Movies that are worth remaking? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Peterson]

First off, I want to start by saying that I am a classic movie lover and hate nothing more than seeing the legacy of a great movie destroyed by a shoddy remake.

That said, I do believe that there are valid reasons for remaking a film.

• Great Idea, Poorly Executed (i.e. Not a good movie the first time)
• Limitations due to Censorship
• Limitations due to technology
• Drastic differences from the source material (i.e. Book or Play)

This topic arises quite often in various threads and sometimes gets quite ugly. Like it or not, the studios are going to continue to do this, because they believe there is a built-in audience and money. Also, there is a history of movies that have had very good remakes.

• The Maltese Falcon (This was the 3rd time that this story was filmed)
• Lolita (Personally, I like the remake because it removed the limitations from Kubrick's)
• Psycho (Just Kidding)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock made this twice)
• Countless others that have slipped my mind.

Anyway, back to the original point of my thread. Are there any movies that you've seen that you wish somebody would remake.

The one that struck me was Capra's "Lost Horizon". This movie was so butchered over the years and had many technical limitations. I could imagine this movie being amazing today.

I'm sure I'll think of others that I've seen, but I thought this would be an interesting topic.

 

[KyleK]

Battlefield Earth
Planet of the Apes

 

[Magnus T]

Lawrence of Arabia.

 

[John Watson]

Sometimes I want to see a movie that is out of circulation remade, so that I can finally see it

Some other times I think a remake that is poorly regarded should be redone, well, such as The Crucible, without the excruciating politically correct updating a la Demi Moore.

I understand Great Expectations with Gwyneth Paltrow was almost as bad.

Good thread!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Oh dear I really love Alexander Nevsky but the sound is terrible - Stalin insisted they use USSR-built sound equipment exclusively......There have been some "half-remakes" with new orchestral recordings patched in but leaving the original spoken dialog. This is only partly successful...

 

[Jason Seaver]

Every once in a while, I'll flip past TCM and wonder what I'd do if tasked with remaking a movie. The most fun I've ever had with the idea was while watching Goodbye Charlie (Switch was an uncredited remake, but it's just painful to watch).

 

[Dan Hitchman]

If they were worth remaking in the first place... why remake them? Let the classics stand on their own.



Dan

 

[John Thomas]

I recently heard that there was a remake of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? in the works. The original was great and ground-breaking for its day. A remake seems to be in bad taste, maybe as another Wesley Snipes movie.

 

[Scott_lb]

The Phantom Menace

 

[John Thomas]

 

[Eric Peterson]

I agree completely. I stated that in the first line of my post. But there are movies with great ideas that didn't cut it.
------
Waterworld was another movie with a great idea, but just an absolutely awful movie.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I always wondered what Logan's Run would look like in the hands of a modern, restrained, competent film maker.

I remember hearing rumours that Affleck and Lopez were goint to remake Casablanca. Please tell me this is just a rumour? Heck, I'd probably rent it just for laughs.

 

[Brad Porter]

Some other times I think a remake that is poorly regarded should be redone, well, such as The Crucible, without the excruciating politically correct updating a la Demi Moore.

I think you're confused. Demi Moore was in The Scarlet Letter. The Crucible featured Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, and Joan Allen and was rather highly regarded for its performances, although the audiences stayed away. There was no politically correct updating done, since Arthur Miller personally adapted his own play into the filmed screenplay.

I haven't seen Moore's version of The Scarlet Letter. I wasn't particularly pleased with being forced to read it in high school, so the film would be rather low on my need-to-see list.

As for remakes that I'd like to see:

Key Largo: There's nothing at all wrong with the original film, but it provides an opportunity for a good filmmaker to really update the material. The basic formula is good guys and bad guys sitting in a hotel during a hurricane. Back when Quentin Tarantino was very buzzworthy, I thought that a remake of this film would be great for him because of his natural ability to write compelling dialogue between criminals who are just sitting around. I still think it could work. This is in the category of "using the basic plot and characters of a previous film and writing a whole new screenplay". Sort of like the relationship between Tombstone and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Death Race 2000: I know it would be next to impossible to keep the source material from being butchered to avoid hand wringing and moralizing over whether the film encourages killing pedestrians, but the right director could do some interesting things with this plot. This would be in the category of "taking the cheese out of a cool idea and injecting some updated effects and filmmaking techniques". This is kind of what was attempted with the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, but I personally don't consider Dominic Sena or Michael Bay or Simon West to be the right director for this material. Give me George Miller or Sam Raimi instead. This could also work for The Gumball Rally or Cannonball (not The Cannonball Run).

I'm also hoping that The Alamo remake turns out well, because I'm hungry for a good Western drama. The last one I can recall that wasn't made for TV was Wyatt Earp, and that was 1994.

Brad

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
The Hulk
Daredevil

 

[Dan Shogren]

The omega man, or the last man on earth, because I AM LEGEND deserves a good film adaptation.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Sh! The Octopus



Hugh Herbert in the original, Chris Kattan in the remake.

 

[John Watson]

Yes Brad, I had that bass-akwards, SCARLET LETTER, but Demi is the culprit.

Of her other work, having seen only GI Jane and Striptease, the question should any Demi film be remade, thats a whole other thread.

 

[Hendrik]

...Spider Man... (or is it Spiderman ?)

. . . . . .

 

[MatthewA]

Eric, "Lost Horizon" has been remade as a musical so bad it destroyed several careers.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Eric Peterson wrote (post #1):

This would come mostly under the third entry on your list. But also, with regard to the first point: The original movie can't fairly be said to have been "poorly executed", given its budgetary and other circumstances. It saw clearly the implications of its premise, but, in a popular-movie market, couldn't (partially due to technology limitations) and wouldn't take its premises to anything like an ultimate conclusion (due to the restrictions on "religious-philosophical-existential" explorations). Some of those hurdles still exist, but, I think, are more superable in today's fractured movie-making market.

The perfect director to render a remorseless, no-nonsense, "take-no-prisoners" delivery of such a vision: David Cronenberg.