I was watching the Batman Marathon(80s/90s Batman) on Syfy last weekend, and it stuck me how much more depth good actors have these days. Like..Nicholson's Joker, at the time, was incredible. But Heath Ledger completely blows him out of the water(as does Bale as Batman himself, etc).
This is also evident in the remake of Total Recall. The new version barely even qualifies as a remake..it's practically a completely different movie that just happens to have the same title and very basic story structure.
So what movies would you guys want to see redone? The first one that comes to mind for me is Blade Runner. The original is incredible, but I could see a remake being completely fantastic. Nevermind just the new graphics/technologies/etc, but the depth that actors are capable of now just eclipses most of what we see in this movie, and this would be particularly interesting as far as the Replicants go etc.
Am I going to get attacked if I say "The Matrix Trilogy"?
I mean, you mentioned character depth and my mind immediately jumped to the two by four that is Keeanu Reeves. I feel like The Matrix was great for its time. As action movies, they're all pretty good and intense. But there really is so much improvement to be made on character depth.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"[Screw] you and the green you ramped in on." - My EDH battle cry. If I had one. Which I don't.
I'm wary of any remake of an older sci-fi or fantasy movie. As the new Total Recall shows, studios tend to focus on making a remake pretty with new CGI as opposed to improving on the original. I fear a remake of Blade Runner would chuck the philosophical nuances in favor of large action set pieces loaded with flashy visuals.
What I'd like to see is not necessarily a remake of My Dinner with Andre, but another film in the same style that addresses contemporary issues. A lot of the back-and-forth in Andre is still relevant, but the advances in technology and its pervasiveness in people's lives combined with the a much different geopolitical landscape would make for a very interesting update. Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory are still alive and working so revisiting their Dinner characters 30 years later would be really cool.
@Nis: I think that the new Total Recall is far, far better than the original. Colin Farrell actually has some dialogue and some amount of character depth, where Arnold really did not. And I don't think that the philosophical aspect of Blade Runner would necessarily be lost, it just takes the right actor. I think that Leonardo DiCaprio could reprise Harrison Ford's role and bring alot to the table.
Am I going to get attacked if I say "The Matrix Trilogy"?
I mean, you mentioned character depth and my mind immediately jumped to the two by four that is Keeanu Reeves. I feel like The Matrix was great for its time. As action movies, they're all pretty good and intense. But there really is so much improvement to be made on character depth.
Probably not as me for this one. Star Wars Episodes 1-3. This time with a better script, director and actors...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and start slitting throats.
- H.L Mencken
I Became insane with long Intervals of horrible Sanity
All Religion, my friend is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.
- Edgar Allan Poe
@Nis: I think that the new Total Recall is far, far better than the original. Colin Farrell actually has some dialogue and some amount of character depth, where Arnold really did not. And I don't think that the philosophical aspect of Blade Runner would necessarily be lost, it just takes the right actor. I think that Leonardo DiCaprio could reprise Harrison Ford's role and bring alot to the table.
The original Total Recall was unique for its time and vision. It elevated makeup and special effects to new heights and, despite its clunky acting, had a script that was more nuanced than it deserved to be. There is still no definitive answer to whether Quaid really was a spy or if it was really an elaborate memory by Rekall. That kind of twist had no businesses being in a sci-fi movie at the time and the philosophical musing of what is experience was far more than anything else Arnold had at to that point (although the original Terminator does have some interesting philosophical challenges of its own).
In comparison, the new Total Recall throws out that nuance solely in favor of updated visuals. Note that there are no groundbreaking special effects or makeup but instead the same standard CGI we've become accustomed to in the past 10-15 years. It was purely an update made to cash in nostalgia for the original.
There are parts of the new Total Recall that I think were done very well. I think the setting is more textured than the original's grungy Mars environment, but when it comes down to it the environment is basically a varnishing of Blade Runner. I absolutely loved the marketing of the new Total Recall movie. The whole, "Is it real, or is it Rekall?" line is catchy, fits in with its vision of Rekall, and teases at those philosophical questions of experience that I mentioned before. The trailers, posters, stand-ups all got me pumped for Total Recall. Unfortunately I went into it expecting something akin to the original in nuance but instead got a standard sci-fi action flick.
Don't get me wrong, though. I don't think the new Total Recall is a bad film. I just think it wasn't a good enough remake of the original. It's existence doesn't diminish the original, but it was letdown in terms of what it was trying to emulate.
