May 18, 2009
The 11 Best Remakes of All-Time
Here of the results of today’s poll, where people on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace voted for what they thought the Best Remake of All-Time was. "Best" was defined as "the greatest leap forward in quality from the film it’s remaking." What wasn’t defined was what a remake was. For our purposes, "remake" includes films that are based solely on preceding films (i.e. THE DEPARTED, which was based on the Hong Kong movie INFERNAL AFFAIRS) and films that are based on content that was previously turned into a film (both THE THING and THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD were both based on the short story, Who Goes There?).
Also, I didn’t allow votes for my own film, DAWN OF THE DEAD. Because most of the people who were answering were connected to me through social networking platforms, the film would have placed unfairly high.
Here’s what you guys voted for:
1. THE THING (1982) from THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)
2. THE FLY (1986) from THE FLY (1958)
3. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986) from THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)
4. THE DEPARTED (2006) from INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002)
5. THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006) from THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)
6. THE BLOB (1988) from THE BLOB (1958)
7. OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001) from OCEAN’S ELEVEN (1960)
8. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)
9. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) from THE MALTESE FALCON (1931)
10. CASINO ROYALE (2006) from CASINO ROYALE (1967)
11. SCARFACE (1983) from SCARFACE (1932)
For the record, this is probably the online poll where I agree with voters the least. I think the OCEAN’S 11 remake is a pretty shit movie (although the original is no great shakes), and although the INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remake is one of my favorite horror films of all time, the original is probably the best horror/science fiction film of its era. I can see THE THING, as it’s an incredible film and better than the original. But, of the ones on this list, I think THE FLY is the best choice – the original is pretty good (and the ending is awesome), but the Cronenberg remake is a great leap forward. I also think LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is a good choice. I have never seen the original MALTESE FALCON, but do adore the Bogart version, so I may have to amend my assessment after watching the original.
So what’s my choice? I think there is only one true BEST REMAKE EVER, and that’s absolutely Peter Jackson’s 2001 update of Ralph Bakshi’s feeble 1978 attempt. Bakshi’s film is boring as hell, and Jackson’s remake is a classic. Don’t think this is a remake? Then you’d also have to exclude most of the films above, including THE THING, THE FLY, THE MALTESE FALCON, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and more…
More polls soon!
ALSO - I’m going to be on Loveline tonight with Dr. Drew – so be sure to call in with your questions and comments!!
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May 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
LOTR is definitely my choice.
James – What was so wrong with Ocean’s Eleven? I mean, sure, 12 was a piece of shit.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Twelve, I should say.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
O11 was a mess, poorly written, hastily thrown together, very much like the original film. It is Hollywod patting itself on the back turned celluloid. It looks nice, but that’s about it.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
The LOTR movies are great, but the novelizations bite. Liv Tyler’s part was almost completely written out.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I agree – they are remakes even if you try and claim they are just 2 movies based on the same book. All remakes are just another movie based on the same text – the script!
My vote on twitter was Maltese Falcon, but Little Shop of Horrors was a good choice too!
May 18th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Also: Sasha Grey is HOT! ;)
May 18th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Scarface (1983) is okay. The Howard Hawks version was wayyy better, and I hated both hills have eyes.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Ah, Lord of the Rings IS the best remake ever…I totally forgot about the animated nightmare.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Actually, I dig a lot of those movies except for THE DEPARTED. I liked INFERNAL AFFAIRS enough, but couldn’t stand the Martin Scorsese flick. It’s a shame that that’s the flick he finally got his Oscar for. And I actually liked OCEANS 11 and 12. It’s no TOPKAPI, but it’s adequate entertainment. During the poll, I’d forgotten to mention the Russell/Darabont BLOB. That is indeed a fine remake. Kaufman’s BODY SNATCHERS is another great film. I love the original, but I think they did an awesome job for the second. And THE THING, is just plain fun, but I wouldn’t put it on the top of the list, but it would be up there.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I’m very pleased to see the remake of THE BLOB on the list. The actor who played the preacher in the remake, Del Close, was a good friend of mine. I’ve long held the opinion that the final scene in the 1988 BLOB is one of the best horror movie end codas ever.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
James – I guess I just enjoyed that movie because of the cast, and I was pretty entertained.
