Ron, I just put my name down on the reserve list with my local library for the three-disc special edition of THE MALTESE FALCON, which happens to include the 1931 version and SATAN MET A LADY. So it looks like I’ll see those films as soon as they’re available.
Ron, you learn something new everyday. Tell me about the first one.
Here are a couple of movies I actually WOULD like to see remade:
THE FOUNTAINHEAD – Don’t get me wrong. I loved the original film with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. But if you read the book, then you know how long it is and that it’s impossible to make into a movie less than two hours without omitting many, many valid points and subplots of the book. This needs to be remade into a 3-hour plus epic, or even better, a TV mini-series, with a real red-headed actor to play Howard Rourke.
FLASH GORDON – When I saw this 1980 movie, I thought it was campy, silly and stupid…and I was only 13 years-old! The only thing I liked about it was the hit song, “Flash” by Queen. Now that we’ve seen the dark and disturbed side of comic book heroes with X-MEN and BATMAN BEGINS, Flash Gordon could use a total do-over.
KING KONG (1976 and 2005), DRACULA (1979 and 1992), INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978), THE FLY (1986), THE STEPFORD WIVES (2004), SABRINA (1995), TITANIC (1997), THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1999), ALWAYS (1989), RANSOM (1996).
Some remakes I was stupid enough to pay to see before I knew any better…
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990), PLANET OF THE APES (2001), THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004), THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (2005), THE FOG (2005), ALFIE (2004), POSEIDON (2006 – My wife dragged me! I’m not responsible!).
One remake I did not see, would not see and feel the director should be strung up, nonetheless…
Smith – “Why keep it a secret? People are smart. They can handle it."
Jones – "No, a person is smart. People are dumb as sh*t!”
Still makes me laugh!
By the way, for those who don’t know, the third version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was called BODY SNATCHERS (1994). The fourth is called THE INVASION (2007). Someday, the fifth will probably just be called OF THE!
Catherine, it’s interesting that you brought up Peter Jackson’s KING KONG, because that’s one of the few (if not the only) remake I enjoyed in recent years. Hell, I loved it! I paid to see it twice. In fact, it was the last time I truly enjoyed the huge screen-large popcorn-large soda-epic movie-going experience. That a year and a half ago. My only gripe about it was that I thought it should have reflected the present day rather than be set in the 1930’s. In fact, my first PG-rated film ever was the 1976 remake of KING KONG. I was nine years-old. I saw that one before ever seeing the original 1933 film, if you can believe it.
I suppose it cannot be ignored that remakes have been around since movies began. At the very least, 50, 60, 70 years ago, movie ideas were still fresh and had the possibility for originality, even the remakes. It would have been a shame if Bram Stoker’s DRACULA had stopped with Murnau’s NOSFERATU or if Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN had stopped with Thomas Edison’s 1910 ten-minute film. We’d never have had Karloff and Legosi’s legendary characters. Today’s Hollywood attitude, I’m afraid, cannot be given the same slack.
You know what else I think it is? And remember, please, that I can only generalize my opinion, as there are always exceptions; not only in films, but in people, too. I think that somewhere in the course of the last decade or so, those that run Hollywood decided that today’s younger movie-going audience (age-range 18 to 35) are either too dumb or too indiffernet to be exposed to old films, outside of required viewings in film school. This combined with the fact that old films are almost never re-released in theaters anymore, leads me to believe that Hollywood feels it should simply remake the film to appeal to today’s younger audience and to take in their box office earnings fast.
THE INVASION (2007) will mark the fourth version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Fourth??? Is this really the only way today’s audiences can appreciate the original and classic story. I’d sooner pay full ticket price to see the original 1956 classic on screen before watching Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig waste their talents on recycled material.
