The Aging of Movies.........................

[ulthar]

I'll say again:  if there were NO remakes, we would not have Carpenter's The Thing.  Would you really want the Dracula story to have ended with Nosferatu?  I thought Father of the Bride (1991) was well made.  Others have pointed out other examples.  

We know your view on remakes, and that's cool; you seem to favor a form of self-imposed censorship.  My view is that there is nothing wrong with a new director taking a fresh look at a story.  I think if we start putting absolute "don'ts" on the artists responsible for making films, we lower the medium as a whole.

[plan9superfan]

Did you even WATCH the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake? the 2Fog" remake? The "Assault on Precinct 13" remake? Hell what about the "Swept Away" remake?

[ulthar]

You are picking bad ones, and no one is disagreeing that there ARE bad remakes.  But your comments suggest that there are no GOOD remakes either, which is not true.  I only have to provide ONE counter example of your statement "all remakes suck" to disprove it: I use The Thing.  That movie most certainly does NOT suck, on any level.

If there was a 'rule' that no movie is ever remade, there are quite a few very good films that we would not have.  I'm not saying remakes cannot be poorly done; I am saying that your absolute, rigid, stance on remakes is not supported by the facts.

If you do a search on this board, you will find a whole thread (at least one), I believe from 2005 (maybe 2004), devoted to remakes that were as good as or better than the original.  I suggest you read the movies in that list, and then consider the number of very high quality films we would not have if you had your way and no movie was ever remade.

Finally, what's wrong with judging a movie, good or bad, on its OWN merits, not whether or not it/may be a new take on an older story?

[odinn7]

I think the amount of remakes being done is out of hand lately and some seem to only have the name in common with the original movie but ulthar is right. There are some good ones out there and his example of The Thing is dead on. One of the best movies ever...never mind that it's a remake.

[LH-C]

Ok - about remakes - My Opinion -

1) There are good remakes - once in awhile.
2) If a book is being made into a movie it's fair game to be adapted as much as anyone wants to do it, but there have been some very bad adaptations of books.

[The Burgomaster]

I agree that some remakes are good.  In fact, a few of them are better than the originals.  Movie remakes are sort of like song remakes, I guess.  Just another person's interpretation of the same material.  In general, though, I'd rather see something "new" as opposed to a remake.  (Although, aren't just about all stories basically reworkings of older stories?)

Question:  If they remake movies and they remake songs, why don't they remake books?  For instance, why hasn't someone rewritten WAR AND PEACE "their own way"?????

[plan9superfan]

"The Thing" was made in the '80s. I was talking about remakes NOW.


Current remakes are a far cry from John Carpenter's work.

[odinn7]

^ ^ ^ You didn't say that before...you said all remakes suck...ALL remakes...

[Scott]

Ulthars point on "remakes" is valid. Thinking about all the Dracula stories that have been remade/revised. Dracula is a genre all it's own. Does anyone know how many Dracula films have been made? I don't know but I enjoy seeing each one. Maybe Dracula and a few other stories are exceptions, but Ulthar makes a good point about Noserfatu.

[plan9superfan]

I meant to say that all 90s/2000s remakes suck.

[Fearless Freep]

I thought the Peter Jackson version of Lord Of The Rings was better than the Ralph Bakshi version....

[plan9superfan]

That is the exception that proves the rule.

[Ash]

Just think....

40 years from now Trek_geezer and probably Burgomaster will be dead or in their 90's and we'll all still be hunched over this antique message board stabbing keys with rickety old fingers complaining about how they recently remade "The Truman Show" and "Saving Private Ryan".

:)

[peter johnson]

This is an '80's example, so suspect, but I do think that the remake of The Blob is superior to the Steve McQueen original --
peter johnson/denny crane

[Fearless Freep]

40 years from now

40 years from now we're going to be saying that the remakes are not as good as the ones that had been done 20 years ago..which we will have forgotten were not the originals...