And what is with so many people disliking The Departed? Elitist snobs.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I have a hard time agreeing with any on this list just because of the “biggest leap forward” part. Most of these are great movies, but not much better then the already great movies they were based on.
Honestly, I didn’t submit an answer because I couldn’t come up with a remake that was a bigger leap forward then the original.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Man, I totally dig Peter Jackson, but by fuck did I dislike THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. I didn’t care for Bakshi’s movie either. I think RINGS has some of Peter Jackson’s best moments, but overall, I just didn’t get on board like the rest of the nerd base. I’m nerdy about a lot of shit, but this particular trilogy–no way.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
But seriously, folks.
Bakshi’s adaptation was beyond boring. His love of rotoscope made the whole look like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The Rankin-Bass ‘Return of the King’ was better than this mess.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I’m barely even sucking up when I say this: Dawn of the Dead would have been up there for me, even if you weren’t involved in this poll. The original is one of my favourite movies of all time, so I dreaded the remake more than I dread my own death, but it turned out to be a kickass movie in its own right.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
The Departed wasn’t better than the original – and worse, they hollywood-ised the ending.
Infernal Affairs 3 (since 2 was a ‘prequel’) couldn’t happen if Infernal Affairs ended the way the Departed did, and Infernal Affairs 3 is one of the best mind-fuck flicks ever! :)
May 18th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
What, no FIST OF LEGEND? Weak.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I really like OCEAN’S 11. Not because it is a great film, because it is really fun. Also a great cast. In 1983 (I was 20) I saw SCARFACE 12 times at the theater, so there is probably something wrong with me.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I have to say I agree with you on Oceans 11. It was a bad movie but, like you said, the original was a good movie either. But I completely disagree with The Hills Have Eyes. Horrible remake! Except for Ted Levine. He rocks! Other than that I agree with all on the list. Especially the first 3, they far surpass the originals.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I’m with James on Ocean’s 11 as a piece of shit.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I can’t call Casino Royale a remake, it wasn’t based on the 1967 movie…
May 18th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Thom – You need to read the post. Anything that’s based on the same source material is a remake. Therefore, Casino Royale is a remake as much as The Thing, The Fly, etc.
May 18th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Dude, have you ever seen the original Ocean’s 11? To call it “no great shakes” is like calling the holocaust “a disappointment”. It’s unwatchable. The remake IS kind of a mess, but it’s kind of fun too. I still go with Blow Out. Blow Up, while important, is boring, and Blow Out is one of the best films ever.
May 18th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Read the entire posts? I went to public school dammit. :)
I have to agree with Sean on Oceans 11.
As I understand it, the Thing might rate over the Thing From Another World in being closer to it’s source material.
May 18th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Oh…and I am not protesting to much about the inclusion of CR-any reason to put up a picture of Eva Green is good for me.
May 18th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Damn, this is the first poll where one of my choices didn’t make it. Fist of Legend in my opinion is a great remake of Fist of Fury. It turned a good film in to a martial arts epic that a lot of people would say is the pinnacle of martial arts films. It beats the original in both fight choreography and acting. It’s a must see for any martial arts fan. Although, I’d reccomend the original subbed instead of the dubbed and rescored version from Tarantino.
May 18th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Sean – Although I know it’s on the Wikipedia list, Blow Out is not a remake of Blow Up. It’s either a homage or a rip-off, whichever way you want to look at it.
May 18th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I voted for Fist Of Legend also. My votes never make any of these lists.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Gotta agree with Sean on the original O11. New version is fluff but the original is Highlander-2-Bad.
And I just gotta add that though this is television and not film: The most inconceivably excellent remake of all time has to be the new Battlestar Gallactica. The new show took a superb concept squandered on a campy 80s mess and made 2-3 years of the best scifi ever. (I coulda done without the last two seasons or so and despised the finale … I know that is an unpopular viewpoint).
May 18th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I got one Heat is better than L.A. Takedown, though Takedown was a TV film does that count? Also, Last Man Standing is an underrated Walter Hill flick, though I find myself liking it equal to Yojimbo.
Oh and I’ll say I prefer I Am Legend over Omega Man, even though Legend kinda shits itself in the third act, it is somewhat redeemed in the director’s cut.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I don’t know…Omega Man has the hilariou-er-dramatic “faux Crucifixion” sequence.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
It’s funny, but doesn’t make the movie not shitty.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:36 am
I can take I Am Legend over Omega for sure, but cannot say that Last Man is equal or even close to Yojimbo (nor is it close to that other either-remake-of-ripoff-of-Yojimbo, Fistful of Dollars).
