MovieChat Forums > Annie (2014) Discussion > Other remakes hated by fan of original (...

Other remakes hated by fan of original (but liked by newbies)

posted 9 years ago by rdhaun
11 replies | jump to latest

It's pretty clear in reading the boards here that many of the folks who hated this version were busy comparing it to the original. No, she didn't have orange hair and it wasn't faithful to the original. No, it's wasn't so much a musical as a movie with some songs. Yes, it was helpful to redo it with a black Annie. (No, I wasn't crazy about Cameron Diaz.) We liked it a lot -- and my 32-year-old daughter laughed the whole way through. But we hadn't seen the original. And given what we know about the original, we're guessing the earlier versions are not our cup of tea (sorry!).

So is this a common problem of hating remakes? What other remakes got a horrible backlash from lovers of the original. These remakes come to mind:
Godzilla (the Matthew Broderick version -- yes, I know he can't act),
Father of the Bride (Steve Martin et al),
The Preacher's Wife (Whitney Houston),
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (give me ANY of the remakes over the original),
Freaky Friday,
The Parent Trap.
In all those cases, I appreciated the remakes over the original (OK, I didn't see the original Freaky Friday) and many people hated the new ones.

(Conversely, I like many Asian movies and cringe when they are remade in the West!)

To what degree does people's hatred of the remake depend on having seen the original (or read the book)? I also find some folks love old movies (for a variety of reasons) but I find many of them stilted and seeming like a filmed play, so our preference for old vs. modern plays a part. And, yes, I've seen some bad remakes (actually, I've usually avoided them).

No haters please. Just tell me why you usually prefer originals or prefer remakes -- or why you think others do.

[–] TxMike 9 years ago

I'm much like you, I like many remakes better than the original, mostly because the acting, sound and cinematography are better thus making the movie-watching experience more fun.

A glaring exception for me is Psycho (1998) which is essentially an exact re-make of Hitchcock's Psycho. It brought nothing new and had an inferior cast. I mean Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, it doesn't get much worse than that.

To your general question I'd say there are just a lot of narrow-minded people who ojbect to remakes on principle and will always find fault with a remake. Then there are the die-hard fans of an original and always complain about things that differ from the original. To those I would just say "By all means keep watching the original and avoid any remakes."

With this movie, "Annie", it is a great mixed bag. It has brought out the opinions of all the usual, plus a lot of hate generated by racism. The narrow-minded cannot acknowledge a character being played by any actor or any costuming that differs from what they think the character should be. The more pure racists object to any girl not of Caucasian ancestry playing Annie.

In a sense it is a study in humanity, it sort of represents a slice of real life, all those types are among us every day, we just don't usually have a way to sort them out. Comments on boards like this one allows us to do so.

..*.. TxMike ..*..
Take a risk, Take a chance, Make a change. Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway

[–] rdhaun 9 years ago

Come to thing of it, I admit I get a little huffy when we Americans remake East Asian movies like The Eye, Ringu (The Ring), Dark Water, Shall We Dance, The Lake House, A Tale of Two Sisters (The Uninvited), or My Sassy Girl (ditto with certain European movies). I feel protective of the source material, feeling like "There they go again, stealing a great movie and look what they've done to it". So I guess I should be able to relate to those in a huff about a remake of Annie.

Of those Asian movies listed, most were straight remakes in a setting in the US, so they brought the movie to an audience that wouldn't think to watch a foreign film, just like this Annie is an adaptation for the sake of many (including me) who wouldn't have an interest in watching the style of movie the original was.

But this begs the question: if Annie needs to be white with red hair, does this mean remakes of Asian movies should only allow Koreans/Japanese/Chinese/Thais to play the lead in the remake? :)

[–] TxMike 9 years ago

Well the whole thing goes off the rails when any of us fail to focus on the prime mover here. Hint ... it is NOT the individual audience members, and only related in a general sense.

The giant movie industry isn't that different from the giant auto industry or the giant telecommunications industry. Once you get a great number of suppliers, workers, and stockholders into a giant system there is a very strong driving force to keep it in motion. How do you do that? You keep everyone in the system gainfully employed to keep churning out new product and you convince the buyers that they need the latest and greatest.

So back to the movie industry. They are the drivers, not the audience. They have writers, directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, composers, sound engineers, editors, etc. These are not people who have some day job outside the industry and are occasionally called in to work on a movie.

Making movies is their job!

