calhoun07

We all get on here and whine about great movies that are remade and the wide majority of them disappoint or outright fail.

But considering Michael Caine's advice that you don't pick a good movie to remake because you can only go down so you pick a bad movie to remake so you can go up, I am curious...what bad movies would you like to see remade?

The first one (and perhaps most recent one) I thought of is Immortel. This movie looked like it should have been good...interesting concept and all but it failed on so many aspects. There is a chance at a good story here...perhaps in the hands of the right director.

Dark Star. I realize the cult status of this movie, so I am sure fans of the film would revile the idea of a remake. But as good as it is, it is certainly lacking in other areas as well. I think a remake could only improve the story, and I would pick the team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to do the magic.

Zardoz. Interesting concept, the movie really grabs your attention from the beginning...then kind of fizzles out. There is the making of something better here, but in the hands of John Boorman it wasn't able to be salvaged. Perhaps with Terry Gilliam?

Supergirl. Why do girl hero movies always have to suck bad? I always blame the directors. Get Tarantino or Rodriguez on a project like this and we may have something worth watching. Or maybe even Drew Barrymore (because I doubt Warner Bros would want to attach Tarantino to a super hero movie geared towards kids)...a long shot as her "action" movie Charlie's Angels sucked long and hard but she didn't direct that. Her directorial debut proved she can make strong women characters watchable and the movie was really good.

Those are just a few choices off the top of my head. I am sure these ideas will go nowhere...Hollywood will continue to rape classic good movies instead. But what would your choices be?

Jay G.

Oceans 11, no wait, they did that already.

Lord of the Rings... no wait, they did that already too.


Seriously though, I think it would've been cool if Joss Whedon had directed a remake of the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Sarah Michelle Gellar. They could've done it between, say, seasons 2 and 3 of the show. I don't care if it'd been just a TV movie, it would be nice to watch that series from the proper beginning without having to make allowances for the lesser feature film.


Hollywood's all about money. If there was a bad movie that made a lot of money, they'd eventually remake it.

That said, Hollywood has seemed to become open to the idea of sequels to even long dormant franchises instead of just remakes. Both Tron and The Thing (itself a remake of a classic), are getting sequels after nearly 3 decades.

Heat

If you liked Dark Star, take a look at the movie Sunshine (from '07).

Trevor

I really liked Sunshine,

jfoobar

For some reason, Scanners is always one of the first movies to come to mind when I see this question. While not a bad movie, it has many flaws and was anchored by a very bad actor (Stephen Lack). In the right hands, I think a re-imagination of this story could create something very special.*


*There is supposedly a remake in development from the guy that did the Saw sequels. I doubt those are the "right hands" I was hoping for.

dx23

FreeJack
The Spirit

Paul_SD

If I were DC, I would reboot the Superman franchise by making the first film "The Last Days Of Krypton". Kara would be a major supporting character, who once established here could be spun off into her own series at any point , or even show up directly in a Superman sequel to give that line a little boost when it starts to flag.
Focusing on Krypton to begin with would also help set up the DC universe (you could incorporate Green Lanterns and the eventual meteor rocks could, like in the TV series, be used to provide part of a rationale for other costumed superheros to eventually be produced.
For the 99 out of 100 people out there who categorically reject getting another movie 'with the krypton origin', for one it would be substantially different from what's come before, and for another, the premise is ripe for all kinds of juicy and involving dramatic content.

It would basically be Star Wars meets Titanic- a conflict between good and evil factions in a sci-fi setting (Zod and co. vs the Government and Jor-el), and at the same time, the audience is cognizant of the impending catastrophe that will befall characters that they've grown to sympathize with and enjoy being around for the last 2 hours (if done right of course).
At it's heart, a Krypton-centric film would be a sci-fi disaster movie and as a kid who grew up in the 70's, disaster movies were a hell of a lot of fun.

In any case, I would love to see a good big budget Supergirl film. Unfortunately, WB won't even give the animation a budget to make a Batgirl Year one animated movie, because the Wonder Woman one didn't move like gangbusters- proving to them that fans have no interest in female characters. In light of that I don't see how a theatrical film with a 100x larger budget could ever get green lighted.

calhoun07

I don't think the original Alfie or the original Italian Job movies really tore it up at the box office, but those are two examples of movies that weren't that great to begin with that got remade.

