I think there are some IPs that could stand to be remade. Last Starfighter, for example, could be AWESOME now, especially as we have almost no space adventure stories anymore. They Live is another one, even MORE relevant now than it was in the 80's. And sure the Carpenter remakes like The Fog or Precinct 13 were less than stellar, that's because those films were remade with NO MESSAGE, where as They Live...holy shit that movie was prophetic!
Or hit up mostly forgotten films with a little nugget of goodness. Something like The Wraith or The Explorers or Cloak and Dagger. Films that have a core of humanity, an eternally resonant premise, but the technology was a bit too under-developed or high concept for the audience of the time.
There is a loss of a sense of wonder, adventure, and, dare I say it, optimisim, in films today. They don't feel like slices of Americana dealing with relatable problems in extraordinary circumstances (like The Goonies), they just fell soulless and flat, rather than being a distillation of one experience, they pick and grab from across the spectrum, making a dilute and tasteless blend. It's why, I think, the remakes largely fail. Not because they swap out genders or races, but because the final product doesn't FEEL authentic to the new characters. That's why Sinners works so well, you really get that vibe of 20's Black South (whether it's accurate or not, it FEELS right). In 20 years if someone tries to remake it with a bunch of urban teens of all sorts of ethnicities and religions starting up a rave club or whatever, it likely just wouldn't work.
