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[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Oh, sure, disagree with me. See if I snark with you again, pal!

This too shall pass.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Spielberg is currently doing a remake of West Side Story. Will it be any good? Who knows? Spielberg is a talented man.

There’s some obvious opportunity off the top to cast actors who can do their own singing and fit the ethnicity of the characters and also to do a grittier take on it, as the original WSS film was sanitized to meet the moral code still operating in Hollywood.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by issybird

There’s some obvious opportunity off the top to cast actors who can do their own singing and fit the ethnicity of the characters and also to do a grittier take on it, as the original WSS film was sanitized to meet the moral code still operating in Hollywood.

Hmmm... from what I've seen, the Sharks will be Latinx (Puerto Rican by preference) while the Jets will be no longer be white but have mixed ethnicity à la Van Hove's 2020 Broadway remake.

As one reviewer commented considering how often WSS has been performed in high schools, community theatre, etc., if you haven't seen WSS, it's because you were in it.

Personally, I think they should have reverted to the original East Side Story version with Jews and Catholics battling it out in the streets.

[Deskisamess]

It's been years since I last saw WSS, but I always thought Natalie Wood was dreadful in that role. She was beautiful, but I never thought she was a good actress.

Speaking of remakes...I'd like to see The Good Earth remade as a mini series, with actual Asian actors, and the characters made to follow the book. Especially the uncle, who was laughable in the 1937 version.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I think that believing that RoboCop could be remade wasn't a stupid idea either.

I think improving on the first RoboCop would be a tall order, e.g.

The cop Taurii scraping bottom entering and leaving driveways

The Kafkaesqe scene where the ED-209 kills the junior executive for not dropping the pistol that in fact had been dropped

The following restroom scene where the OCP Vice President complained that the customer was being unreasonably picky about a prototype having a little malfunction.

The background newscast stating that a former US President had been killed by a malfunctioning defense satellite.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I think improving on the first RoboCop would be a tall order, e.g.

The cop Taurii scraping bottom entering and leaving driveways

The Kafkaesqe scene where the ED-209 kills the junior executive for not dropping the pistol that in fact had been dropped

The following restroom scene where the OCP Vice President complained that the customer was being unreasonably picky about a prototype having a little malfunction.

The background newscast stating that a former US President had been killed by a malfunctioning defense satellite.

Oh, yes, I agree absolutely that as it was, for what it was intended to be, Robocop was great--as high camp. As it happens, I just watched Robocop (87), within...hmmm...the last two weeks. I think it was one of our mid-afternoon matinees, at the house, on a rare day off and I was reminded of Verhoeven's wicked, wicked sense of humor, along with Edward Neumeir (also the pen behind Starship Troopers, which is hilarious) and Mike Miner, who apparently dined out on Robocop, and still does. (Hey, if it pays....)

It has classic lines, scenes and throwaways: the various advertisements and the newscasts; "I'd buy that for a dollar," or "Can you fly, Bobby?" Boddicker. "Dead or Alive, you're coming with me." (LOL).

It has a lot of setup and payoff. Even down to the OCP exec being killed, both in the beginning and the end. Symmetry.

What I was thinking about, mostly, though, was that if someone wanted to do Robocop as a serious movie, darker/grittier, it could have worked. I mean, no reason it couldn't have, but the remake that was made, even though I really like that Swedish actor, didn't work at all. Not sure why. I've only seen it once and I can't bring up anything about it in my noggin. Whereas, as I said, I do think that the Dredd movie, the new one, worked fairly well.

Maybe somebody here remembers the Robocop remake better than I do. I know that it's virtually (ha) disappeared, can't even find it on streaming anywhere. I'm sure the usual suspects have it for some silly fee, but...I mean, in the usual course of things.

Hitch

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Spielberg is finished. His BFG movie was terrible.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. I really enjoyed The BFG. And the two movies he did before BFG were Lincoln and Bridge of Spies. He followed it up with The Post. Spielberg's doing okay.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

No comments on 300?

I hated 300. Technically impressive again, but...

I can't dump on 300 too much though. A few months before it was released I had read Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire and it's likely not a fair comparison. And I haven't read the Frank Miller series the movie is based on, so I can't say how it worked as an adaptation.

Give me Sin City over 300 though.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Spielberg is finished. His BFG movie was terrible. He will go down in history as one of the greats, but he no longer knows how to put together good scenes like he did in Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler's List.

Oh, c'mon Luffy....are you saying that a director can't have one lousy movie? In what reality? Every director in the universe has at least one crap movie, if not more. Personally, I hated his War of the Worlds remake a LOT more. (I thought if I had to hear that kid scream one. more. time. I'd stand up and shoot the screen--or gouge my own ears out. Anything to make it stop.)

Even Hitchcock had failures. And look, Hollyweird is still giving whats-is-name money--M. Night Shymalan (sp?) and sweet Moses, that guy has had failure after failure.

Hitch

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Oh, c'mon Luffy....are you saying that a director can't have one lousy movie? In what reality? Every director in the universe has at least one crap movie, if not more. Personally, I hated his War of the Worlds remake a LOT more. (I thought if I had to hear that kid scream one. more. time. I'd stand up and shoot the screen--or gouge my own ears out. Anything to make it stop.)

Even Hitchcock had failures. And look, Hollyweird is still giving whats-is-name money--M. Night Shymalan (sp?) and sweet Moses, that guy has had failure after failure.

Hitch

IMHO, his last good to great film was Munich. I watched all of his successive films apart from War Horse. I tried to watch Lincoln but DNFed it. Films that he should have aced, E.g. Tintin, were woefully written and were directed without the exceptional vision that characterised his meteoric rise in the mid 70's. Saying Spielberg is as good as ever is like saying Paul McCartney is as good as his Beatles days. Though all of this is mostly my personal opinion, of course.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I hated 300. Technically impressive again, but...

I can't dump on 300 too much though. A few months before it was released I had read Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire and it's likely not a fair comparison. And I haven't read the Frank Miller series the movie is based on, so I can't say how it worked as an adaptation.

Give me Sin City over 300 though.

Actually, I was expecting Hitch to comment on the male eye candy.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

Actually, I was expecting Hitch to comment on the male eye candy.

Oh, I knew what you were going for. I was just being a pain

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by John F

Actually, I was expecting Hitch to comment on the male eye candy.

Movies like 300 and the HBO series Spartacus make me a lot more sympathetic to complaints about gratuitous T&A. I actually liked both (well, the first season of Spartacus, the second season was terrible), in part because ancient Greek and Roman history is one of my hobbies(not that either are very accurate from a historical basis), but nudity and guys in loin clothes was a bit over the top. I'm sure others enjoy it, though.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

(Although, I see the attraction of KPop for younger folks.)

I'm also sitting here envisioning a remake with a 65-y.o.-plus Crockett and Tubbs, trying to hoist their arthritic, chubby asses out of a hot car...dyin' here...

Hitch

With their nurses and walkers.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Uh, they did remake Miami Vice:


It was done by Michael Mann, who created the original show. I love Michael Mann as a director and both leads are very talented. But I wasn't crazy about the movie and partly I think it's because the episode it was based on (Smuggler's Blues) also isn't one of my favorites.

CHiPs was remade as a movie and it was terrible.

The Fantasy Island movie is also terrible. It was made into a horror movie.

One movie that may be terrible (I've not seen) is the Banana Splits movie. It was made into some sort of slasher movie.