ChristineCB

I believe my rating system for Remakes lies in the filmmaker's commitment to greatness.

If the filmmaker isn't going to commit to make a clearly superior remake, why bother? If he doesn't have that goal of Certain Greatness, why waste all that celluloid? Why waste the effort, the money (MY money) and MY time? (I know, I know - he can make a bundle. Fine. Why can't the financiers find good projects instead of bad ones, though? Why can't the filmmaker find a good project instead of bad one - HE is the one who's supposed to know the difference!)

Gus Van Zant's 1998 pure remake of PSYCHO, which is a mere scene-for-scene plagerized copy of the original, is an example of Failure To Commit To Greatness. In that case, a TOTAL failure. I do not see any evidence that he attempted to do anything more than re-creating a color version of the original, and add in cussing, a masturbation scene and a Sony Walkman. Big deal.

These are not commitments to greatness.

And I think that's why Remakes can be horrible flops - because there are very few that are clearly superior upon delivery, and apparently, many don't even try.

Is Peter Jackson's new King Kong a clearly-superior remake of the 1933 original with Willis O'Brien's effects? Comparatively, I'd argue "no". There was nothing that Jackson's Kong did that TV-video games weren't doing 28 years ago (sliding on the ice - yawn - the 1979 Atari road-race game had that). And there was nothing new that wasn't done in the 15-year-old JURASSIC PARK.

Peter Jackson did, however, try to make a better film because he fleshed out the story considerably - slow as it may be. At least he tried!

So, rather than argue for or against Remakes, I think my complaint is that I always expect filmmakers to TRY to make clearly-superior films. I think Peter Jackson tried, but honestly, I wasn't nearly as impressed with his Kong as I was the first time I saw the original 1933 Kong.

WiseFilms

I hated the new King Kong. To me, the '70's one was quite a bit more enjoyable.
The Psycho retread was pointless from the word go.

Although it'll sound like herisy to most of the British film fans on this Board, I like the Coen's Ladykiller's. I think it get's way too much unfair scorn.
Mind you, I love the MacKendrick original, there's no topping that.

I think the trick to making "good remakes" , is to reimagine them.
So, the recent Ladykiller's, aside from taking place in the American South, and starring a smothering black woman, instead of a demure Englishwoman --also featured many plot points from other Ealing comedies.
It was more of an homage to Ealing, then a strict one-movie remake.
The Coen's Ladykiller's has about as much in common with the original, as Back to the Future had in common with The Time Machine.

One major difference being: practically everyone hated The Ladykiller's "remake", and I'm a bit puzzled by it, really!

Wolfgang

We tend to view remakes as bastardisations, like colourization - if Psycho 98 stood alone it would not be nearly as offensive, but rather its agenda to revise that earlier piece of work and how we perceive it that offends us. Some people even object to remakes that are clearly better such as The Fly, and that is because they do not exist as completely separate entities. As we Germans say, you only get one wife, all others are mistresses.

ChristineCB

Wise, I avoided the new LADY KILLERS for two reasons: (1) the trailer had too much cussing, and (2) I feared my love for the original would not give the remake a snowball's chance in Texas' latest winter.

That's the only reason I avoided it. I get tired of cussing. Please oh please let them mash their fingers with a hammer - find some GOOD reason for it. But as a "linquistics skillset", I'm sorry - cussing does NOT impress me. If they want to educate me in New Words, fine - come up with something that tops Bill Murray's MOTHER PUSSBUCKET from Ghostbusters.

Your salient point of "Please Re-Imagine The Film" is the point I was poorly making. Please oh please imagine something BETTER or TRY to imagine something better than the original. If not, please don't bother.

ChristineCB

I agree. I would not be so offended by PSYCHO '98 except it was made to be a blatant rip-off, a total copy. Van Zant gives no evidence that he tried to do anything better or even different. I just hope someone bought him that light-box for his next gift so he could do all his tracing and copies at home.

When I compared DIAL M FOR MURDER and A PERFECT MURDER, I can see the same story underneath both, but each film stands on its own without being crippled or necessarily compared to the other. I applaud A PERFECT MURDER's "re-imagining the film", as Wise said.

THE FLY's films are an interesting set to consider. I like all four, and obviously the original two have some very limited effects that were clearly surpassed by make-up in the newer ones. The better-timed dialog in the new ones, the better lighting, etc - all were good improvements. I am not sure people who saw the newer ones could ever tolerate the older originals.

Which always brings up the point, "Does the First Media's Consumption spoil it for other formats and remakes?"

Again, I think my rating system is shaped by the goals and then the performance on those goals. This lets a film-made-from-a-book be tolerable, enjoyable or preferable IF the film is Good. But if the filmmakers don't even try to top a book or the original film, I am so disappointed to have wasted my time and money.

WiseFilms

There was another Thread a little like this one, a few months back, where it was wondered --why they don't they Re-make Bad Movies!?!
I came up with the smarty-ass answer, that: the remakes would bare too unfavorable comparison with the "bad" originals.
In other words: the New Ones would look even worse than the Old Ones.

The problem is, the Hollywood Imagineer's, have a near-empty well of inspiration. All they're looking at are titles/"properties" that they can pawn off for naustalgia purposes, while offering Nothing Whatsoever New plot-wise. It makes me sick.
Maybe they really ought to stay away from old movies.

If, for one instance, someone wanted to remake Charade --they damn well should have gotten Stanley Donen to do it. Then again, he probably wouldn't have wanted to do it again. And for good reason.

On the cuss words thing..it really doesn't bother me, the words themself; it's how they're used.
I didn't care for the way they were used in, e.g., The Departed. I thought it was banal.
In The Big Lebowski, however --ahhh, that was ingenious, to me.

