Peter Jackson’s King Kong was better than the 1976 remake.
The original stands alone.
Brewster’s Millions was a lot better than the half dozen or so versions prior to 1985.
There have been something like two dozen film adaptations of Les Miserables, sometimes even released in the same year. I’ve only seen a couple of them, but surely there must be several that really suck.
Also, if your dad has ever seen the movie “The Four Feathers” he has likely seen a remake, it has been made six times or so and the original is from 1915. Depending on his age, he is likely familiar with the American version from the 1940s(?).
You might also ask your dad if he like “the Magnificient Seven” as Duck notes, it is a remake of “the Seven Samurai.”
I saw the version of that from a couple years ago. It was too awful for words. I’ll check out the older versions – I did like the story, but the execution was incompetent.
Although it’s by no means a *good * movie, the remake of War of The Worlds isn’t quite as awful as the black and white version. I watched the older one not long before the the remake came out, and I’m afraid I have to agree with my mother’s assertion that “whoever wrote the dialogue for this movie out to be shot.” Though who ever wrote Dakota Fanning’s part in the remake should be roughed up a little too.
And after watching them back to back to back I’m sure I like Poseidon better than The Poseidon Adventure and much better than The Poseidon Adventure (mini-series). I don’t expect to be in the majority there, though.
I think the best version of this movie was the 1977 one with Beau Bridges and Jane Seymour.
I don’t think that two movie versions of the same book are exactly the same thing as a remake of a movie: in the former, the scripts may be entirely different interpretations of the same source material–in the latter, the inspiration for the remake is the original film.
OK, I will probably get burned for saying this : the remake of Dawn of the Dead is far superior to the old one.
Maybe superior isn’t the right word, but the old one is quite cheesy with the bikers having a pie fight with the zombies.
And no, I don’t think it was a smart, hip movie that delivered a deep, profound statement about consumerism.
Can I say Battlestar Gallactica? I’ve never seen the original, but I gather that it would be better than the orig, considering how great the new one is.
Get the torches!!! And the pitchforks!!!
Definitely Thomas Crown Affair.
His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, is better than the original The Front Page. I’m guessing it’s also better than the remake with Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau, though I didn’t see it.
What black and white version?
I liked House of Wax better than Terror in the Wax Museum.
Probably in the minority, but I really liked Tom Savini’s remake of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. It helped that Savini has worked so closely with Romero and understands independent films.
It’s a bit misleading to call them B&W. Both the 1925 version of Ben-Hur and the 1923 Ten Commandments have Technicolor sequences. I can’t speak about the latter as I’ve never seen it or the remake, but Ben-Hur has quite a few color scenes.
I’m with lissener, the 1925 version is vastly superior to the one from 1959. It was also much better than the 1907 version, but watching clothes spin in a dryer and pretending they’re chariots is better than that.
Titanic (1997) over Titanic (1953) or Titanic (1943).
The Ring is a much more sucessful at what it does than the original Ringu.
Gosh, me too. I watched NotLDre the other weekend, and I was surprised with how good it still was.
I’ll disagree with this, and several others of the cited remakes – when Herzog’s Nosferatu was originally made, they shot two versions, as in the old days – one in German and one in English. They showed the English version to a test audience and it reportedly was laughed off the screen. They released the German version with English subtitles in the US. I suppose when it’s done that way, it seems artsy. Murnau’s version has nothing to be ashamed of.
On the English-language version:
I prefer the Carpenter remake of The Thing, although I don’t like the pessimistic/ambiguous ending they slapped on it. But the original version, despite completelt changing everything, is still a damned fine fine, far better than most 1950s SF offerings. When asked his opinion on it, John Campbell (who wrote the story it was vbased on) didn’t condemn it.
The silent version of The Ten Commandments is really a very different film than the 1956 “remake”. The old version spends a great deal of its time (much more than half, I’m pretty sure) on an unrelated modern story of morality, and nowhere near as much time in ancient Egypt. I don’t think you can quite compare them in that way. I much prefer the remake, not only for its color, sound, and better effects (although the original had state-of-the-art effects for the time, and some brief color sequences), but because the “modern” story in the silent version is a drag.
I think the silent Ben Hur is pretty darn good, and stands up to the remake.
Call me blasphemous, but I’ll take the original Adolphe Menjou The Front Page over His Girl Friday.
On the other hand…
No remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau is better than The Island of Lost Souls – Charles Laughton! Bela Lugosi as the Speaker Of THe Law, fer cryin’ out loud!
Charade was infinitely better than the confused mess that was The Truth About Charley
The Day of the Jackal far outclassed The Jackal.
The Flight of the Phoenix was an unbelievably good flick, and I haven’t been terribly interested in seeing the remake. What I have seen of it doesn’t impress me.
None of Larry “One Shot” Buchanan’s 1960s remakes of already cheesy 1950s monster flicks was better than their originals. This was a unique case of taking something that was already bottom-of-the-barrel and making something worse. Creature of Destruction was infinitely worse than The She Creature. Attach of the Eye Creatures was worse than Invasion of the Saucermen, and the only thing about Zontar, the Thing from Venus (remake of It Conquered the World) was the title. It’s hard to believe that someone could come up with a dumber moonster costume that ICtW, but they did.
They’re definitely remakes in name and concept only, but I have to agree. The new Dawn of the Dead is a better movie today because the original Dawn of the Dead has not aged well at all.
And I love how film critics babble on about how the original Night is a comment on how people always turn to TV in a crisis and then the first thing Savini does in the remake is smash the TV.
I’ll second the Thomas Crown Affair opinion above. I saw both of them back-to-back earlier this year and thought the newer one was MUCH better than the original.
I also like the newer (Harrison Ford/Julia Ormond) Sabrina better than the 1954 (Humphrey Bogart/Audrey Hepburn) one.
GT
I agree about Sabrina - re-make is much better. Audrey Hepburn is great, but I had trouble with Bogie as the lead in a romantic comedy. He ends up getting the girl! That’s just wrong!! Doesn’t he know he’s supposed to say good-bye to her on a foggy airstrip??
Overall, the re-make just worked better.