A lot of new movies have that not-so-fresh feeling.
“Mr. Deeds” is but the latest in a batch of remakes, including “Insomnia” (a remake of the Norwegian “Insomnia”) and “Unfaithful” (the French “La Femme Infidel”), and the trend is growing.
With studios realizing that their back catalogs provide cheap, pre-tested material, Hollywood has more remakes than Enron has red ink. In the coming months, expect to see a revamped “Charade,” in which Mark Wahlberg steps into the very large, very charming shoes of Cary Grant (to avoid comparisons, they’re calling the new one “The Truth About Charlie”), Madonna in a remake of the Italian “Swept Away” and a new version of “Manhunter,” the crime drama that introduced Hannibal Lecter to audiences (in the original, Lecter was played by Brian Cox; in the new one, “Red Dragon,” he’s Anthony Hopkins, de-aged with special effects since the film takes place before “Silence of the Lambs”).
Those movies have already been shot, but you can’t swing a dead studio executive without hitting a remake in pre-production. Nicolas Cage has been mentioned for a “Willie Wonka” remake, Will Smith and Whitney Houston have talked about rebirthing “A Star Is Born” for years, and even such impossible-to-top classics as “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Strangers on a Train” are earmarked for makeovers.
That’s not even counting American remakes of foreign titles. Dozens of French comedies have been remade, producing such English-language hits as “Three Men and a Baby,” and the next hot countries are Japan and Korea, where grisly thrillers (such as the upcoming “The Ring” with Naomi Watts) and gangster movies have been snapped up for Americanization.
It also makes sense to take another shot at old movies whose concepts are fresh but whose look is old-fashioned. That’s what happened with the 1955 “Diabolique,” which was at a double-commercial disadvantage since it’s both French and in black and white. The 1996 remake, which starred Sharon Stone, retained some of the switcheroo thrill of the original but not enough. Same with Steve Martin/Goldie Hawn’s “The Out-of-Towners,” which seemed behind the times in comparison with the Jack Lemmon/Sandy Dennis original.
Remakes are tricky. There’s no point in remaking a bad movie, but if the original was good, the remake suffers in comparison (which was the fate of the Harrison Ford vehicle “Sabrina”). The magic formula for movie success is so difficult to pin down that even hiring a director to remake his own movie can produce a botch (as happened when Ole Boredahl remade his brilliant Danish thriller, “Nightwatch”).
Why bother, then? Because the rewards can be high for a movie with a familiar title and a built-in audience.
Like a sequel or a movie based on a beloved TV show, a remake benefits from audience awareness that no amount of advertising dollars can buy. As a result, even a so-so movie like last year’s “Planet of the Apes” can become a hit, because fans are eager to pay to see if it turned out OK.
To remake …
“Mr. Deeds”: The Adam Sandler comedy is a nice surprise, mainly because his hyper, goofball persona is so completely opposite the laid-back decency of Gary Cooper in the original, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.” The writers started from the ground up, smartly tailoring the basic idea to Sandler’s 21st Century talents.
“Insomnia”: A sturdy concept (crooked cop, haunted by sleeplessness, gets too close to a murderer) is rejiggered, shifting its themes and characters to new ones more appropriate to the setting and era.
“The Man Who Knew Too Much”: A corollary to Rule No. 1 of sequels: It’s OK to remake an Alfred Hitchcock movie if you are Alfred Hitchcock. His re-do of one of his early films is more suspenseful and full of star power (courtesy of Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day) than the original.
“A Star Is Born”: One of the sturdiest of Hollywood concepts (it’s been officially made three times), this one worked best the second time out, when it was the perfect vehicle for Judy Garland’s tremulous vulnerability. And a great excuse for her to sing “The Man That Got Away.”
“The Nutty Professor”: Jerry Lewis’ split personality becomes the best-ever showcase for the versatility of Eddie Murphy, who should have won the best-actor Oscar for his six, count ’em, six bravura performances. Murphy’s unruly talent, which has often been awkwardly sandwiched into films, is given free reign in his largely improvised scenes, which embroider Lewis’ original material.
“The Parent Trap”: It seemed dangerous to take another crack at this beloved Hayley Mills film, but the hit-me-baby-one-more-time set wasn’t exactly flocking to that early-’60s family comedy. The sequel found a present-day adolescent who may be even more talented and engaging than Mills.
“The Thing”: A great example of how previously unavailable technology can justify a remake. The first “Thing” was scary, but the remake is both suspenseful and shocking in its graphic depiction of all kinds of dripping, viscera-splattered special-effects mayhem.
“The Thomas Crown Affair”: The first one is fine, but very much of its ’60s time with all the split-screen and laughable “cool.” The story is simple enoughsuave spy romances bright investigatorto work in any decade, as long as the stars have the chemistry of Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, or Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway (or, 10 years down the line, Josh Hartnett and Kirsten Dunst?).
“Ocean’s Eleven”: Maybe the best bet for a remake is an original movie that has an interesting idea, badly executed. That’s what happened here, but a glittering cast of good sports made the second time a charm.
or not to remake
“Sabrina”: The worst remake idea of all time, because it makes no sense to redo a movie that depended entirely on the charms of one person (in this case, Audrey Hepburn). Without her, the flaws of the story are revealed (this could spell doom for the “Charade” remake, which will be missing both Hepburn and Cary Grant).
“Rollerball”: It’s hard to figure why this plotless mayhem was made once, much less twice.
“Psycho”: Remake Rule No. 1 should be, “Don’t remake Alfred Hitchcock.” His brilliance cannot be duplicated (have you seen the Cybill Shepherd version of “The Lady Vanishes,” also known as “The Audience Vanishes”?), even if you attempt, as Gus Van Sant did here, to reproduce every single shot. The result? Lifeless, pointless, aimless.
“Nightwatch”: One of the best reasons to remake is because the original was a good movie that few people saw. In many cases, that’s because the original was a foreign film that appealed to a limited audience of subtitle-readers. “Nightwatch” gave it a good shot, with a cast that included Ewan McGregor and Nick Nolte and the same director who wrote and helmed the original. But the American version proved nothing other than it’s hard to catch lightning in a bottle and even harder to catch it twice.
“The Vanishing”: If you remake a foreign movie, it makes no sense to screw around with it. In this case, a brilliant Dutch shocker (honestly, rent it) becomes a dud when they alter the original’s thunderclap of an ending.
“Vanilla Sky”: Another foreign remake that doesn’t work, mostly because director/writer Cameron Crowe was so determined to put his own stamp on material that is not his own that he ended up with an extremely expensive, brilliantly acted home movie.
“Love Affair”: seems like a good candidate for recycling. It’s based on a well-liked but not classic original (“An Affair to Remember”) with a pretty good story that can spring to life with a starry cast. This one had the stars, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening and Katharine Hepburn, but producer Beatty was so busy making sure he and his wife, Bening, looked pretty that he forgot to order a script.
“Miracle on 34th Street”: Tear-jerkers are hard enough to get right without the burden of trying to measure up to an original tear-jerker that still shows up on TV every Christmas. Attempts to update the story with a feminist twist simply made a one-of-a-kind classic seem crude and stale.
