Remakes That Are Better than Originals

What are remakes that you think are better than the originals?

I prefer the 2013 version of Evil Dead over the Bruce Campbell versions. The TV movie version of Carrie is also better than the original as well. But Sissy still regins supreme as the better Carrie though.

If you count these as remakes (It's a grey area)...

Francis Ford Coppola's 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (1992)
Don Sharp's 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' (1978)
Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' (1956)
Sergio Leone's 'A Fistful Of Dollars' (1964)
Brian DePalma's 'Scarface' (1983)
Takashi Miike's '13 Assassins' (2010)
David Cronenberg's 'The Fly' (1986)
Martin Scorsese's 'The Departed' (2006)
John Carpenter's 'The Thing' (1982)
Peter Jackson's 'King Kong' (2005)
John Huston's 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941)
Victor Fleming's 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)
Werner Herzog's 'Bad Lieutenant' (2009)

There must be many more.

I disagree that the remake of Evil Dead is better than the original. Sure, definitely better visual effects, but the original had concepts and scenes that today's Hollywood don't dare to recreate. That pretty much sums up most remakes, better visual effects but lack in the punch or storyline the original had. I just wish as a fan editor I had the talent/ability to take the modern effects out of the remakes and put them in the originals, because they all look so dated now :-(

I recently watched Maniac starring Elijah Wood and i enjoyed it just as much as the original.

though i haven't seen the original Blob i did enjoy the 80's remake

the evil dead remake was terrible. absolutely terrible.

Maniac with Elijah Wood was really rad though!

While I enjoyed Peter Jackson's King Kong, it is no way even close to being superior to the original.
The original is sheer cinematic perfection.

Perhaps TM2YC meant The Lord of the Rings?

Casino Royale
The Amazing Spider-Man

I second John Carpenter's The Thing being better than the original. And while I haven't seen the original, the 1978 remake of The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers was an excellent film. I also thought that the 2013 remake of Carrie was better than the original. Julianne Moore was a much better Margaret White than Piper Laurie, and while I normally hate cgi, I thought it was well done and really helped improve the movie, especially the kill scenes.

The Evil Dead and The Amazing Spider-Man were absolutely horrible remakes though.

Edit: Almost forgot. The Incredible Hulk was a major improvement of Ang Lee's Hulk.

Maltese Falcon (1941 with Bogart, Greenstreet, Lorre, Astor)
over
Maltese Falcon (1931 with Daniels and Cortez - though Bebe is very alluring) and
Satan Met A Lady (1936 with Davis and William).

Michael Mann remade his own tv movie L.A. TAKEDOWN into the classic HEAT.

Gaith said:

Perhaps TM2YC meant The Lord of the Rings?

Casino Royale
The Amazing Spider-Man

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I'd consider both of these new adaptations of the same source material, but not remakes per se. Casino Royale 2006 has pretty much nothing in common with the '66 film, other than the title and the names of a few characters. Perhaps I'm splitting hairs.



I consider the following remakes to be as good as the source material, but not better:

Fist of Legend (1994 remake of Fist of Fury): It doesn't just put Jet Li in Bruce Lee's shoes, but instead offers a new interpretation of the story. Chen Zhen isn't boiling with rage, but instead has a sense of calm about him. Rational thought, investigation take priority over revenge. A particular favorite moment of mine is the exchange, "Do you hate the Japanese?" "I don't know." Sums it up quite well. Of course, the butchered English dub changes it to, "I don't hate anybody." - that's going a bit far. The cinematography is solid, and the action is absolutely fantastic. What we're lacking in Bruce's speed and presence is made up for in brilliant choreography. And it isn't like Jet isn't one of the all time greats, either!


A Better Tomorrow (2010): While the sheer charisma of Chow Yun Fat can never be replicated, and the lack of the 80's synth score is disappointing, this one has some real emotional depth to it. Plot points, characters, imagery from the original are all there, but they all carry new context. There's a very personal story here, reinterpreted through a creative mind. This is neither a soulless repeat type of remake, nor an in name only work that no longer resembles the original. It takes the same components from the original, but reassembles them into something that stands on its own.

