Improve a favorite movie.

Cafe Society
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I really enjoy watching “The Cheaters” (1945) around Christmas time. It’s warm and funny and very much of the classic ‘Christmas spirit can redeem’ mold. (And if my hair looked like Joseph Schildkraut’s, everybody could kiss my ass.) It has terrific performances by top character actors, including Billie Burke, great looking sets and it’s snowing throughout and I love snow in movies. Plus, compared to other Christmas perennials, it’s fairly obscure, and I like appreciating things that aren’t widely appreciated.

As much as I like it, I long for it to be better than it is and imagine ways it could have been improved. For instance, the two private detectives come very close to disrupting the ruse the Pidgeon family is perpetrating. They sense that they have been duped and head off to get a search warrant. But that’s the last we see of them. How much better it would have been if they had shown up at the house, search warrant in hand, after the Pidgeon’s had confessed to their deception and were invited to the Christmas celebration.

Also the conversion of the family, particularly the ‘brat’ Therese seems a little too drastic. Some additional motivation would have helped.

And if the scene at the bar between Mr. Marchand and Florie Watson had been a little longer, perhaps including some discussion of the plan to turn the old house into a acting school, as Florie previously proposed, I don’t think the ending would feel as rushed as it does now.

Ahh well, my improved version can never exist. Do you have a favorite movie that you feel could be made perfect, if only…?

2

Let’s see…

I’ll add a brief moment in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring in which Pippin wonders why they don’t ride the Eagles to Mordor, only to have Gandalf or Aragorn reply that they’ve tried that before, only to see the Eagles shot down. You can do that in just about a minute.

3

First thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title was Four Weddings and a Funeral. Replacing Andie McDowell with just about any other actress would greatly improve this film. She’s just horrible and I usually skip through her scenes. It’s a testament to how wonderful the rest of the movie is that it’s still so good *despite *the fact that she’s in it.

4

Any REAL vampire movie (none of this wussy teenybopper twitard twilight type of emopire movie); have the vampires win

Any movie; add Zombies (preferably O’Bannon “braaaaaiiiinnnnsss” zombies), bonus points if the movie is a pretentious drama or other boring type

5

V for Vendetta.

Remove Ms. Portman’s clothes.

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That’s the fix for any movie. :smiley:

7

The Matrix: Go with the original idea that the Machines are using human brains as coprocessors, not as human bodies as batteries.

Independence Day (which I like in a mindless entertainment sort of way despite the flaws); 2 changes come to mind. Have the President order a second mass nuclear strike when the first fails, and have it fail as well; just giving up after one try was stupid since for all they knew the shields just barely held on. And as far as the infamous computer virus; have some comments about how they’d been able to power up and study the fighter’s computer for years, enough to write a working virus* and how a telepathic species simply has no comprehension of security.

  • One suggested line I heard on another forum “Of course it’ll work on the alien’s computers; where did you think we got the operating system for the Mac from in the first place?”
8

Return of the King: credits roll after Aragorn & co kneel to the hobbits. The credits are broken up with the remainder of the scenes.

9

Beautiful. You’re hired to do the Special Editions. Just keep Aragorn shooting first.

10

I agree. I think the only movie she give an even passable performance is in “Groundhog’s Day.”

I really actually like Star Wars: Attack of the Clones… I think it’s the best of the prequels.
I’d add a bit more in-movie evidence (rather than subtext or outside of movie fiction) establishing the Jedi as a monastic warrior class that Anakin has trouble with because he came to it later in life. They show that Jedi start training as toddlers (Yoda and the younglings). Anakin came late… and had a lot more life experience than other Jedi padawans even only being 9 when he gets taken in. He knew and loved his mother, something that the movie should have hit harder. The other Jedi just didn’t understand what Anakin was feeling because their parents were distant faded memories. Obi-Wan should had the track that when you join the order you give up your former life for a life of duty and dedication to the Republic. It makes the Jedi tragic and even more flawed (toddlers “join” a monastic order because of midichlorians in their body-that’s messed up!). There’s an early scene where Anakin says Obi-wan is the closest thing to a father he has- Obi-wan should have shot that down immediately–“We’re Jedi, we don’t have fathers.”
It was the inability of the Jedi as group to balance duty and emotion that led to Anakin’s fall. Instead of Anakin being angry and slaughtering the Tusken raider village. It should have been calm and ordered metting out of “justice.” They attacked farmers which led to a woman’s death- therefore they had to be punished.
Meanwhile you have him escorting Padme and feeling conflicted about his emotions for her compounded with the Jedi saying “forget your mom” they also tell him “forget about that girl you like.” He’s a teenager…has that ever worked?
(I’d also remove the secret wedding from Ep 2 and save it for ep 3)
It then provides a better opportunity for Sidious in Ep.3. Anakin is trying to be a good Jedi and deny his emotions. Sidious as Palpatine comes along and tells him “hey it’s cool to have emotions.”

