If we’re going to make a movie remade, but better, and we’re talking about the quality of Steven King movies, let’s jump straight to the issues with the Dark Tower. I have no issues with Idris Elba’s portrayal, but they tried to do too much in too little time, combining elements of several of the books together in a way that never jelled. It would be wonderful to see as a high-concept series (on HBO or the like), that took the time to do it well.
It can be done, Good Omens on Amazon proved that you could put together a book in larger (or bingable) segments and succeed. I just hope one day it will be done.
So, there was a bit of discussion upthread about Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. It’s been a long time since I saw it, but it’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime, so I re-watched it. It had a real sense of fun, but it really wasn’t very good overall. But, I agree with the poster who originally mentioned it. If they manage to keep the same sense of fun but with a bigger budget, better casting, and a better screenplay, I’d really like to see a re-make.
Misery? I never read the book, but the movie was one of the first for me to disprove the idea, ‘Great books; shitty movies.’
They left out the dinosaurs.
I’ve read the unabridged novel several times, and I think the original 1994(?) TV miniseries did a surprisingly good job of adapting the story to the screen. Maybe it wasn’t as gory or sexy as the book was in parts, but that didn’t fundamentally detract from the story. I’m not so sure it needs a remake.
I think this is one of those things that is fundamental in making a single roughly two hour movie of a comic / literary franchise that’s huge, like Judge Dredd or the Aubrey-Maturin novels. No matter how hard you try, you can only really include a smattering of the backstory and stuff like that, and that’s why Dredd undersells the world like it does. But it IMO does a fantastic job of showing the character and the basics of what a Judge in that world is about.
I don’t think there was anything wrong with the original, but I think they could make a perfectly good remake now that might be popular. Maybe have the kid playing some PC or console game online, and turning out to be really good at it. You’d have to change up some of the story that centers around a coin-op arcade game, but that wouldn’t be too tough.
Thank you. I’ve often said that Hunt for Red October is as close to a perfect movie as exists. You simply cannot touch that masterpiece. This criticism is downright bizarre.
Remake Starship Troopers with powered body armor, dammit. They should talk to the people who CGI’d Iron Man for tips.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader - and just stick to the book!
Daredevil. And by “remade,” I mean throw out the original script, cast and director, bring in the Netflix series cast, and tell a proper DD story.
If they did Daredevil in the same tone as Shazam, i. e.: Lighthearted, I be willing to watch it. Otherwise, to me, there’s no point.
Well…I read Daredevil the comic book primarily during 1980’s in the Frank Miller era when it was probably about as dark as Marvel comics got back then. As a result the idea of a lighthearted Daredevil just seems wrong somehow. Lighthearted Ironfist, sure (re-cast that sucker though), but lighthearted Daredevil would generate some serious cognitive dissonance in me.
Although I liked Shazam! and similar more lighthearted fare, unlike many I’m also a fan of the grim n’ gritty school of superhero films. I even liked The Dark Knight Rises ;).
I 75% agree with you. The first two nights were very good. The third night was a slog. The story barely advanced and it felt padded solely to make sure each installation clocked in at two hours including commercials. And the last night, while still good, seemed a little rushed.It would have been better to air a 90 minute part 3 and expand the finale to 2 1/2 hours. A remake by a streaming service could get around the pacing problems imposed by linear broadcast TV. Notice how The Mandalorian episodes vary in length to be whatever is needed to serve the story.
Mark Waid’s recent run showed how you can do a lighter take and still feel like Daredevil, but still, it’s a long way from “Shazam.”
I’ve always thought it had some serious plot holes. The Soviet Union has developed a silent submarine, and when the Joint Chiefs hear about it, they’re terrified that it can approach the U.S, coast undetected. And yet, the sonar operator on board the Dallas figures out how to track it after just one encounter. Billions of dollars worth of Soviet military research is defeated by a reel-to-reel tape deck, if they can get that information out to the rest of the fleet. Keeping that sonar operator alive should be the Navy’s highest priority, so he can teach the his technique through the rest of the submarine fleet. Let the Soviets bankrupt themselves building more ‘silent’ submarines. We’ll just track them and follow them the same way we always have.
I think maybe you missed some stuff. It’s clear in the dialog that the Dallas had radioed its findings back to the fleet. Admiral Painter and Ryan have an explicit discussion about it before he flies out to the sub. Jonesy isn’t irreplaceable, he just made the important connection. Any operator could repeat it once they adjusted the software.
The point wasn’t that the sub was silent, the point was that it didn’t sound like a sub. And if not for one really good sonar man in the right place at the right time they might have gone unnoticed for a decade. Military tech isn’t about having a trump card, it’s about staying ahead.
Getting the technology is way more important than keeping secret the fact that you have cracked it. And at the end of the movie, the Russians still don’t know that the technology was figured out.
You’re nitpicking and these aren’t even the right nits.
Did anyone’s say Watchmen?
Of course the very good HBO sequel series might have obviated such a need.
I would like to see The Final Countdown remade, but without “The Final Copout”(the same timestorm that put them in 1941 takes them back right before they do anything to change the course of the war) making the whole movie a complete waste of time.
I totally disagree that the way they ended this was a “cop out”. Let’s think this through - the carrier is not transported back, so they are able to take part in the battle. If they decide to engage, in all likelihood, they single-handedly thwart the attack on Pearl Harbor (the part you want to see). Aside from the carnage they inflict, the japanese see what they’re up against, so even if they still had the resources, they don’t even bother trying to take on the US again (not knowing how many other like carriers/jet fighters/weaponry the US posesses).
So the US never enters the war. Think about the repercussions of that. Maybe they’re coaxed into helping in europe, but more in a “supplying more arm” way than boots on the ground. Or they don’t send troops until much later (harder to convince people to go off to war without a “Remember Pearl Harbor” slogan to encourage them). And this also impacts the push to build an atomic bomb. So…the soviets figure it out first. And the world ends up very different.
The whole point of the movie was the commanders on the carrier facing this dilemma - knowing what they know, should they attempt to change the past ?
I recommend you revisit the Star Trek “City on the Edge of Forever” episode.
The copout was that they never got to make the choice at all. Btw, I know about all the other parts of history that would have been changed, and I think the movie would have been much more interesting if possible repercussions were shown.