I found this movie to be a lot of fun. I would easily put this in my list of favorite remakes. (A very short list, indeed)
No, if you want a bad remake, look no further than the live action 101 Dalmations.
The remake of Diobolique.
My revulsion of it had nothing to do with what it should have.
Also starring Sharon Stone. Hmmm…She seems to have a penchant for these things.
Anybody mention The Vanishing yet? Ugh. Talk about a crappy Americanization of a fine, very creepy film.
- Tamerlane
A second vote for **the Grinch **as a well-executed remake. I was very, very surprised, too. Carey did a great job, and obviously had a lot of fun doing the film. There’s one scene involving a dog and a sleeping bad guy which had the whole family rolling.
What about The Haunting?
A wonderfully spooky, beautifully filmed 1963 adaption of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, with barely a special effect (I can only think of one). It was redone a couple of years ago and made into… oh, dear.
Oh, dear.
I only rented the video recently to see how awful it actually was, and it was worse than expected. A whole lot of special effects wrapped around nothing. Not only not scary, but not funny in that campy way bad horror films can be.
Sabrina. The cast of Bogart-Holden-Hepburn was fabulous. The movie was fabulous and there was no reason to attempt a remake.
Stepping away from films for a moment, I’d be in favor of a constitutional amendment repealing the Right of Free Speech as it applies to David Lee Roth’s ability to remake classic rock songs.
staying with music: “Torn” by the little austrialian twat is a truly miserable remake. the original is SO much better…
I would agree with all the above nominations. Another that I haven’t seen mentiond yet is the TV Movie remake of Night of the Hunter. It had Richard Chamberlain in the Robert Mitchum role and they changed the ending. The horror! The horror!
There are quite a few stinkers.
- The Big Sleep. They made a remake with Robert Mitchum. I came across it 15 minutes into it, and I thought the DIRECTV system made a mistake but there was no mistake.
- Lost in Space. Akiva Goldman, huh?
- Planet of the Apes. Jeez, what a piece of crap!
OTOH, Hitchcock’s own remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, the one with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day, is much better than the original with Peter Lorre.
The remake of Psycho, I found appalling… But the reason for the lack of tension is not as mysterious as Roger Ebert suggests. Two quick examples:
*Black and white vs bad, bad, bad use of color, for a start. The Marion Crane character in the remake is dressed in bright colors, cheap clothes, and looks like a streetwalker; Janet Leigh is far more respectable, and thus garnishes more sympathy. Black and white is far more ominous than color, as well. Color distracts, black and white allows the director to focus attention.
- Choice of actors and acting ability. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates is skinny, comparable size to Janet Leigh, and comes across as sympathetic. Wossname towers over the Marion Crane character, and comes across as threatening and ominous from the very first scene.
Martin Scorsese will be pleased to know that his version of Cape Fear hasn’t been mentioned until now. And I’m only mentioning it to point out that it’s very far from people’s minds. Since it wasn’t exceptionally good, that must mean it was terribly mediocre.
Plus, personally, could really have done without the sound effect of Vincent Vaughn “beating it” while watching Anne Heche undress through the peephole. Yetch.
:o
The one with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lang? Unfortunately yes.
Whos the black private dick in the remake that was not a hit…SHAFT
How about that made for TV remake of The Shinning
I haven’t hear good things about Oceans 11 either
I’ll vote again and again for The Grinch.
Plus Cape Fear.
But did you know that Barb Wire was a remake of Casablanca?
Sabrina
Hey I kinda liked the Remake of the Blob.
Now I cringe at these terrible horror remakes, 13 ghosts, House on haunted hill etc. and now word has it they are going to remake Texas Chainsaw Massacre (EEP!)
What the hell are they thinking?!?! I don’t mind a re imagining of a concept (The FLY) or a slight update based on differnet political ideas (Invasion of the Body Snatchers )(ok I’ll be slammed on that one I guess) if it is done well.
But what the hell can they do with Texas Chainsaw Massacre that would be worth seeing!! Make the family a group of Democrats?!?!?
“Cape Fear”? That was awesome!! Robert DeNiro was so hot…and menacing. I haven’t seen the original, but the clips I’ve seen of the other Max Cady make him look so wimpy compared to DeNiro.
Wait a second, Jabba. They did a made-for-TV remake of Night of the Hunter? Why, God, why…?!?
The worst part about the remake of Mr. Deeds is the soundtrack that goes with it, which includes what is guaranteed to be the worst musical remake of all time: David Bowie remakes “Space Oddity” with Adam Sandler.
A moment of silence is in order.
Eve,
Lost in Space wasn’t a Trek parody. It premiered in 1965, well BEFORE Star Trek. Remember, the first eps were black-and-white.