[notty]

"Excalibur" should be remade with a cast that doesn't suck.  Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren were outstanding.  Gabriel Byrne was a'ight.  The rest, lame!

[rtpoe]

One of Hollywood's big problems is that they have to have 20-somethings in the key roles. Or at least a more mature actor who looks like one.

As an actor matures, they should develop better acting ability simply through experience, and can thus give more complex, nuanced performances. But, the target audience wants the hot **28**, so....

We're stuck with a lot of pretty faces who can't act their way out of a wet paper bag.

[GALVATRON]

bwaaaaahhh!

Wrong. There are plenty of great 20-something actors.
More often it's an older person playing a younger role like the 30 year old playing Daniel Larusso, or anyone of those wacky 'teens' from Sunnydale.

This board is really getting a old geezer vibe. I was reading about members' favorite cartoons, favorite music...etc, and it's all full of, "They don't make anything good anymore! Get off my lawn!" type of comments.
There's lots of great new things out there, but newness seems to frighten the elderly.
Liking new stuff doesn't mean you have to like the classic stuff any less.

[3deroticer]

The revamp zombies were much more scarier than the slow walking zombies from the 50's! Zombies seem to keep getting better, that I could hope to die and become one.

[TheZookie007]

Quote:
GALVATRON said:
bwaaaaahhhh!

Remakes can turn out great. The Fly being the best example of a remake being superior. The Wiz was superior in every way to the Wizard of Oz. Oceans 11 was better than the original.

And let's not forget the remake of The Fugitive with Harrison Ford & Tommy Lee Jones. That shit was tight, yo.

[AZWolf]

Quote:
TheZookie007 said:

Quote:
GALVATRON said:
bwaaaaahhhh!

Remakes can turn out great. The Fly being the best example of a remake being superior. The Wiz was superior in every way to the Wizard of Oz. Oceans 11 was better than the original.

And let's not forget the remake of The Fugitive with Harrison Ford & Tommy Lee Jones. That shit was tight, yo.

Don't forget it...
 

[Cutter]

Reaching back a bit.  Ben Hur, with ol Chuck Heston was a remake of the silent era Ben Hur.  Both were excellent in their own way, and the original Ben Hur had color sequences.

Those sequences were only dealing with Jesus but were there.  There was also a more extensive sea battle that was phenominal.  Hestons version had a better chariot race.

No more remakes for Ben Hur.

[Goldeneye]

Quote:
GALVATRON said:
bwaaaaahhhh!

Remakes can turn out great. The Fly being the best example of a remake being superior. The Wiz was superior in every way to the Wizard of Oz. Oceans 11 was better than the original. And yes, Sony's Godzilla was in every way better than any 'guy in rubber suit' Godzilla.
Sometimes remakes might not be superior, but they are still okay. The original Planet of the Apes was a classic, but the remake was good dumbed-down fun. Same goes for the countless 'bodysnatcher' remakes, and Zombie movies. Romeo and Juliet was neat, but no way near as good as the Olivia Hussey full frontal version.
Then there are the remakes that are suckish, like Shaft, or the Pink Panther.

I can't believe I left out Ocean's Eleven, possibly the best remake ever. The original was barely worth its celluloid, unfortunately; all the fun of that movie was in the off-camera antics during the period it was being made. Re: The Wiz, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. That's a highly entertaining stage musical that was dismally visualized and directed for film by Sidney Lumet, who was way out of his wheelhouse. It starts with the production design and cinematography that looks like everything was caked with a layer of grime and metal dust before shooting, and ends with Diana Ross being about five decades too old for Dorothy. It has its great points--a lot of the score holds up; Jacko's utterly joyful performance; Nipsey Russell and Ted Ross; Mabel King's showstopping "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News"; Lena Horne's resplendent "If You Believe"--but that's a real misfire. If someone were able to successfully update the book and the score (I hear it's been attempted recently but I don't know if it worked out well or not), that's one I think could REALLY do with a remake, if anyone was willing to put the money behind it. But nothing will ever touch The Wizard of Oz, or come close. Never. It's just too iconic in too many ways. You could sooner attempt to recapture the magic of The Godfather than hope to equal TWoO.