As for Blade Runner, the film stands so well on its own (at least the original theatrical release IMO) that I'm afraid any sort of update would result in the director or studio changing things just to change them. It's one of those films that really doesn't need to be tweaked or reimagined or even straight-up remade because it just does everything very, very well.
I'm not sure I would pick anything but movies that were good ideas but had the wrong director. Nothing really off the top of my head but I'm sure I could think of some stuff if I really tried.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Virtue, Jacques, is an excellent thing. Both good people and wicked people speak highly of it..."
This thread is everything I find wrong with remakes.
Why on Earth would anyone want to remake a good or great film?! Blade Runner is fantastic. The first Matrix is fantastic. No! Just plain no!
The first Total Recall was great. As someone pointed out, it has a twist ending that really has no place in a film that, on its surface, seems to be an Arnold action vehicle. The remake isn't alright, it's god-awful! I want to start with a science thing that took me out of the film; the train through the planet, in order to make that journey in 17 minutes, would have to travel so fast the occupants would be turned to jelly. I checked out the first time they boarded that thing.
That said, the story was just plain stupid. In the original, Quaid had a reason to change his memories. He needed to be the perfect infiltrator. In the remake he needed to change his memories because... We don't know. Because it was in the original?
The action was uninspired. The world design was done before much better in a film made 30 years earlier; Blade Runner. The villain was less than one note. The entire story was forgettable. It was pure trash.
If you're going to remake a film, remake something with a small following that suffered from either a low budget or something that was made before the technology was ready for the idea. Personally I would remake Hell Comes to Frogtown, but that's because I love campy fare like that.
If that's not your thing, I'd say Night of the Comet would be fun. Especially with modern zombie popularity because the zombies in that film are more just crazy people than zombies.
I'm a huge fan of post-apocalyptic films so I'd like to see a remake of The Quiet Earth. If you haven't seen that, watch it simply for one of the most haunting last shots ever put into a film.
In that vein, Mad Max: Fury Road is being made. I don't think it's as much a remake as a sequel/remake, but Mad Max suffered from a tiny budget and I have no problem with the idea of bringing that franchise back for another try. (side note for geeks like me: How effing awesome is it that George Miller is writing/directing this?!?!?!)
I'm only saying it was fantastic in spite of Keanu, not because of him.
There is so much potential there, especially if you rewrite the second and third movies. We might end up with an actually awesome trilogy, not just a good movie with two train wrecks that follow it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"[Screw] you and the green you ramped in on." - My EDH battle cry. If I had one. Which I don't.
@Nis: I think that the new Total Recall is far, far better than the original. Colin Farrell actually has some dialogue and some amount of character depth, where Arnold really did not. And I don't think that the philosophical aspect of Blade Runner would necessarily be lost, it just takes the right actor. I think that Leonardo DiCaprio could reprise Harrison Ford's role and bring alot to the table.
There is absolutely no good that can come from a Blade Runner remake/reboot
Maybe just maybe Leo could pull off Ford's role, but there really is NO substitute for Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty.
BR is so perfect as-is a remake would greatly harm that legacy.
The new Total Recall was okay, but it was just a vehicle for 100 million in special effects. The performances felt just as hollow as the first movie.
Both though, are still B+'s in my book.
I generally hate remakes/reboots and think we need more original movies...that being said, my picks for remake: 1984 - I think the original is already amazing and it's a story I think needs to be told again and again, but I believe it's photography and settings are just too outdated to connect with today's audience. A remake I think could be pulled off with heart and solid intrigue.
Something Wicked This Way Comes - I think this story was poorly done in the 1983 disney movie, and I've always wanted to see it done with real gravitas aimed at a more mature audience.
When I have time, I'll try to remember the other ones I really want to see redone.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to Xenphire @ Inkfox for the amazing new sig
“Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments
are we bound to prosperity and ruin.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
You wanna know what bladerunner would be like? Star Wars prequel cityscapes and fifth element cars zipping around. For some reason so many new sci fi movies cannot avoid that crap. To be honest, every time I try to watch bladerunner I fall asleep (lol..I really liked do android dream of electric sheep >.>, maybe I just try watching it when I'm too tired....), but just seeing it being remade would make me sigh.
I haven't seen the new total recall... because it looked awful. Now I'm being judgmental and have no idea how good it actually is, but I just hate flying car chase scenes (I think it was a chase scene..or they were in the background, I just remember seeing them in a trailer). They are all so interchangeable. The old recall was lowtech maybe but it felt dirty and real. I just like oldschool effects more. Compare The Thing to any new monster movie. Even Jurassic Park to...anything. Sure, JP has cg and was one of the earlier movies to use it like that... but it looked real! For some reason they can't capture that same feeling these days. Puppets and real creatures and real environments that are actually made really add a lot to a film. It's the difference between the star wars trilogies (well, part of the vast difference).
