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13 comments:
What's the best or worst remake of a film ? For me the absolute worst ever remake was the 1999 version of the 1963 classic "The Haunting". The original is one of the best haunted house movies ever made where you never actually see anything and all the horrors are suggested by bump-in-the-night noises etc. But the remake was an appalling CGI monstrosity where nothing is just suggested and everything is seen in broad daylight. All the subtlety of the original (which was very faithful to Shirley Jackson's novel) was jettisoned in favor of getting as much CGI action as possible. Just horrible, horrible' horrible.
And the best remake ? I really enjoyed the 2002 remake of "The Time Machine". On this occasion CGI was used to excellent effect in order to convey the passing of the eons with rivers carving valleys from solid rock. And the story made more sense than the 1960 original in my opinion.
Thanks for getting the ball rolling Colin. Great topic and great choices. I haven't seen either Time Machine in a while but I do remember enjoying the new one quite a bit.
Worst remake for me (or at least the one that popped into my mind immediately) was the Tim Burton/ Johnny Depp Willy Wonka film. I felt it added nothing really better than the original, and everything they changed that was touted as improvement I did not like. From Wonka's childhood scenes to the new Oompa Loompas - I think they missed the mark.
By the way, the old Haunting was indeed a classic.
I'll probably think of more later, but for the worst category, the first one that came to mind, because it's still pretty fresh in my memory, is Star Trek: Into Darkness which - as much as Abrams and the other writers and producers may deny it - was basically a remake of Wrath of Khan. Seriously, man, there's no way this current crew will ever come even close to making movies as good as any of the original Trek motion picture installments (even the 'bad' ones), but to try to 'improve' upon arguably the best of the lot? Give me a break. There's no words to describe the magnitude of my utter contempt for Into Darkness...
As to the best remake, I'll probably think of a bunch a few days from now, but I have to agree with Colin about The Time Machine. I like both versions, to be sure, but the remake is really, really good.
Two remake movies that I enjoyed are The Italian Job and The Thomas Crown Affair, but to date I haven't seen the original versions of either, so I can't make any comparisons...
+10000 on ST:ID
All fan service, incompetent storytelling.
If you had not seen ST:WOK, when Cumberbatch says my name is Khan, it wold have zero impact because it meant absolutely nothing to the story.
If you had seen ST:WOK, you couldn't have been more disappointed by the clumsy attempt to do a shout out to the fans.
Just a bad movie wrapped in some excellent visuals and acting.
Yoyo
I knew almost nothing about Star Trek until about a year ago, but even I thought Star Trek: Into Darkness was bad. Honestly I am starting to think that the over the top action in movies is tedious. Star Trek - now that I know more - does not need Spock fighting on top of a train. It all seems the same after a while. It would be fun to get a totally cerebral Star Trek movie but I don't think that will ever happen.
I know we've talked about it before but John Carpenter's The Thing was a great remake (if you can call it that). I also really liked the version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Leonard Nimoy and Donald Sutherland.
Segueing into sequels and comics, I really do not need to see Spider-Man's origin ever again. No remakes of that - please! Like James Bond, don't we all (even the general public) know who Spidey is by now. Can't those movies just start with the character already established? We don't need to see Bond's origin over and over, why do we need to see Peter's? It is hard to believe we are going to see a third Spider-Man reboot . Who would have thought that when we were growing up?
I thought the "Gone With The Wind" remake was the worst ever. With Jennifer Lawrence as Scarlet Ohara and Channing Tatum as Rhett Butler. The whole thing just didn't work at all. And they made it "R" rated just so they could include more violence and explicit sex scenes, and the way they changed Rhett's iconic final line to "Frankly my dear I just don't give a fu#$!", I thought really crossed the line.
And don't even get me started about the total over the top CGI redo of the burning of Atlanta. Uhhg.
Ohhh wait, that one hasn't been made yet. I've been seeing the future again. Never mind.
William, I'm reading your comment and the whole time I'm thinking "how have I not heard of this??"
Got me! Good one!
Doug
I'd never heard of the Gone With The Wind remake either. Martinex, the first ever Trek movie, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" from 1979, was quite cerebral. In fact, it was criticised for being TOO cerebral and dull and was nicknamed "Star Trek: The Slow-Motion Picture".
Sorry Doug. But man you know it's coming.
Nice topic choice, Colin! Late checking in today, working lunch. Retail during the holidays, you know...
William- boy, you had me for a bit too. Even think of taking up writing?
Don't imagine that it's the best, but my favorite remake: "The Mummy", with Brendan Frasier. Grim, funny, adventurous, and a very cool Imhotep.
Worst- have to echo Martinex1, Wonka. Not really any point in trying to top Gene Wilder...
I have to agree with Martinex1 - the remake of the Thing was good, it more closely followed the original story by John Campbell in terms of the shape shifting alien creature rather than the 'plant mummy' in the 1951 film.
I didn't see ST:Into Darkness but trying to remake Wrath of Khan seemed to be a huge mistake. That's the problem with Hollywood these days - they're trying to rehash old stories instead of coming up with good original scripts. Ditto with Willy Wonka. Some classics should just be left alone.
- Mike 'I'll read William's fiction anyday' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Ha ha William. Ohhhh I would actually want to see that. Throw Carol Burnett in for good measure.
I'd like to add one for best consideration that is very recent but I thoroughly enjoyed it....The Jungle Book. I really liked the new version with a live actor and CGI animals; I recommend it.
Thanks again for kicking it off Colin. And tomorrow... something completely different from the Hyborian age.
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