What really inspired this was the fact that three of the four major films hitting theaters this week are remakes: About Last Night, Endless Love, and Robocop. Whether or not any of these remakes (or even their original incarnations) were any good, isn't what really struck me, it's the sheer novel fact that three remakes are being released the same week. Sure, I am always the first to advocate for original ideas rather than sequels, prequels, remakes, and reboots, but I am not sure there has ever been this many remakes in one week before, so for that alone this is intriguing.
As for the reason of this post, I decided that now was as good a time as I'll ever have to list my 10 Favorite Remakes. As I said above, not all of these remakes are better than the original, but a good few are, so without anymore pomp and circumstance, let's get to it.
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You know, this is a remake that I am often torn on as to which is better, the original or the remake? Both are equally good, and both have elements that tip the scales for me. The 1951 original was a black-and-white film from Old Hollywood starring Janet Leigh. Automatically I'm fascinated by the original purely because I love films from that time period. Where as the 1994 Disney remake was the first time I ever saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt, portraying the kid who saw angels, Roger. Both versions of the film follow basically the same story, a kid who can see angels befriends the manager of a major league baseball team being helped by angels to win, but one thing that does help the remake is that we actually see the angels rather than the original where we just had to take the little girl's word for it. Plus, how can you beat that cast of before they were famous actors in the remake? Matthew McConaughey, Adrien Brody, and, of course, JGL himself.
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Admittedly, I have never seen the original version of Ransom from 1956, but I know the 1996 Ron Howard remake quite well. This is a case where the individual film on display is just so good, it doesn't matter to me how well it followed the original or didn't. This is just a really good thriller, with Mel Gibson in top form as the rich dad whose son is kidnapped and held for ransom, hint the title. The twist is that Gibson's character isn't going to take this lying down, instead taking to TV to offer the ransom as a bounty to anyone who can catch who took his son and rescue him. Few films are this intense, and what makes it great is that Howard doesn't feel the need to always bombard the viewer with intense music to tell us what to feel, he often uses silent moments to create the tension, which really draws you in at key moments in the story.
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I am being honest when I say I'm not always the biggest fan of Westerns, but the 2007 remake of 1957's 3:10 to Yuma was a Western I really enjoyed. In all honesty, the only real difference between the original and the remake is that the remake has a little more grit and features Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and a younger Logan Lerman, in the main roles, marking this as a film that cannot be missed for the performances alone. Bale and Crowe fill their roles with so much depth, you really grow to care for them over the course of their story and hope that they both succeed in their endeavors because of it. Director James Mangold also proves that he's the real deal here with some beautiful imagery accompanying the strong performances he managed to get from the actors, marking 2007's remake of 3:10 to Yuma as one of the finest remakes ever done.
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This is another film remake that I have not seen the original version of, but this 2002 remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name is so good on its own merits it makes the list. This was director Christopher Nolan's first major studio film with Warner Bros., which eventually led to his making The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, and the upcoming Interstellar. For that reason alone, this is an important film, but it's also just a taut and surprisingly intense thriller, following an FBI agent trying to track down a killer in a part of Alaska where its day for months on end. The film features an all-star cast, ranging from Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and an uber creepy Robin Williams. There is no denying that this is probably Pacino's best performance since the Nineties, and you can never go wrong with Robin Williams, especially when he's playing the killer. However, as with all of Nolan's films, Nolan himself is the star. Fresh off of making Memento, Insomnia is rife with many of Nolan's trademark flairs, and it was his atypical, more Hitchcock-styled approach to suspense, rather than the traditional Hollywood bombardment of cheesy music and cheap thrills, that makes Insomnia a spectacular film.
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The Departed is perhaps the only remake on this list where I truly like the original more than the remake, and yet that is not taking anything away from The Departed, it's just my pointing out how phenomenal 2002's Hong Kong cop drama, Infernal Affairs, is. Both films feature the same basic story. Two cops, one working undercover for a gang lord in the precinct, the other working undercover for the cops in the gang, and the intense cat-and-mouse chase that ensues. What really gives Infernal Affairs the edge is that it's just a lot less bloated than The Departed, being almost a full hour shorter than Scorsese's Best Picture winner. The Departed spends more time developing supporting characters, where as Infernal Affairs keeps the film focused squarely on the two cops, and when you have talents like Andy Lau and Tony Leung in the leads, you can't go wrong with this approach. However, let me reiterate that The Departed made this list because I also think it's a phenomenal film. While almost too long, when you have Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Jack Nicholson, all in the same movie, you're doing something right. Not to mention the fact that there is a reason Martin Scorsese won Best Director for this film. The Departed features Scorsese's trademark kinetic flair, and it manages to give The Departed such a different voice from Infernal Affairs that it's almost like comparing apples to oranges.
