INTERACT FORUM
More => Music, Movies, Politics, and Other Cheap Thrills => Topic started by: paul1970 on July 25, 2013, 07:35:05 am
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Just saw a post by kstuart (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=81979.msg560708#msg560708) and it got me exercised.
There are many cases where shows and movies produced outside the US are remade for the American audience (best not to start fights over why this is done), and sometimes even sold back to non-US viewers. kstuart's opinion is that the remakes are almost always worse, but there are some interesting exceptions. What are the exceptions? And what are particularly egregious examples that prove the point?
Personally, I thought the US remake of 'In Treatment' was better in pretty much every way than the Israeli original (whose name I can't remember). One of my favourite dramas of recent years; the acting, the scripts and the direction were just top-notch.
I might upset some people by saying that I enjoyed Hollywood's 'Ring' quite a lot more than the original 'Ringu'.
The US remake of The Killing though was (imo) an unnecessary and butchered travesty of what was a terrific, involving show.
And - really America! - what have you done to The News...? :'(
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While England is all frothy and captivated about some baby's birth probably isn't the time to start the over-here vs. over-there volley.
Remakes in all media forms have always been the norm, and business certainly does reward copying success, even when executed poorly.
Nothing to see here folks - drive on. :-)
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Don't get me started.....When they get a royal story then news takes a holiday and all we get is propaganda. It's an embarrassment.
You make a fair point.
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There are some pretty good lists over at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_remakes).
While it feels like it has been happening a lot recently, there aren't actually many that I've seen, or have cared about.
There are a few on those lists which I didn't even know were remakes of foreign films though, like True Lies, and 12 Monkeys.
As for films where the remake succeeds, I would say that Vanilla Sky is one of them - but I may be on my own there.
I saw Abre los ojos first, and Vanilla Sky very shortly after. (it had just been released) At the time, I was strongly in favor of the Spanish original.
But when I ended up seeing Vanilla Sky again a couple of years ago (I think it must have been on TV?) that prompted me to watch the original again, and my opinion had changed. I don't think it's a great movie, but there's something about Vanilla Sky that I enjoyed, and I didn't really get much out of watching Abre los ojos a second time.
I think for a lot of people, which one you see first makes a big difference. Abre los ojos certainly left more of an impact on me the first time - which is probably true of most people, and I think that led to it perhaps being somewhat overrated, and Vanilla Sky being somewhat underrated when it came out.
I really like Steven Soderbergh's version of Solaris - though you will find that most people who like the 1976 film hate it, and it's not something aimed at a more general audience either, so anyone that saw the trailer and thought they were going to like it based on that, was probably bored to tears - it's a very slow paced film. I generally avoid trailers for films, but sometimes I like to watch them after the film if it was somewhat controversial, or even hated, and this has to be one of the worst offenders of a trailer being cut to try and make a film look like something it's not at all.
I will admit that a lot of why I like the film may just be circumstantial, and it being the right film at the right time for me when I first saw it. (same thing applies to The Fountain)
I'm really disappointed that this is still not out on Blu-ray, and that the rumors of a special edition being released on its 10 year anniversary were not true.
David Fincher's remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was fairly good I thought - though not nearly as good a film as the original. It was interesting just how close that was to being a shot-for-shot remake though. I wouldn't say that someone was watching a bad version of that film if they chose to watch it instead. (I know some people who don't like dubs, and refuse to watch films in a language they can't speak :-\)
Watching The Departed recently has left me wanting to see Infernal Affairs, which most people consider to be the better of the two. A lot of people seem to really love The Departed, but I just thought it was OK.
After looking over the list and being surprised by some of the films which have either turned out to be remakes, or have since had remakes that I was unaware of, there isn't much that stands out as being particularly bad to me - though that is probably because I tend to avoid watching remakes in the first place. The worst offender where I have seen both films is the 2012 Total Recall remake. I don't even rate the original all that highly, but the new one is terrible.
What surprises and disappoints me more frequently than film is the British > US TV show remakes. With a very small number of exceptions, those are usually terrible, and anything which does take off is run into the ground with US scheduling.
20+ episodes a season, and as many seasons as they can still produce and make money, vs 6 episodes in a season, and maybe two or three for most shows, finishing while they are still at their peak.
Don't get me started.....When they get a royal story then news takes a holiday and all we get is propaganda. It's an embarrassment.
You make a fair point.
All I've seen is people complaining about the baby, and no-one that is actually interested. But it's probably good for tourism?