Lots of readers, perhaps gleaning where this conversation was heading anyway, have already started sending me nominations for the worst remakes (note: Not the same as the worst sequels, for that conversation begins and ends with Caddyshack II).
One reader suggests the remake of the Andromeda Strain, which I discussed here.
Another makes a strong case for the remake of the In-Laws (the original is one of the great underrated comedies of all time):
The 1979 movie ‘The In-Laws’ had Alan Arkin as a neurotic Park Avenue dentist who is roped into an international spy caper by a disreputable (possibly rogue) CIA agent played by Peter Falk. Richard Libertini is a Third world dictator with a Senor Wences fetish and a penchant for black velvet paintings. Inspired lunacy.
The 2003 remake has Albert Brooks and Michael Douglas in the Arkin/Falk roles respectively, and the remake just doesn’t come anywhere near the original.
We can all be thankful, though, that the project Madonna wanted to do—a remake of ‘Casablanca’ with herself in the Ilsa role—has yet to come to fruition. After all, she was the one who made the incredibly awful remake of Wertmuller’s ‘Swept Away’—can’t wait to see what she could do with ‘Casablanca’.