By the Bel: Movie Remakes, Old vs New

Bel says:

Out with the old… maybe!

This year I’ve been challenging the kiddo to watch some of the old movies that have since been remade, to see what she thought of both versions.

We haven’t gotten through many because, really, who wants to watch stuff that was made before their parents were born?

Film making techniques and the acceptable content levels have changed exponentially in the last 60 years, leaving a whole new world to be experienced from both sides of the coin.

We started with Doctor Dolittle 1967 Vs Eddie Murphie’s 1998 version. The old one is 152 minutes long and the more recent remake lasts only 85 minutes. Seriously? How much content have the younger generations missed… Giant Snails and the Push-Me-Pull-You aren’t very believable, but are a seriously cool thing to have in a crazy movie about a dude who can talk to the animals.

Karate Kid in 1984 was iconic, much loved and highly quoted. It ran for 126 minutes and even if you haven’t seen the classic, you’d still know the lines ‘Wax on, Wax off.” The newer one from 2010 with Jaden Smith actually goes for 140 minutes. We have yet to see the modernisation and I’m a little curious as to what is contained within all that extra time.

Freaky Friday with good ol’ Lindsey Lohan from 2003 far surpasses the 1976 version. The old one ran for 95 minutes whereas the new one was only 2 minutes longer. I’m not sure if it’s the extreme chasm that sat between Mother and Daughter before the switch, or the fact that you can get away with far more in 2003 films that you could in the 70’s.

Alice in Wonderland. To just say the title is to let the mind wander. But are you a fan of the cartoon or Johnny Depp? The 2010 film and the 1951 animation are both epic. The old runs for only 75 minutes whereas the new goes for 108 minutes. It just depends on what your taste is, or your mood. The Lewis Carroll story really lends itself to movie adaptation and I think you’d have to be a complete moron to stuff it up.

One we both agree sucks, no matter the era, is the Herbie franchise. The more modern one “Fully Loaded” stars good ol’ LiLo again, but the old one (pick one there were a bunch) for the sake of this example we’ll go with Herbie the Love Bug, sucked just as much. I’m okay with suspending my grip on reality to follow a young girl through a looking glass, but a VW beetle that splits in half and still works as two separate pieces… puh-lease.

What movie classics would you want to see remade and modernised?

How do you think some of our blockbusters will look in 50 years time?