I’m going to keep my rambling preamble (PRE-RAMBLE!) short this month because we had a great draft, and I’m excited for you to get to read it. This month’s draft was mutually agreed upon as BEST REMAKE/REBOOT MOVIES!

I partnered with three others as usual, and we came up with our draft.

Choosing first overall and denoted in the draft chat as RED, we have the BEST FILM EVER podcast! You can (and should!) find all their links HERE!

Up second in the draft in BLUE is the GOOD GAME GUYS podcast! Join their discord and find out where to listen to them HERE!

Drafting third in BASIC BLACK text is me. You already know where I am.

And HERE is where you can find everything you need for our fourth pick, in GREEN, YOUR NEXT FAVORITE MOVIE podcast!

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BEST FILM EVER: Best Reboot – First pick – Whenever someone says that reboots never live up to the original, I always throw this film back in their faces. It takes a schlocky TV franchise, that stumbled more often than not in their own Feature Film deliveries and made it polished and cool and although it still paid homage to the original, it made it its own. It is new – it is cool. It is Star Trek.

SWO: Oh that is an interesting choice!

GOOD GAME GUYS: For my first pick, I am presenting a film that has been rebooted twice, once in 1976, and most recently in 2018. I will be drafting the 2018 reboot starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. A film that has a simple premise, but a beautiful execution. A film that shows the highs and lows of celebrity stardom. How sudden fame can elevate you and bring you everything you’ve ever dreamed of, but also bring with it a wave of untold darkness and difficulty. I credit the absolutely killer performances by both Cooper and Gaga, with a nod to Sam Elliot and Dave Chappelle for bringing this film to life in a way no other cast could have. Cooper is a surprisingly stellar director, and so many scenes of this movie are standout and striking. The soundtrack is almost a character of it’s own as well, with the powerhouse of Lady Gaga and a shockingly talented Cooper taking complete control of every scene that has them performing. My first pick is the film A Star is Born (2018)

More than best reboot, A Star is Born is simply one of my favorite movies in general so its gotta be my pick here.

YOUR NEXT FAVORITE MOVIE: Apparently, I need to watch that one.

If you haven’t seen it yes I absolutely recommend it. I didn’t think it was going to be my kind of movie and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I have not watched it yet either.

Honestly, and this probably says more about me than you guys, neither of those were on my board, so I am wide open here. But I think I am going to pick THE MUMMY (1999). It’s still weird to me that Brendan Fraser didn’t become the next big thing after that franchise, because it’s so damn good. Action and horror and comedy all brilliantly combined.

So far my list is still available too.

No, this is completely wide open as far as I’m concerned.

Summer, 1995. I’m 9 years old. Some friends and I go to see Judge Dredd in theaters. A “R” rated movie by ourselves. My dad bought the tickets, but they let us go in w/out him. We sit in the front row and get so bored, we start taking turns crawling on the floor behind the screen, climbing up the fire escape ladder behind the screen. Entertaining ourselves because the movie wasn’t doing it. So, my 1st pick is Dredd (2012). Karl Urban keeps his helmet on the whole time and can actually show emotion. (Not just looking like a crumpled shoe…sorry Stallone) Lena Headey is fantastic as the villainess Ma-Ma. The use of the drug, Slo-Mo makes for awesome kills. Especially in 3D. And yes, I still have a 3D tv and this is my favorite movie to utilize the technology on. Oh…and no Rob Schneider is a plus too.

Go ahead and get my 2nd pick in too, I guess. Evil Dead (2013). Keep in mind, the original Evil Dead didn’t have the humor had early on. This elevates the seriousness of that film. The drug habit aspect is great and makes it believable that when Mia starts to change, the group thinks she’s having withdrawal issues. This isn’t the first time they’ve dealt with her. Add in all the practical effects and I love every minute of this film.

Ooohhhh I was hoping to get Evil Dead later on! Nuts.

I am going for a classic and a fan favorite. I will take the John Carpenter and Kurt Russell horror remake, THE THING. I actually just watched this flick for the first time within the last few months. Even knowing the entire friggin’ plot, it’s a really exciting movie. I wish I had seen it unspoiled, but it works even when you know what is coming. Not just a great remake, but one of the best horror movies of all time!

