What Do You Think of Reboots and Remakes ?

Guttersnipe said:
Films largely considered classics, imo, or widely described as "timeless," shouldn't require a remake or reboot. But even some films can be improved upon if they didn't do well among their contemporaries, or just didn't land. Some films made long ago may feel more relevant to today.
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Some films largely considered classics were remakes; the best example being the 1941 Maltese Falcon which was a remake of The Maltese Falcon (1931) - the story had also been reworked as Satan Met a Lady in 1936. So what we know as the noire classic is the third attempt. (There was a further spoof version in 1975.)

The trouble with modern remakes is they remake really good films that DON'T need a remake (because they were hits made a lot of money and have recognition value) - but ignore all the ones that didn't quite work (and therefore flopped and no one has heard of and are harder sells) that DO.
 
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JunkMonkey said:
Some films largely considered classics were remakes the best example being the 1941 Maltese Falcon which was a remake of The Maltese Falcon (1931) - the story had also been reworked as Satan Met a Lady in 1936. So what we know as the noire classic is the third attempt. (There was a further spoof version in 1975.)
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His Girl Friday (from The Front Page) is another example.
 
The Dune remake is about to be released shortly. As its a remake of a film that's been made from a book it does I suppose have a bit more leeway as far as expectations go. Essentially it's another persons adaptation of the book, or at least it should be.

I think a worthwhile remake or reboot should be different enough that it almost feels like an entirely different film but just contains some of the same essential concepts and plot lines. I thought Total Recall 2012 wasn't bad at all for example, but it got universally panned.
 
I was amongst the panners of Total Recall. The new Dune? Hmm, I'll wait and see.
 
I think reboots tend to work best when the memory of the original has faded away. It's easier to work a movie with low cultural awareness that bombed or is long forgotten about into a good movie than it is to take a beloved property and attempt to emulate its success. It was easier to reboot Who goes there into The Thing, or bodysnatchers because it wasn't easy at the times to have access to the original (movies). There's too much cultural baggage and conversation around iconic franchises to please everyone's take on the original.

Dune isn't remembered as a great film, even if it has a cult following, so I think Villeneuve won't suffer too much from comparisons to Lynch's movie.

Total Recall, whilst not being a terrible movie, suffered by comparison to an iconic movie. Same with Robocop.
 
JunkMonkey said:
The remake? Stupidly dumb movie. I mean the first one was dumb but hokey the second has a plot hole so big they literally used it to move from one side of the Earth to the other.
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The original Total Recall was funny, had great actors clearly enjoying their roles and some great set pieces, The reboot had none of those things.

At least the reboot of TR tried something a bit different, even if it was tedious.
 
The Reimagined classic is anther word for reboot/remake. :D
 
The Saint. Quintessentially British
Saint-The-ITV-Action-Roger-Moore.jpg


How Hollywood tried to remake the character
Val-Kilmer-Thomas-Moore.jpg


I rest my case.
 
Same goes for Day of the Jackal. Brilliant original with stellar performers from the leading roles and a movie that never needed to be remade or reimagined.

The sad thing is that as time goes by, people will likely only remember the later reboots of these movies, and not realise that there were far superior original versions.
 
The same can be said for most generations, i think.

I adore John Carpenter's The Thing, but i've not gone back and seen the original. (I haven't even read the book, for that matter.)
 
Rodders said:
The same can be said for most generations, i think.

I adore John Carpenter's The Thing, but i've not gone back and seen the original. (I haven't even read the book, for that matter.)
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I've seen the original film, read the Campbell novella, read the ADF adaptation of Carpenter's film. They were all good but the Carpenter film is the best.
 
Best remakes:

The Thing (Thing from another world)
Alien (Planet of the vampires)
Star Wars (Flash Gordon)
Invasion of the body snatchers [1978] (IOTBS)
Invaders from Mars [86] (Invaders from Mars)
The Blob [1988] (The Blob)
Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai)
A Fistful of Dollaras (Yojimbo)
Sorceror (Wages of Fear)
Scarface (Scarface)
The Fly (The Fly)
Insomnia (Insomnia)
True Grit (True Grit)
Casino Royale (Casino Royale)
Big Trouble in Little China (Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain)
 
JunkMonkey said:
The remake? Stupidly dumb movie. I mean the first one was dumb but hokey the second has a plot hole so big they literally used it to move from one side of the Earth to the other.
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They left three words out of the title. The true title's: Total Recall - The Lens Flare. Because there's a lens flare every three to five seconds. Any plot quickly fades into oblivion while my mind mentally counts off the seconds until the next lens flare. Cinematographers are supposed to learn how to operate a camera before someone hires them to make a movie, right?

total-recall-flares-thefilmbook.jpg
 
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Scent of Desperation around the drama planning desk.
It will be a scripting challenge. I once holidayed in Jersey, nothing happens there and it's as prissy as a maiden aunt.


news.sky.com

Bergerac: Reboot of 80s TV crime drama in the works

The show ran from 1981 until 1991, with much-loved British actor John Nettles playing the eponymous role in Jersey.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
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