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Aug
05
2008

Twitch-O-Meter: Remakes Done Right

Posted by Collin Armstrong at 9:00am.

Posted in Twitch-O-Meter , Exploitation, Thriller, Cult, Drama, Action, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Continental Europe & Russia, USA & Canada.

Per usual, this Twitch-o-Meter will remain at the top of the site for 24 hours.  New stories will appear below.

The seemingly never-ending stream of remakes continues rushing down Hollywood’s pike in the coming weeks – Paul W. S. Anderson’s Death Race (eviscerated by Todd here) and Alexandre Aja’s Mirrors premier in August, while September brings another tragic Nic Cage hairpiece to screens in Bangkok Dangerous.  When a film is judged as suitable remake fodder, it’s likely there was something to the original – maybe a kernel of transcendent storytelling or an exciting spin on something shopworn – which marked it as special.  That something tends to be lost in translation, but every so often a remake gets things right, parlaying what made the original special into something intriguing in its own right.  This ToM will look at a few remakes which do just that – managing a fresh take on revered material.

The Thing - John Carpenter’s icy look at paranoia by way of a relentless shape-shifting alien was reviled in its day but has come to be revered not only for Rob Bottin’s ground-(to say nothing of chest- and face-)breaking FX work but JC’s assured, calculated direction and trademark evocation of mood.  Hewing close to Howard Hawks’ original Thing from Another World, Carpenter contemporized the scenario and expertly rendered the all-male cast’s frustration and fear of becoming “the other.” That the film draws sneaky parallels to the then publicly nascent AIDS epidemic further cements its reputation as a clever, thoughtful re-imaging.

Scarface - lifting the spine from Howard Hawks’ ’32 original and little else (beside the title), DePalma’s completely over-the-top examination of reckless personal abandon in flashy Miami still polarizes critics and audiences to this day.  A defining performance from Al Pacino and a laundry list of gonzo set-pieces highlight the story of a small-time hood’s rise to and fall from power.  A universal concept, to be sure, but DePalma’s at-times out-of-control stylistic touches push the film in to the realm of a sort of hardboiled fever dream, turning it into a sort of very distant and rough-around-edges cousin to the more outré noirs of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

The Fly - another classic horror trope infused with state-of-the-art effects work and dashes of modern political and sexual commentary, one of David Cronenberg’s first forays into studio filmmaking yielded a potent, putrid masterpiece of modern anxiety.  Anchored by an amazing turn from Jeff Goldblum, the film retained the love story at the original’s core but amps it up by digging at the literal animal instincts unleashed when Goldblum’s naive scientist is fused with a common housefly after testing a prototype matter-transference device on himself.  Cronenberg’s trademark fascination with body horror receives perhaps its best distillation here.

The Ring - the forbearer of the J-(and K- and HK- and T-…)horror remake frenzy, Gore Verbinski’s dread-soaked meditation on meta-physical evil smartly stays true to its roots by eschewing added jump scares and bland teen protags.  A smart cast – including always-reliable everywoman Naomi Watts and chilly, cameo-ing Brian Cox – elevates the proceedings, as do a moody score and lush, rain-soaked set-design and cinematography.  By working from all of Hideo Nakata’s touchstone instead of simply ripping out the central conceit and starting over, Verbinski and company were able to re-tell a now-classic modern ghost story with unsettling aplomb.

Funny Games - Haneke would probably cringe seeing his treatise on what’s wrong with violent films listed next to a handful of legendary gore-fests.  Even if you don’t dig the film’s at-times preachy tone or the auteur’s smug sense of self-righteousness, there’s no denying he transferred the ferocious impact of his own original work in this re-imagining.  Popping up again, Naomi Watts turns in a shattering performance alongside an outstanding Tim Roth.  By telling a nearly-identical story but directing it at an almost entirely new audience, Haneke reminds us of the importance of self-reflection in the face of ever-escalating media sensationalism.

There are plenty of other examples - I count myself a fan of The Departed, The Blob, 3:10 to Yuma, Blow Out… the list could go on .  Any you’re a fan of that I missed?  Do you hate remakes with a passion and wish they’d stopping clogging up cinemas?  Sound off below!

