Category: Crime

Scott Beggs and Mental Floss took a look at 10 Remakes That Are Better Than the Originals. Here’s what Beggs had to say about three of my favorites that made his list (and my commentary after)…

3.  THE THING (1982)
Itself a remake of An Affair to Remember (just kidding), John Carpenter’s paranoid horror film captured a Cold War sensibility of neighborly distrust. Its predecessor, The Thing From Another World, stood out even among the mountain of now-cheesy 1950s sci-fi creature features, but Carpenter injected the zeitgeist even deeper into the film’s tissue to create a movie with complexity and a radical flamethrower.

Craig – While I wouldn’t agree that Carpenter’s remake is better – how do you improve on a classic? – I do agree that Carpenter’s update has also achieved a cult classic status.  I remember seeing Carpenter’s version on opening weekend in a nearly empty theater and coming out really liking the film but not loving it.  The Thing (pun intended) of it is, the movie like the creature in the movie grows on you,

4. SCARFACE (1983)
The movie that spawned a million dorm room posters and impressions of Al Pacino is a remake of Howard Hawks’s 1932 film that was neutered by the Hays Code. That version still shows the violent rise of a gangster based on Al Capone, but it had to explicitly condemn everything shown on screen and tack on the subtitle The Shame of a Nation (just in case audiences thought killing people was something to aspire to). It’s absolutely one of the most important genre pictures in the vault, but Brian De Palma’s Miami-set festival of bullets successfully updated it with a slathering of the greasy greed of the 1980s. Like its forebear, De Palma’s movie had its own struggles with the ratings board, earning a debilitating X rating because of its intense violence.

Craig – I agree with DePalma’s Scarface is better than the original, but I would also argue that the original was just as controversial pushing the envelope of violence and sexual innuendo.

9. THE CRAZIES (2010)
Fans chewed their fingernails off when Overture Films announced a remake of George Romero’s 1973 zombies-by-another-name horror flick, but it turned out to be ripe for remake pickings. The government assault on a town suffering from the military’s own biological weapon was effectively moody but had problems that Breck Eisner’s version cleaned up considerably. Justified star Timothy Olyphant is perfect as the beleaguered small-town sheriff, and the film works as a tense survival thriller with a boatload of spine-jolting scares.

Craig – I really liked the remake much more than the original.  And like both John Carpenter’s The Thing and Brian DePalma’s Scarface liked The Crazies remake better with each additional viewing.