May 19th, 2009 at 6:52 am
I hated I Am Legend. Totally hated it. I liked Omega Man. I hated Oceans 11 and the sequels. HATED THEM. Terrible films. I am NOT a fan of remakes. Some films do not need to be remade. The Big Sleep (1946) was remade in 1978, and that later film SUCKED.
I also liked the Ralph Bakshi version of Lord of the Rings, but that’s because I like most all of Bakshi’s work. I grew up in the 1970s, and Bakshi’s work was edgy and over the top at that time. It does not stand up well over time due to all the CGI and advanced animation techniques employed today. Also, the Bakshi film only covered two of the three novels. The Return of the King on TV covered the last novel.
I will say this about the Dawn of the Dead remake, I do not consider it a remake. There are only a few similarities between the two films. There are no characters in common. The two films share a title and they share a setting (the mall). That’s about it.
James Gunn, you did a great job with Dawn of the Dead, and I feel it deserved to be on your list. But, I also see how you might feel that it would seem self-serving or “tooting your own horn” or whatever. If this poll had been on some other site unrelated to you, then I feel Dawn of the Dead would have hit high on the list.
I agree with Yojimbo. It’s a classic that simply cannot be remade as a better film. Kurosawa’s work is legendary, IMO. Everything else (remakes) is all downhill.
I also feel that the two Casino Royale films should not be on this list. Sure, they do share a source novel in common. But, they really are two different films in so many ways. The original does not even fall in the James Bond pantheon of films. Just my opinion.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:32 am
I meant to say that I did not consider Dawn of the Dead a remake, but I was brain-farting. I meant that some remakes actually take the original story and characters and retell that same story as a true direct remake. Other films are simply based on the original story, but have very different characters and plot.
James Gunn did not take Peter, Roger, Flyboy, and Fran and make them the main characters in his remake. I know that is a difference without a distinction, and that it’s not the point of the list. But, this is part of why I dislike remakes. Some films simply take the original and retell it in a modern setting. Most fail.
Maybe my standard is too rigid.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:02 am
No mention of The Magnificent Seven? I would say that while both remakes of Kurosawa’s films aren’t better than their source material, they are as GOOD AS the source material, and perhaps equally influential and add their own original spin to the mix. And that’s something damn few re-makes can lay claim to. I’d also have to mention the 1950s remake of Moby Dick. That said, I’m also surprised EVIL DEAD 2 isn’t on the list.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Dawn is an example of getting the remake right. It finds a new approach to the story. And it did it well…and people still whined because the zombies were not roaming through the mall en mass throughout the film. But you know, that was scary back when hardly anyone had shopping malls. Practically everyone can walk into a shopping Mall today. James made a smart choice.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I agree, Thom. I’m likely one of Mr. Gunn’s audience for Dawn of the Dead that he might have been most worried about when he undertook the new Dawn of the Dead project. I’m the guy that sat in the theaters in 1979 and watched the original. I was just twelve in 1979. The film had a deep impact on me. In the early-to-mid 1980s, Dawn of the Dead was still in theaters at the late shows in local malls. I spent several summers watching that movie.
When the Gunn-Snyder Dawn of the Dead released, I was very judgmental and initially my thought was, “Nobody can remake the classic Romero Dawn of the Dead.” I gladly admit now that I was wrong in thinking that. But, I feel that it was due to the choices that James Gunn made in the screenplay and Zack Snyder made in his directing of the film.
Now, compare that to the remake of Day of the Dead! It’s like night and day, literally. I hated the remake of Day of the Dead. Running zombies in Dawn? That did not even phase me. I liked it, and never thought of it as wrong or strange. But, zombies climbing walls like Spider-man? Now, that was not a good choice, in my opinion. Day of the Dead (1985) is among my favorite zombie movies. Day of the Dead (2008) is not.
Night of the Living Dead also had a remake in 1990. I liked it. It had all of the elements of the original, and it had more. I know a lot of people that did not like that remake, but I loved it. That was a true remake, from how I see a remake; same characters in the same setting.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Arkansylvania – I’ll have to disagree with you – in terms of influence, Magnificent Seven isn’t even in the same ballpark as Seven Samurai. And, although it may be a good film, it’s not as good as Seven. I still think it’s a fun remake and was worth remaking, however.