11

I wouldn’t say its a favourite movie but this is how I feel they should have filmed the climactic fight-scene between Obiwan and Anakin in Revenge of the Sith.

Instead of the way it was shown with them both as pretty much evenly powered and skilled I would have depicted Anakin as ungodly powerful and capable with Obiwan and the audience quickly realising he’s outmatched and only barely hanging on. But just because someone is better than you doesn’t mean you can’t win…

Obiwan uses his experience to fight a retreating battle until he has lured Anakin into the lavafields, but in one last frenzy of an attack Anakin knocks Obiwan onto his back, sending his light-sabre spinning into the lava, with rage in his eyes he towers over Obiwan and prepares to deliver the killing-blow, Obiwan raises his arm in defence, “Anakin, don’t!”

Anakin pauses, his attack falters, he seems to become his old self for a moment but in that instant when his defences are down Obiwan strikes out and force-pushes him backwards, he tumbles down the slope and his lower half falls into the lava, he screams for help.

Obiwan leaps forward and pulls him to safety then stands back horrified at what he’s done to his friend and pupil, he reaches for Anakin again, “Oh Anakin…Anakin…I’m sorry”, Anakin looks up with contorted face and spits out, “I hate you!”

Obiwan stands up, a shadow crosses his face as he remembers exactly what Anakin has done to reach this point, he turns his back and walks away, face like stone, a plaintive call comes after him,“Obiwan, Obiwan, don’t leave me!”, without turning around he mutters just loud enough for Anakin to hear, “Crawl away and die…Vader…”

I think that would make a better and more dramatic ending but it means for the next twenty or so years Obiwan has more than enough time to think upon and regret his actions when he left his friend and Luke’s father behind to die in that terrible place.

12

Remove Una O’Connor from *The invisible Man *and Bride of Frankenstein.
Really, the woman’s screaming gets annoying quickly.

13

It’s a Wonderful Life… Mr. Potter is dragged out of his office in front of God and everybody for grand-theft.

14

Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Change the chocolate river so it looks like chocolate, not dishwater.

15

She wasn’t in the movie much, but Priscilla Lane in Arsenic and Old Lace was the single turd in an otherwise fabulous punchbowl. One of my dream cast movies, and a holiday favorite.

Excise the character of senile mom in Apollo 13.

Love Alec Guinness to death, but please replace him with a Japanese actor in A Majority of One. I’m a huge Rosalind Russell fan and this would be a wonderful film if only…

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Thank you! I know it’s nitpicky, but this bugs me every time I see this movie, and I see it a lot.

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I love Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride. But it would be even better if it had included Humperdinck’s “Zoo of Death” (from the book). And Cary Elwes is kinda “meh” as Westley. I’d like to see someone with more zing, someone who might be more believable as the Dread Pirate Roberts. Maybe Wes Bentley or Matt Bomer (both of 'em were prepubescent children when the movie was made, but we’re talking fantasy stuff here).

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Snip: According to Cracked.com, in one of the deleted scenes they show Jeff Goldblum’s character “tinkering with his PowerBook inside the recovered craft from the Roswell crash site, mumbling something about how the spaceship was running off the same programming language he was able to decipher before (when he first uncovered their invasion plans and all that).”

I was just talking with my wife last night how every movie would be improved with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis making out with each other, whether or not they were even in the movie.

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Just what i came in to post; Julia Roberts is my nomination for the replacement. Same treatment for Green Card, BTW.

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I teal deer’d about the Star Wars franchise the last time we had this exercise. I took on not just the prequels, but also the original trilogy.