A few years ago, I was discussing films with a young man in his early 20’s). I finally raised the subject of old black and white films and asked him if he’d ever seen CASABLANCA. His response was, “I never heard of CASABLANCA.” For a moment, I was frozen stiff. How was this possible? Because he’s a young kid and it’s such an old movie? I don’t accept that! Are kids today never to know and listen to Mozart and Beethoven simply because they were way, way before the kid’s time?? It scares me to think that the only way kids today might know the story of CASABLANCA is if Hollywood remade it with Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Simpson (Oh, man, I don’t want to joke about that!!!).
One more thought on the subject – there’s a sequence from the movie THE PLAYER that I always remember. Tim Robbins plays a Hollywood big shot who tells Vincent D'Onofrio that they’re thinking of remaking THE BICYCLE THIEF. D'Onofrio responds by saying, “You’d probably give it a happy ending!
I’d just like to reitterate that my comments above deal directly with censorship in the movies, and not so much the issue of smoking.
Personnaly, I detest being around smokers. I look forward to the day when it becomes illegal to smoke in ANY public surrounding, even the streets. Because if I have to choose between myself and the rights the smoker feels he/she has, then sorry, I selfishly choose myself!
MZ – I don’t think you’re overreacting at all. I, too, would welcome an opportunity that would reduce the number of smokers I too often encounter.
What’s frightening here is the act of artistic censorship that’s taking place during this day and age in the United States. It starts with this one act and before you know it, we’ve returned to the days of the censorship code of during cinema’s golden age.
I was in high school in the early 1980’s when movies like FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and SIXTEEN CANDLES showed underage kids drinking. When I started college in 1985, I drank and partied like every other crazy freshman. But I’m not about to blame Universal Pictures for that. That was my conscious decision and I don’t regret it.
Today, like always, it’s up to parents and education to prevent kids from smoking in the first place. We can’t blame the movie, television or even Ozzy Osbourne.
Just wanted to mention that with all of the new hype regarding BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT and all of the different film versions and DVD packages that will become available, it was at this theater (when it was a single screen) that I saw the original theatrical release in June 1982.
You know, in as much as I love owning my favorite movies on DVD or VHS, sometimes the easier and quicker it is to get something, the less special it seems.
When I was a kid in the late 70’s, the only way you would experience a movie you loved all over again was to hope that the studio would re-release it in the theaters before eventually finding its way to pay-cable and broadcast television. It somehow felt more meaningful and worthwhile in that sometimes good things would come when you waited.
When I was 9 years-old my favorite movie was the remake of KING KONG (for a while, anyway, until STAR WARS). My dad took me to see it upon its release in December 1976 and I was delirious with joy when it was re-released the following spring because it meant I could see it again in all of its big screen glory. When I was a little older, I did not get to see THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK during the summers they were released. Thank goodness for their re-releases, or I might not ever have gotten to experience them on the big screen.
Today, movies (even the great ones) are hardly in the theaters for a month before they’re already announcing the DVD release date. In 1977, STAR WARS had it’s first run in theaters for nearly a year. In 2005, REVENGE OF THE SITH had already started to dwindle away from theaters by late June.
Something special has definately been lost in all of this.
I’m surprised that people are still interested in purchasing these poor-quality pirated films when the standard DVD releases of most any film is only just a few months after the film’s theatrical release. Not a long time to wait, if you ask me.
I fear that with the current onslaught of illegal computer download of movies, the high price of tickets and the general irritation that can come from visiting the local multiplex, before you know it, most or all films may innevitably go straight to DVD. I fear that by the time my little boy becomes a grandfather, the movie theater itself may become extinct.
Is this the theater that can be seen behind John Travolta as he struts his stuff in the opening scene of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, with the movie title, NETWORK, on the marquee?
I never got to see TRON in the theaters, but the recent posts on the 25th anniversary of this film and BLADE RUNNER has got looking back at the Summer of 1982 with fond movie memories. Good or bad, that summer saw other hits like:
POLTERGEIST
ROCKY III
E.T.
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
FIREFOX
DINER
THE ROAD WARRIOR
PINK FLOYD THE WALL
and as mentioned above, the re-release of STAR WARS.