And I am not saying that the remakes were stellar examples of movie making or even made a lot of money, but they are two examples Michael Caine gave when interviewed on CBS News regarding movies he was in that were remade. He admitted those movies he was in were not that good and that that was a good reason to remake them.

cranberries fan

Paul SD sad but true when it comes to female superhero on the big-screen (She-Hulk would be bad-ass).

resinrats

Maybe it will take a spin-off movie to be a successful female hero movie. Maybe if they make a Justice League movie or two that includes Wonder Woman/Supergirl, then make a Wonder Woman/Supergirl movie since audience would then be familar with the character.

Rypro 525

hey, i liked Elektra (runs away)

Solid Snake

Just cuz you like crap doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. I mean..how many of us love bad movies. As long as you KNOW it's crap then you're ok.

Rypro 525

well yeah, its not the worlds greatest movie, but I've got the hots for Garner so yeah, little biased

Greg613

I would like to see the Clive Barker movie The Plague. I thought it had a lot of potential, but the delivery was terrible.

Jay G.

Both of those original films were released before box-office numbers were easy to come by for the public, however, they both made money and were considered successful films when they first came out, and The Italian Job is considered a minor classic in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Italian_Job
I will alter my statement though to clarify that Hollywood will remake anything they think will be a current success. If a writer or director can convince a studio that a remake of an out-and-out bomb will be successful, then it'll get made. However, I can't think of a single such example right now.

calhoun07

Well, that's the thing...we keep on reading about movies that did well that are being remade these days. Not just films that did moderately well.

And I don't know if these movies count as out-and-out bombs, but remakes that did much better than their originals (and nobody really talks about the originals anymore except in cult status):

Scarface
Little Shop of Horrors
The Thing

Probably three of the best remakes of originals that did so-so. Again, I don't know if the originals bombed or not, but you really never hear people talking about the originals of those movies.

Jay G.

How do you know the originals only did "so-so"? What are you basing that on?

The Thing from Another World was apparently successful enough it warranted a re-release:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thi...oduction_notes

Scarface apparently also did well on first release:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarfac...ternate_ending
As for Little Shop, the original probably wasn't a huge hit, although it was successful enough to be re-released as part of a double-feature a year after its original release:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lit...elease_history

But of course, the Little Shop remake was based off of the off-Broadway musical adaptation of the original film. So the studio was banking on the success of the musical, not necessarily the original film, when producing the remake.

Jay G.

An addendum to my last post:

It should also be worth pointing out that The Thing (1982) may actually qualify as a bomb, since it cost $15 million to make and brought in just shy of $14 million in its theatrical release:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thi...lm%29#Reaction

Of course, since 1982, The Thing has gone on to become a classic on the home video market. So the upcoming prequel of the film is the continuation of, technically, a bomb, although it probably helps that, as a prequel, the audience doesn't need to have seen the original to follow the story.

hasslein

The original Italian Job is a great film.

I don't remember the network, ABC or CBS news recently ran a story about bad films being remade.. Dune and Overboard were the two mentioned that I can remember.

Jay G.

Can't find a network link, but I did find these recent articles:
http://www.independent.ie/entertainm...s-2147154.html
http://www.thewrap.com/article/holly...s-16016?page=2
http://www.onenewspage.com/news/Cele...past-movie.htm
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2...-ind-20100416/

Dune qualifies as a bomb, although it was based on a highly popular book (and more important to studios, book series, meaning potential sequels), and has already had recent success with the mini series adaptation.

Overboard, itself a loose remake of Swept Away, may or may not have been a bomb. It made less money than The Princess Bride, but made more money than Baby Boom, and aside from the two star's salaries, couldn't have cost much to make. If it was a bomb, it'd be a good example of a bad movie that bombed that is being remade anyway for no particularly good reason.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=overboard.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overboard_%28film%29
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/...yr=1987&p=.htm

Dr. DVD

The 1985 schlock-fest The Last Dragon (which I think was a moderate success, but seems begging for a re-imagining).

Ash Ketchum

In my circles (baby boomer film buffs) we talk more about the originals than the remakes. I have a high regard for both versions each of SCARFACE and THE THING, but I've never seen the remake of LITTLE SHOP and never talk about it.

Paul_SD

a few other female centric properties that could easily yield better movies with a little thought
Modesty Blaise
Red Sonja
Sheena
When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth
SHE

Groucho

I thought I read about a remake with Samuel L. Jackson as Sho Nuff. Could have been fanboy rumor.

MrSmearkase

I heard that same rumor almost 2 years ago.