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Reader Comments

  1. The Visitor 08/05/2008 @ 9:26am

    the Ringu remake was terrible! every single frame had to be ominous in some way. and the remade cursed video is an incredibly laughable NIN music video. nope, can’t agree on that one.

  2. Swarez 08/05/2008 @ 9:28am

    I’m a fan of the TCM remake actually. Doesn’t touch the original in terms of shear terror and grittyness but is an entertaining and gory teen slasher.

  3. sarkoffagus 08/05/2008 @ 9:49am

    I agree with your choices, except for THE RING. I thought the Korean remake was better than that.

  4. Collin Armstrong 08/05/2008 @ 10:07am

    No love for THE RING?!?!

  5. marcelb 08/05/2008 @ 10:58am

    The Ring? No, thanks.
    I really enjoyed the remake of TDM, and even Dawn of the Dead.
    The Magnificent Seven is also truly excellent.

    The list of atrocities should really include The Vanishing. <shudder>

  6. Saltoner 08/05/2008 @ 10:59am

    If you saw the original, then saw these films on this list, you’d pretty much agree that the remakes are far better (never seen Funny Games, nor the original) than their counterparts, with the obvious exception, The Ring.  The Japanese version is so much scarier than the Naomi Watts version.  Though if you’ve never seen the original, the Gore’s version is a pretty unique entry into the genre.

  7. The Visualist 08/05/2008 @ 11:02am

    I’m with you Collin, Verbinski made the best Ring film out of the lot.

  8. sarkoffagus 08/05/2008 @ 11:17am

    THE FLY is one of my favorite remakes. Collin compliments Jeff Goldblum’s stellar performance. I think Geena Davis was equally terrific. Regurgitation would be the coolest weapon to have. You’d get cornered by some thugs, and they’d say, “Ha! You’ve got no guns or knives!” and you got say, “Yeah, but I just had some corndogs, so brace yourself!”

  9. zombeaner 08/05/2008 @ 11:35am

    I actually enjoyed The Ring, the sequel to the remake was atrocious, but the first one was pretty cool.

    Another couple of recent successes in my eyes were Dawn of the Dead (not as good as the original, but a LOT better than I expected), and The Hills Have Eyes.  There have been a ton of failures, and there will be a ton more I’m sure, but once in a while they get one right.

  10. Kurt Halfyard 08/05/2008 @ 11:57am

    I think both Ringu and The Ring (remake) have strengths and weakness, In my mind there is some sort of fusion of the two to make a perfect film.  I think the sequence on the boat with the horse was an inspired addition for the American remake, but the super-creepy climax of the tale certainly belongs to the Japanese original.

  11. Kurt Halfyard 08/05/2008 @ 12:02pm

    I actually liked THE STRANGERS better than ILS (aka Them) even though it’s not a bonafide remake, it certainly feels like one.

    Certainly two other are A FISTFULL OF DOLLARS (remake of Yojimbo) and Michael Mann remaking his own LA Takedown as HEAT.

  12. shamrock33 08/05/2008 @ 12:19pm

    THE GETAWAY remake w/ Alec Baldwin rules. CAPE FEAR remake too. Both Kaufman and Ferrara’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remakes are sweet and i see you noted THE BLOB remake in your closing paragraph but that deserves a lot more love than a brief mention

  13. Airchinapilot 08/05/2008 @ 1:29pm

    The Zoltan Korda version of the “Four Feathers” is a classic over the original one and itself is much better than the Shepar Kapur version with Heath Ledger.

    Michael Mann’s “Last of the Mohicans” is a nice update to the 1936 version (note: I’ve never read the book) and has a lot of subtleties that previous film versions couldn’t have approached because of the times they were made in. Plus Mann had a lot more resources to back up his attempt at historicity.

    Mann also remade his “L.A. Takedown” TV pilot / movie as “Heat”. I think everyone would agree that “Heat” was a great improvement.

    Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” has the cast that makes it the classic over his earlier version.

