I believe the guy who plays Moss is also playing him in the US version.

Quoting Telecine:

Quote:
A case in point would be the remake of Spoorloos, remade as The Vanishing. The ending in the remake ruined the whole film as compared to the original.

Couldn't agree more. Replacing the haunting ending with a dull drone was one the stupidest choices ever. It was surprising that Spoorloos' director Georges Sluizer also helmed this awful remake, but I bet his arm was twisted into creating a sanitized version of his highly effective original.

And that is precisely something I usually dislike about remakes, not that they exist per se, but why sanitize everything and have tidy little happy endings? Sometimes it feels like they are trying to create an adaptation of 'Tropic of Cancer' for 5-year-olds.

BUT... now that I've entered in this territory, I'd say that this is not the Hollywood studios' fault at all. They're just responding to the demand for a product. The fault lies within the demand itself, the viewer. If there's something quite messed up in you, and you cannot accept:

Subtitles

Foreign languages, ideas, cultures and concepts.

Haunting plots, flawed characters, mindsets different than those of your own.

Then YOU, the viewer, is the one at fault. YOU are the one that is creating this stupid demand. STOP trying to pretend that everything outside your little rainbow brite world is wrong, or worse, that it doesn't really exist. Expand your horizons, try to accept, acknowledge and admire that in this little planet, different religions, mindsets, ideas and languages DO exist.  Not everything has to comply with what you know. Stop this demand and the dreaded product that Hollywood launches will cease to exist.

Rant terminated.

Quoting Lithurge:

Quote:
Of course there is a simple solution to bad remakes.

Don't watch them.

Proven by the response to Coupling USA and many others.

Quoting JonM:

Quote:
If anyone wants to see a clip, I posted one on page three of the YouTube thread.

I have no problem with a remake like this, as long as it isn't dumbed down. What was great about the UK version is the complete and total absence of political correctness. Sexism, racism and a few other ism's all put to good use. By having a central character be regularly appalled at the behaviour around him, they got away with loads. Also, the story and in particular the ending was very subtle and ambiguous.

And in the UK it ran for two series, about 16 episodes. I don't think the story would work dragged out over a typical 23 part US series. I might be wrong, but the UK one was just the right length.

Just a point of reference.  The average US season is 18-20 episodes.  The only one I can think recently that is longer on average is '24', which is based on a real-time scenario of 1 episode per 1 hour of clock time.  Thus 24 episodes covers 1 day of actual time, spread out over the course of about 5 months.

Quoting Rifter:

Quote:
Quoting JonM:

Quote:
If anyone wants to see a clip, I posted one on page three of the YouTube thread.

I have no problem with a remake like this, as long as it isn't dumbed down. What was great about the UK version is the complete and total absence of political correctness. Sexism, racism and a few other ism's all put to good use. By having a central character be regularly appalled at the behaviour around him, they got away with loads. Also, the story and in particular the ending was very subtle and ambiguous.

And in the UK it ran for two series, about 16 episodes. I don't think the story would work dragged out over a typical 23 part US series. I might be wrong, but the UK one was just the right length.

Just a point of reference.  The average US season is 18-20 episodes.  The only one I can think recently that is longer on average is '24', which is based on a real-time scenario of 1 episode per 1 hour of clock time.  Thus 24 episodes covers 1 day of actual time, spread out over the course of about 5 months.

Long gone are the good old days of 30+ episodes per season! 'The Twilight Zone' was on for five years but had 156 episodes, 'Gunsmoke' had 635 in 20 seasons and 'The Honeymooners' has 39 in one season!

pdf

Quoting pdf256:

Quote:
Quoting Rifter:

Quote:
Quoting JonM:

Quote:
If anyone wants to see a clip, I posted one on page three of the YouTube thread.

I have no problem with a remake like this, as long as it isn't dumbed down. What was great about the UK version is the complete and total absence of political correctness. Sexism, racism and a few other ism's all put to good use. By having a central character be regularly appalled at the behaviour around him, they got away with loads. Also, the story and in particular the ending was very subtle and ambiguous.

And in the UK it ran for two series, about 16 episodes. I don't think the story would work dragged out over a typical 23 part US series. I might be wrong, but the UK one was just the right length.

Just a point of reference.  The average US season is 18-20 episodes.  The only one I can think recently that is longer on average is '24', which is based on a real-time scenario of 1 episode per 1 hour of clock time.  Thus 24 episodes covers 1 day of actual time, spread out over the course of about 5 months.

Long gone are the good old days of 30+ episodes per season! 'The Twilight Zone' was on for five years but had 156 episodes, 'Gunsmoke' had 635 in 20 seasons and 'The Honeymooners' has 39 in one season!

pdf

I remember them well!  Of course, you have to remember that they didn't have all the special effects to deal with like they do today.  What they did do were almost always done on the fly, or via static makeup, etc.  Most westerns, for example, didn't even use squibs in the heyday of the '50's.  Oh, those innocent days of youth! 

Quoting Rifter:

Quote:
Just a point of reference.  The average US season is 18-20 episodes.  The only one I can think recently that is longer on average is '24', which is based on a real-time scenario of 1 episode per 1 hour of clock time.  Thus 24 episodes covers 1 day of actual time, spread out over the course of about 5 months.

The modern Star Trek shows had about 26 episodes per season.

Lost, Heroes had 20+ episodes, too.

Best cop show ever was Homicide life on the streets! Follow up by The Wire then Miami Vice