Remaking Foreign Films

[Jeffbiscuits]

I was at the UK premiere of REC at the Glasgow Frightfest a few years ago and the writer and director were saying that even then the US remake was in production. To be honest I don't think there was anything wrong with Quarantine. It was the same film, except American. But I'm disheartened that Quarantine was released in the US first. Think it got a DVD release before REC was even in cinemas(might be wrong about this part).

[larrymcc]

Am I the only one that is bugged by films that describe themselves as "remade for the English (read: American) language"?

It annoys me how Hollywood dresses them up as something original when they are often just a money spinning vehicle or how in the remakes they overlook everything that made the original worthwhile.

I'm not going to deny that there have been some successes over the years but they seem to be getting increasingly regular and decreasing in quality. Or have I just lost it?

I wrote an article in my blog about it a few days ago called "Parlez-vous Foreign?" and have been mulling on it since. What is the general consensus for films regurgitated into English?

[paperball]

Most of the remakes I've seen have been horrendous.

And not just of foreign movies, but remakes of old, classic movies which were in originally in English have been destroyed in their remake version, trying to be in fashion of the times now, and failing.

I used to find quite a lot of Hollywood movies that I enjoyed, these days I'm finding it hard to find anything that even vaguely piques my interest.

The broader question is:

There is an assumption that American movie goers won't like subtitles, or dubbed movies. Therefore, a badly-made English language version with 'improvements' for the American audience is made. All of a sudden you see beautiful young Americans walking around on screen with their perfect hairdo and makeup, carrying a Starbucks, donning some Adidas trainers and a pair of Levi's jeans. It can take away the edge of an original movie and destroy the whole appeal when these movies become displays of bland American pop culture.

Rather than movie makers looking down their noses at their audiences and assuming they are a load of thickos and making simplified, crappy films for said thickos, why can't they assume that most people are more intelligent than they think they are.

They are in fact, by dumbing down, creating more idiots with no attention span, who have to have the 'theme' or 'meaning' of the film drummed into them over and over in an obvious manner (yeah...we get it).

If they assumed that most people are not as stupid as they think, then they would not have to make crappy films to pander to an audience that perhaps does not exist in the first place and we would all benefit.

[flashfanatic1]

I can understand if it's a film that has passed below the radar which could make people want to go out & find the original but when it comes to films that are already well known & popular i.e Let The Right One In I don't understand the reasoning in it.
Just please God let the rumour about an Old Boy remake not be true.

[STFUDonny]

Originally Posted by flashfanatic1

I can understand if it's a film that has passed below the radar which could make people want to go out & find the original but when it comes to films that are already well known & popular i.e Let The Right One In I don't understand the reasoning in it.
Just please God let the rumour about an Old Boy remake not be true.

I second that entirely. I heard at one point that Old Boy was being remade by Steven Spielberg and starring Will Smith. WTF???