I guess that means it’s my turn, and my board is still all free.. so for my second pick I will draft Casino Royale (2006). This story was first adapted in 1967 with David Niven playing the role of James Bond. Daniel Craig is a powerhouse, and an absolute force as 007. I will be the one to contest that he is the *best* bond, and he could not have come out of the gate into this role any hotter. From start to finish Casino Royale is exciting, stylish, and sets the tone for the next decade of films to follow. It is absolutely a modern classic and deserves a top spot. And I’d argue that each new actor rebooted the tone and style of each Bond era, so it’s both and remake and a reboot.

That is a good choice. It’s also the only Bond movie I have ever seen, lol.

I’ve only seen the Daniel Craig Bond films myself.

Movies are about having fun. How do you take something that’s been done several times before and breathe new life into it, all while also rebooting (for the mainstream) the career of Comic Book movie legend Michael Keaton. People thought it impossible but Tom Holland made us forget all about Tobey by giving us pure joy as your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. My 2nd pick is “Spider-Man: Homecoming”

I love Homecoming! And yep Best gets one more pick and then we go back. MCU Spidey is my favorite Spidey.

Reboots of things from our childhood can be messy and are generally ill-advised (cough, Disney live-action, cough) but if I told you that I was going to take a beloved children’s film and somehow recast the incomparable Robin Williams with the pop icon of our age and it would somehow surpass the original you would think I had lost my mind. But this isn’t Aladdin. This is JUMANJI!: Welcome To The Jungle. A film full of actors playing against type where the jokes go 2-3 levels deep with video game tropes akin to Scott Pilgrim and such heart at the basis of it. Tell me you didn’t have fun at this one and I’ll tell you that you’re a middle aged bald white guy.

IT’s my turn, okay good. I won’t have to think about IT too long, because I’ve had IT in mind since the beginning of this draft.. IT is a pulse-pounding remake of an already enjoyable novel adaptation from 1990.. part 1 of a two part collection. IT tells the terrifying story of the monster that lurks in the sewers.. IT returns every 27 years to stalk and kill, just like this reboot did at the box office when it was released exactly 27 years after the original. Exceptional performances by the cast, especially the very memorable and iconic performance of Pennywise by Bill Skarsgard cement IT (2017) as a pillar among remakes.

All right I am legitimately surprised this one is t off the table yet, so I will go with what I consider THE remake; the first movie that popped into my head when I thought of this topic. I will take the star studded remake of a Frank Sinatra heist film, OCEAN’S ELEVEN, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon… hell, everyone on the planet. The four of us were actually in that movie and we didn’t even know it.

That was next on my list! Good pick lol.

For my 3rd pick, I’m going with The Departed. For those that don’t know, this is a remake of the Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs. It’s the movie where Scorsese finally got his Best Director award. The cast is incredible. I like the Boston setting, instead of the typical NY that Marty goes with. It’s definitely my favorite movie from 2006, so I think it deserved the Oscar that it got.

Oh, fudgecicles. I really thought I could sneak that in next round. I almost took it twice now and didn’t. Curses!

4th pick. This may be blasphemous, but I find the original Dawn of the Dead to be too long and even boring to an extent. So, that’s why I’m choosing Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead with my pick. The zombies get faster, it’s faster paced and has some really good kills. Plus, you get a badass zombie baby. And Ty Burrell as a prick before he became everyone’s favorite tv dad on Modern Family.

Holy shit after I had been feeling safe for so long, here comes YNFM to snake two out of my next three picks in a row!

Hahahaha. And you could have played them at any time, because none of yours are on my list. I knew Ocean’s would make someone’s, but I haven’t even seen it.

All right, I gotta get my head back in the game. I’ll go with my pick that YNFM DIDN’T vulture from me and say CAPE FEAR, which I didn’t even know was a remake until, seriously, two weeks ago when I rewatched it and was fooling around on Google. But it’s Scorsese and DeNiro, which is a pretty untouchable combination, has a slew of fantastic performances and protagonists the movie makes you feel like a dick for rooting for, AND it inspired the single best episode of The Simpsons.

