remake of Funny Games pretty good; quite effective as if you've seen the original the familiarity aspect is quite chilling.

It's a re-adaptation, and kinda works for what it is, I remember thinking at the time that it was a valiant attempt at an idea of a re-make, that they had at least thought about what it meant to do one. I can't remember anything else about it though, so it obviously wasn't that good!
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
On the other hand I saw the Manchurian Candidate remake and I thought that was ok - I think that the original just has the main guy trying to prevent his hypnotised comrade from murdering the candidate but in the remake the main guy has also been programmed which I thought added an extra dimension (although in other ways it was worse).

I agree that was one of the better remakes. Last time I saw the original it seemed quite silly in comparison (though I appreciate that's part of its appeal). Next on the Washington remake agenda - Taking of Pelham 123.... Tony Soprano plays the mayor, but Travolta gets the Robert Shaw role, which just can't be right.
 

Octopus?

Well-known member
Terrible (and unnecessary) upcoming remakes:

Rosemary's Baby (produced by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes)
Suspiria (by Italian production company First Sun)
The Seven Samurai (produced by the Weinsteins)
Straw Dogs (by Director Rod Lurie of "Resurrecting The Champ" & "The Contender")
Rififi (directed by Harold Baker and starring master of subtlety Al Pacino)
A Tale of Two Sisters (to be called "The Uninvited" directed by the Guard brothers)

That's about all I can handle writing about right now as the gorge has risen far enough to be choking.
 

Octopus?

Well-known member
Actually, I forgot the worst one:

The Long Good Friday (reimagined by Paul WS Anderson of Resident Evil/Alien Vs Predator fame)

Ugh.
 
Terrible (and unnecessary) upcoming remakes:

Rosemary's Baby (produced by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes)
Suspiria (by Italian production company First Sun)
The Seven Samurai (produced by the Weinsteins)
Straw Dogs (by Director Rod Lurie of "Resurrecting The Champ" & "The Contender")
Rififi (directed by Harold Baker and starring master of subtlety Al Pacino)
A Tale of Two Sisters (to be called "The Uninvited" directed by the Guard brothers)

That's about all I can handle writing about right now as the gorge has risen far enough to be choking.

Jesus...how insanely unnecessary!

I just don't understand...
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Would everyone here agree that cover versions of songs are generally a much, much better idea than remakes of movies?
 

Octopus?

Well-known member
i wonder if this will be a contemporary gangster criminal/vigilante type thing.

Somebody got a look at the first draft of the script from John Fusco (Young Guns I & II, Hidalgo) and here it is.

Modernized to soldiers taking on an evil druglord, natch. CGI explosions a-plenty.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Oh Christ, speaking of CGI, did we *really* need the oldest major work of literature in any form of the English language to be turned into an animated gorefest starring Angelina Jolie as a 'sexy monster' and advertised with a tagline taken from 20th-century pop psychology? :eek:
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Modernized to soldiers taking on an evil druglord, natch. CGI explosions a-plenty.
What about a Western? Now there's an idea.

That's a shocking list of potential crimes against cinema you had there - perhaps people should only be permitted to remake really bad movies.
 

Octopus?

Well-known member
What about a Western? Now there's an idea.

That's a shocking list of potential crimes against cinema you had there - perhaps people should only be permitted to remake really bad movies.

...and the thing I don't understand is that they're all tackling movies that are stone cold classics because they were done so well the first time and, as a result, have already entered the public consciousness and spanned legions of imitators. You could easily riff on the central idea of any of those films and come up with a new story, but keeping the name of the Classic seems indefensible even on a practical level, especially when the movie is only considered a classic due to the unique conjunction of artists and fate that came together on a given project. You can't bottle that.

Those that love the original will be repelled and stay away in droves, press will be invariably hostile (I mean, c'mon...Michael Bay presents "Rosemary's Baby"!?) and their names have absolutely no special cachet among younger movie goers that would just as easily go see a movie called "Devil Spawn" as they would a remade "Rosemary's Baby".

The logic of it seems to be that by choosing the name you're imbuing your own little vanity project with a bit of borrowed class, but even that doesn't entirely make sense...especially when there are so many movies that have come out over the last century that may have missed the mark the first time around and have faded from sight so much that you could easily rejig them and build on the muted promise with your new resources.

That's not a bad idea for a thread, actually...films with great central premises that totally dropped the ball on every other level.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
That's not a bad idea for a thread, actually...films with great central premises that totally dropped the ball on every other level.
Like Alien Vs. Predator for instance! ;)

(Actually I quite enjoyed this, hard to go too far wrong with Aliens AND Predators. :eek:)
 

zhao

there are no accidents
Like Alien Vs. Predator for instance! ;)

(Actually I quite enjoyed this, hard to go too far wrong with Aliens AND Predators. :eek:)

AVP was dope you are tripping. i just downloaded AVPR and can't wait to watch the big battle :D
 
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