Gone in 60 Seconds

[Runner]

Bringing Up Baby 1938, Katharine Hepburn and Carey Grant vs What's Up Doc 1972, Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neal. Another "not quite a remake, but close enough". Main plot difference is Carey loses his bone and Ryan loses his rocks. What's Up Doc Director Peter Bogdanovich intended the movie to be an homage to classic screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby and he succeeded marvelously. I'm giving the nod to What's Up Doc for the sheer craziness, and wild chase scene through San Francisco. However, I couldn't imagine the world of comedy movies without either one of these.

 

[Runner]

"A Night to Remember" 1958, Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, vs "Titanic" 1997, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet. I am fascinated by the ability of Hollywood to recreate historical scenes, particularly something like using CGI to show the Titanic in full color. The spectacle of a modern depiction of the Titanic story is almost too good to pass up.

But to me, there is something philosophically wrong with taking a historical event (particularly one in which 1,500 people died) and introducing a fictitious story line to try to enhance the production. Therefore, I am giving the nod to the 1958 version.

One redeeming feature of the 1997 version is that it does document the now confirmed fact that the ship broke up before (or maybe, while) sinking.

The only other movie on Titanic I have seen is the ridiculous "Raise the Titanic" from 1980. As the title implies, a group of people raise the Titanic (I can't remember exactly what for), there is some type of criminal intrigue and the ship winds up sinking again. Again, this movie was made before Dr. Robert Ballard confirmed that the Titanic was in pieces on the ocean floor in 1985 which blows the entire plot out of the water, so to speak.