    There are quite a few versions of Les Liason Dangereuse and my favourite is still the Stephen Frears version with Glenn Close and John Malkovich (I’ve seen two other versions).

    This may get me flamed but I thought that “Sorcerer” by William Friedkin would have been a good movie in its own right if there had been no “Wages of Fear”. But “Wages of Fear” is one of my all time favourites; it took balls to even try to remake it. That said, I actually liked “Sorcerer” quite a bit.

    I don’t know how the copyright sorted out but Spielberg’s “Munich” on its own was quite a bit better than the TV series “Sword of Gideon”.

    Again, not asking to be flamed, but “Twelve Monkeys” I think is quite a good movie on its own. And it doesn’t take anything away from Chris Marker’s “La Jetee”. Obviously two different approaches and way different scale.

  14. jo3y 08/05/2008 @ 2:22pm

    THE GRUDGE - US version higher production values. scarier.

    Looking forward to Queen Latifah in My Wife is a Gangster.

  15. ChevalierAguila 08/05/2008 @ 2:26pm

    That list lacks Happiness of the Katakuris and A Fistfull of Dollars, which along with Scarface, The Thing and The Fly are the only examples i can think of remakes done right.

  16. Christopher Ware 08/05/2008 @ 2:34pm

    I enjoyed the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds more than the original.

  17. zombeaner 08/05/2008 @ 2:38pm

    Katakuris is a great remake, but both films are excellent in completely different ways.  Cape Fear eclipses the original, but only just.

  18. cpa314 08/05/2008 @ 3:08pm

    Please, the US version of Ju-On sucked. I never really loved the original but I liked it more than the remake.

  19. IEDParty 08/05/2008 @ 3:35pm

    What’s TCM ? What’s TDM ?

  20. IEDParty 08/05/2008 @ 3:37pm

    “ Superman Returns “. Now that’s a BAD remake.

  21. jo3y 08/05/2008 @ 4:44pm

    so nicholas cage Gone in 60 seconds was a remake? or was there a remake of the nick cage version?

  22. Saltoner 08/05/2008 @ 4:56pm

    Remake of the Cage flick.  TCM = Texas Chainsaw Massacre TDM = ?

  23. bro_mole 08/05/2008 @ 5:52pm

    I really liked The Grudge.  It is what got me into horror movies, and foreign ones as well.  I will admit that it isn’t perfect, but I liked it.  Vanilla Sky was a pretty good remake of Abre Los Ojos.

  24. Zombiwolf 08/05/2008 @ 6:05pm

    King Kong blew my mind the first time.

  25. Zombiwolf 08/05/2008 @ 6:11pm

    I also like Body Snatchers (the Abel Ferrara one). Day the Earth Stood Still looks awful but I just noticed on imdb that there is going to be a remake of ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth.’ Talk about bad ideas.

  26. Brad 08/05/2008 @ 6:24pm

    I liked Juon and so while I couldn’t find the US version scary, it did have higher production values and basically cleaned up the original flick, so...better in my eyes.

    One film I know people won’t agree on is Pulse.
    I did not like the original ‘Kairo’...it was too confused and bland but the U.s one was more solidly done and while, not scary...definitely was better shot.

    No to Departed....all that extra junk crammed in there was useless filler.
    Yes to Doomsday [basically a retread of Escape from New York].

  27. Collin Armstrong 08/05/2008 @ 6:51pm

    You guys have come up with some good ones - SORCERER is a great film.  Needs a proper DVD release.

    Nice catch on 12 MONKEYS, too - didn’t cross my mind.  Wonderful expansion of Marker’s ideas.

    ‘78 BODY SNATCHERS is a classic.

    Does Sam Raimi remaking EVIL DEAD with EVIL DEAD 2 count?  I’m going ahead and saying yes.  And both kick ass.

  28. The Visitor 08/05/2008 @ 8:41pm

    the one that nobody seems to remember:

    Chris Nolan did a really great remake of Insomnia. it’s actually far better than the original. it is funny, engaging, thoughtful, and had a better ending. the original had sort of a non-ending.

