"A Rose By Any Other Name..." - The Remake Debate!

I like the remakes of Ocean's 11 and The Italian Job. I like The Ring, too. And I love the Rick Moranis version of Little Shop of Horrors. Hee.
 
:lol: Piece of advice for film makers, if your thinking about re-making a Michael Caine movie, DON'T DO IT!.

I can't wait to see what Peter Jackson does with King Kong, It could go either way.
 
I wait to see what Peter Jackson does with King Kong.

That's a classic loved by millions (including me) so the pressure to come up with a good film must be there.
 
I'll just re-post what I had on the other thread :)

Sometimes, legitimately well-made movies don't really hold up too well to new technology. They look outdated. And it's nice to see it pop up again years later with a new look.

But - some movies stand alone perfectly well on their own, even decades later. There is virtually no need to remake classic movies! Take Psycho for example. One of the best movies in cinema - it's on any movie critic's best list of classic thrillers. Why we needed to see this totally redone is beyond me. Shame on you, Anne Heche!

Planet of the Apes. Sorry, Mark Wahlberg. That was terrible!

And Carrie? What was that all about?

Alfie hasn't been getting stellar reviews, either. Nothing with Michael Caine needs to be repeated - he did a good enough job the first time! Replacing him with that Ken doll doesn't seem like a great idea. I know, I do think Jude Law is a good actor in the right role. But he just doesn't compare, IMO.
 
A friend of mine sent me the list of the planned remakes (she's an indie movie critic). In case anybody is interested and wants to rant a bit here it is:

"Logan's Run" , "Fahrenheit 451", "When Worlds Collide", "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "Footloose", "The Warriors", "The Lives Of Others" (yes, the German film that premiered in 2006!), "The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty", "Escape From New York", "The Crazies", "Westworld", "Barbarella", "Meatballs", "1984", "The Incredible Shrinking Man", "The Thing", "Pet Sematary", "East Of Eden", "All Quiet On The Western Front", "The Man Who Fell To Earth", "The 39 Steps", "Suspiria", "Race With The Devil", "Straw Dogs", "Ronin", "Fantastic Voyage", "Oh God!", "1776", "The Long Good Friday", "The Dirty Dozen", "The Star Chamber", "Scanners", "Fantastic Planet", "L'Ami De Mon Ami (My Best Friend)", "Strangers On a Train", "The Tingler", "The Swarm", "The Lavender Hill Mob", "Carousel", "The Invisible Man", "The Yakuza", "How To Marry A Millionaire", "The Boys From Brazil", "A Christmas Carol", "Dolemite", "Bell, Book & Candle", "Sharkey's Machine", "I Walked With a Zombie", "The Jericho Mile" and incredibly, "The Wizard Of Oz."

It's too much for a movie purist like me :lol: I already have hard times accepting the non dieing Hollywood trend of remaking Asian horrors (I can't believe they're currently ruining the amazing Tale of 2 Sisters. Bastards! :irked:) and the 80s flicks remakes (that are seriously catastrophic... ) but now they're ruining the freaking classics... No one should mess with Marilyn Monroe or Cary Grant movies :rant:



I had no idea De battre mon coeur s'est arrete is a remake, but it's a seriously amazing movie.
Heh usually it's the other way around - Hollywood used to love French comedies and kept turning them into mindless entertainment... I think the worst being total classic Le Pere Noel est une ordure turned into Ephron's Mixed Nuts. One of the worst movies ever made :lol:
 
the only remake that i've ever liked was the french film 'de battre mon coeur s'est arrêté' (aka the beat that my heart skipped) starring romain duris...it's a remake of the american film 'fingers' starring harvey keitel...leave it to the french filmmakers to do a better job with remakes than their american counterparts....
 
why do they have to remake good movies? Why not remake movies that had good ideas but bad execution. They just have to try and make as much money as possible. Movie makers don't have much imagination anymore. It's all remakes and sequels and crap.

I did like Ocean's Eleven and You Got Mail and a few other remakes. The new Psycho is one of the most godawful things I've ever seen. Maybe that's because I love the original so much.

:rose: Audrey :rose:
 
The one remake I liked, well two, I guess, would be 'The Italian Job' and 'Oceans Eleven'. They were good, not great, but not crap either. The 'Pyscho' remake wasn't good but wasn't horrible either. I didn't really care for it. That's how I feel about remakes; knowing that there is better version of it, completely turns me off in watching the newer one. Another example would be 'Charades' and it's remake, 'The Truth About Charlie'. Remakes are hard to make, simple as that. If it's great the first time, why mess with it?
 
I didn't know know about the Fame remake, but Hairspray has been pretty successful so maybe now it'll fuel the remake flames.

One movie they're remaking is.............Street Fighter. I was one of the 3 people that liked that movie. :lol: I'm excited for a new one. I'm sure nobody will be up in arms since everyone thinks the first one sucked.
 
And to make it more fun, AATR was itself a remake of an earlier film called Love Affair, and then the remake of AATR was also called Love Affair and Sleepless in Seattle was more a nostalgic pastiche of the others :)


99% of remakes suck. There's always one or two that are cool but the majority...noooo. I hate when they try and update films that were so perfect in their time. And when they add in all this sex and foul language that wasn't in the original and just isn't necessary. But worse when people think that that film is an original and don't realise it's a remake and there's a better one out there, they make me so mad with their ignorance :lol:
 
They're using the same director (Takashi Shimizu) for the Hollywood remake, so I wonder if having him on board will improve the liklihood of the film working in a different context.
 
