The Karate Kid Remake and Our Top Ten Movie Re-dos

Oy vey--you know you're getting old when the films of your youth end up being remade.  There are those who will use this to point out the dearth of creativity in Hollywood with its endless movies remakes or the co-opting of every known comic book character for film treatment (a Bazooka Joe movie?  Really?).  Some will say it's smart to update film classics to appeal to the younger generation for whom 80s kitsch holds little sway. 

And there will be those who just want to see Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan kick @$$.

The USA Today review of the Karate Kid remake is mostly positive.  Reviewer Claudia Puig says,

"The Karate Kid is surprisingly sure-footed and deft in its new setting.

While faithful in spirit to the modest 1984 original, this bigger-budget remake occasionally goes too far in its aim to be more epic. But the chemistry between Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan grounds the movie, imbuing it with sincerity and poignance."

Not a bad feat to pull off garnering a good review when the original version was pretty well loved. While movie remakes have the marketing advantage of being somewhat a "known quantity," they definitely have the disadvantage of being held up for comparison to their (usually superior) originator. It's sort of like having the same English teacher as your older, smarter and more popular sister.

No-one likes that kind of pressure.

Monday morning will give us the results of the Smith/Chan vs. Macchio/Morita match-up in the form of box office results. But until then, here's a list of ten remakes we think are as good as if not better than the originals--plus five that are definitely the younger and stupider version:

1. Ocean's Eleven: Steven Soderbergh's caper flick is a fun if not fluffy offering. Although, other than boasting a star-studded cast and Vegas location, it bears little resemblance to the Rat Pack feature it was based on. While most movie-goers went to see Pitt, Clooney, Damon and company pal around and exchange witty banter, the remake actually had a comprehensible plot. The original? Not so much.
2. D.O.A.: I saw the 1950 noir thriller years after watching the Dennis Quaid/Meg Ryan remake that came out in 1988. I much prefer the latter version. But then again I'm a sucker for a young and sexy (The Big Easy, anyone?) Dennis Quaid.
3. The Fly: Admittedly I have not seen the original but there's no way the cheese-tastic special effects of 1958 could compare with the David Cronenberg version which has the extra bonus of the amazing chemistry of stars Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis.
4. Pride and Prejudice: There are like a zillion version of this movie, including one with zombies slated to release next year. The Colin Firth mini-series is the one most Austen fans swoon over, but the 2005 remake with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen does justice to the beloved story as well.
5. Freaky Friday: Before Lindsay Lohan was a notorious party girl and wanted criminal, she used to act! And the updated take on the Disney role-reversal movie she did with Jamie Lee Curtis in 2003 holds its own against the 1976 Jodie Foster version.
6. The Vanishing: I've seen the original Dutch version and the updated American one starring Kiefer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock, Nancy Travis and Jeff Bridges and like both of them. Film purists howl in protest over the Hollywoodized semi-happy ending, but I have no issue with it. The remake is as effective at capturing the obsessive journey of the protagonist and maintains the creepy/thriller aspects as well. Plus, no subtitles!
7. Star Trek: Sara offered up the recent series reboot as being better than the original. While I thought the casting was inspired and that the idea to do a prequel was genius, I was less than thrilled by the whole have "your cake and eat it, too" gambit of using time travel to avoid having to stick established canon. Still, you can't argue that the 2009 film, which was released 30 years after the first Star Trek film, was filled with superior special effects to the 1979 version.
8. The Ring: Jen, who lived in Japan and who speaks Japanese, prefers the American version of this horror-thriller. You couldn't make me watch either version for love or money--so I'll just take her word for it.
9. Cape Fear: The 1991 Scorsese flick starring Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte also featured Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck and Martin Balsam who starred in the original 1962 version. The fact that De Niro and Juliette Lewis were both nominated for Oscars for their performances in the remake is a good indication that it's a worthy successor to the original.
10. Heaven Can Wait: The 1978 flick starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie was a remake of the 1941 movie Here Comes Mr. Jordan. The original was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won two--including one for original story. The remake was nominated for nine Oscars and won one--although "original story" obviously not among them.

And here are five (What! Only FIVE?!!!) stinkers that should never have dared to compete with the genius of the original version:

1. Psycho: Gus van Sant did a shot-by-shot homage to the original and one has to wonder why. Anne Heche vs. Janet Leigh? Vince Vaughn vs. Tony Perkins? Puh-leeze!
2. Planet of the Apes: You know the look of horror that crosses Charlton Heston's face at the end of the original when he realizes he's traveled in time to Earth's future? No doubt that look was on the face of every movie-goer who had to endure Marky Mark Walhberg in the remake.
3. Godzilla: It would be hard to be worse than the extremely campy original, but the 1998 remake manages to make one long for cheesy special effects and out of sync dubbed dialogue.
4. The Longest Yard: At first the pairing of Adam Sandler and Chris Rock seems to be brilliant, but despite the pairing of two top comic there isn't a single funny or fun moment in this updated version of the 1974 movie which starred Burt Reynolds.
5. Poseidon: While the 2006 remake of 1972's The Poseidon Adventure may have had the advantage of three decades of advances in film special effects, it lacked the heart and ability to generate audience empathy of the original.

What remakes do you think live up to or exceed that of the original? Tell us in the comments!