# Good Remakes Of Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789 "2010-07-24T00:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/21 "2010-07-24T05:38:57Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I liked the Pierce Brosnan film “Thomas Crowne Affair” so I rented the original and was surprised how bad it was. > > Also, FWIW, I usually think of a remake as a directors conscious attempt to redo a particular film, not a film around a pre-existing book that previous movies have also done adaptations of. So I don’t think a lot of the previous suggestions count. Oh, you mean like that lame-brained shot-for-shot remake of Funny Games? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/22 "2010-07-24T07:44:07Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Ah hell, I was thinking of the George Reeves series on TV, and the old Batman series with the wool uniforms. ::slinks away:: Oh then you make a point. The Christopher Reeves Superman was far better than the George Reeves TV version. OTOH, Superman Returns, was dreck, although Brandon Routh did a uncanny job of channeling Christopher Reeves. The Adam West Batman is indeed high camp, love it or hate it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/23 "2010-07-24T14:17:45Z")
The 1954 version of _A Star Is Born_ with Judy Garland is a remake (and in turn was remade) and is considered the best of the 3 versions. (Although all 3 versions won significant praise.) I dispute heavily the dissing of the original _Ocean’s Eleven_. It is a great film, I enjoy it immensely and the remake was sludge. The walking scene at the end is one of the best shots ever put on film. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/24 "2010-07-24T14:47:47Z")
**The Magnificent Seven** was a quite good remake of **The Seven Samurai**. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/25 "2010-07-24T14:53:51Z")
**Last of the Mohicans** ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/26 "2010-07-24T15:06:56Z")
The musical [Little Shop of Horrors](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091419/) (1986) was a remake of a mediocre, at best, non-musical Roger Corman feature called [The Little Shop of Horrors](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054033/) (1960), whose chief claim to fame was an early Jack Nicholson bit part as a masochistic dental patient. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/27 "2010-07-24T16:37:31Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > I’m quite partial to the remake of _The Italian Job_, but then I’m fond of mindless action movies without a lot of blood. (It’s a narrow sub-genre. ) I’m also not fond of movie conventions from that era. I like only a small percentage of the movies that were released during that time. I was going to suggest _The Italian Job_. But I disagree with the second half of your post. I do like films from that era. I can’t say that either the 1969 or 2003 version is better than the other. They’re very different films. I will say that, while I have both on DVD, I’ve only watched the remake once and I’ve watched the original many times. But again, they’re different kinds of movies. They’re both good. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/28 "2010-07-24T17:30:30Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **The Magnificent Seven** was a quite good remake of **The Seven Samurai**. I’d call it a \*homage. \*😃 If it’s a remake then Ran is a remake of King Lear. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/29 "2010-07-24T17:53:23Z")
I don’t think it was a great film but the John Hurt/Richard Burton remake of “1984” was better than the 1950s version with Edmond O’Brien and Michael Redgrave. The 1922 version of “Robin Hood” with Douglas Fairbanks Sr is quite book but sometimes I think the 1938 version with Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Trigger the Horse (deHavilland rides him), score by Korngold is the greatest film ever. Also has there ever been a father-son pair that look so much alike as did Alan Hale Sr (Little John in both) and Jr (Skipper on Gilligan’s Island)? Richard Thomas in the 1980s did a couple TV remakes of films that may actually outdo the earlier films: “Master of Ballantrae” and “All Quiet on the Western Front”. Haven’t seen either of them in decades but that was my impression at the time. Ken Branagh’s “Henry V” compares quite favorably with Larry Olivier’s. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/30 "2010-07-24T18:19:56Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **The Magnificent Seven** was a quite good remake of **The Seven Samurai**. Likewise, _A Fistful Of Dollars_ is a good remake of _Yojimbo_. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/31 "2010-07-24T18:26:54Z")
I was searching for a precursor to the Indiana Jones series, as at least two of those films are outstanding homages to the old H. Ryder Haggard novels with Alan Quatermain. Amusingly, an attempt was made to capitalize on the Indy films with actual screenplays of the Haggard books starring Richard Chamberlain as Quatermain. The first one was a flop, which didn’t stop them from making several more. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/32 "2010-07-25T00:58:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@silenus](#): > > > > **The Magnificent Seven** was a quite good remake of **The Seven Samurai**. > > I’d call it a \*homage. \*😃 If it’s a remake then Ran is a remake of King Lear. 😛 I’d call it an _homage_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BlakeTyner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@BlakeTyner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlakeTyner)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/33 "2010-07-25T03:46:07Z")
Probably the go-to answer for horror films would be Zach Snyder’s 2004 remake of George Romero’s 1978 _Dawn of the Dead._ A lot of us sort of expected it to suck, because the original is a classic, but Re-Dawn is almost as lauded as Pre-Dawn. Different films dealing with different issues, but I think Snyder did a good job of toning down what I always thought was Romero’s heavy-handed morality/social commentary. I love both flicks, but for completely different reasons. I’m not sure whether this qualifies for the thread, but inasmuch as _Sleepless in Seattle_ has the meta-connection (film-within-a-film) to _An Affair to Remember,_ which **itself** is a superior remake to _Love Affair,_ I’d say _Sleepless_ is a damn fine remake. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/34 "2010-07-25T04:16:37Z")
I’ve never seen the original 1911 version of The Poseidon Adventure, but I think the 1972 remake with Gene Hackman is pretty good. > **[1911 Poseidon Adventure](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1911-poseidon-adventure/)** > > Was the film 'The Poseidon Adventure' being shown aboard the Titanic when it hit the iceberg? Whoosh? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/35 "2010-07-25T04:37:54Z")
As a recent example the remake of _The Karate Kid_ is good. That’s not to say it is necessarily better than the original but it doesn’t pale in comparison. I’d say Hitchcock’s second attempt at _The Man Who Knew Too Much_ is the better one. I can’t say if the American version of _The Ring_ is better or worse than the Japanese original, but it is a pretty good movie on its own. _The Departed_ was better (at least to me) than the original. Mel Gibson’s version of _Ransom_ is about as good as the Glenn Ford version. I’d disagree with the comment above that _Sorcerer_ is better than _The Wages of Fear_ but it is still a good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/36 "2010-07-25T05:13:29Z")
Ben-Hur. Not sure if i’d say it’s better, but the remake is very good. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789/37 "2010-07-25T16:09:04Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I prefer **Sorceror** over the original _Le salaire de la peur_, although I’m well aware that that’s a minority opinion. I agree with you! I like Friedken’s version better, [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-remakes-of-movies/547789.md?page=1)