I wrestled with choosing this one.

I will say your comments about the original DotD make me sad, though, haha.

It’s one of my movie hot takes, I know. Good kills, but too slow for me.

It DID need 100% more of Richard Cheese covering Down With The Sickness, I can agree with that. I still listen to that cover all the time because of the remake.

Love that cover!

This is just where I have to pop my head up and say ‘does this mean every North American remake of a foreign film classifies as a remake?’

Like The Ring and Let Me In? I would say yes.

Oh boy. What is Ian plotting over there?

I’m going to nominate SCARFACE (1983)! One of this first movies I remember seeing that was violently over the top, and told a seriously nasty and gritty gangster story that locks Al Pacino into history as a pop culture icon.

I was seriously debating that as one of my final 2 picks!

Sometimes there’s a great amount of time between the foreign film and it’s modern remake and sometimes it’s a reboot in order to capture the energy of the original before it ceases. It might not hold up to the original but a quality story transcends all language barriers. My 4th pick is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Too often we think of reboots as being a modern phenomenon but there’s been a great amount of historical breadth in this field. Sometimes we want something a little bit musical, something a little bit musical, somewhere a little bit magical, somewhere that’s green. And now you’re gonna Git It. The film that made Rick Moranis a cultural icon. My 5th pick is Little Shop of Horrors.

I’m up next so I’m gonna go ahead and snatch up True Grit (2010). An awesome cast for a gritty (pun intended) western remake. It’s a toss up between this and another, but I have to give the edge here for my love of Jeff Bridges and the Coen brothers.

All right this isn’t a choice I would have considered when I first made my draft board, but BFE made me think of it with one of their earlier picks. So I will take the Christopher Nolan reboot of the Capes Crusader, BATMAN BEGINS. I actually think BB is almost as good as Dark Knight. The grounded take on Bats is just what we needed after two Joel Schumacher movies!

My 5th pick will go to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This really grounds the idea of apes rising up and taking over. I can take or leave Franco in this, but in my opinion, this lead to one of the best trilogies of the last decade. Andy Serkis did an amazing job in a Mo-Cap suit and the first time Caesar says, “NO!” still gives me chills.

And for my final pick! I really could’ve done this whole draft as horror, but I tried to mix in a little non-horror. But I have to go back and choose The Ring. Seeing this in theaters in high school and still owning a VCR at the time, made for a very creepy experience. You didn’t even want to answer your phone after you watched this. While the VHS part doesn’t hold up, the film overall does. You feel for Naomi Watts as she’s trying to save her son, but also knows what that means to do so. Samara is still a creepy villain and the video itself has tons of creepy imagery. I could’ve done without the sequel though.

I saw The Ring at a midnight showing. And my TV at the time always defaulted to a station that was just static when I turned it on. It freaked me out!

I don’t remember much of the actual plot of the ring except the parts that haunted me as a kid lol

Speaking of horror, I also am going back to the horror well to draft one of the more seductive, sexy, and well made horror remakes of the past two decades: FRIGHT NIGHT. The cast of that flick is so stellar.

For my last pick.. I welcome into my house Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). Amazing set and costume design, Gary Oldman’s human yet monstrous performance.. all the pieces that weaved together an extra layer of seductive fear about this character, and made for an excellent film.

Except for my last pick, all of mine were coincidentally alphabetical lol

Want to repick that one? You could take War or the Worlds!

Damn that would be a good theme. Nah it’s okay I’ll keep it.

In maybe the most sly of reboot choices. I’m going to go for a big blow things up kinda film. Where Michael Bay took a cartoon film from the 1980s and reimagined it through the eyes of a big budget film thanks to the magic of CGI and developed something far above expectations. Although it went to terrible places later in the franchise, that doesn’t mean one should discount the charm and heart the original possesses. My final pick is Transformers: (2007).

Didn’t see that one coming!

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Here’s a quick visual recap of the draft!

BEST FILM EVER

GOOD GAMES GUYS

SWO PRODUCTIONS

YOUR NEXT FAVORITE MOVIE

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And that’s it for June’s Draft! I can’t thank these guys enough for a great draft.

Until next time… take care!