  29. cpa314 08/05/2008 @ 10:05pm

    didnt know they did a remake of Kairo. I thought Kairo was a bit confusing as well. Wasnt really scary either. As for Departed, I agree. IA is head and shoulders above it. I’d take Tony Leung over Matt Damon any day. The only reason it one an Oscar was because Scorsese was the director. Plus the people at the oscars were too stupid to even know that Departed was a remake of a Hong Kong film(not a Japanese film like they announced).

  30. IEDParty 08/05/2008 @ 11:25pm

    I fucking HATE ‘ Inferanl Affairs ‘.

    And fitting that it gets mentioned here. I’ve watched it, and always felt
    it the lame-ass cousin of ‘ Face Off ‘; with the cop and the criminal, and switching identities & stuff. Which is, I figure, the worst of all the several other collosal atrocities it is ever likely to commit. Among other things, it is a cheapening, if not an infuriating evisceration, of Heroic Bloodshed - minus the Heroic Bloodshed and the flair, and the originality, and riveting pulse. Like the emasculated, metrosexual, plasticized version of those great stuff; & forced stuffed into that grating Chinese melodramatic TV mold that just degraded it. 

    Johnny To’s work is quite similarly clinical, measured, controlled, doesn’t FEEL like it’s spilling blood too much, but at least feels like the evolved next step of HK crime cinema. This one is more of a cleaner, anemic version of what came before, and IS its Western influences. Its practically filled with a bunch of Chinese actors mimicking Western poses most obviously - stuff like the crime series ones, ‘ Cold Case ‘ , ‘ CSI ‘ and the like. Their prevalent underacting there to fit such mold is so blatant, it’s grating, and builds to a pay-off that, the heavily impacting Tony Leung death aside, as well as Anthony Wong’s ( which got diluted by that slo-mo Chinese MV insert ), feels flat. So, people died. Okay. Nothing really special.

    Which brings me to my major point, and it is - this film feels like its just feeding off second smoke. Its regurgitating John Woo - and Hollywoodized John Woo at that ! - and with none of the distinctive flair. You get a heavy sense that it’s kinda ashamed of the carefree dynamism and spontaneity of the earlier HK works; that if it played closer to the prim, corporate-sleek line, it wouldn’t embarass itself. Thus, boring itself to death. I really did not enjoy this movie.

    Martin Scorcese, on the other hand, took the material, demolished that self-inflicted mould and pretensiosn of proper posture, and just went the hell for it. Could you imagine how bland a more faithful remake would have been ( relatively ‘ shot-for-shot ‘ faithful this one, being, but there were obvious liberties ).  It fills me with so much glee how ‘ The Departed ‘ really flies to the faces of etiquette in saying ‘ You know what ? Action films are all about bloodshed, and mayhem, and cursing, and gruesome violence, & antagonism, if you can’t stomach that stuff, then go fuck yourself ‘. Truly just great how the Master taps into his creative strengths and surges back in fighting form again. Which was how those ‘80s legends soared.  Eber is correct; it’s about HOW you make the film, really.

  31. IEDParty 08/06/2008 @ 12:08am

    ‘ The Departed ‘ gets a lot of flack on the ways it added onto ( read : IMPROVED ON ) the previous version. But it’s what ends up raises it head and shoulders. It bears to mention the original, genre-bending thing that Martin Scorcese has done here : w/c is to treat the cops EXACTLY like he would treat the gangsters. It’s like ‘ Goodfellas ‘ and ‘ Mean Streets ‘ , only its the police. You don’t get much the same lazy equation that law enforcement = good & crime = evil. That’s a subtextual conveniece in the former, and practically absent in the latter; it DIDN’T talk about cops; which is probably how this one relates to that closely by default, in terms of unhinged reality.

    Moreover, it was done in a way that’s not ‘ touchy-feely ‘ cowardly , ‘ there’s a good side to all of them ‘ shit that’s straddling; & neither in the tired, conventional sense of ‘ common empathy ‘, or whatever - which will end up insisting the status quo anyways. Instead, it goes for the jugular and simply states that THEY’RE ALL SCUM. Pretty cunning post-911, Bush commentary in that too, which was actually all over there. That’s what gets you about it. So cool.

