MovieChat Forums > The Italian Job (2003) Discussion > AMERICA. LEAVE OUR FILMS ALONE!!!

AMERICA. LEAVE OUR FILMS ALONE!!!


Every hollywood remake of brillant british films ends up being <crap>!!!!!

Heres what happens.

Bad director can't think of a film to make so he goes and finds a good british film and thinks "i'll put more guns and explosions in it and change the script enough that it makes no sence and the get some crappy actors, oh yeah and set it in the USA. That'll make a good film that millions of tastless people will go and see."

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Maybe it was crap when it was originally made and the only way to make it better was to remake it.

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LuckyCharmz2275...i think you are right. I dont know what British people think a good film is, but obviously the USA knows more about making good movies than the UK!

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America knows how to make monet making films, and they confuse thei with making good films!

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British Directors -

Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight), Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator and American Gangster), Tony Scott (Top Gun, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance and Man on Fire), Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire), Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy, United 93 and The Bourne Ultimatum), Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz).

The majority of your favourite films will most likely come from these filmmakers. Think before you say anything.

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Hitchcock?

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American Directors-

Joel & Ethan Coen (Fargo, No Country For Old Men, O Brother Where Art Thou, and The Big Lebowski), Steven Speilberg (Indiana Jones, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, and Jaws), Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, and Inglorious Basterds) Clint Eastwood (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Torino) Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi-Driver, The Departed, etc.), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are) Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, and Sweeney Todd), David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Needless to say America has put out several excellent directors herself.

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America isn't a female.

Word you're looking for is, "itself."


Vampires Don't Sparkle

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Needless to say America has put out several excellent directors herself


True, but needless to say, one of the most important and influential figures of the 20th century, not just filmmakers, who also had complete control over his own movies - also acted, wrote, produced and composed them - and is still the most famous and iconic figure in the movie industry is one Charlie Chaplin. And what nationality was he again?

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A good number of those movies are more popular than they need or deserve to be.

American audiences are as dumb as American voters.

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I think it's you yanks who don't know a good film. It's us brits who know better than you Americans! always has to be in the USA all the time so what!

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Maybe it was crap when it was originally made and the only way to make it better was to remake it.



Maybe you can't understand a film unless it's re-made into a worthless mess?




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In fairness, this wasn't a bad remake of the original, and if you look, it scores 7.0 against 7.4 on IMDB. But when you look at another Michael Caine film that was remade in the US, "Get Carter", the OP clearly has a point.

Hollywood nowadays is extremely lacking in originality, and if it's not casting some comic-book character in the latest SFX blockbuster, it is remaking a film or TV series that originated in another country, and rarely if ever do they match up to the original.

Frequently they suffer from dumbing down. Once you start dumbing down, you are catering for the intellectually challenged. My favourite example of this surrounds Hollywood producers involved in the making of "The Madness of King George". This was originally a Theatre play called "The Madness of George III". The producers wanted the name changed because they thought that US audiences would demand to see "The Madness of George I & II".
That is to say, US producers thought US audiences might not know who was this man was (Hint: He was King of England when the US declared independence from Britain just in case the Producers were right).

I don't wan't to get involved in a nationalistic debate, but it seems that most of Hollywood's output nowadays consists of turning a comic book character into celluloid, spending a trillion dollars on SFX, and $50 on a script. And when they run out of comic books, they look at non-US cinema. As to your suggestion that maybe the films were crap when originally made, if that were the case, they would never have been remade, because Hollywood copies success. It never copies failure

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Well said! I was also a fan of the original french film Taxi. I was absolutely gobsmacked when I saw clips of the American version. I caught it on Sky some time later and ended up turning it over. What a pile of sh!te!

-VM-

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Gobsmacked?

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Translation: Speechless

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I saw the original and had hope for the (I don't want to say remake) but was sadly mistaken. I live in the US though.

lets get f*kd up and die, I'm talking figureatively of course.

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Yeah, England is the movie and television capital of the world. LOL You had Benny Hill and Doctor who. STFU and go eat some fish and chips. X

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That's right we were innovative and led the world once.

But at least we haven't become desperate and are churning out endless vomit to insular fools who don't have a clue or any heritage.

"You're Only Supposed To Blow The Bloody Doors Off!"

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Kubrick was actually American, though later moved to England before making it big because he was disillusioned with Hollywood. However, I would offer Hitchcock as an alternative :o)

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

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Kubrick was actually American, though later moved to England before making it big because he was disillusioned with Hollywood. However, I would offer Hitchcock as an alternative :o)
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Well I never knew that... we must have rubbed off on him, as clockwork orange has a real British feel, cheap but dirty, which is how I see our films compared to Hollywood.

Hitchcock is my favourite director, which leads to a remake of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much', how does that sit with the all remakes are rubbish/wrong/work of satan mob? Although I thought remaking psycho was not bad, but totally unnecessary; I even went to see it, if you are going to remake, at least make it better or different, no? The bbc recently remade 39 steps, they followed the book far more closely than hitch did, it was actually very good, not better, not worse... but based on the book not the film.

