[QUOTE=Baldwin] Yojimbo was based on a Dashiel Hammett story (which I haven’t tracked down); so Last Man Standing may actually be closer to the original. In any case, along with A Fistful of Dollars we have three entertaining movies based on the same story. Well, it was also redone as, no kidding, a low-budget sword-and-sorcery picture with David Carradine, called The Sword and the Sorceror. All I remember is a woman with four breasts.
[/QUOTE]
The Warrior and the Sorceress , starring the delicious Maria Socas. Topless. Through the entire film. Beats Fistful of Dollars all hollow.
[QUOTE=Rocketeer] The Warrior and the Sorceress , starring the delicious Maria Socas. Topless. Through the entire film. Beats Fistful of Dollars all hollow.
[/QUOTE]
Boy does that ever look bad … I’ve just added it to my netflix queue.
[QUOTE=What Exit?
I seem to strongly disagree with you. I think the Tom Cruise led “lack of acting ability” team remake of WotW was a horrible film. One of the worst I have ever sat through. It was pure dreck and the ending really brought the film down another 8 notches.
Jim[/QUOTE]
The movie certainly had a lot of weak moments, and the ending was much too Hollywood-happy, but “pure dreck”? Nah. Consider:
The scene when Cruise, his daughter, and the crazy dude are hiding in Crazy Dude’s basement, and Cruise has to kill the crazy guy for no other reason than that he won’t be quiet, and is going to give them all away to the aliens. That scene does a fantastic job of showing just how desperate the characters are, how grim the situation is, and the mental toll its taking.
That’s a bit of brilliance, right there, and it shows how much better the WOW remake could have been if the writers could have taken it as dark as I suspect they wanted to.
I just want to add a good remake, since all the bad ones I thought of have been mentioned. Outland, starring Connery, is not better than High Noon, but it’s still a good flick.
Oh, I gotta disagree with you there. Outland was not a good thing to do to that Fred Zinneman film. If you get a chance, find and read Harlan Ellison’s spot-on disemboweling of Hyams’ film.
1.) I’ve liked every version of The Front Page I’ve seen. Everyone loves the His Girl Friday version, but I liked the original with Adolphe Menjou, and the 1974 Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau version. (I haven’t seen “Switching Channels”)
2.) I actually prefer the Mel Brookks version of to Be or Not to Be to the Jack Benny/Ernest Lubitsch original.
[QUOTE=Hampshire]
The Good- I saw the updated Ocean’s 11 which was very entertaining before I saw the original rat-pack version which was okay.
[/QUOTE]
I haven’t seen the original but I LOVE all the Ocean’s movies.
[QUOTE=Hampshire]
The Bad- Gus Van Sant’s shot-by-shot remake of Psycho was a pointless exercise and I’m not even sure why they bothered to make it.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed wholeheartedly. Psycho was a terrific movie. Anne Heche is just weird as Marion, Vince Vaughn is laughable and equally bizarre as Norman, and I felt that Susan Sarandon was pretty decent as Lila but seemed out of place as a good actress in such a heap of a movie.
[QUOTE=Hampshire]
The WTF- Stepford Wives. Not even really sure what this movie was attempting to be. Comedy? Horror? Sci-Fi? Drama? It fell way short of any of these.
[/QUOTE]
Oh Lordy Lord…YES. That movie sucked. SUCKED, SUCKED, Sucked. Faith Hil should never act again and I have hated Matthew Broderick for a long time. (I think it was since he appeared in The Music Man.) I thought his only good movie was the iconic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which I watch pretty much once a week.
[QUOTE=Wonderwall6129]
…I have hated Matthew Broderick for a long time. (I think it was since he appeared in The Music Man.) I thought his only good movie was the iconic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which I watch pretty much once a week.
[/QUOTE]
Just to defend Matthew a little, but what about Wargames, Lady Hawk, Biloxi Blues & The Freshman? I realize these are all from 1990 or before, but he was one of my favorite young actors in the 80s. I even liked Project X at the time.
[QUOTE=Mr. Excellent]
The movie certainly had a lot of weak moments, and the ending was much too Hollywood-happy, but “pure dreck”? Nah. Consider:
The scene when Cruise, his daughter, and the crazy dude are hiding in Crazy Dude’s basement, and Cruise has to kill the crazy guy for no other reason than that he won’t be quiet, and is going to give them all away to the aliens. That scene does a fantastic job of showing just how desperate the characters are, how grim the situation is, and the mental toll its taking.
That’s a bit of brilliance, right there, and it shows how much better the WOW remake could have been if the writers could have taken it as dark as I suspect they wanted to.
[/QUOTE]
I agree completely. Steven Spiellberg is perhaps the best director alive. His technical control of the medium is unparalelled; nobody can - or ever could - craft an action sequence like his. However…
… his abilities as a producer are pretty much hit-or-miss, especially when it comes to picking scripts. The man is a living repudation of the Auteur Theory.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
Oh, I gotta disagree with you there. Outland was not a good thing to do to that Fred Zinneman film. If you get a chance, find and read Harlan Ellison’s spot-on disemboweling of Hyams’ film.
[/QUOTE]
This thread is polarizing, to say the least. Sorry, but the opinion of HE wouldn’t sway me.
A good remake works by itself. For people who’ve never seen the original or iconic, the remake should work. And I think Outland does.
