I just saw the Halloween thread that was resurrected and the discussion about remaking a classic and I wonder:

What do you, fellow skullbrainers, think is the worst movie remake of all time?

I'm not a movie person, but the one that sticks out for me as the most onerous, offensive, unnecessary film remake is Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. whew, that movie sucked. Also Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... I don't care how great Johnny Depp is- How can anyone attempt to fill Gene Wilder's shoes in the role of Willy Wonka?

any thoughts?

phil

Any movie remake/foreign-adaptation is a bad idea.
For the rest I can't really juge, as I probably did'nt see'em..

I saw Burton's Planet of the Apes because the OG is one of my favorite film.
His sucked hard, very true.

honestly tho are there any movies that have been remade that are at least as good as the original
they all seem to fail miserably.

Psycho has to be in at least the top 10.

Little Shop of Horrors was a good remake.

Phil

The best "remake" I can think of is The Blob made in the 80's, it's a great flick.

The remake of the Fantastic 4 was nowhere near as good as Roger Corman's version

For me the worst is The Manchurian Candidate.The original is one of my favorite films.

I dig The Fly & The Thing remakes more than originals.

1998 Godzilla remake was a giant, Godzilla-sized turd.

Clash of the Titans was pretty bad, compared to the original. I'd take claymation over cheap 3D anytime.

And amost all remakes of Japanese Horror especially The Eye. I thought The Grudge and The Ring were pretty good though.

Godzilla also came to mind.

The American version of Godzilla , The Poseidon Adventure, Amityville Horror,the 1976 King Kong and the horrendous Pink Panther movies.

every remake ever? avatar was particularly bad because it didn't even bother crediting the original(s).

I disagree. There are some good ones. I Particularly like Oceans 11, The Departed, The Thing, and Insomnia.

But I will say that for the most part they do tend to be bad, but maybe it's just cause we expect it to be the same as the original. Just like when people read a book they really like and are horribly disappointed by the movie because stuff is changed.

Maybe not a straight remake of the original animated film, but Transformers (2007) was a hugely disappointing 'revival' of the series.

Not to mention the horrendous sequel.

i don't think that's an entirely unreasonable mentality. the further away the original is the less room for cynicism. The thing works really well as a stand alone movie. and so does the departed. but after i deliberately watched infernal affairs i lost a lot of respect for it because of how much was just plain lifted. from recent memory, the star trek reboot was actually pretty successful at a few things. i guess it's just about giving it time. for lots of films there's just no grace period though.

"Also Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... I don't care how great Johnny Depp is- How can anyone attempt to fill Gene Wilder's shoes in the role of Willy Wonka?"

I actually preffered the prefactory half of charlie and the chocolate factory to willy wonka, and NO one could touch gene wilder in that role
worst remake ever american godzilla bleck
as far as remakes that are as good as the first I would say night of the living dead and that is all that comes to mind

I consider the 1976 King Kong remake, 1998 American Godzilla remake and the 2001 Planet of the Apes remakes prime examples of crappy remakes. Ditto with the 2009 version of Taking of Pelham 123.

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again: All of the modern remakes of films screw things up because they (1) suck all of the humor out of the original and if that wasn't bad enough (2) they turn the remake/re-imagining into some 17-year-old Goth kids idea of "serious" and "deep." From the visuals to the plot, it's all a suck-fest.

Technically speaking the best recent "remake" I can think of was O Brother, Where Art Thou? because they took Homer's Iliad, reworked it into a relatively more contemporary framework and actually added humor to the mix. That's a great example of taking inspiration from the past and creating something new/great.

Ditto on The Thing. Carpenter's remake of the original is pure awesome sauce. And it's even truer to the original short story upon which both films are based.

Hopefully, next year's prequel will be worthy.

Solaris had a very good remake. The Departed's wasn't too bad either. The Talented Mr. Ripley was much inferior to the original though.

Taxi... Foreign humour lost in translation.

Not out yet, but I'm not looking forward to the american version of Let The Right One In.

I don't really count Godzilla (1998) as a remake as much as a NA offering of the franchise, especially after Zilla gets his ass kicked in Final Wars, but it does suck.

I guess Friday The 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street would be the worst for me, as they brought absolutely nothing new to the table and were completely unimaginative. At least expensive Tim Burton-ey type remakes usually look pretty and TRY to do some new things, even if they /fail in the end.

A remake of "monster squad" is in the works...
No good...

And If they ever try and make "back to the future" I'm sure it will suck

i think the nightmare the american horror genre is undergoing deserves a special mention. reboots, sequels, and just plain watered down generic-ness right and left with little else to offer. there are too many atrocities to single out any in particular, it's easier to point out the good ones because it isn't a very long list.