For me, it has to be “Old Boy” which is originally a Korean movie but the US version sucks so much that it remains incomparable. Another contender is “The Ring” again a Japanese movie (the ending differs between both versions, as the original one refers to the protagonist’s father sacrificing himself but the remake states that the cursed tape is being sent to someone else, passing the omen towards another stranger).

  • Nangijala@feddit.dk
    28·
    3 天前

    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 🤣

      • Nangijala@feddit.dk
        1·
        2 天前

        You can always watch it for the meme.

        It isn’t quite unhinged enough to be on my personal list of “So bad it’s epic”, but I still think it can be enjoyed ironically. But I mean, at some point one also has to accept their own mortality and ask themselves if they want to spend anymore time on terrible movies or if they prefer to watch good movies for the rest of their lives. I’m in the latter category, which is why I haven’t updated my “So bad it’s epic” list in close to a decade at this point. It’s just to say, that I understand if you choose to skip this one, lol.

  • infinitevalence@discuss.onlineEnglish
    26·
    3 天前

    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.

  • Aneorthisio@lemmy.ml
    6·
    2 天前

    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.

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      2 天前

      I dunno, seven samurai is the kurosawa film for me. But the magnificent seven stands on its own as a classic of the same caliber.

      I’ve seen both dozens of times (more for SS tbh), and I don’t know that I can point to one or the other as better, not in totality.

  • wizardfrag@lemmy.world
    171·
    3 天前

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

  • did_you_find_violets@lemmy.world
    16·
    3 天前

    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.

  • flamingleg@lemmy.ml
    5·
    3 天前

    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

    • folaht@lemmy.ml
      2·
      3 天前

      The american version celebrates the individual a cult of personality without addressing anything of substance.

      Fixed

  • samuraiapocalypse@lemmy.zip
    141·
    3 天前

    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.

    • 666dollarfootlong@lemmy.world
      11·
      3 天前

      I watched Departed twice, not knowing it was a remake and I enjoyed it quite a bit. But after seeing Inferal Affairs I have to agree the Departed is a bit too “extra”, and the original is way more rewatchable than the remake

  • Cypher45@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    13·
    2 天前

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

  • daannii@lemmy.worldBanned from communityEnglish
    6·
    3 天前

    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.

    • Shadow79@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      2·
      3 天前

      I remember watching Cordon which is a Belgian TV series that aired in 2014 but there’s also an American remake under another name containment, the only thing they have in common are that the character’s names are exactly the same with differences being that their settings take place else where respective of their regions.

    • Zahille7@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 天前

      I enjoyed Utopia, and would have liked to see what else they had in store.

      I think I got halfway through the first season of the British version, but not for anything the show did. I just kind of ran out of steam.