John – I really hate the Night remake, as I think it’s everything a remake shouldn’t be; the same thing, only attempting to “update it”. I vastly prefer the Hills Have Eyes remake, or even the Texas Chainsaw remake. I think the film is putrid. I admittedly have never seen Day of the Dead, but I don’t think the reason it fails is because of spider-climbing zombies. Could there be a movie with spider-climbing zombies that works? Absolutely, as long as it’s consistent with the rest of the film and is believable. I love shambling zombies and running zombies and super-zombies: I don’t think there’s any right or wrong – it’s just how you use them.
As for Dawn not being on this list, it stands to reason that people who follow me on Twitter, etc, are likely to be fans of the film, and therefore I wouldn’t get a fair response (for the record, before I said it was excluded, Dawn would have come in at number one or two).
May 19th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Evil Dead 2 isn’t a remake, yeah the first 10 minutes are a condensed version of the first film, but that’s only because it was the only way Raimi could do a recap.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Arkansylvania: On Del Close … I was lucky enough to be among the final folks who got to study improv with Del at the ImprovOlympic in Chicago. I know I’m just adding my voice to an overwhelming chorus when I say he was a brilliant creative mind and just a wonderful wonderful man. Still, as he was a close friend of yours, I thought I’d take the opportunity to express my admiration for him.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
James-I totally understand making Dawn ineligible. I just think it is a strong example of doing it right.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I didn’t think of it for the other poll but you’re right about The Big Sleep remake with Robert Mitchum. It’s fucking putrid compared to the Bogart version.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
BTW, might I suggest for the future an Alice Cooper related poll, James? Not sure of a specific idea…just something related to Alice.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:37 am
James – You definitely have a more educated insight into how to write remakes. I’m a screenwriter, but I’m not professional. You are a universe ahead of me. I cannot even imagine the pressure you had writing the Dawn remake. But, what you did just made more sense to me. You used the same premise and a similar plot concept, but made the story your own with your own characters.
With the Day of the Dead remake, the spider-zombies or the idea of super-zombies (having super-hero like powers, being undead is a super-power already, right) was not really what turned me off. It was just one of many nails in that coffin. I don’t mean to attack Jeffrey Reddick either, but he took the original title and characters from Day of the Dead and reused them in ways that did not make sense to me.
I would have preferred that Steve Miner and Jeffrey Reddick handled the Day remake the way that you and Zack Snyder handled the Dawn remake. Use the same premise and plot concept with totally new characters. Instead, I ended up hating Captain Rhodes, but not in a good way like in the original where Joe Pilato played Rhodes and made you love to hate the guy. Also, Bub in the remake really came off as disappointing. Compared to Doctor Logan and Bub in the original, the newer Logan and Bub were extremely weak and uninteresting. The film does have some redeeming value.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I wanted to apologize for getting off track here. This is about the best remakes, and here I am going off on the bad remakes. I promise to say on target from here on out.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Wolvesinthewoods: Thank you for your kind words re Del. I knew him for 10 years, and I’ve missed him 10 years more. The first time we met, he put a cigarette out on his tongue. We became fast friends from there on in.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Johnrezas: I simply hated the DTV Day of the Dead remake because it was a cheap piece of crap that looked like it was made for the Sci-Fi Channel.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
What got me about the DotD remake was that the people who got bit would morph into zombies that looked like they had been decaying for weeks. People went from looking healthy to looking like the 2004 zombies did towards the end of the film-but in DotD? It’s a sudden change. For some reason that really bugged me.
May 28th, 2009 at 2:28 am
I just read this article to reassure my faith in other human beings – that naturally Dawn of the Dead should win.
Holy shit I had no idea you wrote the screenplay – fucking superb work. I’m one step shy of zombiesexual and that IMHO is one of the best zombie flicks ever created.
Oh, and was hoping to see Willard make a mention of the list.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:53 am
The Wizard of Gore.
The original, was kinda fun in a this-is-really-fucking-ridiculously-campy-way, but the new one’s actually pretty decent, plus it has Crispen Glover, Jeffrey Combs, and Suicide Girls.