Somewhat oddly, I've never seen this one but HAVE seen the 2004 remake. Great cast in that one: Denzel Washington, Liev Schrieber, Jeffrey Wright, & Meryl Streep. But I remember thinking it was "just okay" and that seemed to be the general critical consensus as well. Not as good as this Sinatra/Lansbury/Leigh original.
I didn’t see that, because I liked the original enough to know it couldn't be improved by a remake. Without the Cold War/McCarthy paranoia, this story isn’t as good. Or the twists as funny.
And that movie was by a director I liked! Jonathan Demme, who did Something Wild (and tomorrow's Movie Night selection). Just like the pointless Psycho remake was done by Gus Van Sant, another good director (Milk, Good Will Hunting, etc.)
I think these guys were thinking "if this is a hit, it gets me bigger budgets for my indie films. If not, I paid tribute to a movie I love." That makes sense. But you're not going to improve on the originals. (Charlie and the Chocolate factory was no perfect movie, but Wilder WAS perfect in it... so why redo it with Johnny Depp?)
Well, thanks for reading, in any case! People got scared off by the length of the post or something. Don't they know how to skim?
Somewhat oddly, I've never seen this one but HAVE seen the 2004 remake. Great cast in that one: Denzel Washington, Liev Schrieber, Jeffrey Wright, & Meryl Streep. But I remember thinking it was "just okay" and that seemed to be the general critical consensus as well. Not as good as this Sinatra/Lansbury/Leigh original.
I didn’t see that, because I liked the original enough to know it couldn't be improved by a remake. Without the Cold War/McCarthy paranoia, this story isn’t as good. Or the twists as funny.
And that movie was by a director I liked! Jonathan Demme, who did Something Wild (and tomorrow's Movie Night selection). Just like the pointless Psycho remake was done by Gus Van Sant, another good director (Milk, Good Will Hunting, etc.)
I think these guys were thinking "if this is a hit, it gets me bigger budgets for my indie films. If not, I paid tribute to a movie I love." That makes sense. But you're not going to improve on the originals. (Charlie and the Chocolate factory was no perfect movie, but Wilder WAS perfect in it... so why redo it with Johnny Depp?)
Well, thanks for reading, in any case! People got scared off by the length of the post or something. Don't they know how to skim?