You know, given all the griping I do about people talking during a movie, the ironic thing is that when I was a kid, I WAS a talker during the movie. I can remember being “Ssshhed” many times by grown-ups.
In the Summer of 1981, my friends and I went to see the re-release of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK at the Westhampton Beach Theater. We carried on like you wouldn’t believe during this exciting movie! It’s a wonder we all didn’t get tossed out on our asses!
It amazes me, still, that despite the absolutely outrageous prices of concession stand food, people are still willing to shell out their hard-earned cash for it. I used to enjoy movie popcorn more than any other choice, but given its high price and the fact that many theater chain do not even pop it fresh anymore, I prefer to bring snacks from the outside into the theater with me.
A can of soda and a bag of snacks from any nearby pharmacy will run me just under $4.00. That will hardly buy a child’s size popcorn in the theater today!
Roadshow – Amazing, isn’t it? That woman’s kid is kicking YOUR seat and she has the nerve to regard YOU as the problem.
Perhaps all of this raises a good argument to bring back the drive-ins; bring all the kids you want and keep them in your own vehicle where they won’t disturb others.
I can’t even remember the last time I went to a movie where I didn’t have to “Ssshhh!” someone at least once!
Actually, I think I can. David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE at the IFC Center in NYC on a Friday night last January. This was a real deep art film and the majority of the audience were New York University students. The theater was dead, dead, dead, you-could-hear-a-pin-drop silent! Man, if only every movie I went to see could be like that!
Back in the day (decades ago), part of the thrill of going to the movies was sharing it with the audience. Today, that seems to be reason enough to watch a movie in the privacy of your home instead.
Jay, my little boy is nearly a year and a half, and like you, I’m not taking him anywhere near a movie theater until he’s old enough not to disturb others around us.
MZ – You’re not alone. I’m 40 years-old, I have a toddler whom I love more than anything and I still feel like I’m going through my selfish 20’s phase, especially when it comes to when and who I’ll see movies with. When I have the time to go to a movie, and if it’s a film my wife is not interested in, I’ll always go on a school night, when kids are at home.
Two stories of my own for you: back in Christmas 2002, I was one of the first few to sit down in a New York City theater to watch GANGS OF NEW YORK. The show was sold out, with every seat in the theater taken, except the one next to mine. Just as the film started, a woman sat down next to me with her NEWBORN! My facial reaction went into immediate “You’ve got to be f—king kidding me!” mode. I gave it about ten minutes, thinking it might be okay. Not so. The baby started crying and I stormed out of the theater to get my money back before I reached the 20-minute refund deadline. A week later, I tried again and successfully saw the movie.
About a year later, my dad and I went to a neighborhood theater one Saturday afternoon to see MIRACLE. Big mistake! The theater was full of rowdy children. I told my dad we should leave right away and get our money back because there was no way we were going to enjoy this. We got our money, drove to another theater and saw MONSTER instead.
One of the best movie-going experiences I ever had was during the summer of 2005 when my wife and I decided to see WAR OF THE WORLDS on opening weekend in the middle of a beautiful, warm, sunny Saturday. The theater was empty except for us; just like a private screening! It definately payed off to waste some great weather to go to the movies in the middle of the day.
Like you, I prefer sharing old black and white classics with family and friends. Because they simply don’t make the movies like they used to, the classics evoke much better reaction and discussions, in my opinion. I look forward to when my son will be old enough that I can share some of my favorite classics with him.
And so, yet another reason why I chose to call myself – LOVE MOVIES – HATE GOING!
Ron, I just put my name down on the reserve list with my local library for the three-disc special edition of THE MALTESE FALCON, which happens to include the 1931 version and SATAN MET A LADY. So it looks like I’ll see those films as soon as they’re available.
Thanks for the tip.
Ron, you learn something new everyday. Tell me about the first one.
Here are a couple of movies I actually WOULD like to see remade:
THE FOUNTAINHEAD – Don’t get me wrong. I loved the original film with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. But if you read the book, then you know how long it is and that it’s impossible to make into a movie less than two hours without omitting many, many valid points and subplots of the book. This needs to be remade into a 3-hour plus epic, or even better, a TV mini-series, with a real red-headed actor to play Howard Rourke.