    The ending actually rounds up that point. Andrew Lau was saying that the last bit ‘ Hollywoodized ‘ his work; in that there was the impetus to simply not allow the bad guy to succeed. Partly true, yet he doesn’t see the forest for the trees. The manner of resolution actually shows that the badness ends up being axiom, much as it was fittingly cathartic ( that is why we watch action films for, anyways - to see the bastard get it ); in how policemen wound up dealing with their own in a similarly brutal, cold-blooded way as gangsters would - with that final act of murder relating to the relentless back and forth shooting between these coppers up til that point ( which were all, save for Anthony William’s character, going on between RATS, giving that infamous elevator scene a much more interesting, provocative context that can only be capped of with that final shot of actual rats tearing each other apart in that hanging piece of wire ). Mark Wahlberg made that hit in the same way Joe Pesci got his in ‘ Goodfellas ‘, man. Damn !  The extras were much wise.

    He could have gone strictly along the bland aesthetic route and sensibility of the original, and ended up exposing it for the meandering mediocrity it was. It would have just looked ORDINARY, you know. But he didn’t, and so it was. Perfectly Oscar-worthy, and a logical conclusion to a formidable series of works.

  32. IEDParty 08/06/2008 @ 12:26am

    Was personally amused too in how this one went through the religious stuff, by simply LAMBASTING it. Very amusing. ( I didn’t get that whole Bhuddist aspect of hell thing in ‘ Infernal Affairs ‘; it didn’t stand out quite enough, much less helped ...)

  33. The Visitor 08/06/2008 @ 12:33am

    GROAN.

  34. momodotcom 08/06/2008 @ 12:49am

    I always liked the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair and a Bug’s Life

  35. max404 08/06/2008 @ 4:29am

    “Chris Nolan did a really great remake of Insomnia. it’s actually far better than the original.”

    nah, not true at all

    Nolan’s remake is a fine thriller
    But also very Americanized

    Meaning all moral ambiguity was sucked out

    Hell, Pacino even had to PAY FOR HIS SINS in the remake

  36. The Visitor 08/06/2008 @ 4:40am

    the original was indeed ambiguous, so ambiguous to the point of incomprehensibility!

  37. Kurt Halfyard 08/06/2008 @ 5:29am

    Wow, as much as I like Chris Nolan’s remake of Insomnia (a solid film with great atmosphere and compelling central performances.  It doesn’t hold a candle to the gritty nastiness of the original.  Skarsgard is off the hook in that film, truly a dark despicable scumbag.  The original is a much better film.

  38. The Visitor 08/06/2008 @ 5:48am

    i didn’t expect to find so much love here for the original Insomnia!

    anyway, i think the reason 12 Monkeys worked so well is because there’s none of the usual smugness of remakes, where the remakers seem to be saying “i can do better.”

    also, Gilliam took a different route. Marker was preoccupied with memory, but Gilliam tears down the human ego and asks if we do indeed have answers for everything.

  39. max404 08/06/2008 @ 5:49am

    well i don’t know what was hard to comprehend in the original

    actually it was quite a simple story
    simpler even than the remake (which added a lot of plot points)

    as Kurt says...it was morally just a lot more complex

  40. Brad 08/06/2008 @ 6:00am

    Insomnia was so bland and dull [even with Mr Williams], I almost ate my toe in boredom. At least the original had more fire or spark to it.

    Bonus points for The Thomas Crown Affair, wonderful flick...weren’t they making number 2??
    Payback is another good remake [can’t remember the original films name though] and isn’t Get Smart meant to be mega awesome?

  41. sarkoffagus 08/06/2008 @ 6:12am

    PAYBACK is a remake of POINT BLANK with uber-bad ass Lee Marvin.

  42. The Visitor 08/06/2008 @ 6:19am

    funny, Brad, but i ate my toe during the original!