So they will make movies. Most may be with original ideas and original scripts, but those have a limit. "Remakes" have no theoretical limit, they give new actors and directors work, they provide something familiar to prospective audience members, so if you remake one with a popular cast then people will come see it. People who go see movies, or rent DVDs, for the most part are not amateur critics. They don't spend so much time analyzing a movie, they watch it and come out either thinking "that was fun" or "that was a waste of my time and money."

We the fans don't drive the movie industry to any greater degree than consumers drive the auto industry. In each case those producing the products know what their customers want and try to deliver that while still making a big enough profit to keep workers and shareholders happy.

Not a big mystery. And those who loudly complain "too many remakes" are essentially voices in the forest.

..*.. TxMike ..*..
Take a risk, Take a chance, Make a change. Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway

[–] Cyclo Rider 9 years ago

But this begs the question: if Annie needs to be white with red hair, does this mean remakes of Asian movies should only allow Koreans/Japanese/Chinese/Thais to play the lead in the remake? :)

Yes, especially if the remake is made in the source country of the original.

[–] Thornspike 9 years ago

Your post reminds me of the extremely diverse assembly of the Pride and Prejudice movies.

[–] rdhaun 9 years ago

Sorry, I hadn't seen any of the Pride and Prejudice movies (which surprises me, now that I think about it). Checking the comments for those movies, the only P&P movie I saw with much rage in the comment section was the 2003 "Utah version". Even so, I can't say it quite matched the fury and indignation shown here (Annie 2014). But it's helpful to know others have some experience with reading utter outrage regarding other films.

[–] Sage_Beckett 9 years ago

Lolll

"I'm 'MURRICAN, youse guys! History isn't my cup of tea!"

How mundane it would be, for you and your children, to learn about those pesky little things called facts, and social/political/economic conflict. *eye roll*

[–] discostu2214 9 years ago

The Parwnt Trap remake was very solid . I personally really like the Freaky Friday remake from the 1990s that always seems to be forgotten

[–] AmyJolamb 9 years ago

Most people prefer the original. Remakes are just that remakes. Things are changed and people don't like change.

As for people on the boards here I strongly suggest you don't take them seriously. When I first started using IMDB this Annie board was out of control. If you scrolled back before the movie was even released people were not just hating on the movie but also the little actress who played Annie. It's one thing to simply dislike a movie and it's another thing to make personal attacks on children. All a person had to do was say they like the movie and their family and life would be personally attacked and even threatened. The main attacker appears to have had their account deleted.

My point is some users here are clearly obsessed with hating on the movie. Sure it's a discussion board where you discuss the movie but these users go beyond that and attack people personally. I don't take people like that seriously.

[–] AmyJolamb 9 years ago

As for your question it depends on the movie.

I like the remake of Miracle On 34th Street. I saw the original first but just liked the remake better.

Take the movie The Shining - I love both the original and remake. The original has a very creepy tone. But the remake was written by the writer of the book Stephen King. He made it longer to include the full story he wrote.

I didn't like the remake of Nightmare On Elm Street. I hated the new Freddy.

Remakes are like books to movies where you have to accept it won't be the same. Once you get past that watch it with new eyes and give it a chance.

Take the Ghostbusters remake. I am not fond of that idea at all. I doubt I'll even watch it. That's my choice but you find me hating on those who love it or wasting my time talking about it. Lol

[–] nammage 9 years ago

I'm a technical rater first. It stems from critiquing poetry for 15 years. I can't help it. Rarely do I rate from an emotional standpoint first. There have been instances, such as the second Secret of NIMH film, which I gave a 1/10. If one has seen the first film, and then watched that film, they most likely would have given the same rating based on emotion. Did the same with the prequel of Marley & Me where the first film was about a dog and a family, the prequel had the dog talking English.

In my view: no film is actually a 1/10 and no film is a 10/10 and out of my 15,598 ratings, in the scale of things: they are few and far between. 9,000+ of those ratings are of films, 131 of those 9,000+ I've given 10/10. 16 of those I've given 1/10.

My point is: whether one rates technically as I do, or emotionally as most do, it doesn't matter singularly, only wholly. So, whether it's a remake or not, is irrelevant because the "rating" doesn't matter just one's perception of the film separate from everything else.

Oh, and the 1982 version is a rendition of a comic and radio show. If you want to go further back than that, there was a poem in 1885 called "Little Orphant Annie" written by James Whitcomb Riley that could be the inspiration of the comic strip. Could be. May not be. Very different stories but inspiration comes from many places.

Only thing original anymore is the abstract.

-Nam

I am on the road less traveled...