It’s hard to admit sometimes that a remake is and can be better than an original movie since by the reasoning of many people a remake is more or less someone else’s take on a classic movie that people enjoy the way it is. But there are moments when a remake can be every bit as good if not better since there are those movies that have been created with past mistakes in mind and an attempt to rectify and capitalize on them in a way that will allow the movie to make a lot more sense. A lot of people will attempt to deny that a remake has any worth, I’ve been one of them, but there are plenty of examples that make it clear that remakes can’t always replace an original movie, even if that’s almost never the intent. In the case of some remakes, however, people can’t help but admit that they do top the original and they tend to make a much better impression on the audience for a number of reasons. Those that don’t want to admit this will usually cling to one or two ideas about the original that the remake might not have covered, but all in all, some movies just manage to get better when they’re given a remake.
Here are just a few movies that were remade and given a much better showing as a result.
5. The Crazies
Character development was a big part of what made this remake a lot more fun than the original since otherwise the movie was kind of ‘meh’ on the entertainment scale, even if it did manage to get a good deal of attention from horror fans. The critics even agreed that the remake was a lot better and the financial success of the movie was greater than the original, which kind of puts a cap on the whole thing since if the fans and the critics agree one might think there’s something wrong, but it usually means that a movie has reached that state of equilibrium that’s so rare in show business but is definitely important.
4. Inglorious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist history has a lot to do with this since people tend to enjoy seeing Adolf Hitler being made to look like a fool despite the fact that he’s been dead and gone for so long. But on top of that the gritty manner in which it was filmed, the fact that the main bad guy did eventually get his comeuppance, and the thought that not everything was tied up neatly with a bow at the end was kind of a nice touch. It’s definitely one of those movies that leaned towards as much blood and gore as possible, but that’s Tarantino’s style and people have responded to it in their own ways.
3. It
So yes, the first outing of this movie was a TV miniseries, and it feels wrong to say anything against a character played by Tim Curry, so I won’t. But the movie did go the extra mile with the special effects and did manage to give the audience a little something extra by adding in a few details from the book that the miniseries neglected to show. That being said though both stories had their strengths and weaknesses, as the current movies ended in a way that still has a lot of people shaking their heads and wondering just how anyone thought the ending we received was bound to be a good idea.
2. Heat
The original story this movie was taken from was titled L.A. Takedown, and it became more of a footnote in the history of the filmmaker than anything. That’s likely for the best since Heat would have eclipsed it quite easily considering that people were ready and willing to see Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on screen together, no matter that their shared screentime didn’t last that long. Anytime there’s a chance to see two of the greatest actors in show business go head to head it’s a moment to be captured and enjoyed since watching them both has been something of a pleasure for a lot of fans over the years.
1. Ocean’s Eleven
I can just imagine that a lot of people would give me a great deal of heat for this one since people might say there’s no replacing the Rat Pack, not in a thousand years, not in a million. But the truth is that Clooney and Pitt worked together so well that it was like watching puzzle pieces align themselves as the rest of the crew came together and created the rest of the movie. As I’ve said, a remake isn’t meant to replace the original, but sometimes the remake can go miles above and beyond the original. In this case, it wasn’t too hard since the remake was better suited to the time period.
Remakes won’t replace the original movies, but they can top them.
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