The 10 greatest movie remakes of all time
A remake is a chance to salvage a bad movie, see a classic from a new perspective, or finally achieve the potential of a promising but inadequately funded concept. It can also expand a script limited by the censorship of its day or add missing perspectives to stories that were products of their time.
However, not every remake is a success or even a worthwhile attempt. Some have been disasters, such as Gus Van Sant’s Psycho. Quentin Tarantino might be one of its few supporters, but Van Sant took on more than he could handle revising the ‘Master of Suspense’. The film was less a reimagining than a shot-for-shot duplicate of the original, which the director sensibly dubbed a “tribute” to Alfred Hitchcock.
Equally unfortunate was the 2014 attempt to turn Roman Polanski’s tense horror story Rosemary’s Baby into a miniseries. Not only did it lack the underlying dread and creative imagery of the original, but it seemed to alter the point of Ira Levin’s story entirely, continuing to underline why certain greats of cinema are better off left well alone.
In addition, there are countless American remakes of international hits that are seemingly produced for no reason but to spare local audiences the discomfort of watching foreign films. These remakes place international stories in familiar locations with a recognisable cast, often without any greater vision of how the film should be revised.
In light of the aforementioned failures and many more besides, it’s worth pointing out that not every remake is a disaster waiting to happen, and there have been plenty of successes. They aren’t uniformly a bad thing, and the following ten do-overs all did a fantastic job of justifying their existence.
The 10 best movie remakes:
10. Remember (Lee Il-hyung, 2022)
Remember is a South Korean remake of Atom Egoyan’s intriguing 2015 drama of the same name. Egoyan’s is an unusual revenge tale starring Christopher Plummer as an elderly man struggling with rapidly worsening dementia and memory loss. With the help of his friend, he escapes the care home he resides in and sets out on a mysterious quest relating to events from his youth, connected somehow to the Third Reich.
The revised version, written and directed by promising filmmaker Lee Il-hyung, rearranges the essentials of Egoyan’s film. Set in present-day Korea, it deals with a localised quest for revenge tied to the Japanese colonial era. The filmmaker adds several creative flourishes of his own, including a different twist to its progenitor, but one that’s equally effective.
Lee changes the tone to make it more of a revenge thriller than its pensive predecessor and significantly changes the relationship between the two central characters. The remake may not quite live up to Egoyan’s work, but it’s a legitimate and dynamic retelling nonetheless, supported by excellent work from lead actor Lee Sung-min.
9. The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960)
John Sturges, director of iconic western films including Gunfight at the OK Corral and Bad Day at Black Rock, made the interesting choice to turn a samurai adventure into a gunslinging drama set on the American frontier.
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai has inspired countless movies, but The Magnificent Seven became a classic in its own right. The basic storyline was revised to show a 19th-century Mexican farming community whose residents seek out American gunfighters to protect them from the local desperados who annually attack and ransack the village.
Sturges’ film thrived with an all-star cast and an invigorating musical score by Elmer Bernstein. Few would call it the equal of Kurosawa’s original work, but the maestro himself heartily approved. He congratulated Sturges on its release and gave him a ceremonial samurai sword for providing a worthy successor.
8. Hairspray (Adam Shankman, 2007)
John Waters’ 1988 musical comedy about Baltimore teenager Tracy Turnblad, a girl on the cutting edge of early 1960s fashion and musical trends, was a unique creation.
Featuring eccentric casting, including famously over-the-top drag queen Divine as Tracy’s mother, supporting roles given to the likes of Ric Ocasek and Debbie Harry, and singer Ruth Brown as a local dance club hostess, the film was a wild, silly parody of 1962 pop culture in every aspect imaginable.
Adam Shankman’s 2007 remake attempted to match Waters’ weirdness, notably by giving Divine’s role to John Travolta. Fortunately, it kept the scattershot satire, broad characters, and even amusingly dated racial activism of the original. It even improved on the musical front somewhat, making for a fun revisit that couldn’t quite match the cheesy campiness and cheerful vulgarity of John Waters’ version.
7. The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, 1996)
The plot of the French farce La Cage Aux Folles is followed fairly closely in Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage, apart from being transported to southern California. However, this is not merely an Americanised replica but a livelier and funnier version.
In fact, it may be the only movie where the success was derived more from the casting department than from any other member of the crew, including the director himself. The concept belongs entirely to the writers of the French original (and to Jean Poiret, who wrote the earlier stage play on which it is based), but the improvements are due to the cast.
Mainly, the hilarious combination of Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, with additional comedy from Hank Azaria and a very well-chosen group of supporting actors. The drag shows are arguably better in The Birdcage, too, and the laughs justify what might otherwise be a simple shift from one continent to another.