May I add

David Lean, Ridley Scott, Ken Loach

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And doesn't Spielberg..Mr Hollywood...swear by David lean's Lawrence of Arabia?. He was in awe of that film.

I'm going with team UK on this one.

True..America does make more(and money) movies than UK. but the UK has less space and and a lower population. However, when a Brit makes a film, odds are it's damn good! Not to mention, the fine selection of British actors, raking in money for Hollywood films. Julie Andrew's star quality raked in millions for the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins.

Seymour Skinner: You were right to be suspicious Edna. To the Crime lab!

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First off it's Great Britain not England! The amount of Americans who think the the UK is England is super embarrassing! Get you facts right! You people have 0 originality it's hilarious! Go eat a hotdog you stereotypical yank!

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"STFU and go eat some fish and chips"

STFU and go eat an hot dog and remember when you order it why you are allowed the gift of being able to do so in English!

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Hey, imitation is the best form of flattery, right? :)

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Have you ever even seen the original Italian Job? Besides the character names and mini coopers, it's extremely different from the 2003 version. The newer one is based on the older one, but only loosely.

Secondly, I don't think that every remake is always bad. How can you insult American movie making? We may not do much right, but one thing we understand is movie making.

Does this mean that you hate the Rolling Stones and the Beatles for ripping off Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and Elvis Presley? I doubt it?

Americans and Brits have a long harmonious history of borrowing and building on each other's creative ideas. I think it works both ways. I happen to be a Beatles fan, but you can't tell me they didn't get a lot of their early ideas from Elvis. Their whole first album was all covers of old American blues and country songs.

My point is that building on another person's ideas is not always a bad thing. Many of our most loved and respected art forms are recreations and reworkings of previous art styles.

I also think it's unfair to classify ALL remakes as being crap. There are a lot of good remakes out there, and I happen to feel this is one of them.

Thank you.

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The main problem i have is when they take "Classic", brilliant movies and churn out some pish thats only out to make money by useing the name of the movie and hoping that the original fans go and see it.

Yes, i have seen both and yes the are completely different. So why did the director not just change the name and have a whloe new film? Because the movie would have more chance of making money if he slapped on the "italian job"! If he had made it more of a homage to the original film it would have been good.

"Corneto!"-Ed (Shaun of the Dead)

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There's no way this movie was aimed at fans of the old movie. Old people aren't Hollywood's target audience. Young people are.

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I'm young but i love the original. Not agreeing with all the nastyness though. guys seriously. movies are made for entertainment. if you dont wana watch it no one's forcing you are they? did some frog march you down to your local cinema and force you to sit through it? I seriously doubt it. If you dont like the idea of it, simple answer is......DON'T GO! you steaming great numpty's!

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Probably 'cause they're so damn easy to please. Once you pass a certain age, you stop accepting bullsh!t and start thinking for yourself.

-VM-

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and since your doing so much thinking...

one day your going to wake up and realize that there are many different types of people in this world with different tastes. cant satisfy everyone

what some people find good others say sucks. and vica versa. hollywood did a remake, nothing bad about that. ideas are used, borrowed, rehased all the time.

preferably this is one of my favorite movies.

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You might want to read my post thoroughly before constructing a reply in future. I don't recall denying that people have different tastes, do you?

-VM-

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I agree with you. I think it's the other way around from what the person previous to you had said. The old movie got a lot more hype from the younger generation than it ever had before. This is the case with a lot of movies that have been remade. We (Americans) get a lot of crap from Europ's about everything we do ... "oh this is not as good as we do it." Hell my wife is one, and I get it from her all the time. I mean, come on guys ... think before you write down something stupid and offensive.

Psi Star Psi the only difference is the sign of the i.

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You're an idiot, granted, everyone has an opinion, but there's a difference between an opinion and moronic chatter, and you fall into the latter.

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I don't think that every remake is always bad. How can you insult American movie making? We may not do much right, but one thing we understand is movie making.


The only really good remake I've seen is Oceans 11, an american remake of an american film, that isn't a problem and the end result is a modern classic. It's when hollywood trys to remake a film that wasn't american to start with, the resulting films lose the culture and what made them so good in the first place. Taxi & TIJ are the best examples of this, films with nothing to do with america remade in LA & New York simply to get americans to watch them.

As for Elvis, he made a huge impact on the music that followed him, you could say that almost all music made today uses ideas borrowed from Elvis. This is more like somebody doing a bad cover of one of his songs.





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"you could say that almost all music made today uses ideas borrowed from Elvis"

Hmmm, he never composed songs or wrote one in his life. He just stole black people's music. He only broke the doors down for actual creative artists like The Beatles.

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TheDesertRat: well said and amen!

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Thank YOU.

