16 comments on “Cecil Recommends – Originals vs Remakes”
Cristiona on said:
Remake better than the original shouldn’t be too difficult, as long as you stretch a little. I mean, Carpenter’s the Thing and Cronenberg’s the Fly were both, technically, remakes.
I might have to set up some criteria. Everyone who watches my videos already knows I like the remake of The Blob. The Thing and The Fly are both amazing and yes, better than the originals. I think I may have to go with 5 that aren’t very well known so that it isn’t a list that is so obvious.
Does Evil Dead 2 count as a superior remake?
It could be argued that A Fistful of Dollars is better than Yojimbo – not sure I would agree, but there’s a case…
I haven’t seen the 2004 version “Taxi” because I just assumed from the title it was a feature film adaption of the TV Show from the ’70s of the same name. Apparently Not. But if you say Luc Besson was involved with the original film, I may have to check it out.
I can relate to your hassle about finding good remakes. The Thing, The Blob, The Fly and Invasion of the Body Snatchers top most lists of “better” remakes. Something about sci-fi horror just screams “remake” I guess. The Universal Monsters or Hammer Horror flicks might make for interesting comparison, although I think the Universal’s might count as remakes too since there were silent versions of Frankenstein and Dracula prior to Karloff and Legosi. Maybe.
You compare [REC] to Quarantine being awful even though its shot for shot the same movie sans ending.
Well how about the complete opposite and Funny Games (German flick 97) and Funny Games (US 07): Same director, script (i believe), but now you get better actors for the roles like Roth, Watts, and my favorite Michael Pitt who stole the damn movie. It was one of my favorites and its as close to a shot for shot remake.
Yep, funny games had the same director for both. I don’t know maybe it was that I saw the original first but I thought the remake just didn’t have that same magic even though it had the better pedigree of talent.
Speaking of Luc Besson I forgot about Le Femme Nikita with the US remake staring Bridget Fonda being totally forgettable in fact I had to look up Bridget Fonda in IMDB to remember the name of the film The Assassin.
Lol at the Latifa stereotype casting. I don’t know why Hollywood films need to have black comic relief characters that everybody hates like in the movie Cop Out.
George Lucas thought it would be great to have a CGI comic relief character in The Phantom Menace that turned out to be as popular as dog shit despite being the most interesting character in the film.
The only thing I liked about Point of No Return over Le Femme Nikita was Keitel as the cleaner. Other than that the original was vastly superior.
Ugh, Cop Out. I love Kevin Smith to bits but hate Tracy Morgan. He is the opposite of funny. I watched the movie anyway and it ended up being worse than I thought it would be. Such a shame. A great premise ruined by a terrible actor who thinks everything he says is funny.
lol Jar Jar. People used to hate the Ewoks and now they look badass by comparison.
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Remake better than the original shouldn’t be too difficult, as long as you stretch a little. I mean, Carpenter’s the Thing and Cronenberg’s the Fly were both, technically, remakes.
I might have to set up some criteria. Everyone who watches my videos already knows I like the remake of The Blob. The Thing and The Fly are both amazing and yes, better than the originals. I think I may have to go with 5 that aren’t very well known so that it isn’t a list that is so obvious.
Does Evil Dead 2 count as a superior remake?
It could be argued that A Fistful of Dollars is better than Yojimbo – not sure I would agree, but there’s a case…
Overall, a tough assignment!
Heh. Now you’re thinking out of the box! What about Last Man Standing or Omega Doom vs. Yojimbo? 😛
I think I’m going to be all over the map with this one.
Most certainly! I think Evil Dead 2 captured what Raimi originally wanted but didn’t have the money or chops at the time.
Fistful and Yojimbo I haven’t seen in so long so I’d have to go back and rewatch to see if Fistful is better.
I haven’t seen the 2004 version “Taxi” because I just assumed from the title it was a feature film adaption of the TV Show from the ’70s of the same name. Apparently Not. But if you say Luc Besson was involved with the original film, I may have to check it out.
I can relate to your hassle about finding good remakes. The Thing, The Blob, The Fly and Invasion of the Body Snatchers top most lists of “better” remakes. Something about sci-fi horror just screams “remake” I guess. The Universal Monsters or Hammer Horror flicks might make for interesting comparison, although I think the Universal’s might count as remakes too since there were silent versions of Frankenstein and Dracula prior to Karloff and Legosi. Maybe.
Oh you have to check out Taxi then. Amazing car chases and just an all around fun movie.
Its going to be tough also quantifying what really is a remake. For example, Bram Stokers Dracula.
I have a good one to help you out.
You compare [REC] to Quarantine being awful even though its shot for shot the same movie sans ending.
Well how about the complete opposite and Funny Games (German flick 97) and Funny Games (US 07): Same director, script (i believe), but now you get better actors for the roles like Roth, Watts, and my favorite Michael Pitt who stole the damn movie. It was one of my favorites and its as close to a shot for shot remake.
Yep, funny games had the same director for both. I don’t know maybe it was that I saw the original first but I thought the remake just didn’t have that same magic even though it had the better pedigree of talent.
I thought the original was amazing. But like I said Micheal Pitt (from Boardwalk Empire) had my skin crawl with how creepy he is/was in that movie.
I can hardly believe he is the same guy who was in Dawson’s Creek. What an actor.
Speaking of Luc Besson I forgot about Le Femme Nikita with the US remake staring Bridget Fonda being totally forgettable in fact I had to look up Bridget Fonda in IMDB to remember the name of the film The Assassin.
Lol at the Latifa stereotype casting. I don’t know why Hollywood films need to have black comic relief characters that everybody hates like in the movie Cop Out.
George Lucas thought it would be great to have a CGI comic relief character in The Phantom Menace that turned out to be as popular as dog shit despite being the most interesting character in the film.
The only thing I liked about Point of No Return over Le Femme Nikita was Keitel as the cleaner. Other than that the original was vastly superior.
Ugh, Cop Out. I love Kevin Smith to bits but hate Tracy Morgan. He is the opposite of funny. I watched the movie anyway and it ended up being worse than I thought it would be. Such a shame. A great premise ruined by a terrible actor who thinks everything he says is funny.
lol Jar Jar. People used to hate the Ewoks and now they look badass by comparison.
What about The Fog now THAT is a shitty remake!
The Fog remake was awful! They tried to replace atmosphere, story, and characters with CGI fog.