For at least the last decade, there have been complaints about remakes clogging up screens at the multiplex, but never has a week of releases quite demonstrated rehash glut quite like this Valentine’s weekend.
Three of the four major studio releases this weekend are retreads of 80s movies.
With so many remakes debuting at once, we thought we’d breakdown each new version with a comparison to the original.
“RoboCop”
Original (1987)
Length: 1 hr. 43 min.
MPAA Rating: R
Rotten Tomato Score: 88%
Metacritic: 67
Tagline: “Part man. Part machine. All cop.”
Remake (2014)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 1 hr. 48 min.
Rotten Tomato Score: 49%
Metacritic: 53
Tagline: “Crime has a new enemy.”
Differences
There’s a good reason that fans of the original Paul Verhoeven movie are made about the PG-13 remake. The blood and all around gratuitousness of “RoboCop” with Peter Well was as important to that movie’s appeal as the concept of a cyborg police officer.
“About Last Night”
Original (1986)
MPAA Rating: R
Length: 1 hr. 53 min.
Rotten Tomato Score: 68%
Metacritic: N/A
Tagline: “Making love was easy…being in love difficult.”
Remake (2014)
MPAA Rating: R
Length: 1 hr. 40 min.
Rotten Tomato Score: 67%
Metacritic: 63
Tagline: “It’s about compromise. It’s about love. It’s about a good wingman.”
Differences:
Besides the obvious surface differences about the ethnicities of the cast, the remake of “About Last Night” stays close to the formula of Edward Zwick’s original, even in the trailer. Some jokes are repeated word for word.
“Endless Love”
Original (1981)
MPAA Rating: R
Length: 1 hr. 54 min.
Rotten Tomato Score: 25%
Metacritic: N/A
Tagline: “She is 15. He is 17. The love every parent fears.”
Remake (2014)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 1 hr. 45 min.
Rotten Tomato Score: 18%
Metacritic: 30
Tagline: “Say goodbye to innocence.”
Differences:
Since the remake is more of a re-adaptation of the novel and the original film made changes to the story, the two only resemble each other in their character archetypes and basic plot points. The remake removes drug use and some of the darker elements from the book.
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