Because Mel Gibson needed a career boost.

But a lot of remakes are actually great. The new Dawn of the Dead, Scarface, The Magnificent Seven, The Departed, 3:10 to Yuma, The Blob, both Solaris remakes...

Scarface is interesting.  DePalma's version is probably exactly what Hughes would have made himself in 1981.  And after crime evolves some more, and the extremes are even greater, Scarface should be remade again.

Good: Battlestar Galactica. Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Bad: Conan the Barbarian.

Somebody name an Ugly.

Would you consider Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans a remake / reboot? Because it's awesome.

The Thing is barely a remake, really. It's got the same basic idea going on, but the original flick was just another dime a dozen campy monster movie with a few interesting twists thrown in. Carpenter took the idea and actually made it scary. Both of them are kinda sorta based on At The Mountains Of Madness. The Thing prequel actually has me really pissed off, because Universal axed Del Toro's ATMOM project, but went ahead with the Thing prequel, which is basically a variation on ATMOM. I guess the budget is a lot lower, but still. Annoying.

What about Airplane? It's a comedy remake of a dramatic film. A lot of the dialogue is word for word from the original. I liked Airplane, too.

Also, I kinda liked the new Karate Kid flick. It should have been called "Kung Fu Kid" and it could have been darker than it was, but as a family film it was pretty damn good. Way better than I had expected it to be.

WOW. Hah, I had no idea they were based on a book. I read ATMOM back in the day, and the similarities between it and The Thing got me to assume that it was loosely based on it. It's got a lot of the same elements. Scientists in Antarctica that discover some kind of alien creatures that flip out and go on a rampage and kill everyone, it's got the antsy dogs, The creatures are so strange that the characters basically lose their minds just by seeing them... I kinda figured they couldn't get the rights or couldn't afford to make that particular film, so they just took the basic idea and did their own thing.

Now I know...

And, yeah, I just don't have the context for the film. I saw The Thing first, and have yet to fully sit through Thing From Another World.

I'll have to see the prequel as well, tho all it has to do to not piss me off is to not do the same stuff they did in the original. No spider-heads, no mutant dog monsters, no blood-testing-thing-attack scene, etc. I think the problem with most reboots / sequels / prequels / etc is that they keep referencing the originals. The Star Wars prequels, for instance. The new Planet of the Apes flick. Was there anyone who didn't groan when that stupid "damn dirty ape" line popped up in there? I mean, yeah, we all think the original was good, we know you're making a sequel to that movie, but we're watching this movie now. Give me a new line for this movie.