The Italian Job

It seemed to matter to the person who started this thread...

 

LMAO!

http://forum.hifichoice.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7482

 

...and I saw it on the plane coming back from the USA and thought it was a pathetically pale imitation of the original. Why do the Americans have to do this? Their remakes are usually sooooo poor e.g., "Jackal" ("The Day of the Jackal"), "Summersby" ("La Retour de Martin Guerre"), "Nikita". Only "The Magnificent Seven" (remake of Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai") deserves an honourable mention, perhaps also "A fistful of dollars" (inspired again by a Japanese martial arts film). It seems that these things have to be translated into a US context to be appreciated by a general audience there. So I wait for the US version of "Chicken Run" (made possible by Dreamworks!)

 

I'm with you on US remakes Tone however, my memory of the original is sketchy (last saw it years ago) but I didn't think this was really a remake or imitation. More like "inspired by".

Michael.

 

The original was absolutely brilliant, right down to the ambiguous end, teetering on an Alpine precipe, with Michael Caine saying, "Just a minute - I've got an idea..."

 

Yeah the american one is a shoddy piece of work. it's a film you watch and then completely forget about because it just wasnt interesting enough to remember.

Kill Bill - now that's a good film!

 

All I remember about the original is the lorry (or is it a bus?) teetering on the Alpine precepice, Michael Caine shouting "I only told you to blow the bloody doors off!" and:

<car geek> a car chase involving a Fiat Dino coupe and a Lamborghini Miura - both were smashed up if I remember correctly :cry: - they're now both priceless classics (well, the Lamborghini at least) </car geek>

Michael.

 

The only car chase I remember was with the Minis at the end.
The muira at the beginning was simply out driving to some Matt Monroe.

Still, talking of the Mini chase, has anyone noticed just how slow it really is in the film. I can't remember ever seeing a car chase that was so slow, awesome.

 

Lookee here, you can have the original for £6.49!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005UO5L/qid=1067941435/026-9999033-9938841

In my case, living outside the EU, it was under £6. Naturally I bought it!

 

Cool - I also remember the rather swervy driving on said cliff, and the chewed up data tape for the traffic light computers - how nerdy is that being as I've only seen it once?

Aye to Dee converter
Dee to aye converter

are usually the terms I use - DAC sounds odd (but right), but most Naim dealers I've been in pronounce NAD Enn Aye Dee and then guffaw at their crap sound - talk about elitist - NAD stuff sounds pretty reasonably fine to me Especially their tuners...

Uuuh huh huh, he said "nad"... uh huh huuuh huh uh huh!

 

That's usually cos they carry Rega at a similar price point to the no goNAD stuff.

It sounds ok if you like bass in quantity rather than quality (all imho)

 

I've always pronounced 'toy' as 'tee-double-yoo-ay-tee'.

 

Remakes do indeed suck most often, Oceans Eleven being another prime example, and Get Carter, and, oh, countless others I've not thought of. "The Jackal" wasn't the worst, we saw it at the cinema the weekend it came out as there was little better to do in Exeter on a Sunday night, and it was OK. Found myself clock-watching after about 25 minutes though... never a good sign. I've not seen, and don't plan on seeing, "The Italian Job". I'll stick with the original thanks.

I seem to remember some statistic, only 7% of yanks have passports, and only about 50% ever even leave their home state... no wonder they need everything translated if they have such a closed view on the world.

Dom & I saw a couple of films the other week at the Picture House (better than Odeon), and were talking to the guy in the box office about Mystic River, and he said he was surprised how good it was, the sort of films they don't usually make in Hollywood 'cause American audiences might not be able to take it all in...