h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

See.. I dunno. I love the original because its so well cast, although Pauls cast totally wrong where as in the new one he works really well.

Plus the freman seem like a nomadic people rather then a well equiped army...

>a token american to keep the paymasters happy... yeh thats forgivable<

In what way is it 'forgiveable' to fabricate history in order to shoehorn an American into the story?

You do realise the sheer logistical nightmare of writing a script that is historically acurate? Especially when its a remake.

For example Zulu - now if Zulu ever were remade, would you make it like the original (thus bringing the film to a new audience) or do you make it historically acurate (annoying the hell out of some poeple going 'why the hell isnt it like the original' and others moan 'that bits not historically acurate in this historically acruate film!')

At the end of the day Producers have a bad job. They do all the donkey work for a film; getting actors, vetting the script, getting locations - everything you dont actually see on screen. Then when its bad, a director can turn round and go 'well I didnt want to make the film like that anyway, its the producers fault'.

Then theres the audience, who are constantly torn between 'we want a remake' and 'dont touch our film'. Take Dune. I love the original, its funky, and I can imagine a lot of people being against the new one, but still it got a new one and it worked.


At the end of the day remakes are good because they give the film - the basic ideas and principles - to a new audience. On top of that, the old film isnt going anywhere. The original Batman is still knocking about on DVD, as is the collectors Dune. At least the remake might encourage a new audience to seek out the original.


The worst part about film making is having an audience...

There is a *huge* difference between 'historical accuracy' and 'lying' in order to pander to a market that almost certainly doesn't exist in any event. Omitting the bloody dog is one thing. Changing the nationalityof those concerned is just stupidity.

And strangely, you pick a reasonably bad example with Zulu, with thanks to Stanley Baker is actually a very accurate portrayal of what happened at Rorke's Drift.

And a bloody good film to boot.

Did Michael Caine actually say "Stop chucking those bl@@dy spears at me"?

No, but Chard might have done.

The original Wickerman is "Shoddy"?????
Good grief..............may I suggest you re-watch it, and even then if it does not grab you then at least the Britt Eckland bit is a small comfort, no?

Remakes - generally, I do not go and see remakes and as such do not really care if movies are re-made. The one recent exception was that I saw the remake of the "Battlestar Galactica" story and have to say that it grabbed me straight away!

Unfortunately it's not actually Britt Eckland in _that_ scene.

>Did Michael Caine actually say "Stop chucking those bl@@dy spears at me"?<

Well, what he is supposed to have said is 'Stop throwing those bloody spears at me', but didn't say it in Zulu. For some reason people allways assume that it's from Zulu, but it ain't. Amazingly, at least half the references I've just found on Google clearly still state it as being part of Zulu. Probably the same people who think James Cagney actually ever said 'You dirty rat'.

>Unfortunately it's not actually Britt Eckland in _that_ scene<

Some of it is. See my piece on the making of the movie in the edited guide for full info.

Going back to the original post, with regards to Peter Jackson remaking the Dambusters, no! No! And thrice NO!

He took a film which to all intents and purposed involved a giant monkey fighting dinosaurs then smashing up New York. A pretty safe bet to be entertaining no?

No. He padded it out to three hours (why is everything three hours nowadays. Why aren't film's an hour and a half?) with what amounted to a Jack Black (man who looks like monkey), Token Wench, Giant Monkey (ape who looks like Jack Black) love triangle which involved sweeping scenes with Token Wench staring into Giant Monkey's eyes. Now maybe they have some great significance and the camera work was touching blah blah blah but at the end of the day he made the blueprint entertaining popcorn movie into a three hour borefest.

If he remade the Dambusters, the question we should be asking isn't "will nationalities be changed", it's "will people be staring lovingly at the dog, the bomb or the plane for 28% of a new revised script featuring the flight from England to Germany in real time?"

Oh, and I still stand by my original reply that the worst remake ever was the recent version of the Italian Job, and it'd take a lot to beat that into second place.

Get Carter with Sly Stallone. And Peter Jackson's King Kong. Both such streaming piles of orduor that they make Mark Wahlberg's Italian Job look like a glistening gem of cinema history.

I apologise about the use of the word 'shoddy' to describe The Wicker Man original. I meant hammy

And i love the original.

I've never seen Sly in Get Carter, but then again, he can't act at all. Still can't imagine it being worse than TIJ though.

Re a re-make of the dambusters and the comment...

"In what way is it 'forgiveable' to fabricate history in order to shoehorn an American into the story?"

They won't have to...


"http://www3.sympatico.ca/jimlynch/bharis32.htm

I can't access it, but I presume that it means there were Americans involved, in which case more power to their elbow.

Twasn't me that suggested that an American would be out of place in the first place mind, so I plead guilty only inasmuch that I perpetuated someone else's wrong idea.

Still think Jackson should be prevented from ever making a film with a budget bigger than $25M anyway. All his best stuff was low budget, much like John Carpenter.

Ahh, that one who's name I can't remember where that guy hacks through all those zombies with a lawnmower... That was fantastic. And it was a proper length, no 20 minute scenes of man longingly staring at lawnmower and zombie staring lovingly at brains.

Was it called Braindead?

Indeed it was, and featuring the immortal line 'I kick ass for the Lord!'

Actually - if you _really_ look at the old dambusters movie - it wasn't exactly a work of art.

The flying scenes were either pinched from operational WWII footage and were underexposed or used some _very_ dodgy miniatures.

There was honestly nothing particularly wonderful about the acting either.

I suspect we tend to look at old movies like that through rose-tinted glasses at times.

Yes, for instance I liked better the remake of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" than the original for some reason. A bit better organised I think, more dramatic tension, dunno: couldn't really pinpoint the thing.