Thank gods this thread exists coz I have to rant a bit...

Did you know that they're planning a How To Marry a Millionaire remake?! WHY?! And apparently they signed Nicole Kidman (whom I usually like) but come on! If she's supposed to play Marilyn's part it's gonna end up even bigger catastrophe than I can already predict it'll be.

WTF is wrong with Hollywood lately? Seriously! Are these people that out of new ideas that they have to destroy classics?!
I despise remakes with a ridiculous passion I admit. And lately not only they keep remaking lots of excellent movies but they also keep ruining the movies I grew up on. Like they're making (or already made not sure here) Hairspray - geeze it was done not even 20 years ago just leave it alone! Or apparently they're planning a Fame remake! Ugh.
If they continue this way I can just imagine in a few years remakes will appear a year from the originals release...
Oh and apparently it's because of younger generations... Ok so I'm in my late twenties so apparently I don't count but excuse me for assuming that modern teenagers would be able to appreciate/admire/hell watch! a movie that was made pre the diapers phase of their lives :irked:

Phew feels better now :lol:
 
Some remakes are good and some are just awful and are only made to cash in on a tried-and-true premise and nothing more.

For example, I thought "The Thomas Crown Affair" remake was really well done and actually more relevant in today's society regrading corporate philanthropy and responsibilty in terms Thomas Crown and why he does the things he does versus the '60s when the original film was made.

On the same note, I can't stand it when studios try and remake something because they are just trying to re-invent (or re-engergize) a dying genre like "Love Don't Cost a Thing" which is an African American, version of the John Hughes teen classic "Can't Buy Me Love".

Here are some statistics:

About 160 scripts will be greenlighted (not necessarily made into actual movies) at the major studios this year... And about 70-80 of those (almost half) will almost always be remakes, or "retellings" of previous stories/films.

I've said this before and I will say it again: Hollywood is just plain lazy and thus, we are caught in the Catch-22 of them not wanting to take any real risks which in turn equals the same old crap...

Which is why independent films and films by smaller studios like New Line and others are in fact where one should be looking for truly unique and original material along with foriegn films as well.
 
think that was an affair to remember....sleepless in seattle being the first remake, which led to you've got mail, the remake of an affair to remember AND sleepless in seattle, only with email.
 
I like american remakes of J-horror, but love the original j-horror movies. I do have to say though, the american 1s tend to "look" better if that makes sense..probably they are given a bigger budget for the remakes
 
I don't mind good remakes. I liked The Ring. I saw Ringu as well. It did a good job of explaining things, but I didn't really enjoy it as much. Ringu bored me for the most part. :sleep:

Sasha
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I like remakes.

"The Manchurian Canidate" and "The Ring" were both really good in my opinion. I know the japenese version probably explained why Samara(?) had those powers better then the U.S. version since being a psychic is more accepted over there but I still thought it was really scary and good.

Another good one was "Vanilla Sky" and "Insomina." I have to say though that I haven't seen the originals of these films. I've wanted to see the original "The Ring" but I'm too scared, I saw a trailer for it on the DVD of The Ring and I'm just not ready for it:lol:.

I have no plans to see the original "The Manchurian Canidate" or "Insomnia" but I might check out the first version of "Vanilla Sky." I like foreign films. I'm still waiting to see "Y Mamma Tu Bien."
 
I think Remakes can work... but very rarely. Oceans 11 was a good movie. I bought it... (OK, if only because Shane West was in it for 2 seconds, but that's a different obsession. LOL) but it still does not compare to the original Oceans 11.
I especially dislike when I am watching a movie that I haven't really heard a lot about and it all of a sudden looks familiar... they sneak a remake in on you. For example... I had to sit thru some Melissa Joan Hart Sabrina the Teenage Witch movie only to find it was a total steal of Roman Holiday! Grrr. (To be fair, it's not like that movie had a chance to start with... but I was even more angry when it took on Roman Holiday like scenes.)
I do have to give credit to the Italian Job. But I'll stop there. LOL.

Other movies ruined by the need to "remake" include:
Little Women
Sabrina -don't mess with Bogey!
Shop Around the Corner (well, actually, I did like You've Got Mail. hee hee)
And, crap, what was the name of the movie where the woman is running off to meet her man at the top of the empire state bldg and she gets hit by a car and ends up in a wheel chair... (the Annette Benning/Warren Beatty remake was a sad comparison)

It just seems like nowadays every movie is a remake of another in some form. I have been trying to ignore the similarities and be more forgiving... all in all, if I can sit thru the whole thing that it wasn't a total waste.
 
have to agree with you on that. i think the first remake i saw was psycho, which in my opinion was perfect as it was. maybe not the best of all horror films, but it proved that you don't need big budget special effects to scare someone. all you need is to get inside their head and mess with it in a more subtle way. i find it more frightening that way then to just see how much fake blood can be tossed all over everything in sight. now there's remakes for old classics, which is a disgrace both to the film-makers and the stars. its a genre that has a life of its own, and should have been left alone.

i don't watch very many foreign films, but i do have a friend that does, and after catching a glimpse of some of his favourites, i'd have to agree that films based on cultural elements or history are relevent to that culture, and if it's to be brought to another culture, it shouldn't be necessary to remake it in a fashion that suits our taste. what happened to broadening our appreciation and experience of other cultures, rather then just absorbing them into our own? i haven't seen japan remake the legend of sleepy hollow to serve their tastes. seems the west should have the same respect.
 
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