  43. max404 08/06/2008 @ 6:20am

    can’t ‘the limey’ be considered as a (far better than ‘payback’) remake of ‘point blank’?

    btw ‘point blank’ is based on a book

    do 2 films based on the same book even count as a remake?

    no one would consider every new stage version of (say) a Harold Pinter play to be remakes right?

  44. Collin Armstrong 08/06/2008 @ 6:21am

    POINT BLANK is much beloved in our house but PAYBACK does spin a decent update.  I haven’t seen the re-cut release (supposedly Helgeland’s preferred version) yet.  Will have to check it out.

    I never got the hyper-love Nolan’s INSOMINA engender.  Kurt beat me to the punch - great Hollywood thriller, but doesn’t hold a candle to the original.  I wish Skarsgard would go back to that type of work.  No more WAZ, plz.

  45. Brad 08/06/2008 @ 6:22am

    And there we go.
    Nice one, thanks.

    And...god help me...I enjoy Steven Sommers’s Remake Films [Mummy, Mummy Returns]...yes, including Van Helsing.
    Guess there goes my cred…

    Casshern is also an amazing, powerfully different take on the source material.

  46. Collin Armstrong 08/06/2008 @ 6:25am

    I liked the first MUMMY too smile

    To max404’s point - I suppose you would have to define “remake” more closely to answer that question - how many times has TURN OF THE SCREW been told through different lenses?  THE INNOCENTS, THE NIGHTCOMERS, THE OTHERS…

    Didn’t Soderbergh say THE LIMEY was a semi-sequel to Ken Loach’s POOR COW?  I know they used footage of a young Terrance Stamp from COW in LIMEY.

  47. Brad 08/06/2008 @ 6:27am

    I recommend Helegand’s cut...it’s far straighter, more mean and almost completely devoid of humor.
    If that’s cool with you, I think you’ll like it quite a bit, especially the Blu-Ray.
    It’s very interesting to compare both versions ala Exorcist 4....but without the immense suckage.

    Visitor, sorry to hear about the toe.
    Hopefully it grows back with much Nolanised Cells so you can defeat further remakes from spawning more evil.

  48. sarkoffagus 08/06/2008 @ 6:35am

    Collin, how about a “Remakes Done Wrong” column?

  49. Collin Armstrong 08/06/2008 @ 6:38am

    Seems like a logical ToM.  So many from which to choose when you look at it that way, tho! 

    I actually expected a lot more hate on this one - glad to see folks open to appreciating remakes.

  50. Brad 08/06/2008 @ 6:43am

    It does such that Hollywood jumps to the remake first before thinking up new things or taking more risks but that’s just the nature of the beast.

    As long as the original gets it’s dues and the remake isn’t flamingly atrocious, then it’s all good.

    By all means, Remakes Done Wrong sounds great...maybe a top 10 instead of 5 due to the possibilities?

  51. Kurt Halfyard 08/06/2008 @ 7:11am

    A remake rarely wrecks the original, in fact for some of the more obscure films being remade, it brings a fair bit of awareness and often a R1 DVD of the original.  Look at Inglorious Bastards for one. 

    The other side of the coin is of course the whole Quarantine/[REC] situation where the original is actively suppressed in North America until the hyper-soon remake runs its course.

    Oh, and because it hasn’t been mentioned here, I really dig Frank Oz’s remake of Roger Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors.

  52. sarkoffagus 08/06/2008 @ 7:46am

    Yeah, but look at something like THE VANISHING, with a twist ending. I was lucky enough to watch the original first. If I’d seen the remake first, I don’t think the original would have had as much of an impact. The first film has a superior ending, but since I’d be anticipating it, it might not work as well.

  53. DrBaltar 08/06/2008 @ 8:25am

    I really can’t believe so many people think Departed improved on the original. How? By drowning the audience in Blarney? (Man I HATE the OTT fake feeling of ‘Irish’ characters in Hollywood movies). By having Walberg act very badly (that Oscar nom was ridiculous) and shout the C word again and again? To be honest I wanted to see him dead by the end of the picture.

