The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: What is one movie remake you would love to see (if you knew it would be as good as the original one)?
Talk about it….
I’m glad the question included if it is good as the original. I generally do not like remakes, sequels, prequels, and the such….
There are only two remakes that I thought did a good job.
So, which “one” movie would I like to see a remake?
I’ll have to give it some thought…
Motel Hell
Gone With the Wind.
The Flim Flam Man 1967
Remakes usually suck.
Not big on remakes. Two of my favorite movies is Casablanca and From Here to Eternity. Just can’t imagine any remake of these would come close to the original. Back in the eighties there were a mini series on TV that was based on James Jones’s book From here to eternity, it wasn’t bad, had some good actors, but still could not measure up to the original.
Same with The Long Hot Summer, a made for TV remake, with Don Johnson and Kathleen Turner, not bad, but how do you replace Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman? The Heartbreak Kid was a funny quirky movie from the seventies with Cybil Sheppard and Charles Grodin, they did a remake with Ben Stiller, I thought it was awful, not funny, couldn’t hold my attention. Until I learned of James Caan’s death I didn’t know there was a remake of Brian’s Song, on Utube, you can view several scenes back to back from both movies, looks like the more recent one portrayed Brian’s struggle with cancer more realistic, but still I think I prefer the original one. One more comes to mind the 1967 movie based Truman Capote’s book “In Cold Blood” it was a riviting movie with Robert Blake, and Scott WIlson, the TV remake was quite good with Anthony Edwards and Eric Roberts, if I remember correctly, I enjoyed it, but still prefer the original. I think there were several movies from the twenties and thirties that were remade, but because I don’t remember or never saw the original ones, can’t comment, however if I remember correctly I thought the remake was quite good, but didn’t have any way to compare.
Very difficult to imagine any actor trying to match Bogart’s performance in Casablanca…can’t be done.
What about someone playing Lancaster’s role in Elmer Gantry? No way….
Marlon Brando’s role in The Godfather, Vivian Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire….Brando’s role too for that matter…..And those are but a few examples.
No a lot of the classics are classics in part because of the performances of the actors….I’m not big on remakes either.
Space Balls
1964s “Island Of The Blue Dolphins” Last time I saw it was in grammar school. Bet my grand Kids would like it. Will have to try and remember next they are bored which is few and far in between. 🙂
Maybe another Batman. That hasn’t been done for like 6 months now, so we’re way overdue.
Seriously, though, remakes suck (as WC already stated). Maybe come up with something original for once?
None. Usually the 1st time around is better.
Night of the Lepus.
With modern CGI it would be amazing – giant rabbits terrorizing a small town!
Fistful of Dollars or For a Few Dollars More …. with the big “if”
Brokeback Mountain. What a classic film.
Might be a problem now with Monkeypox.
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The Ten Commandments
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Peter Jackson was going to do “The Dam Busters”. Don’t know if he ever will…
AD
He doesn’t need to – George Lucas stole a lot of it for Star Wars (some of it verbatim).
Watch this side-by-side comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M
“M”
Fritz Lang’s classic tale of a child murderer in Berlin (1931). It was Peter Lorre’s breakout role and considered by Lang to be his magnum opus.
There is no one alive who could match Lorrie’s performance. It was remade in 1951 but the 1931 version with Lorre has a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a chiller.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1012928-m
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_(1931_film)
I honestly don’t really see the point of remaking movies…
If they are good movies, why remake them at all? And of course if they weren’t particularly good remaking them makes no sense to me.
Offhand I can’t think of one remake that I thought was better than the original though I am sure that there probably are some.
John Huston once said, “Don’t remake good movies. Remake bad ones!”
“The Sand Pebbles” but done as a mini-series. The movie was solid enough but didn’t do justice to the book.
Usually the book has a lot more details than the movie. As mentioned I loved the movie “From here to Eternity”, I also read the book and there’s much in the book that didn’t make it into the movie. However, I saw the movie first, and when I read the book Montgomery Clift was Prewitt. I read several books after seeing the movie, such as “The Young Lions”, Battle Cry and Exodus just to name a few. I might have read Exodus before I saw the movie, I don’t remember, but in all these instances neither the book nor the movie disappointed me. Let me add 2 more, The Godfather and Gone with the Wind.
@hanne jeppesen
The book From Here to Eternity painted a highly accurate, but unflattering, view of Army life at the time. I had an Uncle who was stationed at Schofield Barracks at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and he said the book was spot on. When the filmmakers wanted to shoot the movie at Schofield the Army demanded they clean up the story before they’d give permission. The movie remains one of my favorites.
Not a remake, but I would like to see History of the World Part 2.
I thought long and hard, and to be honest, I don’t care that much about movies. I watch the ones I like, and don’t watch those I have no interest in. so, I figure, Plan 9 From Outer Space is usually called the worst movie ever made, so, maybe do a remake of that. I understand there has been one remake, no idea if ever released, and Ernie Fosellius did Plan 9.1 From Outer Space. which I suppose I should watch, as I really like his other classic, Hardware Wars. Based on the reviews over decades, the remake would have to be better.
I Don’t like remakes!
They usually screw them up. None are as good as the original!
Last night I happen to watch the 1957 movie An Affair to Remember. Wow what a beautiful movie that was. If they made it now they would only make it vulgar and cheap.
Give me the originals!
Caddy Shack 2025 … 45th anniversary
without Rodney? I cannot identify a single “comic” out there today who could replace Rodney, and that right there would be enough for me to say no to that…
Ok, Dirty Harry
That’s a tall order. The originals are great as is, but I’d like to see a brave producer/director try!