It feels like every movie in theaters is either part of an overwhelmingly massive comic book cinematic universe, or a remake of something that shouldn’t have been remade.
A recent r/AskReddit thread, “What’s a movie that should NEVER be remade?” , sparked some interesting conversation — and maybe a few ideas for movie execs.
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*The Big Lebowski*
“I could see a sequel. Something like The Great Lebowski . Something like he gets his rug back, finds out it’s extremely rare and valuable and goes to sell it only to have it stolen, and in order to get it back he has to do some incredibly hazardous task that he is not suited at all to accomplish only to find out that John Goodman stole his stuff.
“Have it lead to some gnarly but humorous 30 minute confrontation between the 2 at the end only to find out the rug isn’t worth s–t.”
*The Sixth Sense*
“I honestly don’t think they could now anyway. That twist ending was such a shock at the time and wouldn’t have the same impact now since movies have copied the formula time and time again since Sixth Sense was released.”
*The Iron Giant*
“I would be so sad if I went to theater excited to see whatever movie I’m there to see and a trailer starts with some kid in the woods then two big bright eyes show up queue some song like ‘We Could Be Heroes’ and then some garbage live action version of the move [ sic ] is teased that looks all as appealing as the new Clifford movie.”
*Schindler’s List*
“There is importance in making art to educate the world of the reality of the atrocities that humanity has committed. But there are some things that only need to be made a small number of times or else the atrocities lose their impact.
“It was superbly done and an exceptionally important work, but there is no reason to imitate it or create it again.”
*Pulp Fiction*
“I could see Pulp Fiction serialized by another director into a miniseries, but never a straight up remake.
“Dennis Villenvue [ sic ] would do a pretty good job at converting the Rock n Roll feeling into a more ponderous journey down into the depth of inhumanity in the crime world of 90’s LA.”
*Jurassic Park*
“My gripe is that the first one used the dinosaurs sparingly enough that every time they were seen it was impactful. The limited tech at the time made them work with what they had to produce the magic, and it made them feel real AF.
“The new ones feel like Starlord’s Dinosaur’s CG Adventure. It’s funny that the modern CG pipeline produces objectively MUCH nicer looking things, but it comes at the cost of losing the grounded feeling of plausibility that the older films had.”
*The Blues Brothers*
“Jake and Elwood ARE John and Dan and their friendship and their soul brother connection. It wouldn’t work with anyone else plus you can’t replace the band itself seeing as they were highly talented and legendary blues musicians that played with the greats like Otis Redding and Muddy Waters.
“Plus the supporting cast of legends like Aretha, Cab, James Brown, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, etc.”
*Casablanca*
“I had to watch it for school and I thought it would be way too outdated that I’d be bored. Could not have been more wrong. It still holds up as an engaging story and the performances make it even better. Please never remake it the way Hollywood does now!”
*Mrs. Doubtfire*
“Supposedly they have so much footage from that because of Robin Williams they could make like 6 different films. Maybe an entirely different story can be cut from the footage….?
“This is the next thing people will get sick of. Remakes so they’ll create things out of the greats’ old footage.”
*Labyrinth*
“Sadly I heard Disney + has it on the books for a new series. Heard it’s more of a sequel of adult Toby finding Jareth. I keep hearing rumors of Tilda Swanston being Jareth.
“Not sure how true that is about her being cast, but it is a production Disney and Henson are looking at bringing back.”
*Groundhog Day*
“The original is iconic, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a professionally-filmed, theatrically-released version of the musical adaptation a la Hamilton. I trust in Tim Minchin to provide some quality entertainment that respects the source material.”
*The Shawshank Redemption*
“When I was younger, I thought I hated drama movies… they were all so long and boring…
“One evening I turned the TV on just after the movie started thinking for a second ‘ehh a drama movie… I’ll watch a bit and go to bed,’ but instead was glued to the screen for the whole runtime of over 2+ hours.
“It switched something in me that I didn’t think I liked before it.”
*Beetlejuice*
“Now that it’s a very popular Broadway show, there’s grounds for a Film adaptation. NOTE I didn’t say remake of the original movie, but adaptation of the stage show.
“A recent example being The Producers (which flopped hard, but now has a decent fanbase).”
*Alien*
“I was lucky enough to catch a [ sic ] Alien and Aliens double-feature at a theater a few years ago. They were absolutely fantastic. As a millennial I’d only experienced them on a tv screen.
“Way better product. Makes me want to see Jaws that way.”
– u/jb40k
*Forrest Gump*
“The Netflix show The Movies That Made Us has an amazing episode on Forrest Gump . It’s a miracle we got the movie we did.
“Apparently the book was horrible, the budget was lacking, and tons of mishaps. Not to mention new technology to do the scenes with him interacting with Presidents and the like.”
*Stand By Me*
“There is a DVD version that I bought…close to twenty years ago? There are interviews with various members of the cast, and someone talked about how Rob Reiner getting that level of acting out of those kids was pretty much amazing, and I’m inclined to agree.”
*Mr. Bean*
“I remember first time seeing Rowan Atkinson being interviewed not in character. And growing up with my only knowledge of him as Mr. Bean, it blew my mind. He is as prim and proper British as his characters are bungling weirdos.”
*Galaxy Quest*
“This movie was really something for slipping moments into what was marketed as a generic space comedy. Rickman’s character hates being trapped in that role, but when he recites the line to comfort a dying alien fan, he means it for once.”
*Back to the Future*
“The video game from 2010 actually is a sequel and is pretty solid! Christopher Lloyd is in it, Claudia Wells is back as Jennifer, Tom Wilson is in it (when they rereleased it in 2015), and the kid they got to play Marty sounds IDENTICAL to him.
“Michael J. Fox actually makes a couple cameos too, but for obvious reasons he couldn’t have a major role like Marty. Bob Gale worked on it, and it really captures the spirit of the trilogy. It’s not as good of course, but it’s still a very fun and enjoyable sequel.”
*The Princess Bride*
“I saw somewhere a way to remake this while keeping the original untarnished, and it made sense.
“What happens is, the movie is set present day, and Fred Savage is working in an office, whatever, and a co-worker of his (the thing I saw suggested played by Queen Latifah) has to go home to take care of her granddaughter who is sick. Savage gives her the books, and says his grandfather read this story when he was sick.
“Then, the same story gets told, but how it is seen is how it is played out in the mind of Queen Latifah’s granddaughter. This allows for the story to be retold, in a fresh manner, without compromising the integrity of the original.”
