Top 10... Remakes

More and more it seems there's no original ideas in mainstream Hollywood, but it turns out that this has always been the case, and it just seems more prevalent now because there's so many more films released each week, and less original stories to go around, so therefore there's more rehashed versions of films gone by available to us on a weekly basis. 2012 saw three remakes in the Box Office Top 20 (The Amazing Spider-Man, Snow White and the Huntsman, Les Miserables), and this is far from new, hell, even The Wizard of Oz was a remake back in 1939 of three silent films that came before it (and a book, but everything's a remake of a book these days). The thing is though... I don't mind. I have no problem with modern film makers updating older films to introduce them to a wider audience - there have been several instances where a remake has inspired me to go back and see the original, and I've discovered a classic that I otherwise may have never found (Scarface springs to mind).

So what inspired this list? Well, The Film Vituperatum's movie of the week is The Adventures of Robin Hood, which whilst I haven't seen it yet and therefore haven't got around to reviewing, I am more than familiar with the story, mainly due to the various adaptations of it. If I had to guess, I'd say the story of Robin Hood is probably one of the top three most adapted tales in history, after A Christmas Carol and Alice in Wonderland, but my list of top 10 Robin Hood adaptations would see Kevin Costner taking third place behind John Cleese in Time Bandits and an animated fox, at which point the list would end because I haven't seen any others, so instead I'm going to celebrate the greatest remakes that I've ever seen, regardless of whether I've watched the originals or not. Oh, and The Wizard of Oz didn't make the list, because I'm fairly sure I've never seen it all the way through. The list also doesn't include any English-language remakes of originally foreign works, because that would be another list entirely, and one I'll save for another day - perhaps when Ringu is selected for movie of the week?

True Grit (2010)

I'm a massive Coen brothers fan. I've got all their films, a couple of posters, and eagerly await any and all of their new releases, as in a perfect world all films would be directed by the Coens. After the release of Burn After Reading on DVD I even completed a 23 hour marathon of all their films in a single day, and man that was a good day.


True Grit lived up to my high expectations. Jeff Bridges, one of the greatest leading character actors of our time, has been added to the list of my favourite screen drunks (alongside Dudley Moore in Arthur, Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas and Val Kilmer in Tombstone), and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld also impresses, although not necessarily enough to warrant her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination (itself a slap in the face, being the film's lead over the Best Actor nominated Bridges). She may be considered the next Scarlett Johansson, after her early career-making turn in the Coens' the Man Who Wasn't There. Oh yeah, add Billy Bob Thornton to the screen drunks for Bad Santa, can't believe I forgot that.

Anyway, Matt Damon is solid as LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger assisting the duo's quest to find the man who killed Steinfeld's father, as do Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin as the baddies on the run. The supporting cast is also filled with kinda funny lookin' eccentrics, as per usual with the Coens, especially the lawyer near the start, with his alarmingly acrobatic top lip. The tabletop chat with a John Goodman and Steve Buscemi near-lookalikes also made me smile, bringing memories of the Big Lebowski's bowling team, especially with 'Goodman' insisting that 'Buscemi' doesn't talk, a la "Shut the fuck up, Donny".


Choose film 9/10