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Films that shouldn't oughta never been remaked.
Hmmmmmmmm.
I agree with someone else who had a rather interesting take on the remake thing. Some filmmaker, I ferget who it was. But he said something like, "Good films don't NEED to be remade. Remake BAD films, and make them into GOOD films. Then you've done the world a service."
Take a look at William Castle's HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and 13 GHOSTS. Both essentially pointless, but good movies. They get remade in the digital age. What do we get? Something that tastes suspiciously like wallpaper paste. These same (and arguably VERY TALENTED!) geeks tackle some original material, and SURPRISE! We get GHOST SHIP, an excellent piece of modern exploitation horror. Accident? I think not.
Then take a look at those silly early GAMERA movies from Japan. Not without a certain endearing cheese appeal (and made by some talented people!), but not classics. They get remade in the digital age, and become polished, decent semi-classics. Well, except for the second one, something bad happened with that one. But the first and the third films of the new Gamera series were pretty effing cool.
These are just ramblings of mine, and as always, they are not intended to make any sense. But really, there seems to be some kind of lesson here: Remake a good film, and you will make garbage, as likely as not. Remake a bad film, and greatness is created.
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