Movie Remakes: When Is It Too Soon?

The idea of remaking a movie usually doesn't appeal to me. I think if it worked the first time, then why mess with it? That said, there are some really good remakes that come along and manage to outshine the original version. The best example of this is John Carpenter's The Thing. We could also argue over Zack Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead or Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, but we'd be here forever.

Now, before I continue I just want to make it clear that I'm not referring to when studios totally revamp a film or franchise like with the latest Batman, Bond, or Bourne movies - those actually work for me. No, I'm talking about when someone gets it in their head to take something awesome and turn it into a complete disaster. This happens a lot with foreign films (although there are a number of American movies that get terribly remade: The Fog, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Carrie, and way too many more to list). Somehow the-movie-powers-that-be feel the need to Americanize everything and end up presenting audiences with the watered versions of some really great films. Watch 1998's Godzilla, The Ring 2, or The Wicker Man for examples and you'll see what I'm talking about.

I'm not completely against remakes. I just feel if your going to do it 1) Get it right & make it something unique and 2) Wait a while before remaking the original. This brings to me to my point for writing this article. I recently found out that 2 movies (both less than 10 yrs. old and reviewed/recommened on this blog) are now being remade. Oldboy and Let The Right One In are both scheduled to be released next year. What the hell? Now, I could comfort you by letting you know that Spielberg is handling Oldboy, but 2 things: 1) He already remade The War Of The Worlds and that was terrible 2) It stars Will Smith (what more needs to be explained about how bad this will be). The director of Cloverfield (a movie I loved) is doing the remake of Let The Right One In. He's a newer director so maybe he can pull it off, but it just feels too soon. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong and in a 2010 I'll be writing a review on both films and about how good they were. Yeah, maybe.

Just incase your not upset yet at how the studios are messing around with really good films, here's a list of remakes ready to piss all over some of your favorites movies. Enjoy.

2010
The Evil Dead
Logan’s Run
The Host
The Karate Kid (now called the Kung Fu Kid and w/ Jackie Chan)
A Nightmare On Elm Street
The Warriors
The Thing - WTF!!! I just said this was one of the BEST remakes ever! Are they really going to remake a remake? My brains are falling out.


2011
Battle Royale
An American Werewolf in London
It
The Birds - You DON'T mess with Hitchcock!
Escape From New York - Will they please leave John Carpenter films alone?


TBA
Conan The Barbarian
Short Circuit
Dune
Weird Science
Top Gun - ?????????