Anything can happen with cg, but it still lacks that same surprise factor. Go watch The Thing. I saw it for the first time ever a year or two ago. The chest scene was ****ing amazing. You just don't expect it because of the effects style.
this somehow turned into a rant about cg...but it really can ruin movies (or at least turn me off of them, the new enders game has me cringing, the trailer i saw last made it look like some dime a dozen scifi summer flick). It can help movies too, and I'm kinda broadly mashing all cg together...so I guess BAD cg is what I hate. It's rampant.
I'm only saying it was fantastic in spite of Keanu, not because of him.
I could not disagree more. The first one was good because of Keanu. His character is supposed to be clueless. He is a fish way out of water. He's perfect for someone who has walked into a world he doesn't fully understand.
There is so much potential there, especially if you rewrite the second and third movies. We might end up with an actually awesome trilogy, not just a good movie with two train wrecks that follow it.
Which is why he falls apart in the sequels because he's supposed to be the expert. Yeah, the sequels are bad, but the first one is amazing as is.
I think a large reason the matrix sequels are considered bad is just because they were unneeded. The big sell of the matrix is, well, the matrix. It's revealed in the first one and they show us a cool concept and environment. Sure, stuff undoubtedly happens after it ends, but it ends with hope and in a satisfactory way. The sequels didn't have the same hook. I mean, they did, but it was too much the same I guess (heh).
Reading the plot of the second one (I haven't seen it in a while) it sounded less awful than I remembered, so I suspect there were other aspects I disliked. I actually find the idea of the latter two movies much more interesting if -kinda spoilers maybe?- they are still in the matrix. Then you can sort've look past the stupid magicky **** that happens. I have no idea if that theory (which I first considered after reading a cracked article, I was just taking the films at face value) even makes sense when you look at everything shown, but heck, I'm not sure how they could really prove it otherwise. They never leave the 'outside matrix', so we can just pretend that it exists.
They just weren't as compelling or as well put together in general. I'm not saying everyone hated them. I just personally disliked them (so many sequels fall short, empire strikes back is one of the few I really enjoy, it continues the plot and does it damn well (jedi returns is necessary after empire, but there are several things I dislike about it (luke vs emperor/vader scenes were good)). I do still want to go back and watch the trilogy under the assumption that the 'real world' is also in the matrix. I'm not sure why the machines would even make people aware that a matrix is a possibility though. Maybe they didn't know how to reset the matrix or how to make the humans move forward with society without making ai and reliving what caused the matrix (possibly causing some problem)... I don't even know. It's not the best theory but I like it more than magic powers.
You wanna know what bladerunner would be like? Star Wars prequel cityscapes and fifth element cars zipping around. For some reason so many new sci fi movies cannot avoid that crap. To be honest, every time I try to watch bladerunner I fall asleep (lol..I really liked do android dream of electric sheep >.>, maybe I just try watching it when I'm too tired....), but just seeing it being remade would make me sigh.
Except the reason why Blade Runner-like cityscapes were in Episode 2 was because Episode 2 was referencing Blade Runner.
This is also evident in the remake of Total Recall. The new version barely even qualifies as a remake..it's practically a completely different movie that just happens to have the same title and very basic story structure.
So what movies would you guys want to see redone? The first one that comes to mind for me is Blade Runner. The original is incredible, but I could see a remake being completely fantastic. Nevermind just the new graphics/technologies/etc, but the depth that actors are capable of now just eclipses most of what we see in this movie, and this would be particularly interesting as far as the Replicants go etc.
I mean, you mentioned character depth and my mind immediately jumped to the two by four that is Keeanu Reeves. I feel like The Matrix was great for its time. As action movies, they're all pretty good and intense. But there really is so much improvement to be made on character depth.
Pristaxcontrombmodruu!
What I'd like to see is not necessarily a remake of My Dinner with Andre, but another film in the same style that addresses contemporary issues. A lot of the back-and-forth in Andre is still relevant, but the advances in technology and its pervasiveness in people's lives combined with the a much different geopolitical landscape would make for a very interesting update. Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory are still alive and working so revisiting their Dinner characters 30 years later would be really cool.