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Sometimes a remake is less about reimagining the original film, and more about reimagining the book upon which that original film was based on. That was the case with the Coen Brothers' 2010 remake of True Grit. The original version from 1969, starring John Wayne, netted Wayne his first Oscar, but was not very faithful to the book. The Coens, fans of the book, wanted to change that. For starters, the Coen version featured more period authentic language and clothing than the '69 film did, but most importantly, they made heroine, Mattie Ross, the driving force of the film, and portrayed her age appropriately. No one believed that Kim Darby was a teenager in the original True Grit, but by casting a teenager in Hailee Steinfeld, the Coens made you believe in Mattie Ross. Plus, you can't go wrong when Jeff Bridges is cast as Rooster Cogburn, with the combo of Bridges and Steinfeld giving the film an emotional core that one doesn't typically find in Coen Brothers' films.
****
On the surface, both 1932's version of The Mummy, and 1999's version starring Brendan Fraser, are fairly similar. Both versions are about an Egyptian priest who was mummified for trying to resurrect his dead lover, now brought back to life to finish the job, but that's where the similarities really stop. The original starred Boris Karloff as the creeptastic Imhotep and was more in the style of the Universal horror films of the Thirties and Forties, like Frankenstein and Dracula. For me, personally, I love what director Stephen Sommers did with the 1999 remake. He took the basic premise and turned it into a pulpy, Indiana Jones-styled adventure film starring Brendan Fraser, painting Imhotep as a much less graceful figure than when he was played by Karloff. There is still a bit of a horror element in the remake, but it's all in service of the adventure we are going on. Filled to the brim with humor and thrills at all of the right moments, with plenty of action and likable characters, this is a remake I find myself watching almost everytime I catch it on TV, and as often as that is, it should tell you what I think of it.
****
As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a huge Steven Spielberg fan. He is my favorite filmmaker of all-time, which is why I love his 2005 remake of War of the Worlds so much. Forget the fact that it stars Tom Cruise, it's just a great thriller. What really makes this iteration of War of the Worlds so different, and so much more superior than its 1953 counterpart, is that Spielberg doesn't focus on the large scale alien invasion from the view of the government, but rather from the point of view of the Everyman. We don't know what's happening at large across the world, we only know what is happening to Tom Cruise and his two kids as they try to survive, which makes this experience all the more harrowing when you realize how helpless they are in their inability to fight back. Featuring some of Spielberg's most hauntingly beautiful imagery ever, with more faithfulness to the original H.G. Wells' story than the '53 original by having the alien tripods actually being tripods and the aliens being defeated by germs, make this a perfect example of how a remake should be done.
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2. King KongAnother perfect example of how a remake should be done is Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong. Jackson is reportedly a huge fan of the 1933 original, which makes it kind of strange that he remade it, but I'm glad that he did, because his version of King Kong is the best one ever done, period. The original King Kong is quite simply a run-of-the-mill adventure story featuring a large monster, with all of the human characters merely being traditional archetypes for such films of the era. While the stop motion effects were cutting edge at the time, the film really seems dated by our modern blockbuster standards. Enter Peter Jackson, fresh off of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and say what you will about the CG technology utilized to bring Kong to life in this remake, Peter Jackson instilled King Kong with a soul that he's never had before. A large part of this is because Jackson and his fellow screenwriters added a lot more depth to the cast of characters while also making you care for King Kong. For once, Kong is not the bad guy, but merely a misunderstood animal that actually has a gentle soul and will do anything to protect Ann, portrayed beautifully by Naomi Watts. The two develop almost an understanding, a sincere form of pseudo-friendship where she actually feels sorry for him, and therefore we do as well, so that when he tragically dies trying to protect her, we are legitimately saddened by his passing.
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1. The Man Who Knew Too MuchThis may be one of the most unique remakes of all-time, because it was the filmmaker remaking his own film from twenty-two years earlier. Alfred Hitchcock must have not accomplished what he wanted to in his 1934 original, because he remade The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956, and if War of the Worlds and King Kong were perfect examples of how a remake should be done, Hitchcock wrote the book. The biggest difference factor between the remake and the original is merely the fact that the original was made when Hitch was first getting his start in England, and the remake was made at the peak of Hitchcock's American career, with the Fifties often considered Hitchcock's most prolific decade. It also doesn't hurt when the remake has a far larger Hollywood-sized budget to make the scenes, like the climax at Royal Albert Hall, all the more gripping, as well as benefitting from two of the biggest movie stars of all-time in Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. While both versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much are good, suspenseful films that feature the same characters and storyline, you just really feel like the remake was the version Hitchcock wanted to make the first go around but didn't have the time or money to do it. Thankfully, Hitchcock did remake The Man Who Knew Too Much, and generations of moviegoers will forever be grateful, because it truly is a classic of cinema.
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