I agree that it was okay... but that was a disappointment in itself. DePalma's version was above par but had some rough edges to work out. When the remake comes in as 'less than,' it's disappointing. The new stuff (such as exploring Mom's religious mania more as a psychological illness + the whole opening scene) was a step up, but then it just lost its way and became rather by rote and more shallow.
But that being said, there's a lot of Stephen King stuff that had crappy cinematic conversations and could stand to be remade... if they devote the proper amount of time and accentuate the more enduring parts of King's vision rather than the schlockiest.
that's a good example. I'm not really familiar with the original, but I do think a 40+ year old movie that could benefit from the tech effects progress and more complex story realization could work.
Yeah he sure has given producers a good amount of workable material, but honestly I think it might be difficult for them to really make something that really brings out the character of the books. Steven King is heavily on internal dialogue, and symbolism in the small and seemingly inconsequential... His work is just so subtle and seems to translate better over print then screen. Unless the producers were to start dropping obvious hints, which would detract and distract, only a sliver of the plot could really be put into play. But either way you cut it, buly leaving stuff out or putting too much in, you lose.
Obviously that doesn't go for all of his work, but judging by the lack of success and disappointments, it kind of does go for most of it. The Stand... Doubt we'll ever see a really good adaption. But the Shining-a more straightforward, linear, and possibly more familiar story line, that was more possible. And they succeeded with that. It is his shorter works, that could work. But, especially as of late, he is movie farther towards the obscure.
Logans Run has a fairly decent premise, but they could have done so much more with it-even in its time. But its storyline is so open, and it seems like media has gone towards this genre, has developed similar sucessful movies, that they could end up scraping this film up to justice. There are no expectations tied to a movie like this. It wasn't super popular, there isn't a overwhelming amount of familiarity/little to no cult following, that they wouldn't have to follow familiar aspects. Remakes of popular movies...
To me once there are expectations tied to a movie it can go one of two ways to a majority-be a major disappointment, or match up to the original. And either way, it kind of loses.
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