I forgot about Fist Of Legend. While I liked the original I think I preferred the remake.

The Fly (cronenberg) , the thing (carpenter), the blob (80s version), maniac (2013 version--awesome soundtrack too), dredd (2012), cape fear (scorsese), invasion of the body snatchers (70s version), scarface (de Palma).

Batman begins, which was better than Tim Burton's batman (although I still like the latter more , for nostalgic reasons), both of which were better than Adam west batman movie. (Reboots kind of a euphemism for remake)

And although not a movie, US version of House of Cards is brilliant.

Absolute worst/"I hate" remakes: Psycho (with Vince Vaughn.... why?), the shining (Stephen king approved version), straw dogs (why?)

Why did they bother?: Lolita(1997), amazing spider man, Texas chainsaw massacre, nightmare on elm street, friday the 13th, Halloween (how about trying to make something Actually new?)

"Not terrible but I wish they had not made it" remakes: planet of the apes (burton), talented mr ripley, never say never again (no I didn't think this was terrible)

oh god, burton's planet of the apes was terrible. I can not scrub my eyes enough.

Gaith said:

Perhaps TM2YC meant The Lord of the Rings?

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Nah, LOTR 1978 is way better than LOTR 2001 ;-).

Gaith said:

The Amazing Spider-Man

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Truth.

Frantic Canadian said:

The Incredible Hulk was a major improvement of Ang Lee's Hulk.

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Good call.

One more that I rate but I guess few others do?

Cameron Crowe's 'Vanilla Sky' (2001)

and not sure this counts as a "remake" as it's just another Robin Hood film but,

Kevin Reynolds' 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' (1991)

took everything great about the Robins of the past (even top Errol Flynn for me) mixed it with a modern twist and still hasn't been bettered.

Frantic Canadian said:

And while I haven't seen the original, the 1978 remake of The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers was an excellent film.

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The 1970s version is head and shoulders above the original. The original is a pretty standard B pulp thriller but a lot of people think it's the classic. So, room for different opinions I guess.

I'd like to watch the original of Vanilla Sky (Abre los ojos). Didn't care for Vanilla Sky much, maybe I'd like the original Spanish version better.

Not exactly remakes, but every Disney English language audio track of a Miyazaki film is inferior in every way to the Japanese original audio tracks. Likewise, just about every American remake of a UK television series is inferior to the original.

Of course, the original Solaris is miles better than the Soderbergh remake. People have been known to disagree about that.

Edit: Oh wait, I thought of a UK series that was improved in the remake: Traffic. No comparison IMO although a lot of people are fond of the original.

Fantastic Four, Spider-man, Captain America = better today (not Amazing Spider-man). though the silly cheesiness of those original movies just can't be recreated. bless Conan for bringing back all those clips of the original Cap films.
but my best example: Ocean's 11. man the original is a downer. and just plain not as fun to watch. i know pacing and story telling has changed and whatnot, but jeeze, this is the Rat Pack, it could have gone a different direction, right? maybe not i suppose, i don't study film/cultural history.

matrixgrindhouse said:

I'd consider both of these new adaptations of the same source material, but not remakes per se. Casino Royale 2006 has pretty much nothing in common with the '66 film, other than the title and the names of a few characters. Perhaps I'm splitting hairs.

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Aye, the areas get gray fast. Psycho was based on a book, but the color knock-off was definitely copying the movie, not the book. Whereas, yeah, Casino Royale, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk are all either new stories or adaptations of the source or sources.

The two modern remakes most commonly cited as superior are Ocean's 11 and True Grit - one a straight-up remake, one a re-adaptation.

Brumous said:

Likewise, just about every American remake of a UK television series is inferior to the original.

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What about "Man About The House"? I haven't seen the series myself, despite having bought the first season on DVD for a buck years ago, but "Three's Company" is a classic.

Gaith said:

True Grit... a re-adaptation.

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I thought about that (I love both) but I decided the original had it by a whisker. The remake has Hailee Steinfeld in it's favour but the original has John Wayne.