Are Hollywood remakes of foreign classics ever a good idea?

remakes are pointless and also a waste of money, due to the current economic climate.

i remember when some family friends of mine were banging on about the remake of ring, they were only 12yrs old and the parents watched it with them.
Yet none of them realized it was a remake of a film made a few yrs earlier.
I was squirming in my seat, i couldn't bring myself to tell them because i was afraid i'd break their hearts, or they'd scorn me.
God forgive me.

i cant wait for the remake of sympathy for mr. vengeance, not.
it will probably star miley cyrus and zak efron.....great.

NO,
how would hollywood feel if one of their classic originals was remade in asia, with a white character being portrayed by an asian? and then having that remake rammed down the americans throats in the cinemas.
there is no point to remake any movie. Maybe hollywood wants everyone in america to think asians are blond haired and blue eyed.

honestly. just leave them alone. you don't need the money you think you'll make off of a remake. so don't do it.

Bad bad bad. Anyone have any news on the Oldboy remake with Steven Spielberg and Will Smith? Lots of hate for that. How about the Suspiria remake? Intense hate.

i agree this should be left the way it is.

Well Hollywood remade the Japanese film Infernal Affairs into The Departed so remakes are sometimes pretty good.

American Filmmakers should atleast have a little respect for foreign films. Give it ten or twenty years so they can put a fresh spin on an already good idea. It seems idiotic to just make cookie cutter copies of really briliant cinema

i think what we see too much is us remaking Asian horror films,

The Ring(s)
The Grudge(s)
Dark Water
The Eye
The Uninvited
Shutter

some can be good, and i like all of them except dark water and shutter. they're not great by any standards, but i just like them. and i have seen a couple of the originals. the original grudge 2 is more creative than what was remade. it was a bunch of vignettes all tied to the stroy of the grudge. i love those kinds of movies!

but shutter i refuse to watch because I saw the original one from Thailand, and it is great!

when they suck, all they reflect is unoriginality, other times they are decent takes on the other countries' successful films.
it should be retired though, unless one of our film-makers actually does everything exact and simply translate it to english. all that does is take the story that is good, and let's us understand it. that wouldn't be so bad :)

I actually liked Funny games, but I think i was kinda pointless, i mean they did the EXACT same movie, except for the language.
I guess the person that said we dont have to watch the remakes is right, but I feel its insulting anyhow, for everyone. First of all the say american people is not ready for something from another culture and second they are saying "ok, good job on that one but we feel we can do better, just gives us the right over your originality".

As long as they get it right and show proper appreciation for the original. But we know that doesn't always happen in Hollywood.

In 2007 the Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs, was incorrectly called "a Japanese film" during the 79th Academy Awards, at which The Departed, it's remake, won four Oscars.

Remakes are what you do to bad films to make them better. "Let the Right One In" shouldn't have even been touched. It's such a shame that perfectly good films have to be remade for those who are too lazy to read subtitles.

Can no one read anymore? The foreign original films are always better. More depth, better acting,& richer scenery. Very disappointing to see this be done again and to such a great film. It make me think some of these American writers have no imagination since there just stealing other peoples original work and not writing there own.

What about Bollywood remakes, I heard recently that there's going to be a remake of 'The Italian Job' for the Bollywood audience (shocking, especially since there was a remake back in 2003):
http://www.india.com/movies/movies/katrina-kaif-and-priyanka-chopra-italian-job-...

Vanilla Sky was.

Hollywood remakes are TERRIBLE look at The Ring, The Eye, Funny Games, Casablanca, The Women, Oldboy is soon to be remade and I all ready know that's going to suck. STOP messing things up HOLLYWOOD!!!

LMGTFY
Various websites seem to agree on these candidates:

1. silence of the lambs. Much better than manhunter.
2. Titanic. There were at least two others.
3. Alien. vs. "It! The terror from beyond space!" The title pretty much covers it.
4. The Maltese Falcon. Yep it's a remake
5. Evil Dead II. It's really a remake of evil dead one even though it's called a sequel.

Wow, I can’t wait to see how badly they butcher “Let The Right One In”. It was such a legitimately creepy movie, and the Americanized version will probably rely too heavily on gore, something the original didn’t need much of at all.

Wim Wender's "WIngs of Desire" was remade as "City of Angels", with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan. Nuff said...

you should only be allowed to remake movies that suck... i think hollywood should take care of its own before looking into other countries lol...

I have one thing to say.

You Can't Beat The Original. 98% of the time.

Remakes are not good or bad in and of themselves. I can't stand people who get all pissy about these kinds of things. NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO WATCH IT.

I loved the book Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I hated the movie. But I don't mind that it was made; I'd readily welcome more such attempts. They're interesting, if nothing else.

People who say "_____ should be left alone" have no sense of curiosity and are far too touchy and cynical.

AHHH, terrible idea...it was sooo good

That book is creepier than the film. The film had a sweetness to it too much so for it to ever truly be made into an American film. Besides we don't do vampires well anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if the main character glitters for cripes sakes.

I recently watched Quarantine, the American remake of the Spanish film Rec and I thought it was a fair remake. Then again Quarantine worked because the story and the style of the film (it's one of those shaky cam movies like Cloverfield) meant it was inherently easy to remake without trashing the original.

The same cannot be said for "Let the right one in." I have little faith that someone is going to be able to recreate that movie. The cast, music, setting, directing and acting were flawless.

This is why our culture is turning into watery porridge. Cultures grow and evolve and expand and improve by interacting with other cultures and learning from them; shutting out the rest of the world is a good way to stagnate and die.
Stuff like this is so patronizing I could puke - do they really think that low of the American people? Sometimes I think Hollywood should be firebombed.

This is one of my favorite movie. I just hate to see a good thing gone bad. It seems to be the trend that Hollywood likes to take great films and twist them into terrible money makers.

Its harmless enough,....though frequently the American versions are more,......mmmm,....light weight. But hey,.....the things are for a primarily American audience that is never going to track down the original material in any case.

AND JUST LOOK AT ALL THOSE ALL AMERICAN EXPLOSIONS N SPECIAL EFFECTS N SUCH!

its true they do need to let this one be. the whole movie was good, no need to "update" it

hhhmmm they need to leave this one alone.