MOVIES - Do you prefer a Rerelease or a Remake?

[Marco33]

I like the idea of a previous poster up top, take poorly done movies with great ideas and re-make them. Some movies just scream for a remake... Saturn 3 comes to mind.

[Steve Stepoway]

The problem of course is that the people in charge of the studios (at least the majors) know nothing about movies. Was the original a bad idea badly executed? Was it a good idea badly executed? Did it flop because it was a bad movie? Did it flop because it was badly marketed? They do not know! Given that, they have no way to judge whether an idea should be remade. All they know is that there's a brand that succeeded (or didn't). That's why there are so many bad "based on a TV show" movies. They (the bean counters) know that people will recognize the brand.

[whitejremiah]

I personally prefer original movies, special edition style...they dont generally mess with the actual movie itself too much, if at all (other than some high quality video restoration, which im all for) as far as remakes, hollywood should stop while they are ahead in my opinion, almost every remake ive EVER seen has been worse than the original (in some cases, FAR worse than the original) this particularly applies when they try and remake a japaneese/chineese movie with american actors...it...just....doesnt.....work......

[yoda313]

Hi,

That's why there are so many bad "based on a TV show" movies.

Yep I rented the Charlie Angels movies just to see how bad they were. They even joke about another tv remake on a plane flight. I mean thats pretty bad when a bad remake pokes fun at a fictional movie remake.

Kevin

[Marvingj]

Depends on the movie. Like Star Wars Sure.

[ozymango]

If "rerelease" just means making a nicer box and adding a few more trailers, then I'll keep my original, thank you very much. But one thing I do love about a lot of "rereleases" of (especially) older films -- they've gone to some lengths to restore the film to it's original condition, made a better print from a clean negative, fixed sound issues, and of course there are all sorts of audio and video bonuses you can put on a disc.

A recent example for me of this is "The Great Escape," one of my favorite movies and recently out on DVD in an excellent presentation. It's widescreen, beautiful print, and it's got both an excellent commentary track (by various cast and crew members) and a rather enteraining "trivia track," which gives you little balloon pop-ups (if you like) that give little tidbits about the actors, the making of the film, et cetera.

As for remakes, mostly it's just laziness and cheapness on the part of the studios. I was reading something recently about an "updating" of some old movie and the people involved said something like, "this will be a great franchise." And when I think of franchise, I think of junk food.

[oldfart13]

Have you tried to watch the new "War Of The Worlds"? An unwatchable mess! I went home disappointed, pulled out my old LD version of the original 1953 film and proceeded to enjoy a quality film...

[ozymango]

Have you tried to watch the new "War Of The Worlds"? An unwatchable mess! I went home disappointed, pulled out my old LD version of the original 1953 film and proceeded to enjoy a quality film...

Haven't seen the new flick, I refuse to pay full price to see this in a theater. But I might catch it in the cheap seats, just to see the martian war machines, I must admit I am curious about those.

But the original is still one of my All Time Favorite Movies! When that martian puts his hand on Ann Robinson's shoulder while she and Gene Barry are hiding in that collapsed house, I nearly wet myself. And this was when I watched it last week! :P

And George Pal is an amazing production designer -- the Martian War Machines are among the coolest vehicles in all of science fiction history. And that fact that over fifty years later, those things still look awesome and haven't dated a bit, just goes to show ya how sad so much of Hollywood is today.

[Paul_G]

Neither - just give me my original dvd and I'll be happy

if you dont see foreign films you're missing out on some great films!

Subtitles are horrible, i have never liked them but after watching quite a few Asian horror & action films, i can tolerate them because the films are fantastic.