I mean, I haven’t seen it…but:
Well to be fair, it is a pretty common trope in TV shows, especially ones that want to do Hallowe’en episodes. I can think of several that have done the same basic body horror plot.
You do have to wonder what that production meeting sounded like though.
Writer: So you have this guy. And after his girlfriend dies, he can’t get over the loss.
Producer (looking at his co-producer): Haven’t we heard this before?
Writer: No, no, this is great stuff! So the guy is like the really gifted doctor, and he takes the dead woman’s head, see
Producer: Definitely heard this before. Nex –
Writer: Hang on, you haven’t heard the best part yet. Instead of a horror picture, we do all of this as a comedy!
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I can’t remember the last time a remake was even in the same ballpark as the original. Sadly, my generation of movies have been vandalized by Hollywood in recent years. I mean, Patrick Swayze wasn’t even cold yet when they announced the Point Break remake 
. Robocop , Red Dawn , Total Recall …. as Daniel Tosh would say, 3 examples is enough. And even if it’s NOT a remake, you’ve seen the plot before in a much …. maybe not “better”, but more memorable film.
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Does Dredd count as a remake? Because the original Judge Dredd movie with Stallone was abysmal, but Dredd was great. They’re both based on the same comic, but does the second one count as a remake?
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What I enjoy is how often I see this argument made: “If Stallone hadn’t taken the helmet off, that movie would’ve been a more accurate adaptation.” Heh.
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Oh, I wasn’t asking seriously. We took the topic up…here.
I was just marveling that this particular film had been remade.
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I’ve never read the comic and if the Stallone version was more accurate to it, I don’t want to.
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The comic is satirical and over the top and very British in its humor (or, heck, I guess that’d be humour.)
Dredd was a lot more stripped down.
From what I gather, you put the Karl Urban Dredd in the Stallone movie’s world and keep the satire, fans would’ve been happiest.
At the very least, they probably wanted this:
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I agree with @erikburnham , that pretty much sums up 2000 AD (the British comic source material). Like quite a few, I much preferred the Dredd film, it didn’t feel like it was trying to be a summer blockbuster film like the Stallone version. I think the biggest critique it received was how the plot was very similar to The Raid, an excellent foreign action film worth tracking down for a watch.
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I did appreciate that they tried to add a lot of the comic book in the Stallone version, even including the Angel Gang and an ABC Warrior. But I agree with @FlyingSquid, the Urban version is a much better film.
It really cheeses me off that neither film did well enough to warrant a sequel where the Dark Judges show up. Because that would be a blockbuster, but you really do need a film before that to set up the story environment for viewers. Starting out with the Dark Judges would confuse people to no end, I fear.
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Strictly speaking, John Carpenter’s The Thing is a remake of The Thing From Another World, and you could argue it is better or at the very least on a par to the original.
2011’s The Thing was initially going to be a remake of Carpenter’s, but they saw sense and made it a prequel of sorts instead; it gets a lot of stick but I enjoy it, it is all extra paranoia and that’s what I want from a horror film.
Last I heard there was rumour of another remake in the pipeline, but who knows if anything will materialise.
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Yes indeed. Carpenter’s The Thing is on my list, along with Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Cronenberg’s The Fly, of remakes which are significantly different from, but as good as, the originals.
Carpenter’s remake of Village of the Damned on the other hand is one I frequently forget even exists. It’s not bad per se, just didn’t make an impact on me. And I’m crazy for Carpenter.
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The remake of The Blob was pretty good. It wasn’t campy like the original. That said, Beware! The Blob from 1972 is the best of them because it’s insane. It’s got the original movie playing in a movie theater during the movie!
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I would argue that The Fly was one of the last good remakes. The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers I forgot about, and I honestly can’t compare, as I’ve never seen the originals. But after The Fly, seemed like Hollyweird thought EASY MONEY! and remade everything under the sun.
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Just gonna reiterate that remakes certainly can be better, and are sometimes so good they obliterate the memory of the movies they’re remakes of—and subsequent attempts to remake them. Already mentioned The Front Page (best version, His Girl Friday), Wizard of Oz, Ben Hur (which was just remade and…does anyone remember it?), Ten Commandments, The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock’s remake of his own 1934 film). I wouldn’t know where to start with the various Pride and Prejudices, Wuthering Heightses, Christmas Carols…any of Shakespeare…last time I checked there were SIXTY versions of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw.
Then you get the pseudo-remakes, like, Clueless, West Side Story, oh…The Last House on the Left (which was a pseudo-remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring which itself was an interpretation of a Swedish folktale). Meaningful comparisons can be challenging, is what I’m saying.
For those who say remakes are usually crap, I can only point them to Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of everything is crap.
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Touché. bows
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Psst. Those are just fanfic. Which I mean in the best way.
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To Be or Not to Be. Both the original with Jack Benny, Clark Gable’s wife, and the Unsolved Mysteries Guy, and the remake with Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft both have their strengths and weaknesses.
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I am reliably informed everything is fanfic.
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The Thing. Ocean’s Eleven. Casino Royale. You could make a case for the Coen Brothers version of True Grit, but I consider the two versions to be roughly equal.
It’s a short list.
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