FLASH GORDON – When I saw this 1980 movie, I thought it was campy, silly and stupid…and I was only 13 years-old! The only thing I liked about it was the hit song, “Flash” by Queen. Now that we’ve seen the dark and disturbed side of comic book heroes with X-MEN and BATMAN BEGINS, Flash Gordon could use a total do-over.
How about RUNNING SCARED (1986) with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines? Their chemistry together still makes me laugh!
Some remakes I HAVE loved, by the way…
KING KONG (1976 and 2005), DRACULA (1979 and 1992), INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978), THE FLY (1986), THE STEPFORD WIVES (2004), SABRINA (1995), TITANIC (1997), THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1999), ALWAYS (1989), RANSOM (1996).
Some remakes I was stupid enough to pay to see before I knew any better…
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990), PLANET OF THE APES (2001), THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004), THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (2005), THE FOG (2005), ALFIE (2004), POSEIDON (2006 – My wife dragged me! I’m not responsible!).
One remake I did not see, would not see and feel the director should be strung up, nonetheless…
PSYCHO (1998)!!!
Kirk, I like your sense of humor. Cheers!
There’s a line in MEN IN BLACK that I love…
Smith – “Why keep it a secret? People are smart. They can handle it."
Jones – "No, a person is smart. People are dumb as sh*t!”
Still makes me laugh!
By the way, for those who don’t know, the third version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was called BODY SNATCHERS (1994). The fourth is called THE INVASION (2007). Someday, the fifth will probably just be called OF THE!
Catherine, it’s interesting that you brought up Peter Jackson’s KING KONG, because that’s one of the few (if not the only) remake I enjoyed in recent years. Hell, I loved it! I paid to see it twice. In fact, it was the last time I truly enjoyed the huge screen-large popcorn-large soda-epic movie-going experience. That a year and a half ago. My only gripe about it was that I thought it should have reflected the present day rather than be set in the 1930’s. In fact, my first PG-rated film ever was the 1976 remake of KING KONG. I was nine years-old. I saw that one before ever seeing the original 1933 film, if you can believe it.
I suppose it cannot be ignored that remakes have been around since movies began. At the very least, 50, 60, 70 years ago, movie ideas were still fresh and had the possibility for originality, even the remakes. It would have been a shame if Bram Stoker’s DRACULA had stopped with Murnau’s NOSFERATU or if Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN had stopped with Thomas Edison’s 1910 ten-minute film. We’d never have had Karloff and Legosi’s legendary characters. Today’s Hollywood attitude, I’m afraid, cannot be given the same slack.
You know what else I think it is? And remember, please, that I can only generalize my opinion, as there are always exceptions; not only in films, but in people, too. I think that somewhere in the course of the last decade or so, those that run Hollywood decided that today’s younger movie-going audience (age-range 18 to 35) are either too dumb or too indiffernet to be exposed to old films, outside of required viewings in film school. This combined with the fact that old films are almost never re-released in theaters anymore, leads me to believe that Hollywood feels it should simply remake the film to appeal to today’s younger audience and to take in their box office earnings fast.
THE INVASION (2007) will mark the fourth version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Fourth??? Is this really the only way today’s audiences can appreciate the original and classic story. I’d sooner pay full ticket price to see the original 1956 classic on screen before watching Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig waste their talents on recycled material.
A few years ago, I was discussing films with a young man in his early 20’s). I finally raised the subject of old black and white films and asked him if he’d ever seen CASABLANCA. His response was, “I never heard of CASABLANCA.” For a moment, I was frozen stiff. How was this possible? Because he’s a young kid and it’s such an old movie? I don’t accept that! Are kids today never to know and listen to Mozart and Beethoven simply because they were way, way before the kid’s time?? It scares me to think that the only way kids today might know the story of CASABLANCA is if Hollywood remade it with Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Simpson (Oh, man, I don’t want to joke about that!!!).
