English remakes of foreign films...

[MC Moot]

Has an English version of a foreign film ever surpassed the original?....the only one I can think of is The Departed from Infernal Affairs (Hong Kong)….?

Wings of Desire (German) begat City of Angels (Nicholas Cage)

Insomnia (French) begat Insomnia (Al Pacino)

Obres los Ojos (Spanish) begat Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise)

Spoorlos (Dutch) begat The Vanishing (Jeff Bridges)

La Femme Nikita (French) begat Point of no Return (Bridget Fonda)

[Helvete]

Infernal Affairs is from Hong Kong (China) you pig!

[MC Moot]

^ rechtsextreme....

[Otis Driftwood]

Nachtwache (Danish) begat Nightwatch, but anyhow, begat is a cool word. Misbegotten spawn of Yog-Sottoth!

[MC Moot]

oh and Twelve Monkeys derived from La Jetée (French) is a good one.....

[MC Moot]

Originally Posted by Otis Driftwood

Nachtwache (Danish) begat Nightwatch, but anyhow, begat is a cool word.

Have yet to see either but I see Ewan McGregor and Nick Nolte are in the remake,any good?

[Otis Driftwood]

I thought the original version was an, ahem, original, suspenseful good movie, but I haven't seen the remake at all... Didn't really feel the need to...

[MC Moot]

^ No,the Hong Kong chop suey sequels were terrible....

[abcdefz]

Originally Posted by MC Moot

Obres los Ojos (Spanish) begat Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise)

I just watched Open Your Eyes again a couple of nights ago. Vanilla Sky's sound design is nothing short of awesome, but MAN that movie is BAAAAAAAAD. The only things it does better is the car accident and when it places the expository dialogue in the glass elevator going endlessly up, up, up, up. But the dude in open Your Eyes actually has charisma and charm, and Tom Cruise's character is privileged and arrogant in a way-not-charming way. It really spoils the whole movie, because his fall is more like fated revenge than a tragic comeuppance.

Yeah, but anyway. My two cents.

An English-language version of a foreign film which is better. Hmmm.

I've never sat all the way through Seven Samurai or Magnificent Seven. Is that even close?

This is a challenge.

[MC Moot]

Originally Posted by abcdefz

I've never sat all the way through Seven Samurai or Magnificent Seven. Is that even close?

This is a challenge.

No,good god no "Seven Samurai" is so great...."Fistful of Dollars" was also a remake of "Yojimbo" (Incredible)......samurai westerns!....that was a neat thing,Eastwood had done the spaghetti westerns and the hollywood crowd was all into going to art theatres and digging on Kurosawa and Fellini....."Rashomon"(Astonishing) was remade as something as well....can't recall......

[abcdefz]

Ah!

I don't know if it qualifies as a remake exactly -- they're just two movies made from the same book, but the French was first -- but I'd take The Talented Mr. Ripley over Purple Noon any day of the week.

[icy manipulator]

Originally Posted by Otis Driftwood

Nachtwache (Danish) begat Nightwatch, but anyhow, begat is a cool word. Misbegotten spawn of Yog-Sottoth!

isn't Night Watch a russian film?

[abcdefz]

Originally Posted by MC Moot

No,good god no "Seven Samurai" is so great...."Fistful of Dollars" was also a remake of "Yojimbo" (Incredible)......samurai westerns!....that was a neat thing,Eastwood had done the spaghetti westerns and the hollywood crowd was all into going to art theatres and digging on Kurosawa and Fellini....."Rashomon"(Astonishing) was remade as something as well....can't recall......

Yeah -- Rashomon did get remade, I think. I can't remember, either.

I used to like a bunch of Kurosawa's movies, but they don't hold up well for me. I should take another look, maybe. But the last time I saw Rashomon the acting was so mannered I had a really hard time with it.

Still love the snowy mountain pass sequence in Dreams, though.

[MC Moot]

Originally Posted by abcdefz

Yeah -- Rashomon did get remade, I think. I can't remember, either.

