Reboots - the good, the bad, and the ugly

[NormanF]

To me, John Carpenter's "The Thing" is one of the few remakes that I would call "legitimate". The original had almost nothing to do with the short story it was based on, but Carpenter had a lot of the elements. And it was well made. At the other extreme, I have not seen any of the Spider Man movies in a theater since maybe the one with Sandman and Venom. I say maybe because I might have rented that one instead.

 

[simiouno]

I don't think the Coen's True Grit can be considered a remake of Henry Hathaway's film. I think it's more accurate to say the Coen Bros. just did their version of the book. I mean, the two films are only similar in that it follows the story from the same book. That said, I think the Coen Bros. did a more authentic interpretation of the original source material then the first time with John Wayne. Westerns then were still romanticized and I think that hindered the Hathaway film, even then, because the atmosphere of the film was so different from the tone of the story and the nature of the dialogue. I think you can guess that I prefer the Coen Bros. version far more.

I'll always love the Wayne movie best..but yes, this was a version of the book..we could say the classic 30s FRANKENSTEIN was a repop of the silent Charles Olge movie, but the 30s version is seen as the Gold Standard ..

 

[simiouno]

Good,bad,ugly, if done again .. Blondie,Hugh Jackman..Angel Eyes,Daniel Day Lewis..Tuco, Antonio Banderas..not that I'm in to repops ..but I think Hugh has always wanted to be Clint,so let him play ..side note: did you know the SAD HILL cemetery has been restored ! !

 

[Marv]

Liked - Robocop not sure why it's not liked so much. The old one I cannot watch any more it looks horribly dated.
Disliked - The magnificent seven, not a chance against the past cast.
Liked - Death wish, I really liked the spin Bruce Willis puts on Cersey - I kinda like the way he enjoys wasting the bad guys
Disliked - The Spidy films following Sam Rami's trilogy. I don't know anything about the comics but Rami's were fun.
Disliked - Ghostbusters - simply no words!
Wishes - they would remake Star Wars 7-8, and 9 as that will never work either the state they are in.

 

[Marv]

Oh and they should NEVER EVER think about doing a remake of that perfect spaghetti western trilogy.

 

[simiouno]

True, I love the originals, but FFOD was a samurai remake..I think everything after Raiders in the Indie film series was not needed, Raiders to me is the ONLY Indie movie ..

 

[Richard Baker]

Oh and they should NEVER EVER think about doing a remake of that perfect spaghetti western trilogy.

Totally agree!

Since we keep coming back to the Knightrider reboot, my biggest issue was the fact the car could morph into different models, including a pickup. I can accept high tech to a point, but if you have something changing form I feel you must allow for existing pieces and hardware- like KITT in Super Pursuit Mode. People tend to toss out 'nanotech' to allow for impossible CGI morphing and every time I see it I get tossed out of the movie world (sorry Ironman-Infinity Wars).
On the plus side I did like actually seeing working thrusters when NuKITT turbojumped.

I think the best reboot which really worked out well was 'The Thing'. The original story- "Who Goes There?" was more psychological about which person was human and who was actually the Thing in disguised. The original film was more of James Arness wandering around as a plant creature until he got zapped by electricity. Carpenter managed to recreate the tension in the book right up to the very end as to who was a real human and who was not. I also liked the sequel, mostly because we got to see the events which created those incredibly bizarre morphed creations MacReady and company found when they investigated the Norwegian base.

 

[simiouno]

I like the Arness original best..Great atmosphere & no too gory ..

 

[simiouno]

Wish they had taken the Italian western characters and made THE MAGNIFICENT SPAGHETTI 7 .. with Van Cleef Sabata in the Chris part

 

[Kovnyn]

Last Man Standing - Remake of Fistful of Dollars (which was itself a remake of a samurai film as mentioned above) was a very good retelling of the story. Bruce Willis and his never ending ammo in his 1911s was a bit much, but I really enjoyed it.

MacGyver, Hawaii 5-0, Magnum P. I. we're all terrible remakes of classic TV. Just unwatchable.

Robocop reboot wasn't bad, but it want good. There was one line I remember from the trailer that killed it for me before it hit theaters. Robocop got his new, black armor, and his partner says, "now you're the right color, I know I can trust you." or something like that. I don't even know it it made it to the final cut of the movie or not.

True Grit has been discussed ad nauseum. It worked for me, even though I do love the original. Both are good. I took my mom, who loved the original, to see the remake in the theater. When the credits rolled, she saw Jeff Bridges name, looked at me and asked, who did Jeff Bridges play? He played the role so well, he became Rooster, she never even saw the actor, just the character. That's how I know they did the role well. It's rare that I never once see the actor, only the character they portray.


Magnificent Seven, the latest of the latest remake, couldn't maintain my interest. I saw it, but I don't really remember much about it. So there's that.

GB16 just wasn't as funny as they thought it would be. I hated Bill Murray in that movie. There, I said it. I'm a big Bill Murray fan, but he should have passed on GB16. Or had a small cameo role like Dan Aykroyd.


I hear they are doing a Six Million (or in this case, Billion) dollar man reboot movie with... Mark Wahlberg.
I can only imagine how bad that will be.

 

[simiouno]

I can't even imagine the level of bad ! !