Kevin's Watch

Hollywood loves 'em, we all go watch them. But everyone bitches about how they're never as good as the original film. So why do we keep seeing them? Did we really need a remake of Rollerball, Cheaper by the Dozen, or The Hills Have Eyes?

I cannot think of a single remake that has exceeded the original source material (though I'm sure someone will remind me of one I'm forgetting).

i tend to agree with you here.

i found this list in wikipedia which is pretty good to peruse and remind you of remakes you may not think of..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_remakes_A-M

just perusing...

how about Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

or Cronenberg's remake of The Fly?

yep...those are the only two i find that come close.

this list includes american remakes of foreign films which i sort of don't count since i haven't seen most of the originals.
who knew, for instance, that 12 Monkeys was a remake of a french film?
i didn't.
well, i knew that City of Angels was a remake of Wings of Desire but the two films are so vastly different its hard to call City of Angels a remake.

Ahhh, I knew I'd forget a couple...

The '78 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is as good and in some ways better than the original.

Likewise, Carpenter's The Thing is far superior to the original.

Mann vastly improved on L.A. Takedown with Heat

There's news of a remake of Escape from New York being greenlighted.

Yes there is, and Kurt Russell's pissed.

www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20015465,00.html

He's right, he made the character.

Man. If anyone remakes The Thing I'm going to have a frickin' heart attack.

The Thing is being remade, it'll be out in 2009. Prolly be PG-13 and have chicks in it and a 20-something cast.

In short, it'll blow.

I'm just going to go berserk and start destroying things. I mean, for me personally, The Thing has huge sentimental value. My brothers scared the shit out of me showing me that thing when I was still little! I still scares me!

Suck.

www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=38953

It's one of my favorite sci-fi/horror films. I still stands up nearly 25 years after it was released. A remake is completely unnecessary.

I guess if it's going to happen, it's good that David Foster is exec. producing this one. He produced the original too, so mabye it won't be TOTALLY butchered. More like mangled.

OH NO!!!! Escape from New York???? NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Oh yes, Escape From New York. And isn't Gerard 'Leonidas' Butler pencilled in to play Snake?

oh. hmmmmm. well...maybe if he wears his KILT.

or...

i guess not huh.

Didn't he play the Phantom?

Yech.

Billy Zane played The Phantom...

In the new Phantom of the Opera? Really?

Thanks for the Wikipedia listing, Luci. It's an eye-opener!

Dr. Zhivago - didn't know it had been remade into a tv miniseries. Loved David Lean's original film, but I don't think I could sit through a miniseries.

Henry V - didn't see Laurence Olivier's version. Instead, I saw Kenneth Branagh's 1989 adaptation and was blown away by it. So in my mind, I'll forever associate Henry V with Branagh.

Logan's Run - didn't realize this was being remade! Or maybe I just forgot. I'm tentatively open-minded about it. Logan's Run with up-to-date visual effects has the potential to be very cool...except that I've come to identify Michael York and Jenny Agutter with this world and this story so much over the years.

The Mummy - never saw the 1932 flick, and I honestly have no interest in doing so. My affection and loyalty is with the 1999 version. Sorry, but I'll take Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz and spectacular modern CGI over a black-and-white B-horror flick any day of the week.

Never Say Never Again - I remember liking it when it came out in '83, but I haven't watched it since that time. I'm ambivalent about it now. It's too bad that it will be remembered as just a rehash of Thunderball.

Solaris - never saw the 1972 original, but really liked the 2002 version.

True Lies - I might be willing to watch the original that inspired James Cameron's film, if only out of curiosity. On the other hand, I'm perfectly happy with True Lies. Just a hunch, but the original would probably be an underwhelming experience next to Cameron's mega-production.

Oh, and I enjoyed Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho.

Henry V - didn't see Laurence Olivier's version. Instead, I saw Kenneth Branagh's 1989 adaptation and was blown away by it. So in my mind, I'll forever associate Henry V with Branagh.

Agreed, same way with Hamlet - I have no interest in watching Olivier's Hamlet after Branagh's excellent version.

The Departed - Good movie until you see the original. Then it becomes... 'well, this is still good, but it's not noticeably better than the original in any way....so why did they bother?'

Another asian->american film remake that was done well was the magnificent seven from seven samurai. I haven't watched either recently enough to say which I prefer, but I think the magnificent seven is at the very least better than seven samurai in some respects, though not all.

Of course, I think it's not an official remake (like many, including the departed, are) so maybe a certain amount of autonomy helped it somewhat?

I'm really confused by Luci's comment...was escape from NY a remake of some other movie?

I also didn't really love the remake of dawn of the dead. I haven't seen many romero films, let alone zombie stuff in general, but I felt like the zombies, who moved to fast and stuff, sorta ruined the feel. Even though they were more dangerous, they weren't particularly frightening.

There's going to be a remake of Escape From New York. Carpenter's film is original.