Another AWFUL American Remake: Secret in their Eyes (2015)

A video 4 months in the making. Was it worth it? Maybe. "Young" American hotshot writer Billy Ray decides to try his hand at adapting one of Argentina's best, most iconic, films ever. However, he fumbles the bag so badly he creates one of the worst thrillers I've ever seen. Get comfy cuz today I'm going over the 2015 remake of Argentina's classic film, El Secreto de sus Ojos...and it's going to take a while.
Links:
Links:
/ zelcher
/ zelcher20
letterboxd.com...
/ discord
Patrons:
Fat Cat:
TheHeropon97
UknownBean
Cat:
Lil Shy Fry
Jett James
Mary Y.
Chrissie Long
Music:
Select a Mode - Dr. Mario 64
El Secreto de sus Ojos OST
Dust Devil - D - Code
Waltzing Flutes
Horror Land - Mario Party 2
Speaking Guitar
"Agh! Won goph in mah mouph! Blech! Ptooey!" - Fire Emblem Awakening
Suspicious People - Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
Everyone's Fool - Fire Emblem: Fates
Family Feud Theme
Eccentric 2007 - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Team Rocket - Pokémon Puzzle League
Hiya Papaya! - Fire Emblem: Engage
Odd People - Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
Lonely Puppeteer (Spring Remix) - Fire Emblem: Heroes
Track 13 - Dr. Mario 64
The End - Dr. Mario 64

[@ShevaDecai]

10 minutes in, I decided to pause this video and went to watch the original 2009 movie (it's already on my watchlist anyway so I thought why not) and that was a good call because WOW this movie is absolutely great. The story, the performance, the music, all of it is great. And after watching this analysis, it makes me appreciate the original even more. It also makes me not wanting to see the remake lol. Great video Zelcher!

[@kiarasessyoin]

ARGENTINA MENTIONED 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

[@rickifriki]

Yes, indeed

[@spacetiger23]

The level of respect and dedication you have for the original is admirable. El Secreto de sus Ojos is truly a jewel, and very loved by us argentinian, so to see someone from outside understand it's layers and the importance it has in reference to that period of our history it's very touching. Thank you so much for this video, you gained a new subscriber. I had not seen the remake and don't intend to, since North America has a knack for taking meaningful and loved foreign films and turn them into parodies, almost. They have done the same with another classic movie starring Ricardo Darín Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens), I think they called it Criminals, and I had the misfortune of watching it, this one sounds worst though. They will be adapting another Argentinian movie soon, a horror one, but since Guillermo Del Toro is involved, I have more faith on that one. I still can't believe they couldn't grasp the importance of the eyes, it's literally on the title, for fuck's sake. The only thing that made watching snips from the remake was your funny commentary, this video switched from deep analysis of each scene to hilarious jabs at the remake and it's director in a smooth way (yes, the cat with glowing eyes is not exactly subtle, but I mean that you chose the right moments to cut the scenes and go back to the other movie), I really liked that. Overall, this video is clearly made with love and that's much appreciated. Greetings from Argentina, thank you for treating something we love with the respect it deserves. I would recommend you watch the movie I mentioned, Nueve Reinas, if you enjoy our films (and if you hadn't seen it already), try not to spoil yourself anything, it's a movie that's better to watch without knowing anything. It's not the same story or even theme, but it's another jewel. I apologize if some words or sentences make no sense, english is not my first language.

[@webinatic216]

American remakes fail as they try to make an apple to a double cheeseburger.

[@ZelcherProductions]

That’s the American way baby 💪🇺🇸🦅

[@godspellflowerfr5991]

Wow, Hollywood truly makes us Americans look so bad with remakes like this. It’s like going to a museum and spitting on priceless art

[@mauriceortiz8817]

Ouch

[@Ghostssorrow]

Oh man, i did not know these movies even existed. And i will 100% watch the original one. I really appreciate the indepth look at both versions and whats so wrong with the remake. You really manage to bring it across in a way thats easy to understand even for someone who dosent have much of an eye for the smaller things. Both about positive and negative things. All in all a great video! And in my eyes very much worth the wait

[@Karanthaneos]

One detail I wanted to mention on the name revelation bit where Sandoval talks with his friends to figure out the letters, it's not much that they didn't have any know about football, is that it was very specific knowledge about one team's history. Unless you followed that team, and knew deeply about their history they wouldn't know about that. Also, I don't know about The Dodgers other than they're a popular, if not the most popular Baseball team in the US, mostly because I've heard it named in other media since I'm not from there. Furthermore, the team they reference is infamous for, despite being in the top leagues, it hadn't won a tournament for a very long time (It had recently, but at the time of the movie it hadn't), so it further emphasizes the idea of passion that even if the team you're going for isn't the absolute best, there's a deep emotional bond people have with them. Which wraps around again to the concept of passion.

