to be fair the remake is helmed by Fincher and the original movie, even though its good, has a fair bit that can be improved upon.

The last two movies are a different story, IMHO they are pretty bad :)

On another note, saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Blockbuster makers, please take note. This should serve as a basic template to get them right. 

in general, I support your rant against the lack of interest in subtitled movies. 

godfather 2 was confusing and boring that we switched to some awful reality show after an hour. 

Couldn't agree more. This was one of the very few good major movies I have seen recently. It proves that you can make a blockbuster that does not repeat the same clich�s and plot devices over again and that has deep, intereting characters and dilemmas.

Also, you can't praise Andy Serkis enough. And the people who did the creature effects in this movie. Plus it has some nice references to the original Planet of the Apes without rubbing them bluntly in your face. Recommended!

Ps the icon is a gorilla! 

I love how this movie mirrors the original movie, that's also why the references are so nicely done. 

I HATE all these douchebags who wont watch a film just because it has subtitles.

i chose not to watch the original TGWTDT. not because of the subtitles, but because i knew Fincher was behind the remake & would in all probability put out a superior movie, regardless of language

on the other hand (staying with US remakes of swedish films) i avoided 'let me in' when it came out because the original had gotten better reviews. i then saw the original and enjoyed it

i guess you could argue the remake wouldn't exist if it weren't for those so-called douchebags but writing it off as bullshit for that reason alone seems about as silly as writing off anything with subtitles ;) 

Then tell me that re-making them isn't an insult.

<sarcasm> Films are always better when people who would be speaking Swedish are speaking English. </sarcasm>

Anyway, if Cowboys and Aliens was anything to go by with regards to that dick who plays the journalist, the remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be garbage. 

 

 

Since we on the topic of "foreign" movies, what kind of german movies do you guys know (and like)? Some random recommendations:


23
Bang Boom Bang
Das Boot (obviously. the uncut one!)
Im Juli
Lammbock
Lola rennt
Schtonk!
Sonnenallee
Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht 

das boot
run lola run
goodbye lenin
the lives of others
downfall

...actually that's all i can think of. But they were all good, so I guess Germans only make good movies. 

Oooh, I forgot

Erbsen auf halb 6 

two words: uwe boll ;) 

Only saw the United States approved Fincher version, and I thought it was rather good actually. Never saw the original. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are both splendid. Slightly drags a bit, but whatever. Got me reading the books.

As for remakes that actually pain me - Vanilla Sky is the textbook pointless remake. In most every way it's way worse, despite being copied scene-for-scene (as far as I remember). 

the problem is that the American movie industry is extremely risk-averse. That's why they put out so many remakes of foreign films, remakes of their own films from 10 years ago, sequels, prequels, and spinoffs. It's retarded, it's ridiculous, and I'll have no sympathy for any anti-piracy efforts of theirs until they actually start producing something good. If they produce something good I buy it. But usually they don't. I'm all for films with subtitles, I even think that what Mel Gibson did with Apocalypto was great, that is using subtitles. It certainly beats the American approach: "well, it's the past, or it's not here, so we'll just give everyone British accents - the British were before us right? and they're not here right?" dumbasses. 

it's not so much hollywood's fault, it's the people that go see the movies. people go see what they know and like, hollywood know that, so they have to stick with existing franchises. there's rarely anything completely new at the top of the box office because people don't know what it is, so they won't pay to see it. hollywood just plays it safe all the time.

i mean we all raved about the dark knight... but batman is probably one of the oldest and most rehashed ip's there is in hollywood. honestly, how many times do I really have to see batman vs joker. 

yeah, my favorite tie in bit to the old movie was the clever inversion of the impact of the "get your paws off me..." line.

Spirit, cannot believe you typed that. Please tell me you were taking the piss.

Ricky, the argument about watching before slagging can be applied to the remake too. Now generally I agree remakes suck, but when the right people are involved, I dont mind. Daniel Craig is a weird choice but we both know these films are about Lisbeth and by all accounts, Rooney Mara is great, despite how good Noomi Rapace was.

Speaking of Noomi, also saw Sherlock Holmes 2. She is totally wasted in her english language debut. As for the movie, some fine character interaction but unfortunately not enough of it because Guy Ritchie cant keep his camera still and also feels the need to break up dialogue as soon as is possible. 

was directed at his Godfather 2 comment btw.

Also good german movies that havent been mentioned: The Counterfeiters and most of Fassbinder's older stuff. 

it's not like I'm not looking forward to TDKR and Prometheus the most out of any movies coming out this year. But 2007 had No Country for Old Men, Assassination of Jesse James, There Will Be Blood, etc, all based on previous stories but still, there are sooo many good books that they could do adaptations of rather than remaking foreign films which I'd usually rather see with subtitles anyway. 

Actually I was considering book to movie adaptions as unoriginal as well. How often does Hollywood come up with a good BRAND new IP... not based on a comic, book, toy, cartoon, foreign movie, or previous movie?

Yup i'm looking forward to TDKR and Prometheus heaps as well!!! I don't mind Hollywood's unoriginality that much anyway. It bothers me more in the gaming market though, but then that's nowhere near as bad as Hollywood. And id made Rage. A new IP, holy shitballs. 

I watched part of the original but turned it off because I couldn't stand it...

Not sure what makes the material into an international bestseller. 

In Time

stupid. felt like a random potpourri of single good scenes with bad filling. incoherent unconvincing setting. some scenes felt like theater.a lot of idiotic bullshit. pompous lines. time keeper guy look and moved silly. old time cars that make sounds like starship. nice music. huge disappointment. 

I forgot to add:

It is silly like Aeon Flux but without anything boner-inducing. Unless you like Justin Timberlake I guess. 

obviously doesn't top the 1982 movie but was actually a lot better than i'd expected following generally unfavourable review scores. stayed pretty faithful to its predecessor and although it felt kinda generic horror in places, that was kind of expected and for the most part forgivable. solid overall (if not exceptional) and probably above average as far as horror/monster movies go 

Fincher is way past his prime, nothing he's done this decade holds up to any of his 90's films. I don't see what's all that impressive about this movie, or the storyline/material that's apparently such a success. SPOILERS the villain was ridiculous, like "I'm a nazi serial killer and I hate women!" It seemed over long and boring to me.

Saw Chronicle recently and thought they did a good job expressing this telekenesis concept and how it could be used... a good description of how human's can't be trusted with superpowers also. Some of the pranks (like the bear) they pull early on are funny, plus the found footage presentation works better than you'd expect, especially near the end with security cameras, bystanders filming, etc.

A Dangerous Method - has to be the tamest Cronenberg movie ever. Pretty good acting, but not much really happens. I guess that's what happens when you make a movie about academics (heh).

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Apparently based on a really long novel, this seemed slow and tedious despite the fact that it apparently compresses a ton of story material. It doesn't really inform the reader what's going on - maybe I'd understand it better if I had paid close attention, but I wasn't really interested in paying close attention to all these ugly old british people mumbling in an almost colourless grainy cinematography style. John Hurt was awesome as always though, in the few scenes he did have: "It'll take us five hours to get drunk on this monkey's piss" and Oldman's monologue about Karla was good.