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James Francis's avatar

Great article, thanks! And I think you helped me figure out why so many remakes don't work for me. They are too busy trying to remind all of us how clever they are and therefore how clever the audience is, and gee, aren't we all just so damn clever? And in the process, they totally miss what made the originals so good. Because they weren't trying to be clever. They were just swinging for the fences and hoping to score a few points.

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Mary Catherine McAnnally Scott's avatar

Bingo! And even more intense when the original movie is so ridiculous and (by many accounts) kinda terrible. You can only strike gold once, Jake Gylly.

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Jeremy Burgess's avatar

I feel like the more "faithful" a remake tries to be, the more likely it is to fail. Take a swerve! Do something different! For example, The Running Man (1987) is apparently not very faithful to King's story, but it sounds like Edgar Wright's upcoming version will be. I'm into that! Give us something new, Edgar!

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James Francis's avatar

The Thing is another good example. Technically a remake, but does its own thing and is closer to the short story than The Thing From Outer Space was. Even though Carpenter is a big fan of the original film. It's even in Halloween.

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Jeremy Burgess's avatar

Probably the best remake ever made, that one.

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Ryan Kindahl's avatar

You sold me! I’ll be watching Road House 💪 this weekend and skipping Toad House 🐸

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Mary Catherine McAnnally Scott's avatar

My work here is done. *dusts hands*

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Jeremy Burgess's avatar

Your work here is never done. We'll see you back here in 8-12 months. 😉

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David Perlmutter's avatar

Nine times out of ten, the original is always better than the remake.

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Mary Catherine McAnnally Scott's avatar

Totally agree. And in this case it's even more delicious because boy oh boy is it SO much better. Deliciously better. Get outta here Toad nobody loves you

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Jeremy Burgess's avatar

Yeah, there have been some pretty interesting and even great remakes, but I think I can count on one hand the ones that surpass the original.

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