Three Monster Movie Remakes That Did it Right
After posting about The Mummy reboot, I got to thinking about other attempted re-makes of classic monster movies. Most, at least in my opinion, weren't very good (neither are re-makes in general). But, there were three I could think of that were halfway decent.
This is, of course, just my opinion and you should feel free to offer up your own suggestions in the comments section.
The Mummy (1999) - This one was mentioned, briefly, in my earlier post. While I'm sure there are some who will disagree with me about this one, I honestly feel this version is better than the original 1932 version.
As I believe I mentioned in another post, Boris Karloff is easily one of my favorite classic movie actors. And, I thought he did an excellent job in the 1932 version. The problem with that version, however, is he was his character was very limited. Basically, he was bestowed with the power to cheat death but could only kill people by strangling them.
For all its faults, the 1999 version made up for the original's shortcomings by taking advantage of much-more-modern special effects and making the creature truly supernatural. And, as I mentioned Arnold Vosloo was impressive as the title character.
Hollowman (2000) - This movie is essentially a modern version of The Invisible Man. Much like The Mummy, my feelings toward the 1933 movie were a bit mixed when I watched it. I thought Claude Rains was believable as the invisible scientist. But, also thought the overall movie was a bit lacking. In fact, I kind of liked the 1940 comedic sequel, The Invisible Woman, better.
I found I liked the modern version better, largely because it is much more of a horror film. Kevin Bacon was believable as the now-invisible scientist who is both frustrated by his predicament and not afraid to take advantage of it and, overall, the movie does a much better job of building up the suspense than the original did. In fact, Universal has some pretty big shoes to fill if they are going to attempt another movie reboot using this monster.
Halloween (2007) - I won't start a debate by saying this movie was better than the 1978 version. But, I thought there were a lot of things to like about this Rob Zombie re-make.
I like John Carpenter's films. But, one of my biggest complaints about them is it takes way too long to see any real action (at least in most of them). This film is better in that regard because the Tyler Mane version of Michael Myers gets to start killing teenagers a heck of a lot quicker than his 1978 counterpart (Tony Moran) did.
In fact, if it weren't for the drawn-out sequence showing Michael Myers' childhood (killers are always creepier when you know very little about them and their motives), I think I would claim this version is the better one.
This is, of course, just my opinion and you should feel free to offer up your own suggestions in the comments section.
The Mummy (1999) - This one was mentioned, briefly, in my earlier post. While I'm sure there are some who will disagree with me about this one, I honestly feel this version is better than the original 1932 version.
As I believe I mentioned in another post, Boris Karloff is easily one of my favorite classic movie actors. And, I thought he did an excellent job in the 1932 version. The problem with that version, however, is he was his character was very limited. Basically, he was bestowed with the power to cheat death but could only kill people by strangling them.
For all its faults, the 1999 version made up for the original's shortcomings by taking advantage of much-more-modern special effects and making the creature truly supernatural. And, as I mentioned Arnold Vosloo was impressive as the title character.
Hollowman (2000) - This movie is essentially a modern version of The Invisible Man. Much like The Mummy, my feelings toward the 1933 movie were a bit mixed when I watched it. I thought Claude Rains was believable as the invisible scientist. But, also thought the overall movie was a bit lacking. In fact, I kind of liked the 1940 comedic sequel, The Invisible Woman, better.
I found I liked the modern version better, largely because it is much more of a horror film. Kevin Bacon was believable as the now-invisible scientist who is both frustrated by his predicament and not afraid to take advantage of it and, overall, the movie does a much better job of building up the suspense than the original did. In fact, Universal has some pretty big shoes to fill if they are going to attempt another movie reboot using this monster.
Halloween (2007) - I won't start a debate by saying this movie was better than the 1978 version. But, I thought there were a lot of things to like about this Rob Zombie re-make.
I like John Carpenter's films. But, one of my biggest complaints about them is it takes way too long to see any real action (at least in most of them). This film is better in that regard because the Tyler Mane version of Michael Myers gets to start killing teenagers a heck of a lot quicker than his 1978 counterpart (Tony Moran) did.
In fact, if it weren't for the drawn-out sequence showing Michael Myers' childhood (killers are always creepier when you know very little about them and their motives), I think I would claim this version is the better one.
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