I forgot about this one, I actually like the second one better. The first is a classic, hands down. But it always nagged at me, the opening sequence, like 'how did they know?' I love that the second sets up that scene so brilliantly. Also, I LOVE how the end of the prequel has the same exact music. Not sure I'd call this a remake either.
You all know that "The Thing" that you are referring to directed by John Carpenter is a remake of the original movie made in the 1950s and directed by Howard Hawks.
I did know that, but Carpenter's version is soooo much better. The original was forgetable, at least to me.
The Carpenter version is also closer to the short story it's based on called "Who Goes There?" I forget the author's name. The old one is considered a silver screen classic but it aged terribly. Rob Bottin's effects in the 1982 version still cause a shudder today, and he was something like 22 years old, already with the astonishing "The Howling" transformations on his résumé.
So much of the recent Thing had the same plot points as the original, just different variations. Seemed redundant to me. It was made well, with respect for the original, but I didn't get much out of it. Also, no Wilford Brimley. Points against it right there. Just looked up Rob Bottin's resume. Dude did the 3 tittied chick from Total Recall AND Big Horn Guy from Legend. How awesome is that?
I think that the Hendrix version is the definitive one. Thankfully Dylan agrees. As for things that should be remade Blake's 7, TekWar and Andromeda should all be remade into several 13 episode seasons. I'm also mostly ready for a Babylon 5 remake, but as the writing is what I love the most about the show I think it needs an updating rather then a remaking.
You're going to do well when you're Rick Baker's apprentice. Baker beat Bottin in 1981 with An American Werewolf in London.. Please God DON'T REMAKE THAT MOVIE. The "sequel" was a big enough miscarriage. Bottin made Cohagen's eyes pop out and "Toxic Waste Dude" from Robocop as well. He is the pinnacle at scarring people for life with art.
I forgot to throw 'Oceans 11' in. The original was fun, for what it was, a Rat Pack Vanity Piece - though I think both Sinatra and Dean Martin were very underrated as actors. The remake was really slick, a lot of fun, funny, and had some balls to it. Wasn't thrilled with '12' but '13' was closer to the mark.
Me and Bobbie McGee - Janis Joplin does it better than Kris Kristofferson. Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann covering Springsteen I also like Nirvana's unplugged covers of Lake of Fire and The Man who Sold The World more than the originals.
Cohen's Hallelujah is good but I prefer Jeff Buckley's version. Completely agree with those mentioning Dawn of the Dead. As for how to cover music Crown is correct on Garage Inc but there is a radio station in Australia that has a band in every Friday to do a version of one of their songs and a cover of someone else and some of those cover's are absolutely awesome. Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler
I also like Buckley's version more than any version. One of my favourite covers. Ditto for Jimmy Cliff's version of "I Can See Clearly Now". Love that song.
I much prefer Johnny Cash's version of Hurt to the Nine Inch Nails version: Seconded with Oceans 11 and The Departed, although in both cases admittedly I watched the newer ones first, which certainly has an effect on one's opinion. I was very happy with Nolan's Batman, which I consider a remake. I think all three of Nolan's Batman films were better than any of the Burton or Schumacher Batman movies. That includes Dark Knight Rises, which had a lot of flaws, but still better than Burton/Schumacher. More my arena: Video game remakes are fairly common, where they take the same game and story and drastically update the graphics, with a few gameplay tweaks. I'm pretty sure that this is how Square-Enix has stayed in business for the past three years: releasing old Final Fantasy titles with updated graphics or for new systems, with nothing more than a fancy graphic facelift or a few minor changes (and I keep buying like an idiot). That said, there have been some good remakes/Reboots: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is the best Castlevania game since Symphony of the Night, and rebooted the entire franchise. This could also be considered a God of War reboot, seeing as the fighting style is so similar. Tomb Raider (again, Square Enix) rebooted that series and reconfigured Lara Croft, and was pretty good, too, but again, this seemed like just taking Uncharted and removing Nathan Drake and adding Lara Croft. As for disappointing or worst remakes, there was a great Nintendo game called Bionic Commando. I loved that game as a kid. You couldn't jump, but you had a bionic arm that allowed you to swing around, which was a completely unique mechanic that made the game very hard, but also very fun. They did an HD remake, which I really enjoyed and which got good enough traction, BUT then they made a 3D version named (aptly) Bionic Commando. Holy shit was that game awful. I played through the whole damn thing hoping it would get better, but fuck no. They took what could've been an amazing concept (think about swinging through a giant, open world city, only with guns and 3rd person shooter style) and completely fucked it in the ass. There was no open world; if you got even remotely off the predetermined path you'd just die. The guns were all terrible, the powers were sad, the exploration was nil, and the story was fuckballs stupid (which could be forgivable if the gameplay was good, but holy fuck was it atrocious). I kept waiting for some kind of redeeming moment, but one never came. I have never been more disappointed in a video game, because man that concept just had "amazing" written all over it.
As much as I like Where is my Mind by The Pixies, Trampled by Turtles nailed it pretty good: Spoiler I'm also a fan of Gary Jules' cover of Mad World by Tears For Fears: Spoiler
I prefer the '86 remake of "Little Shop of Horrors" to the 60s version. The Jack Nicholson in the original cracks me up, but I prefer a movie that takes more than two days to shoot. Plus, the Frank Oz of it all.
I didn't watch the original Battlestar Galactica, so I can't really speak to how good it was, but the remake I thought was very well done. Man, that show could make you run a gamat of emotions fast.
BBC Radio 1 does the same thing in England and its produced some really cool stuff. Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler
I loved the Metroid Prime remakes. When they were in the works, I remember a massive number of people who envisioned a shitty Halo clone and said "Fuck no." Then they came out, and everyone shut the fuck up because they were excellent. Tight controls, great visuals, and the classic feeling of, "Well, it's not a story, but I'm really interested in what's going on." In contrast, games like Call of Duty are frustrating. Back before online gaming was common, the single-player action was the end-all and be-all of most games. Multiplayer was an afterthought and was treated as icing on the cake. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were awesome multiplayer experiences, but they were superb single-player games as well. These days, CoD seems to be exclusively multiplayer-oriented with a garbage single-player mode as an afterthought, as if to say, "See, we're still making a regular game." The last time that I enjoyed a CoD's single-player was Modern Warfare.