# Movies so good, they couldn't make them just once! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2002, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663 "2002-12-24T03:03:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663/41 "2003-01-06T17:08:45Z")
_Against all Odds_ is a remake of _Out of the Past_. _Blowout_ is a remake of _Blowup_ _3 Men and a Baby_ is a remake of _3 Hommes et un Couffin_ _Birdcage_ is a remake of _La Cage au Folles_ _Heaven Can Wait_ is a remake of _Here Comes Mr. Jordan_ _Resevoir Dogs_ was remade last year as _Kaante_ (although many say that it was a remake of an earlier film from Hong Kong). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663/42 "2003-01-06T18:17:11Z")
There are relatively few remakes of _movies_. Most of what people call “remakes” are simply a new version of an underlying literary work, whether a novel or a play or a musical. For instance, _Heaven Can Wait_ (1978) is not a remake of _Here Comes Mr. Jordan_ (1941), it is a remake of the play by Harry Segall that _Here Comes Mr. Jordan_ was adapted from. _The Birdcage_ (1996), on the other hand, credits both the play _La Cage aux Folles_ by Jean Poiret, and the 1978 movie adaptation, as its sources. So it truly is a remake of the earlier movie. When one movie truly is a remake of another movie, you would see the writers of the earlier movie credited in the new movie. While Brian De Palma’s _Blow Out_ (1981) has themes in common with Antonioni’s _Blowup_ (1966), it is not a remake. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663/43 "2003-01-06T18:29:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jehovah68 \* > \*\*_Resevoir Dogs_ was remade last year as _Kaante_ (although many say that it was a remake of an earlier film from Hong Kong). \*\* That would be 1987’s [City on Fire](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093435). I believe Tarantino characterized his film as a tribute, but many Hong Kong fans used less charitable terms for it. ---
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663/44 "2003-01-06T18:31:17Z")
Sorry, **Walloon** - you’re right. Perhaps some of those which I listed may be classified as reinterpretations. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663/45 "2003-01-06T19:10:58Z")
And Steven Soderburgh also gave us a remake of _Solaris_, discussed at length in this forum. I wanted to add _Cape Fear_, which in 1962 starred Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, and Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake which featured Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro in the hero and villain roles, respectively. Mitchum and Peck also appeared in Scorsese’s version, in minor roles. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663/46 "2003-01-06T20:37:05Z")
[67 Matching titles of Zorro](http://us.imdb.com/Tsearch?zorro) A slightly lesser known one is [Narrow Margin](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0100224) and [url=“[http://us.imdb.com/Title?0044954](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0044954)”] The first is a Gene Hackman remake. Damn… I can’t find the one I was really looking for… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-so-good-they-couldnt-make-them-just-once/144663.md?page=2)