The lights are on
Remakes. Ah yes, I've had it with these motherf***in' remakes on my motherf***in' theaters. Not all remakes are bad, of course, though. Not everyone knows that John Carpenter's classic 'The Thing' is actually a remake of a 1954 movie. 'The Ring' remake was good and all. Wasn't as good as the original Japanese, but at least it did some justice to the original movie. However, ever since 'The Ring' became a success, studios realized that they didn't apparently need to come up with original ideas for movies, and just remake old ones and/or foreign ones that are even scarier than anything America could've ever dreamed of.
What made me wanna do a blog on this was the news of 'Cloverfield' director Matt Reeves remaking the absolutely amazing Swedish film 'Let The Right One In'. Why is this bad? It's not bad, or illegal, or anything, and it's not gonna ruin the original, of course. It's just........unnecessary, as with every other remake. Let me put it this way: We don't need remakes unless the remake adds or improves on the original, which barely any do. 'Let The Right One In' was just fine as a Swedish film with an adorable love story mixed with some good ole vampire scares and blood (Definitely infinity times better than anything Twilight can achieve. Yeck). Imagine what would happen if Pan's Labyrinth was remade? It was a perfect movie. And I mean that in every possible way IMO. Why remake it? It's not like there's anything to add on, or improve on. Nothing needs to be changed. It's fine the way it is. Remakes should only be made when the director and/or writer has a profound affection for the original. NOT because they are just out of ideas.
And now before we leave, a list of the worst of the worst:
One Missed Call (Remake of Japanese version)
Mirrors (Hilariously entertaining but terrible remake of Korean 'Geoul Sokeuro)
Shutter (Remake of Japanese)
Any horror remake produced by Michael Bay (Remakes of old 70s and 80s slashers)
etc.
I see your point, hollywood remakes just seem lazy to me. I can see how some movies/franchises need a makeover i.e. Star Trek which got overhauled into bringing in a new generation of fans like me. Just because they think they can turn a quick dollar they put us through a grueling hour and a half to just see what they did with the original formula. These producers either butcher the original or you just don't get the same feeling. A good horror example is Paranormal Activity which was slated to be redone but after failed attempts to create the same atmosphere they stuck with the original which has now taken the nation by storm.
We need more writer's willing to take risk's.
Yah the remakes of all the "scary movies" like Halloween, nightmare on 13th, and The Jason movies are just ridiculous. Another way to milk money with minimal effort.
Point well taken. There is one thing I have to thank the remakes for though, and that is the fact that I would have never known of the original's without them. I still need to see the original The Ring. And I just learned of 'Let the Right One In thanks to you. My thanks to you, and a mental note to me to look it up.
Some remakes are ok, when the director takes it in his personal artistic direction, like The Thing. Personally, i loved rob zombie's Halloween remake. sometimes the remake is all you can get. look at quarantine. it gets a blu-ray release in america, but unfortunately, the original spanish version is only on sdvd.
I nearly cried when I learned they are going to remake Oldboy. Ugh.
I agree, some movies do not need remakes. People sould just watch the originals with subtittles.
To Keo528: I think there should never be a horror movie containing Jason, Micheal Myers, Freeddy Kruegar, and characters like them ever again because they are overused and old. What we need is more originality. While I do understand that it is harder too do now, I just don't see the point in reusing them becuase they lost their scare appeal lol.
They're remaking Oldboy??
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
I totally agree with you but I see them doing this because not a lot of people know about Let the Right one In, and so why not hop onto the Vampire wagon and release a good movie. Look at TV, movies and such, it is filled with Vampires, so this is a smart move if you look at that way. But really they should just get the orginal out again and let people find out about a good piece of art.
I am watching "Let the Right One In" Right now, and I must thank you for pointing me in that direction.
Wow, I never knew most of this stuff. I actually liked Let the Right One in. But I see what you're saying. Some remakes are totally unnecessary. For instance, The Invasion of The Body Snatches was not a needed remake. War of the Worlds was actually well remade simply because movies now adays can be displayed in more depth due to better CGI and special effects.
Nice, blog. I enjoyed reading it.