I was going to write a Big Post just like yours, but now, I see that you have it under control. Way to go! I agree, and I really don't think anyone can argue with this.

~RR

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I would not disagree with what you say, but I had a quick trawl of US remakes of non-US TV and Films, and the only things I could find which has a higher IMDB rating than the original, was All In The Family, and The Office. The latter was already a smash in the US though it had only been seen on BBC America.

Off the top of my head, I looked at about 25 titles, from France Japan, Holland and mainly UK, and the US finished second in 23. As far as Japan, Holland and France were concerned, IMDB viewers thought the subtitled versions were better than the remakes. I don't claim my research (limited) is scientific, but I strongly suspect that if I could think of another 25 remakes, it would not be different.

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Led Zeppelin is another example of inspired and utterly shameless theft (on a truly grand scale) from US original works. And the world was better for it....

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"We may not do much right but one thing we understand is movie making"

Who's this we? Are you a filmmaker. Yes, some Americans understand movie making, so do many brits which is why so many are employed in Hollywood. Many American filmmakers however haven't a clue about subtlety e.g Spielberg.

"I happen to be a Beatles fan but you can't tell me they didn't get a lot of their early ideas from Elvis".

I think you mean the black musicians whose ideas Elvis just stole.

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Down and Out in Beverly Hills is a remake of a French film...

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Americans need to remake british films so that they are in a language we understand. I don't know what all you english people are speeking...

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Believe it or not we speal ENGLISH! If your American and you can't even understand English then how the *beep* do you communicate?

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I just spent the last month in Argentina. It's funny, you can't even go more than 10 feet without seeing a desperate housewives remake sign on the road. They also remade married with children as well as many other american shows. But unlike you guys, I think it's kinda cool to see things like that. I wonder how does their culture reflect on these shows. For example, in Argentina they don't have the notion of "rich subs" .. how do they do desperate housewives? Instead of being bitter about your culture, you should try to to get your head out of your butts and maybe you'd actually be a creative force in the world again.

Psi Star Psi the only difference is the sign of the i.

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Hmmm yeah... And I think you're using the term "brilliant" a little loosely talking about the 1969 "Italian Job"... or maybe you guys just use the word brilliant every time you think something is kind of cool.

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I think you're using the term "brilliant" a little loosely talking about the 1969 "Italian Job"... or maybe you guys just use the word brilliant every time you think something is kind of cool.


I've yet to see another car chase that blew me away like TIJ. There were genuinly "brilliant" scenes in this film (other than the chase) and it was all done for real, In a world where car chases are done with CGI, Gunshots and Explosions it is refreshing to see a chase without these elements, that relys only on what the cars can do and still thrills you to the same extent. The Italian Job isn't Lord of the Rings or some other big budget epic it is a comedy crime caper. It is not brilliant compared with films from other genres but in its own genre it reigns supreme.


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I can't think of any american remake of a british film which was in any way better than the original, it's exactly the same with Stallone's awful Get Carter. I can't really understand why a remake of TIJ was necessary, and the 2003 version didnt even improve upon the original, instead of real stunts and classic humour, we get CGI and clichés.

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Their are only about seven basic plots to start with..... everyone steals something from everyone before them in the final tabulation.




Guns kill people, just like Spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.

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Then don't watch them! Its funny how many uptight people spend large amounts of time trolling and hating.

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i agree with ignatiogran.

Not to mention film is universal. Changes and remakes are always going to happen. It isn't just a British-American thing.

You don't see me running around yelling "The original Der Tunnel was so much better in Germany. Britain, go drink some more tea and make more stupid harry friggen potter movies."

that's just stupid.

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Envy will never win any argument.

If you people wouldn't make these bloody films we wouldn't copy them and make them better--(for American audiences). :)

Now if they would just make a remake of my all-time favorite film maybe even I would join your side in whining.

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My favorite: "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

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Humor, pal (mate), humor.
Why are you limeys so uptight? Satire just passes you by like you're still living in the Empire days. Since your empire can't strike back anymore it's ruined your sense of humor.

Remember, films are for entertainment...Why would you go watch a remake unless you just want something to bitch about? I've seen many that are a waste (from both sides of the pond) but I would never knock someone's country because of a poor movie, remake or not.

In the U.S. we have something called "capitalism" even though many of you Euros have forgotten what it is about. So, many if not most films are made for...surprise...a quick buck. But there are still those films and film makers who produce quality products that don't make a lot of money and without the "quck buckers" the studios wouldn't be able to produce the good ones.

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My favorite: "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

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It's in fact an excellent way of making a quick buck. Quite admirable as far as I'm concerned (I live in sclerotic, socialist continental Europe).

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You brits always have to initiate the snobby comments.

Please get over yourselves and your movies. True, your movies are great (as you claim, since you are not biased of course) , but your personality is crap just like how you view Hollywood remakes of Brit flicks.


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