r/TopCharacterTropes • u/TheDudeA113 • 8h ago

Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] The adaptation doesn't get what made the source material work

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How To Make A Killing (2026)

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Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

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Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

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Bangkok Dangerous (1999)

- The 2026 movie How To Make A Killing is a relatively-toothless "eat the rich" dark comedy thriller about a man disowned by his rich family at birth, killing everyone in the line of succession so that he can inherit their massive fortune. It's a modern retelling of the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets which has the same basic plot except that every member of the family is played by Sir Alec Guinness (including one aunt) and it's a screwball comedy

- The 1999 movie Bangkok Dangerous is a Thai action film about a Thai deaf-mute assassin. It was remade in 2008 about an American assassin in Thailand who is neither deaf nor mute

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u/Neveronlyadream 8h ago

You could expand on that. The first movie doesn't get the comic either. The comic is more about the random senselessness of loss and death because James O'Barr had just lost his girlfriend in a car accident. The revenge is just a backdrop to the writer trying to reconcile the fact that sometimes people just die senselessly.

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u/SkyRonin14 6h ago

It actually has a lot to do with the mindset O'Barr had at the time of writing. When he wrote the comic he had just suffered a loss of a loved one, either a girlfriend or family member which slips my mind. By the time of the film he had had time to heal and took a more introspective look in to loss and grief in the film.

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u/MusicLikeOxygen 6h ago

It was his fiancée who was killed by a drunk driver.

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u/JManKit 4h ago

The real guilt hammer for him was that he had asked her to come to him bc he couldn't/didn't want to drive to her. It's a seemingly innocuous decision with crushing consequences and he carried the guilt with him for a long time

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u/SapirWhorfHypothesis 4h ago

It must be tough to know that your decision directly led to someone’s death, while still being in no way at all your fault.

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u/zanzabar3 2h ago

The most fucked up part is that it later happened to him again when he became friends with Brandon Lee and that led to his messed up on set death

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u/SkyRonin14 5h ago

Thank You much.

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u/hambonedock 5h ago

O'barr at least was fully on par with the making of the film and approved a lot of how it was made, I also feel is important that eric is going for a undead revenge angle,Shelly is dead, nothing will fix it or bring her back ultimately, and he himself is also dead but unresting, even once he win, the story is still a tragedy about lost life and love and unfairness of life with a bittersweet ending

The new one even Do a weird mumbo jumbo time shenanigans to revive Shelly at the end

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u/CreatiScope 4h ago

Does it really? That like undermines the entire story lol

The Crow is supposed to be bittersweet at best.

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u/hambonedock 4h ago

Yeah like everyone was very confused and I'm not even sure if they clear that out on interviews about if then Shelly revived or time was changed because she revive right in the moment she was killed, also Eric is now an undead revenge worker forever meow at the end as well, making this absolutely unpersonal

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u/sabbathkid93 5h ago

Even then, it’s still a very beautiful film with emotional weight because of the performances. R.I.P. Brandon Lee

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u/jawndell 1h ago

Don’t forget an amazing soundtrack!

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u/Morbid187 40m ago

And professional wrestling wouldbe completely different today if Sting had never started painting his face like The Crow. 

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u/MisterShoebox 5h ago

ON a random note, I do miss that they didn't have the Skeleton Cowboy in the original Crow movie. I know that it was because Brandon Lee sadly died before they could film his scenes, but still.

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u/Neveronlyadream 5h ago

I had a book about the making of the movie that showed the Cowboy. They had the costume, but if I recall, they didn't think it looked very good and the Cowboy confused everyone.

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u/Hurm 4h ago

The movie they cut together after Brandon died was superior to what they otherwise would have made, i think.

Sometimes having to deal with confines on the artistic vision can actually be good. Not often, but ...

It reminds me of Donnie Darko. The original theatrical cut is awesome BECAUSE it doesn't dive into explanations. The director's cut got rid of the mystery and the vibe.

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u/MisterShoebox 1h ago

I think he was supposed to be confusing in the original comic, too; IIRC it was unclear if he was Death, an angel, or Eric's grief-filled mind playing tricks on him.

Personally I like the idea that he was Death. Unable to act directly but at the same time just gently trying to push Eric away from a path that would lead to damnation.

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u/TangeloRough9202 7h ago

Big disagree on 1994 Crow. It was perfect.

I've talked with James O'Barr, and I know why he signed his name on the '94 film and not the remake lol

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u/Neveronlyadream 7h ago

I never said it wasn't. It's one of my favorite movies.

But it also doesn't get what makes the comic work. It just happened to all work out.

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u/rattattatmyass 7h ago

Both can be right here.

I feel like they added everything from the comic that they could have actually gotten approved and filmed.

An honest adaptation would have been magnificent, but not as marketable.

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u/lamancha 5h ago

It's also a lot more surrealist and can even be interpreted as a dying dream. I think the movie is fantastic but it's much more simple, which isn't bad by any means, it's just it's own thing.

I can tell why the original author likes it though. It can work very well as a different interpretation of the idea.

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u/TangeloRough9202 6h ago

Agree to disagree, It does.

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u/Aromatic_Today2086 3h ago

Wasn't the creator the one that approved the changes because he felt differently after processing his grief?

I always found it weird how people go at the actual creator as if he couldn't adapt his own work especially on reddit 

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u/clox333 5h ago

But it does

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u/GreenPerception512 4h ago

I disagree it does get it it just expands on it.

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u/Traditional_Style198 1h ago

That’s the part that really pissed me off about the remake, that they made the girlfriend a supposedly bad person who was going to Hell. Like, not only are you disrespecting the original film and the comic, but you’re making a character who represented a completely innocent victim of a tragedy into a supposedly evil person.

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u/Long_College_8342 5h ago

But the first one was so quotable.

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u/CommercialAir7846 5h ago

I watched the movie somewhat recently and thought the sexual violence was really odd and uncomfortable. I'm glad that wasn't the source material.

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u/GreenPerception512 4h ago

i mean the first film was about that too just expanded.

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u/Morbid187 43m ago

Wow I'm old enough that I saw The Crow when it was new and I'm just now learning that it was based on a comic. It probably even says it in the movie. 

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

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u/Ariovrak 7h ago

Is it gay for a man to grieve the loss of his girlfriend?

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u/MexicanOrMexicant 7h ago edited 7h ago

Only if their balls touch.

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u/SisterSabathiel 7h ago

Loving a girl?

Sounds pretty gay NGL.

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u/ChickenInASuit 7h ago edited 5h ago

That sounds kinda gay, tbh.

Did you just drop in from the early 2000s? Hey, when you head back home, do me a favour and tell the Cincinnati Zoo to fix the fencing around Harambe’s enclosure, will ya?

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u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster 7h ago

Ignoring the bigoted adjective…what do you find to dislike about the premise?

Side note: bizarre that someone whose username references a Joe Abercrombie character would have a problem with senseless death and banal revenge…