    As for the guy that suggested the Getaway remake is any good (sorry, I forgot your handle) c’mon, Madsen sucked, as ever, and that’s only one of the bad ingredients. To be honest, ok, the original is mostly watchable because of McQueen, but even the Direction of the remake is nothing special. Compare that to Peckinpah on the other hand: electrifying. He knows how to shoot an action scene.

  54. The Visitor 08/06/2008 @ 8:42am

    the problem with The Departed is that it simply took all the fun out of Infernal Affairs.

    IA wasn’t a “deep” thinking man’s movie, to begin with. it never pretended to be anything more than an engaging cat-and-mouse game. but Departed is full of that smugness i talked about earlier. it’s like Scorsese was saying “heck i can do it better!”

    Departed is just a bloated movie with overbearing psychological pretensions, overbearing right down to the last silly frame (of the rat scurrying across).

    and it’s surprising how someone of Scorsese’s calibre can let Wahlberg and Nicholson get away with such bad, hammy performances.

  55. Collin Armstrong 08/06/2008 @ 8:55am

    I look at THE DEPARTED as a riff on IA.  It plays with the same basic ideas but chooses to go in its own direction more than once to good effect.

    I don’t get the smugness - what’s so smug about it?

    Is it Scorcese’s best?  Not by a long shot.  Still a damn fine thriller.

    I get the feeling people dump all over it in large part because he finally won his Oscar for something that’s not GOODFELLAS.  To me that’s unfair - he didn’t give himself the statue or the nominations to his actors.

  56. Christopher Ware 08/06/2008 @ 8:57am

    @jo3y

    The Nic Cage flick was a re-make of a low budget indy production from the 70s.

  57. shamrock33 08/06/2008 @ 8:58am

    DrBaltar “Compare that to Peckinpah on the other hand: electrifying. He knows how to shoot an action scene.” Peckinpah knows how to shoot an action scene… wow, did u come up with that theory all on your own?

    Peckinpah’s THE GETAWAY and Donaldson’s THE GETAWAY are almost interchangeable – but Peckinpah’s has McQueen & MacGraw and Donaldson’s has full frontal Basinger so…

  58. kinkybob 08/06/2008 @ 9:02am

    OK… The Ring? Nonsense! As a few already said, the japanese version was WAY scarier then the american remake. I feel remakes are a waste of time because half of the movies they remake ends up becoming junk. I tend to avoid remakes and movies even remotely close to seemingly be a remake. Remakes are just the devil.... lol

  59. DrBaltar 08/06/2008 @ 9:16am

    @Shamrock33

    Ok, so my comment was hardly original, I still stand by it. I hardly remember being impressed by anything in the remake. And if they are interchangeable, then why bother remaking it? Oh yeah, to insert some full frontal nudity. Are you really 33, because your preferring one film over another just because of some T & A makes me wonder if it should be Shamrock13.

  60. Oh Dae-Su 08/06/2008 @ 9:31am

    Re : The Departed.
    As they say in The Simpsons “The rat symbolises obviousness!”

    What got to me when the film came out was that even periodicals that should have known better were saying things like “ending of the year - all we’ll say is it involves an elevator”—excuse me?! That would be the same ending as Infernal Affairs then! Monaghan or Scorcesse, I forget which, made out that it wasn’t a remake really ; “I haven’t seen it, all I did was read the screenplay” ; so a remake is only a remake if it’s shot for shot / visually the same?!

    Oh, and IED ; with your post after post in a row diatribe against Infernal Affairs (one wasn’t enough?!) ; we get it. You love Heroic Bloodshed movies, you feel like IA is the opposite and you don’t like it. Fine. But Infernal Affairs is NOT supposed to be an ‘action movie’. Sigh.

    I also agree that Mark Wahlberg shouting a lot is NOT an improvement on.......anything! In fact the world needs less Mark Wahlberg, especially when the ‘character’ is written like that. Dignan?! They called him Dignan?!? Scorcesse is supposed to be a massive fan of Bottle Rocket - by my lights, calling THAT character DIGNAN is an insult to Wes Anderson, not a tribute!

