Angry Embassy: The Netherlands
The Original: George Sluizer’s Spoorloos (1988), about a man’s obsessive quest to find out what happened to his girlfriend when she disappears from a service station.
The Makeover: With the original a respectable art-house hit, Sluizer himself was invited to direct the studio remake with Kiefer Sutherland and a pre-fame Sandra Bullock as the separated couple, and a mentalist Jeff Bridges as the stranger who claims to know what's happened to Bullock.
Shame Bridges can’t explain what happened to Sluizer, who replaces the clammy, cerebral terror of the original with a series of chases and a bolted-on happy ending.
Moment You Know You’re Watching a Hollywood Movie: The last five minutes, which laboriously undercut the original’s harrowing twist ending. We wish they'd vanish.
Try This...
Latest Reviews
The Hangover Part III
Epic
The Company You Keep
Comments
Orbish
Jan 22nd 2010, 11:34
No Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars/Last Man Standing?
Alert a moderator
mitchsn
Jan 23rd 2010, 2:29
With the exception of 1 or 2, all the american remakes sucked a*s.
Alert a moderator
sunnyrandall
Jan 25th 2010, 9:40
What about Haneke's Funny Games? Yeah, I know he directed both but . . . .
Alert a moderator
jimclark54
Jan 25th 2010, 15:45
Seven Samurai -> Magnificent Seven -> Battle Beyond The Stars (writer: John Sayles, art director: James Cameron)
Alert a moderator
Ihatethis
Jan 25th 2010, 18:33
La Femme Nikita = Point of No Return
Alert a moderator
BaldMelon
Jan 25th 2010, 23:51
You forgot "Three Men and a Baby" and "Three Men and a Little lady" were originally French. Disney bought the North American distribution rights of the French sequel to cut down on competition. They also did the same thing for the Japanese version of "Shall We Dance". You can't even find it on DVD and it is a far superior film to the Richard Gere version. Oh, and shall we not forget the Jodie Foster/Richard Gere flop "Sommersby" is a watered down version of the French "The Return of Martin Guerre". Not to mention "La Femme Nikita"/"Point of No Return" and "Les Diaboluques"/"Diabolique", etc, etc...
Alert a moderator
metalgatesolid
Jan 26th 2010, 20:26
The Grudge/Ring remakes where, I think we cn all agree, no where near as terrifying as the original versions. The biggest travesty in my eyes is Rec and Quarentine. Rec is amazing!!!
Alert a moderator
tacroy
Feb 8th 2010, 14:03
Where is "The Invisable" on this list? It's a bad remake of the swedish movie "Den osynlige". And they even had to make a bad (and I mean really really bad) ending to it. They changed the whole outcome from the original one. Someone should be punished for that
Alert a moderator