Best remakes?

[J-Proof]

Since LOTR was an incredibly risky undertaking and moved on to tie history with most Oscars received, and the films themselves are beloved by millions, I'd say that LOTR won't be leaving people's minds for a LONG time.

Litmus test: My mom is the woman who forced Tolkien into my brain. I had read and reread the Chronicles of Narnia so many imes, that she gave me her fifth-edition Tolkien novels and told me to move on. I asked her if she knew who Peter Jackson was, and she knew "Lord of the Rings guy, right?" I asked her who Bakshi is.... "Bat-who?"

Not only that, but she had /watched/ the Lord of the Rings cartoons done by Bakshi with me over and over again when I was a toddler (as well as "The Hobbit") and even after that repetition she doesn't remember who Bakshi is, or even what he did.

Now - my mom doesn't represent /everyone/ but she represents the average American who is a literature/Tolkien fan. And as for my colleagues in Art School, Bakshi was respected by those of us who knew who he was, but I'd say a fair 75% of the people in school didn't know who he was, nor did they care to talk about him. Heck, a LOTR conversation either revolved around Jackson or Tolkien, not Bakshi.

End of argument is this:

Just because Bakshi fans remember and honor Bakshi, doesn't mean he's an immortal icon of film on the universal level -- in fact, his undertaking for LOTR was ridiculously overwhelming. Likewise, for Jackson fans -- his might in film right now may diminish on the grand scale of things in the future. HOWEVER - we CANNOT make a firm judgement on which films were most rememberable UNTIL AFTER two generations of film goers can be questioned about BOTH.

This argument is like arguing whether or not Spider Man the animated series is better than Spider Man the movies. Both have flaws.

No more LOTR arguing please.

[J-Proof]

PS - The Departed is a remake of a Japanese film, no? I haven't seen the original -- has anyone out there seen it to compare both?

[Grillslinger]

I LOVED the Dawn of the Dead remake. Very scary at times, very funny at others....but it had a good balance of the two.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I didn't like the Dawn of the Dead remake. I didn't like having zombies that run; they're not scary. They're scary when they're slow and suddenly jump at you when you think you're safe. It's not scary to watch a bunch of fast zombies all the time, it's irritating. Did anyone think that they actually needed that sex scene in the middle of the movie? "Well, those zombies are going to eat everyone else. Wanna do it in the butt?" What was that about? That was one of the few instances in which I found a sex scene in a movie to be completely unnecessary. I don't normally complain about a sex scene, but in this film, where it was, how it was written, it irritated me. The other thing was that it has nothing to do with the original, aside from the fact that it's set in a mall.

I thought Romero's own remake of Night was alright, but when you see the words "directed by Tom Savini" on the screen, you expect a lot of blood and gore. I didn't like the fact that it was so tame. The original 1968 version had more gore than the remake.

[Rude]

...

Yeah, thumbs down of the Dawn Of The Dead remake. Although, i am cool with the whole "fast zombie" thing... I thought 28 Days Later did really well with that premise (although, i guess that techincally those people weren't really zombies were they?).

-Rude

[ChrisHanel]

We used to have a joke among friends that we were totally prepared in case of a zombie outbreak. We had a phone tree set up and the exchange would go like this:

Me: "Hello?"
Josh: "Code Zombie!"
Me: "Romero or Send more Cops?"

The next response is what everything hinged on as to what you would do upon hanging up the phone. If Josh said "Romero", that meant the zombies were the slow, unintelligent brain fiends that lumbered around en masse. In case of Romero Zombies, you were to call the next person on the phone list, pass on the message, and then immediately head to the nearest Wal-Mart and barricade yourself in until help could arrive.

If the response was "Send More Cops", then the zombies were the ultra-fast, ultra-strong, intelligent zombies that you stood no chance against. In case of Send More Cops zombies, your duty was to pass on the message to the next person on the phone list, and then immediately kill yourself in whatever manner destroyed your physical body in the most permanent way, to prevent any chance of being zombified after death.

Yes, these are the things we used to think about in college.

[BBQ Platypus]

I didn't like the Dawn of the Dead remake. I didn't like having zombies that run; they're not scary. They're scary when they're slow and suddenly jump at you when you think you're safe. It's not scary to watch a bunch of fast zombies all the time, it's irritating. Did anyone think that they actually needed that sex scene in the middle of the movie? "Well, those zombies are going to eat everyone else. Wanna do it in the butt?" What was that about? That was one of the few instances in which I found a sex scene in a movie to be completely unnecessary. I don't normally complain about a sex scene, but in this film, where it was, how it was written, it irritated me. The other thing was that it has nothing to do with the original, aside from the fact that it's set in a mall.

I thought Romero's own remake of Night was alright, but when you see the words "directed by Tom Savini" on the screen, you expect a lot of blood and gore. I didn't like the fact that it was so tame. The original 1968 version had more gore than the remake.

I agree.  Movies with fast zombies are lame.  Except for Return of the Living Dead.  That movie kicked ass.

"Send...more...paramedics!"  Hehehehehehehehe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cornjob]

The original Dawn of the Dead was superior.  I mean really, why did they remake it into a horror movie? 

Oh, the original was supposed to be scary?  Not funny?  Um.  Okay.

Jackson's Kong was awesome.  I'm not going to claim it's better than the 1933 version, as it is a different beastie altogether, IMHO.  I left the theater thinking they really needed to come up with a new Oscar just for this movie: an honorary Best Actor award for Kong.  Not for the effects or Mr. Serkis, but Kong.  Perhaps they could've presented a computer-generated Oscar.  I just wish they had Kong fling poo at the biplanes.

[ScottotD]

HO HO HO HO, old special effects are funny! I get it!

PS - The Departed is a remake of a Japanese film, no? I haven't seen the original -- has anyone out there seen it to compare both?

Infernal Affairs is an awesome movie, easily on the same level as The Departed.

[mrbasehart]

Tom Jones sucks my balls.

What, all the time?

I agree that the underwater fight scenes in Thunderball are tedious, groundbreaking though they are, but I found Never Say Never Again to a pale shadow of all of the movies he made earlier.

[Drusilla]

I'm going to agree with what was said earlier about Ocean's 11  for some reason I could watch the remake over and over.

I'm also a sucker for Burton with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd... both excellent re-makes

I personally cannot stand LOTR... at all... I've seen all three... and can't stand them... so I'm going to stay out of that debate.

[Johnny Unusual]

PS - The Departed is a remake of a Japanese film, no? I haven't seen the original -- has anyone out there seen it to compare both?

Wow, uh, I was going to point out that it was a Chinese movie series, then I saw that it was a 2 year old post.

[Doctor Who?]

Oh it's two years old?

Thank goodness.

For a moment I thought something awful had happened.

[ScottotD]

I'm going to agree with what was said earlier about Ocean's 11  for some reason I could watch the remake over and over.

I'm also a sucker for Burton with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd... both excellent re-makes

I agree one all 3 counts, re-watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and besides all the mentions of "candy" loved every second of it.  It gets big points from the start because it doesn't have 'Cheer up Charlie' stinking up the first half.

[Nekrose]

I'm going to agree with what was said earlier about Ocean's 11  for some reason I could watch the remake over and over.

I'm also a sucker for Burton with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd... both excellent re-makes

I agree one all 3 counts, re-watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and besides all the mentions of "candy" loved every second of it.  It gets big points from the start because it doesn't have 'Cheer up Charlie' stinking up the first half.

That and the oompa loompa dude is fucking hilarious.