Is There A Such Thing As A GOOD Movie Remake? Which?

[Nautica]

First of all, Netflix is Golden!

I watched the original Carrie, then the Carrie remake. OMG ! I had to battle my way through that film!

So, has there, ever, been a good remake?

[GroobySteven]

The Magnificent Seven
A Fistful of Dollars
The Vanishing was ok.

[Prospero]

By good do you mean better?

[fred41]

King Kong...Naomi Watts, Jack Black was a good remake.

[RallyCola]

My list of remakes that are better than the originals

Scarface
The Departed
3:10 to Yuma
The Fly
True Grit (though this might be a push)
and while technically Batman Begins was a remake/reimagining of Batman 1989 that too needs to be mentioned at least as a push.

[GroobySteven]

My list of remakes that are better than the originals

Scarface
The Departed
3:10 to Yuma
The Fly
True Grit (though this might be a push)
and while technically Batman Begins was a remake/reimagining of Batman 1989 that too needs to be mentioned at least as a push.

Scarface isn't really a remake - two different stories. I re-watched the Pacino one recently and it has really dated, much more so than some other movies around the same time.

I thought The Departed was a poor remake.
Give you the others for sure!

[GroobySteven]

Actually just re-read the synopsis to the original Scarface and didn't appreciate how close it was.

[Prospero]

True grit - yep at least as good and, since I watched the original after the remake, it seemed better
Magnificent Seven? Well surely not better than The Seven Samurai and such a different film it sort of stands in the "inspired by" camp imho

worse... well Solaris for sure...

and how do you judge which Dracula is better? The german silent black and white - Nosferatu? Actually you can't compare for technical reasons - so the remake of nosferatu is better.

[Ben in LA]

Cape Fear

[Stavros]

Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) is a feature length version of a Channel 4 drama series called Traffik (1989) and is a very good film. The original was based in the UK, Germany and Afghanistan/Pakistan where Soderbergh's film is based in the US and Mexico

The Italian Job (F. Gary Gray 2003) is a remake of The Italian Job (Peter Collinson, 1969) with the action moved from Italy in the earlier film to California. The US film is as entertaining as the UK version and benefits from not having Noel Coward, who pollutes the earlier film to such an extent his scenes are unwatchable, but the classic ending of the Caine film has never been bettered, and the car chase in Turin is not bad.

The Bourne Identity (198-eight), made for tv with Richard Chamberlain is said by some to be closer to Robert Ludlum's book, whereas most people prefer The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002) without having seen the earlier version.

Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971) with Richard Roundtree is generally considered superior to Shaft (John Singleton, 2000) with Samuel L. Jackson but I have not see either film.

CGI can do wonders with the Batman/Marvel stuff, but I assume that is more a case of updates rather than re-makes. The flops are too numerous to mention.