There's a marvelous quote, from David Mercer's Providence script, where David Warner is sitting on a park bench, and blurts out "I've got an erection." - to which Ellen Burstyn's character replies: " Oh.. Wanna do something about it?" -
(beat) Warner:"It's not mine!"

I think, if you keep the cuss words at a distance, the audience can look at it objectively. There are no "ugly" or "unnecessary" words, only poor usage.
That's my feeling.

ChristineCB

Never let it be said that Wise isn't EXTREMELY kind and generous. "Near empty"?!! ha ha - boy, you're giving them about 1400 tons of credit that I would not!

On top of that, I believe they've filled their empty wells of inspiration or creativity with an overflow of laziness.

I can just imagine the CGI artists that Jackson hired for KONG to be sitting around. "Say, you remember the 1978 Atari road-race game? They had a level where you could race on ice, and the cars would slide around the TV screen. Crash, spin-out, things like that. Let's figure out that algorithm and let's get KONG to do that. We can put him in Central Park and discover ice for the first time."

"Oh great! And we can kill another 5 minutes of screen time! Great idea!"

"What if he gets into the sewer system and finds Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory, too? Man, we could have him waste even more screen time!"

"Yeah, but think of the Rights issue. Although, with the toys and everything, maybe the Wonka people would see this as a win-win situation?"

Carmel

Another few i can think of that were no were near the original The Wicker Man what a sensless load of rubbish to make it American for a start how stupid, also there was the Haunting that took away the whole asmosphere of the original and how many Jane Eyers and Secret Garden's are we going to get. They are all not worth going to a cinama to see or even spending the money on DVD's when they are released. When are they going to leave well alone and just let us savour the greats we have next they will be remaking the Wizard of Oz.

BristolUK

The Ladykillers remake was Joel and Ethan Coen? I'm shocked.

I had thought they could do no wrong.

ChristineCB

I never finished the Cohen Brothers' version. At least they tried to restyle it and modernize it - it wasn't without some attempt to demonstrate some creativity.

After all, "1" on a scale of a hundred is more than nothing.

BristolUK

And then the movie began.

Tom Hanks normally doesn't do much wrong either.

It shows there are no guarantees.

samkydd

IMHO remakes are made because:

a)Some film makers are driven by commercial greed and know that nostalgia always sells by the bucket load. Consequently no matter how rubbish the remake is punters will always go and see it to satisfy their curiosity. Invariably they come away from the cinema disappointed by which time it's too late, their money is already spent!

b) Modern film makers were brought up on television so they often resort to remaking once popular TV shows into films. If they took the trouble to read new screenplays and trust their own creativity and imagination rather than copy what's been done before all the time, we might get a few decent original stories up there on the screen.

c) The wrong type of people are going into film making. They don't appear to have the pre-requisite skills of creativity and imagination and would be better suited to marketing trainers or skin care products.

If it carries on like this the cinema industry will collapse because people will not put up with being conned time after time! It is closely mirroring the failings of the music business which is swamped with manufactured middle-of-the-road plastic pop idols copying other people's hits all the time, and what a pile of kack that once great industry has turned in to!

Like many film fans I'm a frustrated film maker, and I've never had the opportunity to go into the industry in any capacity. If I had I would have wanted to make films to be proud of, not something cynical to rip off the punters and please the accountants!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

ChristineCB

Sam, I think the mechanics of film-making has a lot to do with financiers. Not just the filmmakers.

I think there are groups that have bundles of money but lack the creative intelligence to know how to increase that without others' help. So, when they say, "Here's a kajillion dollars - give me a project to spend it on", then the lazy filmmakers offer up remakes. The Lazy Financier remembers the original fondly and greenlights it.

He is too uncreative to even ask, "Why can't I find someone who'll give me a fresh idea?" Heck, if he was THAT creative in the first place, he wouldn't be looking to others to help him make more money.

I've never thought Tom Hanks was an idiot. Probably a bit arrogant, sure, but it sort of comes with the territory he's proved himself in. Yet, to think he could outdo an Alec Guinness-Peter Sellers-Herbert Lom film that HE said HE loved, wow - I didn't know his arrogance would overrule what few brains I believed he had.

I do blame Tom Hanks for associating himself with that film. If the guns were pointed at his family's head, please - let 'em die. If they're going to be the target of this one blackmailing ransom episode, they'll always be. Tom - don't do it! Accept their death now. Pull a Keyser Sozé. Don't let them die a million shames!

Same with Anne Heche and Vince Vaughan. They no longer deserve any attention from me because they chose to participate in that remake.

* * * *

Back to financiers and creative film-makers... if the filmmaker has a great idea but can't sell it, then I question all of his abilities to do more than dream. If he can't sell it, then he can't tell it well enough. If he can't tell it, how good can he film it?

silverwhistle

There's a difference between making a new adaptation of a book (as in the case of some examples you cite), and simply remaking a film, in some cases shot for shot. Some books are capable of bearing multiple interpretations - so why not commit a range of them to film? Also, sometimes a different performer can bring out nuances in a character which another one did not (compare Glenda Jackson and Fiona Shaw's very different performances as Hedda Gabler).

To argue against all remakes seems to me the equivalent of saying, for example, that because X actor was particularly good in Y's production of Hamlet, there is no need for anyone else ever to stage the play again or play that role (especially if the production was filmed).

mel walton

agreed, most remakes are in a class with sequels but there have been exceptions. "His Girl, Friday" (one of the all time greats) was a remake. "The Maltese Falcon " with Bogart, was a big improvement over the one with Ricardo Cortez. Regards Mel Walton