  61. Saltoner 08/06/2008 @ 9:31am

    PT Anderson is the new Martin Scorsese, he will forever make great films and forever be snubbed by Oscar, then finally win for a film that’s not nearly his best.  There Will Be Blood should have won Best Picture over No Country For Old Men.  How about a list of most unworthy Oscar winners?

  62. shamrock33 08/06/2008 @ 9:40am

    oh snap! are u really a doctor, because you not liking full frontal Basinger makes me wonder if it should be wetblanketBaltar. yeah, i called u a wet blanket! eat it!!! btw, point out where i wrote i preferred one over the other b/c i didn’t.

    THE GETAWAY aside, i completely argee w/ you about THE DEPARTED - that movie is trash (remake or not). U want irish guys? the irish mob? I’ll take MONUMENT AVE or STATE OF GRACE any day

  63. DrBaltar 08/06/2008 @ 9:51am

    Ok Shamrock: so you don’t prefer the remake, glad to hear it. All I was picking up on in your earlier post was that the remake ‘rules’. As far as Basinger nude, nothing wrong with that. As you said ‘point out where I said I don’t like’… I only meant that nudity doesn’t improve on the original.

  64. shamrock33 08/06/2008 @ 10:28am

    fair enough - friends?

  65. DrBaltar 08/06/2008 @ 10:42am

    Friends.

    How refreshing, compared to what I see when I read AICN.

    I can’t believe I ever bother reading the TalkBacks in Ain-It-Cool-News. I rarely bother commenting though: if the discussion is a really hot topic, at the end of the day your one sane comment becomes a grain of sand… surrounded by a sea of bile!

  66. Jahsoldier 08/06/2008 @ 11:04am

    Twelve Monkeys was awesome, which was essentially a remake of La Jetée.

  67. Saltoner 08/06/2008 @ 11:13am

    DrBlatar, that’s so funny you mention AICN when it comes to these sort of posts.  I actually posted on there last week about childish everyone seems to be over there.  It’s nice people can have their opinions and not get bent out of shape when other’s express their’s.  3 cheers for Twitch fans!

  68. Collin Armstrong 08/06/2008 @ 11:24am

    Seriously, you guys are on to one of the things I’ve always loved about Twitch and consistently tout - it’s home to very respectful, considerate discussions between passionate fans; no bullshit name-calling or flame wars.

  69. Momo the Cow 08/07/2008 @ 6:13am

    Second Michael Mann’s HEAT.
    Second that Verbinski’s RING remake completely missed what was scary about Nakata’s videotape footage.

    THE DEPARTED belongs here, because it takes inspiration from the original and refashions it into something exhilaratingly personal, though whether INFERNAL AFFAIRS remains superior depends on which scene you’re watching. I count SOLARIS in this camp too. It’s a laterally different film from the original, like the same song played in another genre of music, in a different time period.

    I haven’t seen the original, but how about Imamura’s own remake of THE BALLAD OF NARAMAYA?

    The greatest shame about remakes is not that they exist but that they are so rare (or that so few stories are rich enough to warrant another reading). Theatre is so creatively invigorating because there are dozens or even hundreds of different interpretations of the same text playing at the same time throughout the world, each a unique prism through which the spectrum of those artists’ experiences can shine through. Film is just too damned expensive to do that.

  70. sitenoise 08/26/2008 @ 11:04pm

    OMf’inG! ... BRAV-the-f’in-O.

    I’m sorry the above comment makes me feel like swearing, but you took the words right out of my mouth. You sort of remade them and used different words, but still.

    I’ve always felt (beyond many reasonable accusations of cash grab) that the general hysteria against remakes is nothing more than posturing. Thank you momo!

    “The greatest shame about remakes is not that they exist but that they are so rare (or that so few stories are rich enough to warrant another reading). Theatre is so creatively invigorating because there are dozens or even hundreds of different interpretations of the same text playing at the same time throughout the world, each a unique prism through which the spectrum of those artists’ experiences can shine through. Film is just too damned expensive to do that. “

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