[card=Jace Beleren]Jace[/card] = Jace
Magic CompRules
Scry Rollover Popups for Google Chrome
The first rule of Cursecatcher is, You do not talk about Cursecatcher.
Probably not as me for this one. Star Wars Episodes 1-3. This time with a better script, director and actors...
- H.L Mencken
I Became insane with long Intervals of horrible Sanity
All Religion, my friend is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.
- Edgar Allan Poe
The Crafters' Rules Guru
The original Total Recall was unique for its time and vision. It elevated makeup and special effects to new heights and, despite its clunky acting, had a script that was more nuanced than it deserved to be. There is still no definitive answer to whether Quaid really was a spy or if it was really an elaborate memory by Rekall. That kind of twist had no businesses being in a sci-fi movie at the time and the philosophical musing of what is experience was far more than anything else Arnold had at to that point (although the original Terminator does have some interesting philosophical challenges of its own).
In comparison, the new Total Recall throws out that nuance solely in favor of updated visuals. Note that there are no groundbreaking special effects or makeup but instead the same standard CGI we've become accustomed to in the past 10-15 years. It was purely an update made to cash in nostalgia for the original.
There are parts of the new Total Recall that I think were done very well. I think the setting is more textured than the original's grungy Mars environment, but when it comes down to it the environment is basically a varnishing of Blade Runner. I absolutely loved the marketing of the new Total Recall movie. The whole, "Is it real, or is it Rekall?" line is catchy, fits in with its vision of Rekall, and teases at those philosophical questions of experience that I mentioned before. The trailers, posters, stand-ups all got me pumped for Total Recall. Unfortunately I went into it expecting something akin to the original in nuance but instead got a standard sci-fi action flick.
Don't get me wrong, though. I don't think the new Total Recall is a bad film. I just think it wasn't a good enough remake of the original. It's existence doesn't diminish the original, but it was letdown in terms of what it was trying to emulate.
As for Blade Runner, the film stands so well on its own (at least the original theatrical release IMO) that I'm afraid any sort of update would result in the director or studio changing things just to change them. It's one of those films that really doesn't need to be tweaked or reimagined or even straight-up remade because it just does everything very, very well.
[card=Jace Beleren]Jace[/card] = Jace
Magic CompRules
Scry Rollover Popups for Google Chrome
The first rule of Cursecatcher is, You do not talk about Cursecatcher.
Because that CGI lizard isn't.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Why on Earth would anyone want to remake a good or great film?! Blade Runner is fantastic. The first Matrix is fantastic. No! Just plain no!
The first Total Recall was great. As someone pointed out, it has a twist ending that really has no place in a film that, on its surface, seems to be an Arnold action vehicle. The remake isn't alright, it's god-awful! I want to start with a science thing that took me out of the film; the train through the planet, in order to make that journey in 17 minutes, would have to travel so fast the occupants would be turned to jelly. I checked out the first time they boarded that thing.
That said, the story was just plain stupid. In the original, Quaid had a reason to change his memories. He needed to be the perfect infiltrator. In the remake he needed to change his memories because... We don't know. Because it was in the original?
The action was uninspired. The world design was done before much better in a film made 30 years earlier; Blade Runner. The villain was less than one note. The entire story was forgettable. It was pure trash.
If you're going to remake a film, remake something with a small following that suffered from either a low budget or something that was made before the technology was ready for the idea. Personally I would remake Hell Comes to Frogtown, but that's because I love campy fare like that.
If that's not your thing, I'd say Night of the Comet would be fun. Especially with modern zombie popularity because the zombies in that film are more just crazy people than zombies.
I'm a huge fan of post-apocalyptic films so I'd like to see a remake of The Quiet Earth. If you haven't seen that, watch it simply for one of the most haunting last shots ever put into a film.
In that vein, Mad Max: Fury Road is being made. I don't think it's as much a remake as a sequel/remake, but Mad Max suffered from a tiny budget and I have no problem with the idea of bringing that franchise back for another try. (side note for geeks like me: How effing awesome is it that George Miller is writing/directing this?!?!?!)
I will attack you so ****ing hard with the blunt of my axe your legs will shatter.
Wouldn't mind seeing Star Wars Episodes 1-3 redone. There's definitely potential in that story.
Yes. Yes it was.
I'm only saying it was fantastic in spite of Keanu, not because of him.
There is so much potential there, especially if you rewrite the second and third movies. We might end up with an actually awesome trilogy, not just a good movie with two train wrecks that follow it.
Pristaxcontrombmodruu!
We love the cartoon so much we won't even watch the movie.