6. The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
The signature body horror of David Cronenberg is directly responsible for The Fly‘s success, which dragged the Vincent Price-starring 1958 original kicking and screaming into a grotesque new era.
The basic plot is preserved in its essence, with a scientist testing his newly invented teleportation device before a rogue housefly gives way to unimaginable horrors. Almost the embodiment of Cronenbergian, Jeff Goldblum’s Seth Brundle undergoes a terrifying evolution.
Cronenberg also updates the scientific references and takes a more serious approach to the genetic bonding of humans and insects, as well as vastly improving the special effects without losing the dread of the main character’s unstoppable mutation. Difficult to watch but easy to love in its own gruesome way.
5. Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 1986)
Independent cinema legend Roger Corman specialised in B-movies, with 1960’s Little Shop of Horrors standing out as one of his most popular, complete with a young Jack Nicholson in a supporting role.
The horror comedy was unexpectedly revived as a musical in 1982, which was the version that Frank Oz adapted into his hilariously entertaining film. The 1986 iteration brings the stage show’s comic book-style set design, broad characters, and open weirdness into full flower on the big screen, not to mention a much-improved puppet taking the role of Audrey II, the man-eating plant at the centre.
Excellent casting is also a big part of the movie’s success, particularly Rick Moranis as nerdy plant-tender Seymour Krelborn, Steve Martin as a gleefully sadistic singing dentist, and Levi Stubbs of the Motown group The Four Tops as the singing voice of the deadly foliage.
4. 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1996)
12 Monkeys is based on 1962’s La Jetée, a 28-minute science fiction short that deals with a soldier being subjected to time-travel experiments in a post-apocalyptic society in an attempt to prevent or reverse the steps that destroyed civilisation.
Influential beyond its length and budget, La Jetée was praised for its technical skill. Terry Gilliam, a great admirer of the short and its director, Chris Marker, was impressed by what he called “an intriguing and intelligent script,” which expanded the brief, black-and-white production into a full-length sci-fi thriller reflective of its filmmaker’s stylistic and aesthetic sensibilities.
Gilliam also made the most of rare studio backing, with the presence of established stars like Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in the cast. Pitt was particularly dedicated to perfecting his role, spending weeks in a psychiatric hospital while in character to fully prepare for his scenes in a Golden Globe-winning performance he remained surprisingly unhappy with, given how integral it was to the immersive thrills of 12 Monkeys as a whole.
3. CODA (Sian Heder, 2021)
Sian Heder’s Oscar, Bafta, and Golden Globe-winning dramatic comedy was a remake of La Famille Belier, a charming French feature by director Éric Lartigau. The second version remains faithful to the original story, which deals with a teenage girl who is the sole hearing member of a rural deaf family.
CODA is the acronym for Child Of Deaf Adults, an identity seen to limit the main character’s potential. Despite changes in setting and tone, the remake perfectly captures the struggle of the young woman who is a gifted singer and wants to follow her dream of studying music but whose beloved but needy family have come to rely on her in dealing with the hearing world.
Heder has not merely produced an English-language, Americanised version of the film but has expanded on the concept to fully justify the remake. Several small changes enhance the story, but perhaps the most significant change was the filmmaker’s decision to hire deaf actors to play deaf characters, making the performances far more natural.
2. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)
Trying to improve on Alfred Hitchcock is one of cinema’s toughest tasks, but if there was anybody who was capable of bettering a film made by the ‘Master of Suspense’, it was the man himself.
The director had long been dissatisfied with his 1934 British original and took advantage of his contract with Paramount to update and fine-tune it for Hollywood as a thriller starring James Stewart and Doris Day.
Hitchcock rewrote the script, keeping only the basic elements of the plot, which involves a vacationing couple becoming inadvertently and frighteningly involved with terrorist conspiracies. Whereas the original was deemed too lighthearted, the remake was more suspenseful and made far better use of the storyline, with Hitchcock drily attributing his second stab’s success to the fact it was “made by a professional” and not the “talented amateur” responsible for the first.
1. True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010)
True Grit won John Wayne the sole Oscar of his professional life, and it was one of the best movies directed by Henry Hathaway in a long and distinguished career. However, the Coen brothers’ 2010 remake left it in the prairie dust.
Hailee Steinfeld, in her first feature role, was perfect as Mattie Ross, an abnormally level-headed 14-year-old girl seeking justice for her murdered father. Jeff Bridges is endlessly entertaining as Rooster Cogburn, the dissolute US Marshall Mattie persuades to help her.
The film often uses dialogue taken directly from the original novel, which suits both the characters and the Coens’ offbeat style of storytelling. True Grit also gains a considerable boost from having the great Roger Deakins as cinematographer, helping to give the remake a distinctive aesthetic that added significantly to its quality while continuing to push it further out of the shadow cast by its predecessor.
