The Good, The Bad and The Remake: Movie Podcast

Christmas is coming and the first of the GBR team's Christmas Specials has arrived, and it doesn't get much more festive than this. Sort of. First up is the original Black Christmas from 1974, starring Franco Zeffirelli's Juliet, Olivia Hussey; 2001's Dave Bowman, Keir Dullea; and the once and future Lois Lane, Margot Kidder. Considered one of the first slasher films, this was a template that many...

The Good, The Bad and The Remake is back for a Christmas double bill of festive films and their remakes and Neal, Catherine and Ben are here to get you ready for them. Send us your feedback to goodbadremake@gmail.com

The public have spoken and the films for the final episode have been chosen - by a landslide, you voted for Neal, Catherine and Ben to watch The Thing From Another World (1951) and its remake John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). The original is another slice of high-grade 1950s B-movie from producer-director extraordinaire Howard Hawks. Adapted from John Campbell's story 'Who Goes There?', the thing...

We believe in going out with a bang and, perhaps, saving the best for last. That's why this week Neal, Catherine and Ben will be tackling two classic, epic interpretations of the same story. Up first is the indisputable masterpiece from Akira Kurosawa, Seven Samurai - featuring the Japanese John Wayne, Toshiro Mifune - a 3.5-hour, black and white, subtitled film from the 1950s. But don't let that...

Two bona fide classics for you this week, as Neal, Catherine and Ben get stuck into the black and white 1950s B-movie version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers - complete with communist undertones - directed by Don "Dirty Harry" Siegel. Then it's onto Philip "The RIght Stuff" Kaufman's late-1970s update, starring Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright and the once and future Spock,...

An unplanned tribute to the recent passing of director Joel Schumacher this week as Neal, Catherine and Ben revisit his 1990 'brat pack' thriller Flatliners - featuring Julia Roberts, Keifer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt - from a time when he was a respected Hollywood heavy-hitter, prior to ruining the Batfranchise with Batnipples... Then it's onto the much-maligned 201...

We've gone slightly more obscure this week, as Neal, Catherine and Ben take a look at the cult 1986 slasher-thriller The Hitcher - starring Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell and a very young Jennifer Jason Leigh - as three people caught in a vicious, cruel game of death and torture on a Texas Highway, climaxing with one of the great twists in 80s horror. Then it's on to the Michael Bay-produced remak...

The GBR team tackle the most controversial pick yet, with a bona fide 80s classic in Ivan Reitman's original, not to mention an amazing cast - Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis and more - followed up by the 2016 all-female remake from Paul 'Bridesmaids' Feig. Ben is all ready to man the defenses and with neither Catherine or Neal having seen the remake, could t...

A double bill of acclaimed, high-brow thrillers this week, as Neal, Catherine and Ben sit down with the late-90s Scandi-noir Insomnia, starring Stellan Skarsgard in a very dark role - prior to finding international fame in Good Will Hunting and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then they mull over the slightly expanded remake from Christopher Nolan - his next film after Memento brought him to worldwi...

It's little surprise to most people that three people that grew up in the 1980s would have strong feelings about Paul Verhoeven's seminal sci-fi actioner - and Neal, Catherine and Ben are predictably gushing when it comes to rewatching it.   But 2/3rds of the GBR team have yet to see the 2014 remake starring Joel Kinnaman, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman and Samuel Jackson. With a lineup like tha...

So far on The Good, The Bad and The Remake, we've had one terrible remake and one brilliant remake. Now, as Neal, Catherine and Ben sit down to watch the 2006 remake of the seminal 1970's classic - this time starring Nicolas Cage - it could well be equal amounts of both. Which could be a problem when it comes to rating it. We want your feedback, 3-word reviews and suggestions for any other films t...

For our second foray into the mixed bag of remakes, Neal, Catherine and Ben are weighing up the relative virtues of the two film versions of Little Shop of Horrors - the first a micro-budget Roger Corman b-movie from 1960; the second a big budget musical from Yoda himself, Frank Oz, from 1986. One was shot in under a week with the pocket change of those involved with an early role for Jack Nichols...

The first episode proper has landed and Neal, Catherine and Ben are sinking their brain teeth into Keanu's first action film and it's 25-years-later remake, the Point Breaks. It's pretty much accepted that the original film is a minor classic of 90s action, but given that none of the team have seen its reincarnation, does it have any surprises or originality in store, or will it just be another li...

In the introductory episode, Neal, Catherine and Ben explain the idea behind The Good, The Bad and The Remake, the films that are going to makeup the first list of ten films and their respective remakes and all three share their personal histories with the films. Got a suggestion for a film to add to the list or a 3-word review of any of the upcoming films? Get in touch in these places: goodbadrem...