I was going to say all of Star Wars minus Empire Strikes Back.
@ Mondu: Godzilla remake is on its way.
There is absolutely no good that can come from a Blade Runner remake/reboot
Maybe just maybe Leo could pull off Ford's role, but there really is NO substitute for Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty.
BR is so perfect as-is a remake would greatly harm that legacy.
The new Total Recall was okay, but it was just a vehicle for 100 million in special effects. The performances felt just as hollow as the first movie.
Both though, are still B+'s in my book.
I generally hate remakes/reboots and think we need more original movies...that being said, my picks for remake:
1984 - I think the original is already amazing and it's a story I think needs to be told again and again, but I believe it's photography and settings are just too outdated to connect with today's audience. A remake I think could be pulled off with heart and solid intrigue.
Something Wicked This Way Comes - I think this story was poorly done in the 1983 disney movie, and I've always wanted to see it done with real gravitas aimed at a more mature audience.
When I have time, I'll try to remember the other ones I really want to see redone.
Thanks to Xenphire @ Inkfox for the amazing new sig
“Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments
are we bound to prosperity and ruin.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
I haven't seen the new total recall... because it looked awful. Now I'm being judgmental and have no idea how good it actually is, but I just hate flying car chase scenes (I think it was a chase scene..or they were in the background, I just remember seeing them in a trailer). They are all so interchangeable. The old recall was lowtech maybe but it felt dirty and real. I just like oldschool effects more. Compare The Thing to any new monster movie. Even Jurassic Park to...anything. Sure, JP has cg and was one of the earlier movies to use it like that... but it looked real! For some reason they can't capture that same feeling these days. Puppets and real creatures and real environments that are actually made really add a lot to a film. It's the difference between the star wars trilogies (well, part of the vast difference).
Anything can happen with cg, but it still lacks that same surprise factor. Go watch The Thing. I saw it for the first time ever a year or two ago. The chest scene was ****ing amazing. You just don't expect it because of the effects style.
this somehow turned into a rant about cg...but it really can ruin movies (or at least turn me off of them, the new enders game has me cringing, the trailer i saw last made it look like some dime a dozen scifi summer flick). It can help movies too, and I'm kinda broadly mashing all cg together...so I guess BAD cg is what I hate. It's rampant.
I could not disagree more. The first one was good because of Keanu. His character is supposed to be clueless. He is a fish way out of water. He's perfect for someone who has walked into a world he doesn't fully understand.
Which is why he falls apart in the sequels because he's supposed to be the expert. Yeah, the sequels are bad, but the first one is amazing as is.
Actually, you know what movie I would enjoy seeing remade? The Hunger Games.
None of this bull**** shaky cam, or sugar coating it for young girls. I want it R-rated and bloody, like it's supposed to be.
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor
They did that already and it came out before The Hunger Games. It's called Battle Royale.
Reading the plot of the second one (I haven't seen it in a while) it sounded less awful than I remembered, so I suspect there were other aspects I disliked. I actually find the idea of the latter two movies much more interesting if -kinda spoilers maybe?- they are still in the matrix. Then you can sort've look past the stupid magicky **** that happens. I have no idea if that theory (which I first considered after reading a cracked article, I was just taking the films at face value) even makes sense when you look at everything shown, but heck, I'm not sure how they could really prove it otherwise. They never leave the 'outside matrix', so we can just pretend that it exists.
They just weren't as compelling or as well put together in general. I'm not saying everyone hated them. I just personally disliked them (so many sequels fall short, empire strikes back is one of the few I really enjoy, it continues the plot and does it damn well (jedi returns is necessary after empire, but there are several things I dislike about it (luke vs emperor/vader scenes were good)). I do still want to go back and watch the trilogy under the assumption that the 'real world' is also in the matrix. I'm not sure why the machines would even make people aware that a matrix is a possibility though. Maybe they didn't know how to reset the matrix or how to make the humans move forward with society without making ai and reliving what caused the matrix (possibly causing some problem)... I don't even know. It's not the best theory but I like it more than magic powers.
Hmmm since we had a new Evil Dead, can we now have a new Army of Darkness? i mean with the tech we have today that is bound to be awesome right?
Jaws
Arnold Scwarzenegger action movies are the best by default because they are funnier than comedies. Still waiting for Arnold's King Lear
GWBKarador, Necrotic Ooze SubthemeBWG
We are getting a new Ghostbusters.
Except the reason why Blade Runner-like cityscapes were in Episode 2 was because Episode 2 was referencing Blade Runner.