Asklemmy

For me, it gotta be City of Angels, the American remake of Der Himmel über Berlin.

The German version is art house, with the camera and soundscape designed to emulate the angel's experience, observing humanity. The camera can move anywhere, gliding in and observing people's most intimate moments. The soundscape is constant whispers of thoughts and wprries the people of Berlin carry with them in their daily lives. Everyone is lonely and isolated from the other despite living in a big city. The world is black and white. And then there is this one angel who, much like the little mermaid, becomes fascinated with humans and their ability to experience passion, see color and feel and taste and smell. He becomes more and more tempted by humanity, to live like them and just like the mermaid, the death nail is when he falls in love with a human and he accepts the mortal life to have a chance to be a part of humanity and to be with the one he loves.

The American version: etherally beautiful man-angel sees hot human-woman and gives up his wings to fuck.

Hot human-woman: 90s Meg Ryan. Say no more. I understand.

Etherally beautiful man-angel: Nicholas fucking Cage.

Bruh 🤣

You know what, I don't even even think Nick Cage is ugly. He has his charm for sure. But he does not pull off ethereal beauty. And he shouldn't have to. The German angel was played by Bruno Ganz (same guy who played Hitler in Der Untergang🤌), who isn't exactly beautiful, but he has a warmth to him that feels comforting and that's the point of the angels in the German version.

But the American version constantly has other characters point out how otherworldly beautiful the angel is and Nick Cage, bless him, does his best to make the soft pretty boy look that Brad Pitt made in Meet Joe Black, but he just looks like a predator when he tries and it is so fucking funny.

Lord have mercy.

The American version lacks the introspection on past sins of a society that did horrible things and have to live with that guilt. The American version also fails to comment on the theme of the all consuming loneliness we humans are bound to feel because oral communication can only take us so far in terms of making ourselves understood to another. It is inherently lonely to be human.

There are many themes that are pretty cool to dig into in Der Himmel über Berlin. I'll never watch it again, though, because I hate ASMR-type shit and everybody is ASMR-whispering in that film and it is nails on a chalkboard for me. It was near impossible for me to finish it, but it isn't a bad film and i like the overall idea even if the sounds of whispering people almost made me gag. Also, Nick Cave and Peter Falck have a few cameos. So there's that. 👍

The American version has a very, very, VERY awkward Nick Cage and Meg Ryan sex scene. Pick your poison 🤣

Solaris, the new version is decent but it's a totally different movie and just can't do the original justice.

Second place for me is girl with the dragon tattoo. The original is just better.

The Magnificent Seven is fine.

Seven Samurai, however, blows it out of the water.

Battle Royale. The US remake was called something like the hunger games and wasn’t as good…

"The Upside" is really shitty US-remake of the beautiful film "The Intouchables"

Probably an unpopular opinion, but The Departed. They dumbed down Infernal Affairs for western audiences. The shot of the rat at the end wasn't clever and the entire movie was like an unnecessary terrible Disney remake of an original that didn't need remaking.

Taxi (2004) was inspired by the French movie of the same name from 1998, and Just Visiting (2001) was based on Les Visiteurs (1993), they are both hollow, sterilized versions of the originals and made the fatal mistake of thinking they could just swap out the setting while keeping the plot, something that almost never works.

The original Taxi is a gritty, high octane love letter to the sun drenched city of Marseille and the broader French Riviera, it thrives in the collision of two distinct worlds, a taxi driver hailing from the low income suburbs of the city and the fancier world of career law enforcement, uniting against a common enemy in a chaotic investigation.

Les Visiteurs is a genius satire about the collision of medieval religious values and modern consumer society, making equal fun of spirituality and materialism through its various characters.

Just watch the originals with subtitles.

I don’t know if it’s the worst, but Speak No Evil (2022) has to be up there. It’s a bleak Danish-Dutch horror movie about the dangers of being a people-pleaser and ignoring red flags out of politeness. The 2024 American remake turned it into a pretty typical Hollywood horror movie with a happy ending, which completely undermines the whole point of the original.

Point of No Return from LA Femme Nikita

Can't remake Luc Besson

not a movie, but the american remake of 'the good doctor' is an almost complete inversion of the south korean original. Instead of a wholesome and inclusive community accepting the talented weirdo and humanising him as a character over the course of many humanising interactions, we get a talented actor going full regard as his character spergs out and shows through his work performance how superior he is to normals.

Also the original had a quite substantial subplot about their hospital beuarocracy dealing with a larger threat of privatisation. The issue is never fully resolved and the audience is left to linger with the uneasy sense that health outcomes are jeapardised by more than simple non-conformity. The american version celebrates the individual without addressing anything of substance

The Ring was pretty good. I've seen both and I prefer the US version.

Netflix Death Note movie if you consider the Japanese Live Action Death Note movies as the original, but technically the anime is the original.

The only answer here is all of them...

The eye

Korean horror. The u.s one is bad like how the old boy remake is bad.

The original was a Pang Brothers film. Like. The audacity to think they could do better.

Iron Man. I watched Tetsuo, and... If you know, you know.

Probably Old Boy for me. I didn't bother watching it though so.

So, both and not Vanilla sky. They used Penelope Cruz in both films, but swapped out the guy in the Spanish version for tom cruise and it's otherwise the same movie. Tom did a great job but it was uneeded unless you just loathe subtitles (y tho)

Maybe not the worst, but Nikita is better than Point of No Return.

Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Initial D is much better.

There are some very notorious TV show remakes, too

Force Majeur with fucking Will Ferrell was certainly a choice

old boy was pretty horrifically bad. I didn't even get past like 45 minuets

Breathless

One of my favorite movies of all time is "Let the Right one In" ("Låt den rätte komma in"), a Swedish romantic horror film. There is an American remake called "Let Me In". The pacing, mood, and atmosphere of the remake don't even come close the original. I believe the American versions of foreign films are often more expensive, polished, and with better actors, but I don't need that to enjoy a film. One recent example is "Bugonia" which was nominated for 4 academy awards and is very well made, yet I enjoyed the Korean original "Save the Green Planet!" just as much.