Best Remakes
We have seen Hollywood run out of ideas over the years which has lead to many remakes, some are good because they bring technology unavailable at the time into the picture, while others are just terrible, today we are looking at the best.
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Darren – Movie Reviews 101
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
When this film get released it was after one of the biggest disasters in remake when Tim Burton got his hands on the franchise. The final product left us breathless with the stunning performances with Andy Serkis as Caesar the ape. We get to see how the saga started with small references to the very original start of the franchise. I have picked this because it surprised us all and bought a dated classic into the modern era in near perfect starting what will be one of the best trilogies in modern movies.
The Fly (1986)
I know I’ve exhausted my love for this film way too much and bored you all to death with it, but what else could I choose? There are tons of remakes I like to be fair, but The Fly is my favorite horror movie like EVER! I love Jeff Goldblum, I love the gore, I love Geena Davis and I love the Howard Shore score (am I writing a poem here?) Anyway what more can I say, I just love this movie!!! It’s brilliant and I could literally put it on any day, any night and always enjoy it.
The Departed (2006)
If you wanna see a great Cops and Robbers movie, this is it!!
This is definitely one of Scorsese’s best films if not THE best. He and screenwriter, William Monahan expertly took the Chinese movie Infernal Affairs (2002) and created an intense and captivating crime movie matching no other. By adapting the original Chinese film, they made a movie close to an hour longer and more entertaining.
It’s noteworthy that this is the first time that an adaptation of a foreign movie was able to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Excellent cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Vera Farmiga
Kim – Tranquil Dreams
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
I wouldn’t be very convincing in this selection because most times I haven’t seen the original. The same goes for my choice right here. Dawn of the Dead is a fantastic zombie movie and possibly one of my favorites. Its the one that definitely got me into liking the zombie genre. The story is strong and the zombies are done really well. Plus, things get intensely woven to make sure that when you have a moment to breathe, you take that moment to learn about our characters but not too long until you get the next wave of crazy action that comes down. Its fun, thrilling and intense: the recipe for a great zombie flick. I have no idea whether it ups the original but it does a fine job all on its own.
The Thing (1982)
1951’s The Thing From Another World is a classic of B&W Sci-Fi Horror. An intelligent film exploring the frightening aspect of undiscovered extra-terrestrial life – frozen, yet ready to use us as food when thawed.
In 1982, John Carpenter took this premise to a dazzling new height. His alien is radically upgraded with capacities built on the original plant-based concept, but expanded to terrifying levels.
It transform the Us-Against-It teamwork of 1951 to a paranoid Who’s human and who’s not? pressure-cooked witch-hunt. Carpenter invested serious time working out story details and leaving trails of bread crumbs for follow-up viewings.
The Thing of 1951 was easily distinguished from humans. In 1982, one feels – with great intensity – the importance of this organism never reaching civilization.
The special effects, work of genius Stan Winston, retain their excessively bloody, gory impact and are light years beyond the scope of 1951’s human-in-an-alien-outfit.
It is a tiny list of directors who’ve so completely re-imagined a film: absorbing all the qualities of the original, amplifying them to incredible proportions, and adding their ground-breakingly distinct vision to the mythos.
Khlaid – The Blazing Reel
Oceans Eleven (2001)
Very rarely does a remake manage to top its predecessor but Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven original doesn’t just top the rat pack original but blows it out of the water. Ocean’s Eleven is fun, entertaining and immensely enjoyable. The updated script from Ted Griffin is a smart one and Soderbergh directs the film with undeniable virtuosity but most of the credit goes to the charming performances from the stellar ensemble cast which includes the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Elliott Gould, Casey Affleck and Andy Garcia. Ocean’s Eleven isn’t just a great heist movie and a great remake, it’s a great film. period.
S.G. Liput – Rhyme and Reason
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
In racking my brain for outstanding remakes, I realized that there aren’t nearly as many to match their original as Hollywood seems to think, since they keep recycling past ideas. One, though, that stood out, even though it’s really a third remake, is 1998’sYou’ve Got Mail. This third pairing of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan is based on Miklós László’s play Parfumerie and had previously been adapted as The Shop Around the Corner (with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) and the musical In the Good Old Summertime (with Judy Garland and Van Johnson). Nora Ephron took on the time-honored story of two pen pals, who hate each other in real life while falling in love in their letters, and she managed to cleverly update it with the modern equivalent of online chat rooms and e-mail (along with some blatant AOL product placement). Certain scenes are preserved from the prior versions, sometimes word for word, but Ephron infused the film with her legendary dialog and wit and timely themes of the sad inevitability of big corporations snuffing out the homey and intimate side of business. With the unparalleled chemistry of Hanks and Ryan and the funny, bittersweet screenplay, You’ve Got Mail rises above its potentially unoriginal origins as a remake to become, in my opinion, one of the greatest romantic comedies ever.
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
When thinking through the vast amount of films available for choice in this category, I realized just how overwhelming Hollywood’s unoriginality is, and how the majority of remakes are not very good. I knew that, in order to pick the film in this category that is truly the best, I would have to find the remake that is the most substantially better than the film it’s retelling. And that was how I landed on Ocean’s Eleven.
I know what some of you are thinking, “Wait, Ocean’s Eleven is a remake?! What’s the original?!” Yes, Ocean’s Eleven is a remake of a 1960 film of the same title, which starred Frank Sinatra in the leading role. The original holds a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. The 2001 version holds an 82%. The original film is divisive and not beloved by most. In fact, one reviewer calls the 1960 film “terminally boring.”
The remake, however, is an exciting and lively popcorn flick, full of spunk and chemistry. It holds the best ensemble cast of any film I’ve ever seen, managing to make 11 characters all memorable in their own right. Soderbergh directs with pop and jazz, with the appropriately “jazzy” soundtrack backing the whole thing up. The heist itself is as entertainingly over-the-top as it is grounded and realistic.
Each and every character gets their turn in the spotlight: Danny, Rusty, Reuben, Saul, Linus, Yen, Bash, Frank, Livingston, and even the twins, Virgil and Turk, who have some of the most hilarious bickering ever committed to celluloid. Juggling an ensemble cast is far from easy, and, as The Hobbit Trilogy showed us, can lead to superfluous and unmemorable characters that contribute little to the plot. But this film doesn’t allow that to happen, and therefore easily beats out the original.
Ocean’s Eleven is a film I neglected seeing for far too long, and definitely deserves the title of Best Remake/Reboot.
The Departed (2006)
James – Back to the Viewer
The Departed (2006)
