Remakes are touchy to film fans.
It typically screams of corporate money grubbing. It involves taking films either beloved by fans or forgotten by the common modern
movie-goer to make a quick buck on exploitation and nostalgia.
Most times it’s just that case with these ventures.
But remakes and reboots can be good.
Like the works of Shakespeare, the same story can be given a twist or focus on a particular element over previous versions.
THE GOOD
‘Dawn of the Dead’
The Original 1978 classic by Zombie godfather George Romero was a joyously gory satire at consumerist culture that featured as much political commentary as it did entrails.
The Zack Snyder remake knew it couldn’t top Romero at his own game, so took the template of people trying to survive a zombie outbreak in the confines of a shopping mall and made a in your face, aggressive and creepy 90-minutes complete with a hilarious soundtrack.
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ Trilogy
These films were otherwise known as the adrenaline shot to a franchise in full arrest.
A director of Nolan’s style wouldn’t have been able to touch the franchise if “Batman and Robin” hadn’t had sealed it’s dire fate.
He took a series and elevated the quality of not only it, but surpassed the genre and didn’t just make three great comic book movies. He made three great movies. Period.
‘The Fly’
A remake is best when it remakes a film that wasn’t necessarily good, but had an intriguing idea or gimmick.
That is in full effect with this gooey special-effects fueled take two on an old sci-fi films that could never quite live up the promise.
Jeff Goldblum delivers the performance of his career as a scientist whose ambition and pride quite literally turns him into something ugly.
The film is a masterpiece of the genre.
Real chemistry between the two leads (who happened to be dating at the time), striking symbolism and imagery, an incredibly moving score by Howard Shore and a truly disgusting and tragic story are all helmed with grit by David Cronenberg.
Just be warned, it’s not for the weak stomached.
THE BAD
‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’
As children, most people grew up with the classical 1971 movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
And what child didn’t love that movie? It included the possibility of escaping to a wonderful land full of all kinds of candy, sweets and mystery.
In 2005 Tim Burton tried to recreate Director Mel Stuart’ Roald Dahl vision.
He did not succeed.
I would have to say that this is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s worst movie ever.
I didn’t like how in the remake the story focused more on Wiley Wonka’s life background, rather then Charlie’s.
The movie is “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” not the other way around.
Tim Burton made Wonka into a weird man who owns a chocolate factory that has deep-rooted daddy issues.
Depp always adds a spin to his characters that just screams greatness to his work. But what he did with the Wonka character was frightening. He made Wonka seem over the top creepy.
And over the whole course of the movie I couldn’t get past Depp’s stupid smile huge white teeth.
‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’
Robert Wise’s 1951 movie of “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is still, to this day, a scientific classic.
Sure the original movie may have cheesy costumes and outdated special effects, but the fact remains: Why try to remake a movie that you can’t make any better then it already is?
Watching Keanu Reeves expressionless face for two hours made me want to scream: “We get it Keanu you can play the emotionless character without any quality acting range congratulations.”
Even with the remake still keeping the main concept in order this movie still was a waste of time and film.
‘Clash of the Titans’
Here’s a great idea: Lets clash some special effects, a mythology story line that doesn’t make any sense and some big-time actors to make a remake of the best Greek mythology movies of all time.
The tagline for this movie was oh so true: “Titans will clash.”
Unlike the 1981 version of this movie, the remake deviates from the Greek mythology story line of Perseus.
The “Clash of the Titans” remake was Hollywood garbage. It was like Hollywood just threw up for cheesy entertainment.
I felt no real sympathy for Perseus in the remake as I did the old movie.
‘Psycho’
Alfred Hitchcock was man named for his vision, creativity and visual effects that poured originality.
The remake of his classic ‘Psycho’ lacked all three traits in the movie.
To even remake such a cult thriller seemed like a dumb idea to begin with.
The one thing that I did enjoy about this movie was Vince Vaughn’s take on the Norman Bates character.
The movie, plot wise, is pretty much the same as Hitchcock’s original version. Within that lies the problem.
You can’t make a remake that is literally shot-by-shot the same as the original.
If you’re a director and you can’t come up with any original ideas, maybe you’re in the wrong business.