[@lorenmerluzzo]

My wife is Argentinian and the original is one of our favorite movies. She told me one day that there was an American version and asked me if I wanted to watch it. I cringed and asked who was acting in it. She told me the actors who are in the film and my immediate reaction was to warn her just not to watch it and that we should watch the original again. She watched it alone anyway. Afterwards she lost her shit for about an hour, yelling in Castellano. I explained to her that American movies today and over the recent past years really have no emotion or vision. They are moneymakers for an industry. Not art made for the sake of making art.

[@nadia-yahiaoui7775]

Excellent work of comparison. El secreto de sus ojos is one of my all time favourite. Everything is perfect, and it could not be more perfect with the cast, especially Guillermo Francella who played Sandoval. He gave his character a higher dimension. I have not seen the remake, and don't consider watching it. Thanks for this great video.

[@luke9648]

I really like the video. I recently ranked the original as my #9 favorite film of all time. I do not think the ending is ambiguous, Morales will continue to rot, while Esposito and Irene will try to make it work between them. I like to think they succeed.

[@Ricchezza0]

In "Nueve Reinas" they did the same thing, there must be some reason why they ruined them.

[@martincalvo130]

What I never understood is why campanella, who had already worked in holywood, was not commissioned to do it.

[@axelprino]

While I was aware that a Hollywood remake of this existed I had never bothered to watch it since all I've heard about it was that it was pretty bad, so I didn't know just how bad of an adaptation it was, this video was quite instructive. I know it's quite a different example but it reminds me of how the French movie Taxi also got a remake that completely butchered the original, from a really fun action movie with well timed jokes to a painful to watch comedy that doesn't land any of its jokes. Or how the British version of Death at a Funeral is hilarious and its remake is just kinda meh at best. I get why someone would want to localize successful foreign movies from a business perspective since I've heard audiences in the US dislike watching films with subtitles so it must sound like easy money to a producer, piggybacking from preexisting good reputation and a decent chunk of the creative job is in theory already done, but I guess they fail to grasp that it's meant to be as much of an adaptation as any other and it's not so straight forward of a process. I guess that in the US you can't get away with openly bashing Bush-era corruption like how here in Argentina most people won't bat an eye at depicting the 70's as a complete sh*tshow, after all, everyone here is aware that back then the government was murdering random citizens under vague suspicions of being subversives. So while the idea of using a tumultuous period with some similarities is there they didn't went ahead and did the part where they depict the government's actions as bad. There's a difference between setting a story over thirty years in the past and less than fifteen tho, so I can't be too harsh, but they were the ones picking the setting so... meh, this is turning into a rant. Nice video, very informative, I'm glad I clicked on this one despite having doubts due to its length. Cute kitty BTW :)

[@o_____o1029]

Very good and complete comment, a dhame ir doesnt hace more attention. Saludos capo

[@GranValor97]

Estoy listo para ver como arruinan a un clásico 👍🏼

[@gastonlanteri1147]

Cultural appropiation! Kiddin'. Didn't watch the american remake but yeah the argentinian film is legit awesome pure art. Also recomended, "9 Queens" and "Chinese Tale" with Darín, and "Lionheart" of Franchella, those actors and proly the biggest and most prominente argentinian actors, as it shows in "The secret of their eyes" when they were casted together.

[@mattlandry]

This review isn't muscular enough

[@en5722]

I was thinking the other day “man, it’s been a while since Zelch made a regular video,” and look what drops in on a Friday night. Continuing great work man. If I had a patreon I’d support you more.

[@usermanico]

Como se habrá cagado de risa Campanella con esta versión.

[@marianoschaller9066]

Great video. Only one little thing. Sandoval is not a morron. He just recong himself as unsignificant. Working in an office absolutelly overerloaded with soo mutch work that they are unable to do because burocracy and slow pase of the obsolet sistem. Trying to do his job would be as useless as answering the phone saying "banco de espermas". It just didn't matters. He doesn't matters. Nothing matters for him, because he is lost.

[@alfredogallo8385]

I recomend to you "nueve reinas", it also has a bad american remake

[@marcospe2468]

I know it's pretty cliche at this point, but this video truly deserves like 100x the amount of views it has. I guess that's where the dichotomy is, pick a mainstream topic and get a lot of views or a niche one and don't get as many. Love the script and editing, keep up the good work!

