Really bad remakes

[Sark79]

Most people hate the remake of the Italian Job.  I actually liked it.   The original is in a different class though and gets a  8/10.  The remake gets a 5/10.   I am looking forward to the Brazilian Job.   I love films like those, they always make me realize that my life has taken a bad turn somewhere along the route, if I had just done things differently I could have been a high class jewel thief 

[Mbuna]

After checking out my PM's this morning i cant help thinking that a Remake of "Debbie Does Dallas" is long overdue

[mikkyT]

I was thinking of edward penishands.

[Mbuna]

I was thinking of edward penishands.

[Newmanseye]

After checking out my PM's this morning i cant help thinking that a Remake of "Debbie Does Dallas" is long overdue

that was remade a few years back

[Zebediah]

The problem is that they take films that were incredibly successful.
What they should do is take a film that was a good idea, but was messed up in the writing/filming/producing stage and failed.
Learn the lessons and do it properly second time round.

[Newmanseye]

The problem is that they take films that were incredibly successful.
What they should do is take a film that was a good idea, but was messed up in the writing/filming/producing stage and failed.
Learn the lessons and do it properly second time round.

A great example would be a remake of johnny Mnemonic which was a decent script but was a shockingly bad movie.

[Sheriff Fatman]

I wish the film version of John Grisham's "The Firm" could be eradicated from memory and redone.  For some reason they ignored the events of the book and made up their own version, which was too awful to describe.

The annoying thing is that this is his best book and the film versions of his other books have been reasonably good, yet they completely lost the plot (quite literally) with this one.

Sheriff

[happybhoy]

I'll add the updates to the original star-wars'es as a travesty. There's a special place in hell reserved for George Lucas for making Greedo shoot first. Say no more.

[julian]

agreed, most remakes are poor at best.
the weirdest was gus van sant's remake of hitchcocks 'psycho', frame4frame the same...i enjoyed it nontheless, hehe.
and martin scorsese's 'the departed' is an excellent remake of 'infernal affairs'.

[Nakor]

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?!!

Sammy Davis Jnr and Big Frank probably the best Brat Pack movie of the lot.

Transformers - April 07 I think (Defo early 07) - A teaser available on YouTube and loads of footage etc on the Transformers movie site.  But Flames on Prime just not right - Flames ffs.

But I have come up with two decent remakes

Cape Fear - both great films.
And the remake of the Fly was OK - very dated and doesn't stand up very well now but of its time, was a good watch.

[I, Zimbra]

I wish the film version of John Grisham's "The Firm" could be eradicated from memory and redone.  For some reason they ignored the events of the book and made up their own version, which was too awful to describe.

The annoying thing is that this is his best book and the film versions of his other books have been reasonably good, yet they completely lost the plot (quite literally) with this one.

Sheriff

Interesting that you mention Grisham. Now, I've seen the films but haven't read the books - but it always seemed to me as if the Grisham agenda was to try and take the idea of the legal drama, and remove it from the rather obvious setting, namely the courtroom.

The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client were all legal thrillers that had virtually no courtroom time at all. The Firm I found to be almost incomprehensible (perhaps a mini-series would have been better, there was clearly too much going on for one film); the Pelican Brief was better but still too long. The Client I thought was a step further in improvement, being similar to the Pelican Brief, but at least half an hour shorter (Two and a half hours is too long for a legal thriller.)

However, then "A Time to Kill" came out, which I thought was a far superior film to any other Grisham movie. Cast to perfection, and a gripping story.

Is it any coincidence that it was the first Grisham adaptation that was actually based in the courtroom?

Since then we've had a few more, and again the non-courtroom varieties (The Chamber, The Gingerbread Man) have fared worse than the plain-and-simple courtroom dramas (The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury).

Perhaps there's something to be said for keeping it in the courtroom...?

[happybhoy]

Talking of legal dramas has just reminded me of two remakes that stand up well as pretty much exact copies of the originals, 12 Angry Men & Inherit The Wind. 12 Angry Men had fantastic central performances from Henry Fonda v Jack Lemmon and Inherit The Wind teamed up Spencer Tracy & Fredrick Marsh v Jack Lemmon & George C. Scott (hell there is even a version with Kick Doulgas and Jason Robards). Admittedly they were TV movie remakes of the originals but goes to show if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[BrumBilly]

I LOVE both 12 Angry men and Inherit the Wind (the originals). Still haven't seen the remakes as yet. Been trying to find downloads for 12 Angry men but no joy.

[happybhoy]

I was convinced that Kirk Douglas version of Inherit the Wind had Burt Lancaster in the evangelist role, but I guess not. I think 12 Angry Men was originally a play, its certainly staged like one. I caught the Jack Lemmon version on TV (looking at imdb it says they are tv versions) so you might have difficulty locating it on dvd or video. Try http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12-ANGRY-MEN-vhs-Jack-Lemmon-George-Scott-Very-RARE-oop_W0QQitemZ120047667101QQihZ002QQcategoryZ309QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem
if your desperate.