One more thought on the subject – there’s a sequence from the movie THE PLAYER that I always remember. Tim Robbins plays a Hollywood big shot who tells Vincent D'Onofrio that they’re thinking of remaking THE BICYCLE THIEF. D'Onofrio responds by saying, “You’d probably give it a happy ending!
They would, you know. They really would.
I vote for THE FUGITIVE!
I’d just like to reitterate that my comments above deal directly with censorship in the movies, and not so much the issue of smoking.
Personnaly, I detest being around smokers. I look forward to the day when it becomes illegal to smoke in ANY public surrounding, even the streets. Because if I have to choose between myself and the rights the smoker feels he/she has, then sorry, I selfishly choose myself!
MZ – I don’t think you’re overreacting at all. I, too, would welcome an opportunity that would reduce the number of smokers I too often encounter.
What’s frightening here is the act of artistic censorship that’s taking place during this day and age in the United States. It starts with this one act and before you know it, we’ve returned to the days of the censorship code of during cinema’s golden age.
I was in high school in the early 1980’s when movies like FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and SIXTEEN CANDLES showed underage kids drinking. When I started college in 1985, I drank and partied like every other crazy freshman. But I’m not about to blame Universal Pictures for that. That was my conscious decision and I don’t regret it.
Today, like always, it’s up to parents and education to prevent kids from smoking in the first place. We can’t blame the movie, television or even Ozzy Osbourne.
Just wanted to mention that with all of the new hype regarding BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT and all of the different film versions and DVD packages that will become available, it was at this theater (when it was a single screen) that I saw the original theatrical release in June 1982.
It’s still the best version!
Milton, I hope you’re right!
You know, in as much as I love owning my favorite movies on DVD or VHS, sometimes the easier and quicker it is to get something, the less special it seems.
When I was a kid in the late 70’s, the only way you would experience a movie you loved all over again was to hope that the studio would re-release it in the theaters before eventually finding its way to pay-cable and broadcast television. It somehow felt more meaningful and worthwhile in that sometimes good things would come when you waited.
When I was 9 years-old my favorite movie was the remake of KING KONG (for a while, anyway, until STAR WARS). My dad took me to see it upon its release in December 1976 and I was delirious with joy when it was re-released the following spring because it meant I could see it again in all of its big screen glory. When I was a little older, I did not get to see THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK during the summers they were released. Thank goodness for their re-releases, or I might not ever have gotten to experience them on the big screen.
Today, movies (even the great ones) are hardly in the theaters for a month before they’re already announcing the DVD release date. In 1977, STAR WARS had it’s first run in theaters for nearly a year. In 2005, REVENGE OF THE SITH had already started to dwindle away from theaters by late June.
Something special has definately been lost in all of this.
I’m surprised that people are still interested in purchasing these poor-quality pirated films when the standard DVD releases of most any film is only just a few months after the film’s theatrical release. Not a long time to wait, if you ask me.
I fear that with the current onslaught of illegal computer download of movies, the high price of tickets and the general irritation that can come from visiting the local multiplex, before you know it, most or all films may innevitably go straight to DVD. I fear that by the time my little boy becomes a grandfather, the movie theater itself may become extinct.
That will be tragic.
Is this the theater that can be seen behind John Travolta as he struts his stuff in the opening scene of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, with the movie title, NETWORK, on the marquee?
And if not, which theater is it?
I have no intention of seeing this movie. Frankly, INDEPENDENCE DAY and WAR OF THE WORLDS satisfied the “alien invasion” genre for me.
I only went to the movies twice here; both revivals. In 1991, a double feature of STAR WARS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and in 2000 for SUPERMAN.
I saw the 1998 re-release of GONE WITH THE WIND there.
I never got to see TRON in the theaters, but the recent posts on the 25th anniversary of this film and BLADE RUNNER has got looking back at the Summer of 1982 with fond movie memories. Good or bad, that summer saw other hits like:
and as mentioned above, the re-release of STAR WARS.