[@mauriceortiz8817]

Great job praising the original. You bring up a lot of nuances that the Hollywood version lacked, which I just watched. You make the original sound more compelling and definitely a must see. Although, I enjoyed the US one, somewhat, I did notice some forced moments in the writing. The mist affecting moment in the second version for me was when Julia Roberts climbs into that trash bin. That and the constant Downtown LA locations kept me watching, but, you're right; there were some cringey' choices. The multiple suspects did not flow naturally either and the twist at the end did not feel organic. I hope I can enjoy the first one now.

[@o_____o1029]

Well, did you?

[@silverst0ne183]

The original movie is one of my favorite movies of all time. After watching it again last week I thought : "You know what would make a good video essay? An explanation of why the american remake sucks and why the original is great". I looked it up and fell on your video and it's exactly how I would have imagined making it. Very good comparisons and very entertaining video! You've earned a new sub!

[@P-P-Panda]

The SpongeBob music makes the trainwreck of a remake more bearable lol

[@alfonsoa7728]

Esposito and Hastings, a true love story

[@murray9807]

Is it me or the movie actually has f*ck all to do with El Secreto de sus Ojos? Is like they got a script for a different movie laying around and they tweaked it so they could say they were making a remake.

[@bellacannedsoup7925]

Once again, another banger from zelcher prodcutions studios

[@Chris-uh8oj]

Crazy that Hank from Breaking Bad was still racist in the movie remake lmao

[@supoa9489]

Once I watched the original, i knew the remake was bound to fail because no way to achieve the same level of stakes as it lacks the historical and political context as well as the intrigue of the former it won't work

[@MimiOrozco23]

Hey man, great video but I think it lacks some muscle some american flavor you know

[@ZelcherProductions]

I may have added too much romance, a burden of my Hispanic heritage it seems 🫠

[@maxmarioxdd140]

Thank you SO much for making this.

[@transfembass]

Obligatory "wake up babe zelcher uploaded" comment

[@offal]

I agree it was terrible, the Argeninian origional is still one of my favourite films it`s just a beautiful piece of film making, a Gem. The Americans tried to jazz up a perfectly paced film. The characters were weak, the script changes especially the end were noncensicle, they totally ruined it. it was a pile of shite. they did a good adaptation of the origonal open your eyes/vanilla sky but this sucked so much.

[@alangrant5278]

Are there any good Hollywood remakes at all?

[@mist9818]

when he said he didn’t want the romance means he didn’t want the melodrama of it since hollywood overall sees as a low gender in cinema. in latin america melodrama is a core in narrative and understood. the weird thing this is putting victim being someone the protagonist knows is super melodramatic but in a bad way

[@DavidWright1138]

It's a more muscular story, an American story. We're gonna get Arnold in on this!

[@sanddall-asy9310]

This was a rlly interesting video!

[@calvinaustin81]

the most awful remake till date. it was so awful that at first I thought it was a spoof

[@jaredgunkle1562]

ive never seen a movie and hated it so much only to learn theres another version that does everything right before thanks for that i guess

[@mikevalenzuela3974]

Ricardo Darin is such a fantastic actor.

[@marcoscuatro5351]

Great analysis

[@gastoncontreras5729]

Saludos desde Jujuy!!

[@tbmmmmmmmm]

goooood

[@JoeyDoesStuff1120]

This is really good!

[@thewolfofwaterbury.2763]

Nice new video

[@Nono-hk3is]

A baby!

[@whimahwhe]

You actually kinda butchered the history part but aside from that, awesome review

[@mandobrownie]

boost baby

[@ZelcherProductions]

Every comment allows Jennifer to eat another day ✊😔

[@I_Scorched_You]

​@@ZelcherProductions@ZelcherProductions 😂 bro I remember in the livestream where you revealed that this was gonna be your next video you were so shocked that everyone already knew what it was gonna be. I re watched your perfect strangers video just now and you reference secret in their eyes and the American reboot.

[@I_Scorched_You]

​@@ZelcherProductionsyou're too predictable bro.

[@sergiofernandez2336]

So, more american = more muscular?😂

[@nickrustyson8124]

Zelcher I Disagree with your take on American Remakes of Foreign films and how they take away eyes from the original, no it's normally the opposite do to videos like this, it's only when it's good it's rare, like True Lies is a remake of a French Film, I bet someone here didn't know that, (Not you that's a pretty well known example)

[@TheNowhereMan0]

Curiously, I like more the remake than the original. FYI: I'm from Argentina.

[@bestfindsshoppee]

I actually love theremake of julia roberts. I felt a lot of deep emotions. Thats super good enough