And I'm with you, I don't believe Zefferelli's R&J can be topped. Nino Rota's classic score alone ensures that. That's a really, really fine adaptation. And Olivia Hussey was a marvelous creamy specimen.

Quote:
TheZookie007 said:
And let's not forget the remake of The Fugitive with Harrison Ford & Tommy Lee Jones. That shit was tight, yo.

The Fugitive doesn't count because that's not a film remake, that's an adaptation of a TV show. And if we're getting into those, The Addams Family is maybe the all-time champ. I mean, it STARTS with some of the most pitch-perfect casting ever and just gets better.

One of the biggiest on my Remake Wish List is Evolution, the Duchovny flick. I really enjoyed that, but it's SO flawed, and more than anything else, it's wildly uneven in tone. It kicked around Hollywood for years in its original form, a dark sci-fi thriller, until it landed with Ivan Reitman, who saw in it the next Ghostbusters and had it heavily re-drafted into something resembling a comedy. Problem is, by its very nature, it's still very dark and serious in places, and those segments are infinitely more interesting because in them you see what the whole movie should've been like.

[ChrisR1]

Quote:
Palomine said:
 TDTESS is getting remade for the exact same reason that any/every film/tv show gets remade: money.

It has nothing to do with whether the original was so much better than the remake (Wages of Fear, La Femme Nikitia, a hundred+ others) or whether the original is still culturally relevant. It's just potential revenue.

Not only am I sick of remakes (offhand, I can't think of one I've seen that was better than the original film) I'm sick to death of seeing the same damn actors over and over and over and over. Yeah, I get it... Keaunu wants his $25 million dollar paycheck and the studio figures his participation will insure financial success for the movie. But for pete's sake: if I NEVER saw another movie with him, or Cruise, or Stallone/Schwartzeneger/etc..., or a full dozen OTHER guys who bring in 10s of millions per picture... turning out the same uninspired dreck every single time... well then, I'd not miss them at all.

This applies not just to actors of course, but also to writers, directors, executive producers, etc... imagine what fresh new talents might become available to audiences if the same cadre of 100 principals finally decided they have enough $ and retired?

You nailed it.
However, for anyone wanting to see some flicks that meet the criteria of the latter two paragraphs, remember that there are lot of great independent films released on a regular basis too, and most of the bigger cities have theaters specializing in these.

[Palomine]

 The giant purple robot, with whom I generally agree (once I recover from snarfing diet soda into my sinuses upon reading his posts) has surprised me. The Wiz is good, and a cultural icon of its time, but better than The Wizard of Oz?    

[Bonecracker]

Some excellent remarks here!  Does anyone remember the remake of "War of the Worlds" starring Tom Cruise?

I sincerely hope this isn't another one of those.  My 7 and 12 y.o. boys watched it with me, an it was a job keeping them interested between the "this is stupid" remarks from them.

[GALVATRON]

bwaaaahhh!

Well, I don't like the Wizard of Oz, but I do like the Wiz. Therefore, I concluded that it must be due to betterness.

Why follow when you can ease on down?

[Bonecracker]

Why it's better than betterness, o mighty one, it's betterer!

[pedonbio]

Quote:
Bonecracker said:
Some excellent remarks here!  Does anyone remember the remake of "War of the Worlds" starring Tom Cruise?

I sincerely hope this isn't another one of those.  My 7 and 12 y.o. boys watched it with me, an it was a job keeping them interested between the "this is stupid" remarks from them.

After years of therapy, I had managed to forget! Worst remake ever! By the end of the first hour, I was hoping the Martians would wipe them all out.

[GALVATRON]

bwaaahhhh!

I liked the new War of the Worlds. Morgan Freeman was great, but my favorite scene was when Tom Cruise made the sandwiches, because that's exactly how I'd imagine that Tom Cruise would make sandwiches.

I did not like the gratuitous happy ending though, that kid was clearly blown up. The end could have been mostly happy with him staying dead.