Last week I watched the 1997 remake of 12 Angry Men, and that reminded me that there was a remake of Fail Safe broadcast live on TV in 2000. I was able to borrow that from the local library and I just finished watching that. Irrespective of whether or not they needed to be remade, I must admit that I was impressed with both remakes. Not that they were any better than the originals, but I though they were equally well done and well worth another viewing.

I've seen all of those too. 12 Angry Men is a fairly simple character study. Remaking it means "don't mess with the formula."

But your mentioning remakes of classics reminded me of a Tina Fey bit on SNL's Weekend Update:

Tina Fey: It is rumored that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez want to star in a remake of Casablanca. This will be the perfect film for people who liked the original but wished it was terrible.

....Total Recall......??


.....wait that isn't out yet......

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

There is a remake of Psycho - it's awful.

Here's the first review that comes up...

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This is easily the worst remake in film history. I have never understood the idea of a remake at all. If a film, like Psycho, is so good to start with why on earth do you want to try and improve on it? If you insist on tampering with perfection, why then do you have to try to recreate it in it's whole...

...In the end, Gus Van Sant set out to pay homage to a great film. Instead he cheapened it, and created a movie that is not worthy of late night cable.

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NewtonMP2100
....Total Recall......??


.....wait that isn't out yet......

Abomination I tell you, abomination!

Rarely a good idea, and more often than not the original is the better movie.

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"They don't call me Colonel because I'm some dumb a$$ army guy" Colonel Homer J. Simpson

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freeradical
There is a remake of Psycho - it's awful.

Here's the first review that comes up...

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This is easily the worst remake in film history. I have never understood the idea of a remake at all. If a film, like Psycho, is so good to start with why on earth do you want to try and improve on it? If you insist on tampering with perfection, why then do you have to try to recreate it in it's whole...

...In the end, Gus Van Sant set out to pay homage to a great film. Instead he cheapened it, and created a movie that is not worthy of late night cable.

I'll see your Psycho, and add you one of these-- easily one of the worst remakes in movie history, and utterly, utterly unnecessary: [www.imdb.com]

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PeterB
I'll see your Psycho, and add you one of these-- easily one of the worst remakes in movie history, and utterly, utterly unnecessary: [www.imdb.com]

Exactly the remake I was thinking of.

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty bad remake producer!"

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"So be proud to be a decent American instead of just a w'anker whipping up fear!" - Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland

The originals of these may not rank with "Casablanca" but each should have been left alone. Instead were had true garbage churned out that ultimately diminished the original in some respect. If nothing else it made it harder to ever see the original because that plays on TV is the remake.


2011 - Arthur
1998 - Godzilla
2006 - Poseidon
2004 - Taxi (with Sylvester Stallone!!!)
2006 - The Pink Panther
2008 - The Day the Earth Stood Still
1997 - Lolita
1976 - King Kong

and I'm not sure, would the reedited and enhanced Star Wars fit into this?

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You can tell a lot about a woman by her hands...
- For example, if they are wrapped around your throat she's probably slightly upset.

I haven't seen any of the remakes listed above, but I did watch the Coen Bros. remake of "True Grit." What an abomination! It belies the very title!

If I'd realized it was those guys I never would have rented it. They turn everything into the bizarre and unforgiving ("Oh Brother" still grates on my teeth—how to use wonderful music to sugar-coat a parade of phony Southern stereotypes cast as a poor-man's Odyssey.)



/Mr Lynn

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"Hillbilly at Harvard"
Honky-tonk Country and Bluegrass
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Saturdays 9am - 1pm Eastern
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New blog! [hillbillyatharvard.wordpress.com]

On the river in Saxonville.

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mrlynn
I haven't seen any of the remakes listed above, but I did watch the Coen Bros. remake of "True Grit." What an abomination! It belies the very title!

If I'd realized it was those guys I never would have rented it. They turn everything into the bizarre and unforgiving ("Oh Brother" still grates on my teeth—how to use wonderful music to sugar-coat a parade of phony Southern stereotypes cast as a poor-man's Odyssey.)



/Mr Lynn

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Live from Berserkeley, California | Originally from the City of Brotherly Freakin' Love

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Seacrest
Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Others' views are opinions. Mine are the cold, hard, truth.

/Mr Lynn

What's it called when people say they don't like something or haven't seen something b/c they think they're cool?

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Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity

I love the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair! Actually prefer it to the original.

Kate

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[cholulared.blogspot.com]
[www.cholulared.com]
[tech.groups.yahoo.com]

The Bogart remake of The Maltese Falcon is better than the original.

After that ... I'm hard pressed to come up with an example.

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Embarassing myself on the Internet since 1978.

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vision63
Tina Fey: It is rumored that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez want to star in a remake of Casablanca. This will be the perfect film for people who liked the original but wished it was terrible.

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Kate
I love the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair! Actually prefer it to the original.

Kate

Same here.

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"Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences." ~ Brian Eno

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$tevie

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Kate
I love the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair! Actually prefer it to the original.

Kate

Same here.

+1 (though the DVD version is slightly edited from the version in theaters - this is the film which introduced me to that little movie industry conceit).

In addition, I prefer the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur, though the 1925 version is not a bad movie. Charlton Heston chewing up scenery is an important part of what makes his movies great. Which is a big reason why Planet of the Apes '68 is such a better movie than it's remake.

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mrlynn
I haven't seen any of the remakes listed above, but I did watch the Coen Bros. remake of "True Grit." What an abomination! It belies the very title!

If I'd realized it was those guys I never would have rented it. They turn everything into the bizarre and unforgiving ("Oh Brother" still grates on my teeth—how to use wonderful music to sugar-coat a parade of phony Southern stereotypes cast as a poor-man's Odyssey.)



/Mr Lynn

My opinion which is even colder, harder, truthier, negates your opinion. I loved the Coen's True Grit. And it's worth pointing out that it is NOT a remake of the John Wayne movie. They started from the source material, the Charles Portis novel, and made that.

But then again: I like the Coen Bros. almost without exception. They really need to make a Phillip Marlowe detective movie: The Big Sleep or Farewell My Lovely. I never thought Bogart made a good Marlowe; should have been William Holden (see Sunset Blvd. to get a sense of that.)

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Ombligo
The originals of these may not rank with "Casablanca" but each should have been left alone. Instead were had true garbage churned out that ultimately diminished the original in some respect. If nothing else it made it harder to ever see the original because that plays on TV is the remake.


2011 - Arthur
1998 - Godzilla
2006 - Poseidon
2004 - Taxi (with Sylvester Stallone!!!)
2006 - The Pink Panther
2008 - The Day the Earth Stood Still
1997 - Lolita
1976 - King Kong

and I'm not sure, would the reedited and enhanced Star Wars fit into this?

The Godzilla movie made the Japanese mad and they redid most of the movies. The only 1 I didn't like was Final Wars.

Seems if one sees a film like a painting or a novel, it is likely to stay the way it was to start (static?). If one sees a film like a play, then different productions are what's expected/desired (dynamic?).

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mrthuse
Seems if one sees a film like a painting or a novel, it is likely to stay the way it was to start (static?). If one sees a film like a play, then different productions are what's expected/desired (dynamic?).

That's not a bad way of looking at it. But you can distinguish between remakes that have a solid artistic (or even technical) reason behind them, and the ones that are just crass dumb-downs. Those would include remakes of foreign films because the producers won't consider audiences intelligent enough to read subtitles, or remakes of classic films just to make them more "modern."

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