Really bad remakes

[Newmanseye]

I saw the remake of Get Carter last night for the first time and it makes me wonder why people make remakes when the original movie was as close to perfect as you would want to get.

I loved the original Get Carter with Michael Caine, it was a great story with a great non hollywood ending, I have seen similar feats of stupidity with the remakes of the Italian job and Alfie, what will be next?

Truthfully i see no point to remaking an already great movie other than for financial gain, what ever happened to the artistic approach?

Can you imagine in 10 - 20 years time some upstart coming along and planning to remake the shawshank redemption, do you think its possible to make a better version of that movie?

As I am typing i am reminded of the only time i ever agreed with the remaking of a movie and that was the remake of the Shining,  Stephen King was never happy with the original version so HE remade it the way he thought it should be ( who' going to argue with the writer?)  Yet after watching his version and the one we all know, I prefer the original, the interpretation make for a better movie, but short of this I really cant see a reason to remake good movies badly.

Any opinions on this ?

[happybhoy]

Aside from The Thing (remake of The Thing From Another Planet) and Heat (LA Takedown), I'm struggling to think of any remakes that have been anything more than mediocre. I think if the best idea a studio can come up with is remaking something then your probably scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel already.

[Nakor]

The remake of the Ring isn't bad - even though thew original is quality.

Reservoir Dogs is sort of a remake of City of Fire.

But in the main you are right, for me the worst remake ever has to be The Vanishing - Sluizer's original has to be one one of the best atmospheric films ever made - ruined by Hollywood.

[action man]

Charlie and the Chocolate factory is the worst re-make ever. Completely spoiled the classic

[tantrum]

Studios do the remakes, purely for financial reasons.  And with good marketing, most people will go and watch a remake so the box office return is guaranteed.  Remake of the old classic, not so bad as, making an american version of the foreign film within two or three years of the original's release. 

Well tbh nothing wrong with that per se, as film script is a text, blue print open to interpretion by the director, so if 5 directors worked from the same script we would have 5 different films.

It is a shame that money is spend on so much rubbish these days, but if we take into account the fact that most film producers are ex-bankers and lawyers without any training nor passion for visual arts, this state of affairs should not be so suprising.

[bhoywonder]

Charlie and the Chocolate factory is the worst re-make ever. Completely spoiled the classic

agreed tim burton messed that up big time

the oompalumpas were awful,is there a shortage of midgets around??


planet of the apes was another bad one

[tantrum]

Let's not forget the mighty 'Swept Away'.....

[I, Zimbra]

Maybe we should separate them into remakes of foreign films (because the general public can't read subtitles, apparently...), Colour remakes of Black and White films (because the general public hates black and white, apparently...) and all other 'vanity' remakes.

Get Carter(remake) was indeed shocking. I thought that the remake of Ring completely ruined 'the moment', (you know the one I mean) but that's my opinion. I always tell people not to bother with the remake of that, or at least wait until they've seen the original, lest one of the scariest moments in cinema history is forever tarnished for them...

A good remake for you: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the 70's version with Donald Sutherland), easily one of the creepiest films of all time. The Thing, I also agree with - mainly because it's so very different from the original, it only uses the same jumping-off point.

I wouldn't say that these are better than the originals though, just different - and therefore also good.

[mikkyT]

Its not just films that suffer the remake syndrome!!!

All the many thousands of remakes of numa numa song on newsgrounds made me sick. The original was unique, one of a kind.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/206373 - the guy actually "remade" the video removing the pictures and stuff, which made it slightly less funny but at least its in sync.

Im talking about the copy catters who made loads of SHIT versions of the one of a kind original... just not funny.

[JungleCat03]

Echoing some of the earlier comments here but here's some random thoughts...

Agree remakes are nearly always badly done. Usually because they aren't re-done as a way of improving or building on the original but just to earn a quick buck.... no love there man.

A few exceptions...

The Thing was an improved remake imo..

When I heard Hollywood were remaking Ringu, I was not at all optimistic and was hoping they didn't butcher one of my favourite horror films.

However, I was surprised that they actually did a pretty good job, though i agree with Zim that the main moment of the film and also the video(soooo freaky) are much better in the original.

[mikkyT]

More remakes that totally SUCK

He-man. They totally screwed it up. AND ditto transformers.

[thetank]

Oceans Eleven was decent.

Why are we all so sceptical about the motives behind remakes?

It could just be that filmmakers are wanting to present the films they loved in a format a new generation can get it's teeth into. Not that their creative juices are dead, or they are deluded into thinking they can improve them.

[happybhoy]

As much as I like Coen Brothers movies, the remake of The Ladykillers was rank rotten.

More remakes that totally SUCK

He-man. They totally screwed it up. AND ditto transformers.

is the new transformers movie out yet?[

Oceans Eleven was decent.

Yeah but I cant help but laugh at Don Cheadles cockernee accent

[thetank]

Leave it out.

[mikkyT]

Oceans Eleven was decent.

Why are we all so sceptical about the motives behind remakes?

It could just be that filmmakers are wanting to present the films they loved in a format a new generation can get it's teeth into. Not that their creative juices are dead, or they are deluded into thinking they can improve them.

Oceans eleven isnt a remake?!!