Remakes that are better than the originals

Szlia

Szlia

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Xarpolis_sl said:
There's a 2012 Korean film called "The Thieves". It's a remake of Oceans 11. I prefer it to the American version.
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That's stretching the definition, because the only thing they have in common is that they are both all star cast big budget heist movies with action and comedy. The plot is completely different. Nevertheless, I recommend The Thieves warmly.
 
Caliane

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Cybsled_sl said:
Slow zombies aren't scary. And none of the "looming dread!! LOOMING DREAD!!!!" explanation. Which is more scary? A guy walking towards you very slowly with a knife, or a guy screaming and running towards you with a knife? If you answered 1, I don't know what to say. Most sane people would answer 2. In a hypothetical real life zombie scenario, you are FUCKED if the zombies run, if for no other reason than you can't easily line up a headshot with a firearm before you get overwhelmed. I tend to view an extremely low chance of survival as scary. Slow zombies would have a higher chance of survival, so therefore they are less scary.

As for the 2 films, I personally thought the original DOTD failed as a horror movie, but succeeded as a fun fantasy movie. The original DOTD was not scary at all, but it was fun. It kind of played out like how you imagine you would try to fortify a mall vs. slow zombies. Kind of like building a fort in DayZ. The newer DOTD was more effective as a "well, the world ended and we are all fucked" horror movie. The movie had its flaws, but the first 10-15 minutes of that movie were some of the most effective zombie cinema I have ever seen. It really captured the confusion and panic with sudden appearance of zombies, and coupled with their speed, really sold the idea that the world as people knew it could end that quick.
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the one that can't die.
the main problem with zombie movies nowadays is they are too easy to kill. Piercing weapons on undead? wtf is this shit? The whole dead rising from the grave part is completely undermined by the ease at which you just shoot them in the head. plots need to be awfully contrived to the characters into a place where they can't fight back. and inexplicably surrounded by 1000's of zombies. Because really zombies would not work. ever. at all. Decay. sunlight. dismemberment. for undead ones. and virus? dehydration would kill all zombies in 3 days.

Any new zombie movie that wants to make them scary again, needs to make them really near unkillable. Marvel zombie style, where pretty much only full incineration/disintegration works.
 
Xarpolis

Xarpolis

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It isn't really stretching it, in my opinion. Granted, it isn't the SAME movie, but a few other posts have done something similar.

Similarities: All star cast
Said cast has an inner-movie history with one another from previous heists gone wrong.
Robing a casino
You think one thing happens, but it turns out to be something else.
Comedy thrown in for good measure.

It's pretty damn close to the same thing. Except The Thieves did a better job at it.
 
cabbitcabbit

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The original Dawn was more about isolation and stagnation than it was about zombies. The undead are more of a background peace for the humans and how they react to their situation.
 
Chukzombi

Chukzombi

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I think Cybsled is basing his preferences to fast zombies because he played a monk in EQ. when he eyepulled a room in guk or OS or any other indoor dungeon with those ahole frogloks, some of them had their ahole meters set to SUPER because they had SOW casted on them and they were the ones whupping crunchy human monk ass while he tried to get back to the group. much scarier when you have a fast mover or a bunch of em raping you than a bunch of slowass frogloks fed into the EXP hopper.
tongue.png


if only Cyb had played a necro or an SK he would be on the slow mover team.
 
Chukzombi

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haha, maybe in later expansions, but necros were masters of the undead during vanilla and kunark, i had a few guildies who owned Lguk and OS all by themselves.
 
Juvarisx

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I'm not sure you will see a mainstream slow movie zombie movie again. General audiences these days fail to enjoy (in my opinion) a slow sense of dread from a horror movie, they want fast paced, cheap screams that will all be wrapped up in a nice bow by the end of the film. While I agree that personally i find it more effective and in turn scarier to give the protagonists a sense of hope (false even) and for them to come to the conclusion that over time that there really isn't any, its far easier to try to draw excitement out of hordes of super human zombies like DoTD, WWZ, because then the protagonists can be throwaway generic and their arc's and acting can be horse shit and it makes little difference.

One of my friends who I would lump into general audiences, abhors The Walking Dead, and while I also think that show is total horseshit she came to that conclusion in a different way. For her it wasn't the acting, pacing, story, plot holes or any of it, it was the fact that she couldn't grasp that the show isn't (or well isn't supposed to be) mostly about dead, it supposed to be driven by the characters and all she wanted was fast paced excitement.

Really I think 28 days later was the only film to get it right in a middle ground, and that type of a movie is very rare.

cabbitcabbit_sl said:
The original Dawn was more about isolation and stagnation than it was about zombies. The undead are more of a background peace for the humans and how they react to their situation.
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The original was a very transparent allegory about rampant consumerism and waste, in that even when turned into mindless drones whats left of their conscious minds is drawn to consume consumer goods hence heading to the mall in the first place. The characters were merely there to play the part of driving the message.
 
Chukzombi

Chukzombi

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i think there was a slow mover zombie flick last year, though it was a comedy kinda like "My Boyfriend's back", i did not watch it but i remember seeing them moving pretty slowly in the trailer.
 
Szlia

Szlia

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Maester Chuk_sl said:
i think there was a slow mover zombie flick last year, though it was a comedy kinda like "My Boyfriend's back", i did not watch it but i remember seeing them moving pretty slowly in the trailer.
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You must be thinking about Warm Bodies. It was surprisingly good.
 
