There is no Danish, only Roule.
I love this thread.
The only struggle I find with remakes and reboots is in talking about the movie later as a nostalgic, devoted fan. A remake forces you into one of two positions, either feeling like a tool for having to tack the words “the original” onto the front of movie titles you want to talk about, or letting a little piece of yourself slip away when people think you’re talking about the shitty remake. I think about this every time Elliott Kalan recommends the original [sic] Pelham 123 on The Flophouse, and I think about the extra netflix search-fu I’ll have to do to wade past he Travolta/Washington version…
On the other hand, a shitty remake sometimes leads to a renaissance for the original, which would have been forgotten without people comparing it to the remake, like a pop-cover of a classic song, or a sample.
I borrowed The Manchurian Candidate from the library fairly recently, only to discover that I’d accidentally got the Denzel Washington remake. I returned it unwatched in disgust and resolved to pay more attention to what I was doing in future. I have since watched the proper version
Conversely, the only version of Lolita I am familiar with is the Jeremy Irons version. I haven’t even read the book. I’m uncomfortable enough with the story that that is unlikely to change.
Ray, when someone asks you if you have a Gouda, you say “YES!!”
I wish there was some way I could this more than merely .
We need a mega-like, something more akin to “can I have your babies?!?!”
I would like to take all of the responses after mine home and kiss them on the mouth and touch their sexyparts repeatedly.
I… I… love you too? Um, I have the weirdest boner right now.
Some random thoughts on a great thread…
My personal list of “great movies in their first incarnation” is a lot longer than my list of “that was a great sequel / reboot.” Carpenter’s The Thing is the exception, not the rule.
If I were to film a movie based on a Stephen King work, The Shining would be my absolute last choice. Too many unfilmed works to pick, too many bad films based on his work that could be bested.
Let’s reboot movies that had a genuinely good idea poorly executed. Pick more “Howard The Duck” and less “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
John Tutorro as the Ugly.
Where the hell is my Buckaroo Bonzaii reboot? Can Mike Rugnetta act, because he’s my Buckaroo.
The older I get the more sympathy I feel for Walter Peck, and the less I see the subtext as “regulations are bad”. That may have been how it was intended at the time (and getting a ton of melted Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man dumped on him seems to have been the final “Take that!”), but he was a guy doing his job. He may have been overzealous and too quick on the draw, but he was investigating three guys who’d started a completely new business that just happened to be extraordinarily successful. There was good reason for the EPA to be concerned about what the hell was going on down in the basement. I’ve heard people still call William Atherton “dickless”. He deserves better.
Besides at the beginning of the film Dr. Venkman says, “Call it fate, call it karma, but I believe everything in life happens for a reason…” If Venkman was right then Peck was meant to shut off the grid.
Want Peter Jackson to make The Dark Tower?
I know people love that series, but I read The Gunslinger and that was enough for me. The only other King I’ve read was Insomnia, and that was just shite. At least I remember it being so, but it was years ago. Maybe it was a masterpiece!
But that’s the thing, he wasn’t! He stopped in casually. He asked nicely. He even used the magic word. They openly acknowledge that they are using unlicensed nuclear accelerators. And in return he gets booted and mocked.
Do they save the day? Yes. But given the lack of backup power to the grid (which should have snapped into place the second the main power supply is cut), this was a mistake caused entirely by a lack of oversight.
But that’s entirely my point, a modern remake can’t use the EPA as a reason to turn off the grid. It flies in the face of all the hybrid cars and organic produce that everyone stocks the shelves with. Few people see the EPA as overreaching their boundaries when the drinking water can light on fire.
A Peck type character could still fulfil the same chaos inducing function by enabling the cavalier attitudes of the Ghostbusters in the reboot. He/She would have the same effect, causing mayhem, but within the constraints of financially incentivised, disinterested jobsworth.
I would like to see some kind of Jack Burton/Buckaroo crossover reboot. Don’t know where I could’ve got that idea from.
Toy Story 2 and 3
Interesting, I’ve never thought of this before, but immediately after being a toadie for expansive nanny-state government in Ghostbusters he delivered beautifully as Prof. Jerry Hathaway, a shill for the military-industrial complex in Real Genius.
He’s good at being a bad authority figure.
We already have The Neverending Story.
Seriously, though, I’d rather see Jackson’s take on the 1,152 pages of The Stand, unabridged. Would make for a good 12-episode HBO or Netflix season.
I’m with you on The Gunslinger, though if someone has to make that series, I hope it’s Tim Burton, with Depp as The Man In Black.
I was not aware of this existing. I shall, ahem, have to borrow it from some friends.
Oh, I see it is actually available for download…
Poor dead Johnny Depp.
I’m tempted to watch Mortdecai just to see if it’s as bad as the reviews suggest, but I think I’ll just borrow the book.
Thanks for the reminder. If I ever see him I’ll have to fight the urge to offer him some popcorn. I find Walter Peck sympathetic…Jerry Hathaway…no. It seems like Real Genius could be remade more easily than Ghostbusters, or at least with fewer plot changes, but it seems unlikely a criticism of the military-industrial complex could be greenlit these days.
Te central premise of the CIA developing a secret weapon solely for use in illegal assassinations is certainly more pungent today than when the movie came out…30 years ago.