Movie remakes and sequels

Gamer1992Gamer1992
in General

I feel like Hollywood hasn't learned their lesson that generally remakes from old movies don't do too well. The classics should be left alone, which makes me grateful they didn't try to remake The Nightmare Before Christmas or make a sequel to My Neighbor Totoro.

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Comments

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    I'm glad they never made a sequel to Highlander. It's the kind of movie that there can be only one.

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    Yeah, except everything is basically a remake.

    Just add new technology, a smidgen of “current” political/social vernacular, and whoever the “hottest” new faces and bottoms are…

    “Original” is often simply variations, because humans have been telling stories as long as humans have existed, and we ran out of new plots after the seventh one…

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    The Breakfast Club 2: Now With Mimosas.

    The movie is spent with Brianna, Andrew, Allison, Claire, and John reminiscing about everything that's happened to them in the past 10 years since that fateful detention day.

  • Gamer1992Gamer1992

    Indeed
    But what irks me the most is books turned into movies. You can't fit a whole book into a two or three hour movie, which is why it should be a miniseries or a full on TV show.

  • TxTomTxTom

    Watching movies are best when supplemented by reading the book it was based on.

  • pmvinespmvines

    It doesn't bother me when there's a remake . It doesn't take anything away from the original, and it might lead to a new generation of fandom

  • pmvinespmvines

    And for those who have horrible vision and don't have the time or patience for reading I don't mind a movie version

  • TxTomTxTom

    Every possible story has already been told (the three basic conflict archetypes) with originality only pertaining to various secondary details.

  • TxTomTxTom

    My main criticism with remakes and contemporary versions of classic stories is presentism.

  • _marC_marC

  • TxTomTxTom

    I would like to see a movie that ties in The Terminator with The Matrix.

  • [Deleted User]WriterGF (deleted user)

    Thing is, the things people complain about have been going on forever.
    Remakes? Know how many silents got remade into talkies? And, heck, there were three versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the space of about 30 years.

    Sequels? How many Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan and Frankenstein pictures were there in the '40s?

    Movies from books? That was a cottage industry in old Hollywood. Gone With the Wind, pretty much all of Dickens, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, the list is endless.

    Bottom line: if something made money once, they do it again. Always have, always will.

  • Gamer1992Gamer1992

    It's always about the money.
    I just wish there was more quality than quantity these days

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    It's always about the money.

    Watch the comedy “The Studio” on Apple TV. It is a series based on a guy who after 22 years working for the studio becomes the head of the studio. He wants to make quality movies that will be remembered and discovers that Hollywood and the public only want crap. Great movies with depth can’t be marketed.

  • TxTomTxTom

    I just wish there was more quality than quantity these days

    I don't know if there are as many truly creative, visionary storytellers these days.

    Another problem is that technology, like CGI, has become a crutch, a substitute for good storytelling.

    "A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. People have a tendency to confuse them as an end to themselves. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing." - George Lucas

    Unfortunately, Lucas, himself, seemed to succumb to the temptations of CGI overload in his SW prequel trilogy. In my opinion.

    The Al Pacino movie, S1MONE, humorously examines the ironic twist of an "old school" film director, who rails against the undeserved influence that overpaid lead actors have on a project, and thus turns to the technological solution of using an entirely CGI actress, which inadvertently recreates the very same problem he was trying to mitigate.

  • [Deleted User]WriterGF (deleted user)

    Interestingly, the one streaming service that offers all original content -- AppleTV+ - lost a billion dollars last year and is one of the least-watched. People say they want new, original things, but then often don't watch them.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @WriterGF Exactly. And they do have some great original shows, movies and docs but they really don’t do superhero or sci-fi (in the traditional movie blockbuster sense) so like their show The Studio—people get shit movies because that’s what they pay for and they won’t deviate from that or anything that might challenge them.

  • WestsideMarcWestsideMarc

    I really liked this movie called Star Wars. I can’t believe they never made a sequel!

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    I can't say I have any idea what's on Apple TV, since I use Android and Linux. So there's a walled garden problem as well as a branding problem there.

  • lovingspoonfulllovingspoonfull

    I thought the remade Oceans Eleven was better than the original.

    I realize that’s sacrilege to some. 😎

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @IronLemon You can use the AppleTV app on Android.

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    @TheFunCartel I did notice that's apparently been an option since this past February.

  • [Deleted User]WriterGF (deleted user)

    I watch some stuff on Apple - Schmigadoon, The Studio, this and that - I'm more of a fan of MHz these days. I got really addicted to French mysteries over the last year or so.

  • Darkeyed_maleDarkeyed_male

    What made Starwars good, was, we got a break from reality.

  • KatotaKatota

    I'm glad they never made a sequel to Highlander. It's the kind of movie that there can be only one.

    @IronLemon HA! 😁

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972
    edited April 2025

    I had a co-worker years ago who told me, “I have never had an original idea in my life.” He realized all he could do is come up with creative ways of modifying and combining the ideas he had learned from others.

    In regard to Hollywood remakes, there have been some good ones. The original Patrick Swayzee / Keanu Reeves movie, Point Break comes to mind. I thought the remake was good because they updated the story with new actors and action sequences but they didn’t fundamentally change the story.

    “Shooter” with Mark Walberg was “updated” from the book making the protagonist an Iraq war veteran rather than a Vietnam veteran but essentially keeping the same story.

    However. In general it seems like Hollywood is approaching creative bankruptcy. I think part of that is because movies are so expensive to make they don’t want to gamble as much on new ideas so they are over relying on past success. Star Wars and Indiana Jones were HUGE when I was in my teens and it just seems like Hollywood would rather milk an old, worn out cow than risk a big budget on something new.

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)
    edited April 2025

    Star Wars, as an example of how near impossible it is to be original, was directly inspired by Kurosawa’s 1958 film The Hidden Fortress. And, of course, dozens and dozens of movie serials and radio programs, like Buck Rogers, etc…

    Even the “Not a remake” movies are remakes, or at best, reskins of three or four previous movies.

  • [Deleted User]WriterGF (deleted user)

    @JohnR1972 Because, more often than not, wildly original films make no money. Movie studios are not in the business of making great art, they are in the business of making profits. So they will almost always default to what seems to be a safe bet.

    @CharlesGrove Not to mention the climax was right out of The Dam Busters.

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    The “Kidding on the Square” cliche in the creative arts is that you know you are probably being original if everyone HATES it.

    Truly original techniques, materials, or mediums tend to be hated at first because we humans want familiar things, just not too familiar…

    We are all Goldilocks.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    We are all Goldilocks.

    Not me. I shave my head because this hair was too thin. But my head is just right.

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