OneofOne

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I'll 3rd or 4th or whatever The Thomas Crown Affair and Ocean's 11 - absolutely stellar compared to the originals.

I saw the original Casino Royale a few years ago, and it's really not that bad. It was filmed in such a different era it's hard to compare the two imo /shrug
 
Cybsled

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The original Casino Royale wasn't a serious movie and had almost nothing to do with the actual book. Then it goes full fucking acid trip at the end.
 
Caliane

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Juvarisx_sl said:
I'm not sure you will see a mainstream slow movie zombie movie again. General audiences these days fail to enjoy (in my opinion) a slow sense of dread from a horror movie, they want fast paced, cheap screams that will all be wrapped up in a nice bow by the end of the film. While I agree that personally i find it more effective and in turn scarier to give the protagonists a sense of hope (false even) and for them to come to the conclusion that over time that there really isn't any, its far easier to try to draw excitement out of hordes of super human zombies like DoTD, WWZ, because then the protagonists can be throwaway generic and their arc's and acting can be horse shit and it makes little difference.

One of my friends who I would lump into general audiences, abhors The Walking Dead, and while I also think that show is total horseshit she came to that conclusion in a different way. For her it wasn't the acting, pacing, story, plot holes or any of it, it was the fact that she couldn't grasp that the show isn't (or well isn't supposed to be) mostly about dead, it supposed to be driven by the characters and all she wanted was fast paced excitement.

Really I think 28 days later was the only film to get it right in a middle ground, and that type of a movie is very rare.



The original was a very transparent allegory about rampant consumerism and waste, in that even when turned into mindless drones whats left of their conscious minds is drawn to consume consumer goods hence heading to the mall in the first place. The characters were merely there to play the part of driving the message.
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The thing is as, noted, Zombies are just kindof the constant threat in a proper zombie movie. Its where movies screw up with fast zombies and easily killed zombies. They become action movies.
At its core, a zombie movie should have little really different between it, and The Thing, the Road, the Mist, etc. SOMETHING horrible out THERE, that forces the living to huddle together for safety. but then of course "we are our own worst enemy", and we turn on ourselves. The Mist is totally a zombie movie, with zombies replaced with alien spiders. And the same with The Thing. But this one IS intelligent.
 
LiquidDeath

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Caliane_sl said:
The thing is as, noted, Zombies are just kindof the constant threat in a proper zombie movie. Its where movies screw up with fast zombies and easily killed zombies. They become action movies.
At its core, a zombie movie should have little really different between it, and The Thing, the Road, the Mist, etc. SOMETHING horrible out THERE, that forces the living to huddle together for safety. but then of course "we are our own worst enemy", and we turn on ourselves. The Mist is totally a zombie movie, with zombies replaced with alien spiders. And the same with The Thing. But this one IS intelligent.
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Exactly. Zombie movies are also about slow, but inexorable death inevitably followed by joining the ranks of the bad guys.

Fast moving zombies are stupid because no one would survive an encounter with more than one of them. Period. Of course fast moving zombies are scarier than slow ones. They are certain death. All the movies with fast moving zombie should be boring and over in about 5 minutes, but they build in horseshit conceits to keep the main characters alive which more often than not takes them from merely bad action movies to fucking terrible ones.
 
ohkcrlho

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LiquidDeath_sl said:
Exactly. Zombie movies are also about slow, but inexorable death inevitably followed by joining the ranks of the bad guys.

Fast moving zombies are stupid because no one would survive an encounter with more than one of them. Period. Of course fast moving zombies are scarier than slow ones. They are certain death. All the movies with fast moving zombie should be boring and over in about 5 minutes, but they build in horseshit conceits to keep the main characters alive which more often than not takes them from merely bad action movies to fucking terrible ones.
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true that!
 
E

etchazz

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LiquidDeath_sl said:
Exactly. Zombie movies are also about slow, but inexorable death inevitably followed by joining the ranks of the bad guys.

Fast moving zombies are stupid because no one would survive an encounter with more than one of them. Period. Of course fast moving zombies are scarier than slow ones. They are certain death. All the movies with fast moving zombie should be boring and over in about 5 minutes, but they build in horseshit conceits to keep the main characters alive which more often than not takes them from merely bad action movies to fucking terrible ones.
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it's not just zombie movies, though. it's the entire horror genre. what most writers/directors/producers fail to realize is that it's the actual STORY that makes a good horror flick, not the CGI and action or even the monsters (aliens, ghosts, whatever) themselves. look at a movie like "let the right one in." that is by far one of the best horror movies i've seen in a long, long time. not because it was "scary", but because the story was so fucking brilliant.
 
Chukzombi

Chukzombi

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Return of the living dead and evil dead 2 are probably in my top ten horror flicks, but neither have very complex stories. Dude in a cabin is haunted by demons, punk rockers in a cemetary are attacked by almost unkillable zombies. Story is not always important. A lot of it is tone and atmosphere. Gore, direction, editing,cinematography, acting, on screen presence, a punchy script, tits and practical effects help a lot too. Its never just one thing.
 
Krag

Krag

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Apart from stuff already mentioned I can only think of Red Dragon. I liked Manhunter a lot, but I thought the remake was better. And Anthony Hopkins.
 
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