Original vs. Remake: Which one actually holds up?

Keith Kelly3 said:ok, I'm just gonna 😲

but seriously, I read that they're filming two Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde remakes soon—and 50 Cent is starring in one of them! That is absolutely terrifying... stuff like that is exactly what gets under my skin.

😁

I saw that bit about 50 Cent too, but they won't call it a remake... they'll probably label it a "modernization" of an old classic. Sometimes those actually turn out okay, but most of the time? Just pathetic. It's all a way to pretend they aren't just recycling a hundred-year-old story because they ran out of original ideas. It was the exact same thing with >—they called it a "modernization" and a fresh concept, even though it's just based on the same old > premise.

@Jack Morgan2

I'm with you on this one. The '78 version is easily the best by far, while the one from '99 is pretty weak, even if Abel Ferrara was at the helm. Donald Sutherland is a legend, obviously, and that ending... man, absolute gold. But that last one from 2007? Not great. They felt forced to give it some "American" happy ending, and it just didn't sit right with me at all...

A remake of Oz the Wizard or something??????

Good grief, what on earth were they thinking...
Anyway. Remakes should exist either to upgrade the special effects or to fix a flawed narrative that the original couldn't quite pull off. Personally, I think remakes of Japanese horror films work well because Western audiences sometimes struggle to digest them. For instance, I actually liked the remake of King Kong—the one from the 70s. This Jackson version felt like garbage to me; it was dragged out way too long and relied too heavily on CGI. The original is just a classic, and everyone needs to see it. But honestly, these massive American horror remakes feel completely unnecessary to me. Anyone claiming a remake is better than the original clearly doesn't understand cinema; they probably just want more gore and mindless violence, and frankly, those people shouldn't be hanging out in threads like this. :P

Now we have the great Werner Herzog working on a remake of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant. Starring Nicolas Cage and Val Kilmer. Honestly—pretty out of left field.

The Maltese Falcon (1941) is basically a remake of an original that was already ten years older, and honestly, that original is a total cult classic.
12 (2007) by Nikita Mikhalkov is a remake of Anger. If it isn't actually better than the original, it at least stands toe-to-toe with the work done by Lumet.

And why not?
I mean, no single movie should be considered "sacred cow"—nobody should be barred from taking another crack at a title that's already been filmed... besides, most films are just adaptations of someone else's work anyway, rather than being purely the director's own idea!

Lisa Ross65 said:Now we have the great Werner Herzog working on a remake of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant. Starring Nicolas Cage and Val Kilmer. Honestly—pretty out of left field.

I’m looking forward to this; it feels like a wild card. It will either be the cinematic achievement of the year or an absolute disaster... though I suspect Herzog might just pull off a pleasant surprise.

hey, what do you guys think about that 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake? —honestly not even sure if it counts as a remake since they turned it into a whole series right after 🤷

wiredbison82 said:I’m looking forward to this; it feels like a wild card. It will either be the cinematic achievement of the year or an absolute disaster... though I suspect Herzog might just pull off a pleasant surprise.

I'm with you there. The casting leaves me a bit puzzled, though—to be honest, Cage has been getting on my nerves lately.

Lisa Ross65 said:I'm with you there. The casting leaves me a bit puzzled, though—to be honest, Cage has been getting on my nerves lately.

Herzog certainly had a knack for "taming" the actors under his direction. Perhaps he can finally settle down those irritating mannerisms of Cage's.

Darren Aronofsky is reportedly gearing up to remake RoboCop. Word is he’s ditching the PG-13 constraints—this one's going to be raw.

Oh please, Darren

Lisa Ross65 said:Darren Aronofsky is reportedly gearing up to remake RoboCop. Word is he’s ditching the PG-13 constraints—this one's going to be raw.

Aronofsky reimagining Verhoeven’s cult classic could be quite an intriguing prospect!

Word is getting out about an remake starring Gerard Butler. At this rate, it looks like every single Carpenter flick is headed for a reboot...

Lisa Ross65 said:Now we have the great Werner Herzog working on a remake of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant. Starring Nicolas Cage and Val Kilmer. Honestly—pretty out of left field.

Here's the deal...

Lisa Ross65 said:Word is getting out about an remake starring Gerard Butler. At this rate, it looks like every single Carpenter flick is headed for a reboot...

Poor Carpenter... though I suppose all these remakes might actually nudge some people toward watching the originals, like Assault, Fog, and now Escape from New York.

Then you’ve got Halloween shoved in there too—and honestly, that remake is pretty terrible. If you check IMDb, there’s some talk about Carpenter potentially being involved in something that could be a new version of They Live... though, I guess it's mostly just because he's the guy who created the original story and characters. So, it looks like another potential remake might just get added to the pile of his films...

Is it actually true that Neil Jordan's The Good Thief is just a remake of Melville's Bob? I haven't seen the Melville film, so I can't say for sure.

Well, looking at IMDb, it’s pretty obvious... though I probably need to go watch that Jordan film first just to be sure!

I guess it's just plain stupid to even compare originals to remakes, mostly because of the massive gap in eras and budgets. Most of the classics come from the 70s or 80s and they have their own charm, sure, but remakes spark new interest and are made with way more money, looking much sleeker with better effects and more polish. We could argue about quality forever, but there are some genuinely great remakes out there—take the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre, My Bloody Valentine 3D, or Friday the 13th, for instance. Then you have the ones that are just mediocre, I suppose, like Black Christmas and Halloween.

Amy Fox4 said:I guess it's just plain stupid to even compare originals to remakes, mostly because of the massive gap in eras and budgets. Most of the classics come from the 70s or 80s and they have their own charm, sure, but remakes spark new interest and are made with way more money, looking much sleeker with better effects and more polish. We could argue about quality forever, but there are some genuinely great remakes out there—take the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre, My Bloody Valentine 3D, or Friday the 13th, for instance. Then you have the ones that are just mediocre, I suppose, like Black Christmas and Halloween.

Nobody is claiming that good remakes don't exist. However—and this is the point—all the money and flashy special effects in the world didn't help Donaldson with his remake of Peckinpah's Escape, nor did it help Richet with his remake of the Police attack. Compared to the originals, those films are just pathetic.