I just recently watched Richard Linklater's solid but also non-essential 2005 remake of the classic 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. A lot works about the new version, while he's doing nothing new -- Billy Bob Thornton is fun in the lead and Greg Kinnear makes for an especially insidious antagonist. But it doesn't do what the best remakes do, which is improve on the original in new and interesting ways.
Perhaps that was not Linklater's intent, as he no doubt felt nostalgia and affection for the original film and felt it's feel-good underdog story didn't need much updating. So why remake it? It's a bit of a curio in an impressively eclectic filmography.
There are so many great remakes -- Hollywood wouldn't keep making them if they were always creatively bankrupt. There are several where I can't make an honest comparison because I haven't seen the original (like The Departed and Insomnia) and others where I am pretty much certain they're greater than the inspiration even though I can't honestly say I haven't seen the first version like Heat vs. L.A. Takedown).
Ocean's Eleven - The original is less a movie than a mood -- it's the one movie that features the entire Rat Pack on screen together and in that sense it's historic, but it also feels disjointed as if every superstar sort of breezed through and shot their scenes between sets, which very well may have been the case. The Soderbergh remake is the real classic because it's cohesive, clever and the epitome of a very specific kind of cool. The series made George Clooney and icon and in some ways re-energized the careers of some of its stars.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - The 1950s original is actually legitimately creepy -- especially it's mad panic of ending -- but the '70s version uses superior special effects and even better cast to weave a truly unforgettable spell. One of the decades great paranoid movies with a brilliant gut punch of an ending.
True Grit - The Coen brothers wisely shifted the focus of their remake of a John Wayne film on its female protagonist (as is the case with the original novel) and came out with a much more emotionally engaging and effective film. It's a rare across the board blockbuster for them in part because it's sneaky sentimental.
Sorcerer - The movie that inspired this 1977 masterpiece is also widely viewed as a masterpiece -- The Wages of Fear. William Friedkin's film ups the stylization a bit, has a big budget and a synthy score, but otherwise they're pretty close. I think Sorcerer just works better because at points it feels like a documentary, in the best way.
A Star Is Born - While the 1954 version might just be the best -- I am still a big fan of the Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga remake. It felt very alive -- particularly in the musical performances which were raw and moving. I feel like there's been a backlash to film for some reason, and I haven't revisited it recently, but I remember it as a special film.
A Fistful of Dollars - A Westernized version of Akira Kursosawa's cool as a cucumber Yojimbo works only because Clint Eastwood is very bit the charismatic lead that Toshiro Mifune is. It's fun to see how director Sergio Leone tweaks Kurosawa's samurai saga ever so slightly to make to make it work in a new genre.
Let Me In - I know this amounts to blasphemy in many quarters, but I actually like the American version of Let the Right One In better -- eek-- don't hate me. Director Matt Reeves made a faster paced and more viscerally satisfying version of a very bittersweet horror film.
Scarface - A vulgar, grotesque and gory update on Howard Hawks' 1932 genre breakthrough -- it's definitely not for everyone's tastes but I love it to death. Al Pacino, gloriously chewing scenery, gets to go places that the great Paul Muni just could go and director Brian De Palma does a deliriously good job of capturing the decade and mayhem of drug culture.
Cape Fear - I've already written about this but the 1991 Scorsese film benefits from a lack of censorship and a decidedly more complex take on the material. That doesn't mean the original 1962 film isn't a lot of noir fun, it is, but Scorsese's film makes a more lasting impression for a reason.
No comments:
Post a Comment