I used to like a bunch of Kurosawa's movies, but they don't hold up well for me. I should take another look, maybe. But the last time I saw Rashomon the acting was so mannered I had a really hard time with it.

Still love the snowy mountain pass sequence in Dreams, though.

Yeah,I'm a Kurosawa freak,man.....The acting in Rashomon seems so stiff because it is,Akira took it from a age old very famous (in Japaan) kibuke play and that's how classically trained theatre players annunciate their dialogue,very harsh,sharp no subtlety involved......if I can suggest you give Yojimbo andother try it's full on.......Dreams!!!!....yes,godbless Francis Ford and Lucas for bankrolling that one!....how bout the dead blue soldiers marching out of the tunnel,following their Col home,still trying to serve......

[abcdefz]

That was good stuff.


Did you ever get to see Rhapsody in August? There's a playground image in there that's unforgettable.

[MC Moot]

Originally Posted by abcdefz

That was good stuff.


Did you ever get to see Rhapsody in August? There's a playground image in there that's unforgettable.

I know exactly of what you speak,great eye!...Rhapsody is like Ikiru he had a streak for melancholy as much as he had his vision of the samurai and feudal japan....or interpretations of Shakespeare or his shots at the pulp detective,tuff guy,film noir.....I didn't realize till I caught the PBS "Akira Kurosawa:It Is Wonderful to Create" that he did "Runaway Train" with Voight or that he directed all the Japanese sequences in "Tora,Tora,Tora!" but didn't get credit and was thrown off the picture for casting entirely from his friends, not actors.....

[abcdefz]

Yeah, see -- now, I like Ikiru quite a bit. That's probably my favorite of his movies I've seen (there's a ton I haven't).




...I'm trying to think of other American (or English) remakes of foreign films...


I know the remake of Diabolique was wretched, or at least as much as I saw; my buddy and I left.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills was okay. Renoir's Boudou was marginally better, but I don't think it's the masterpiece a lot of folks do.

Never saw the remake of Breathless.

I think the two versions of The Ring are kind of a toss up; each works better in its own way, neither works 100%. They're both fine.

Never saw Infernal Affairs, so I dunno.

[MC Moot]

Originally Posted by abcdefz

I think the two versions of The Ring are kind of a toss up; each works better in its own way, neither works 100%. They're both fine...

Ringu seems to have spawned a whole new genre of japanese/asian horror stuff....I don't do the scary so much myself unless theres zombies involved....

[abcdefz]

Originally Posted by MC Moot

I don't do the scary so much myself unless theres zombies involved....

Keanu Reeves movies?

[abcdefz]

I think it was Assassin in other places and Point of No Return here.

[MC Moot]

^right and right....check the cover.....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107843/

[abcdefz]

Would we call Reservoir Dogs a remake of City on Fire?

I've never seen City on Fire, but supposedly, RD is quite the rip-off.

[abcdefz]

Originally Posted by Ms Crafty

the title "point of no return" sounds crap, but it does sound slightly better then "assassin"

I think they just didn't know what to do with it. Or Bridgett Fonda, frankly.

[abcdefz]

Bicycle Thieves was much better than Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

[MC Moot]

^ They were both tawdry rip offs of "Ladri di Biciclette".....

[Otis Driftwood]

Originally Posted by icy manipulator

isn't Night Watch a russian film?

Yeah, notice the difference in the spelling, though?

[abcdefz]

Originally Posted by MC Moot

^ They were both tawdry rip offs of "Ladri di Biciclette".....

Never seen it.

[MC Moot]

Originally Posted by abcdefz

Never seen it.

I AM SHOCKED.....this from the guy who turned me on to 8 1/2.....

[abcdefz]

I did?

I think I stuck up for it at one point, but I don't think it's the Second Coming or anything.

Fucking Fellini, man. What shitty dubbing those Italian directors settled for.

[MC Moot]

huh,maybe it wasn't you...it's just that ya strike me as about the only cat around here who would recommend a Fellini flick.....