Whatever happened to Cindy Morgan (CADDYSHACK and TRON)? She was hot!
You know, given all the griping I do about people talking during a movie, the ironic thing is that when I was a kid, I WAS a talker during the movie. I can remember being “Ssshhed” many times by grown-ups.
In the Summer of 1981, my friends and I went to see the re-release of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK at the Westhampton Beach Theater. We carried on like you wouldn’t believe during this exciting movie! It’s a wonder we all didn’t get tossed out on our asses!
It amazes me, still, that despite the absolutely outrageous prices of concession stand food, people are still willing to shell out their hard-earned cash for it. I used to enjoy movie popcorn more than any other choice, but given its high price and the fact that many theater chain do not even pop it fresh anymore, I prefer to bring snacks from the outside into the theater with me.
A can of soda and a bag of snacks from any nearby pharmacy will run me just under $4.00. That will hardly buy a child’s size popcorn in the theater today!
Roadshow – Amazing, isn’t it? That woman’s kid is kicking YOUR seat and she has the nerve to regard YOU as the problem.
Perhaps all of this raises a good argument to bring back the drive-ins; bring all the kids you want and keep them in your own vehicle where they won’t disturb others.
I like it, I like it!
I can’t even remember the last time I went to a movie where I didn’t have to “Ssshhh!” someone at least once!
Actually, I think I can. David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE at the IFC Center in NYC on a Friday night last January. This was a real deep art film and the majority of the audience were New York University students. The theater was dead, dead, dead, you-could-hear-a-pin-drop silent! Man, if only every movie I went to see could be like that!
Back in the day (decades ago), part of the thrill of going to the movies was sharing it with the audience. Today, that seems to be reason enough to watch a movie in the privacy of your home instead.
Jay, my little boy is nearly a year and a half, and like you, I’m not taking him anywhere near a movie theater until he’s old enough not to disturb others around us.
I never thought I’d see the day when Patrick Swaze, Chuck Norris and Pee Wee Herman would be put in any category called “classic”.
On the other hand, in defense of Swaze; anybody who utters that world-famous “classic” movie line, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner!” can’t be all bad.
On second thought…
MZ – You’re not alone. I’m 40 years-old, I have a toddler whom I love more than anything and I still feel like I’m going through my selfish 20’s phase, especially when it comes to when and who I’ll see movies with. When I have the time to go to a movie, and if it’s a film my wife is not interested in, I’ll always go on a school night, when kids are at home.
Two stories of my own for you: back in Christmas 2002, I was one of the first few to sit down in a New York City theater to watch GANGS OF NEW YORK. The show was sold out, with every seat in the theater taken, except the one next to mine. Just as the film started, a woman sat down next to me with her NEWBORN! My facial reaction went into immediate “You’ve got to be f—king kidding me!” mode. I gave it about ten minutes, thinking it might be okay. Not so. The baby started crying and I stormed out of the theater to get my money back before I reached the 20-minute refund deadline. A week later, I tried again and successfully saw the movie.
About a year later, my dad and I went to a neighborhood theater one Saturday afternoon to see MIRACLE. Big mistake! The theater was full of rowdy children. I told my dad we should leave right away and get our money back because there was no way we were going to enjoy this. We got our money, drove to another theater and saw MONSTER instead.
One of the best movie-going experiences I ever had was during the summer of 2005 when my wife and I decided to see WAR OF THE WORLDS on opening weekend in the middle of a beautiful, warm, sunny Saturday. The theater was empty except for us; just like a private screening! It definately payed off to waste some great weather to go to the movies in the middle of the day.
Like you, I prefer sharing old black and white classics with family and friends. Because they simply don’t make the movies like they used to, the classics evoke much better reaction and discussions, in my opinion. I look forward to when my son will be old enough that I can share some of my favorite classics with him.
And so, yet another reason why I chose to call myself – LOVE MOVIES – HATE GOING!