Remakes that are actually better than the originals

A rare topic, but I'm sure we all know of some movies where the remake is actually superior to the original.


One right off hand for me is Last Holiday, the original was pretty depressing, and SPOILERS, the man who was misdiagnosed, finds out he's not dying, but then gets into a car crash and dies at the hospital! At least Queen Latifah's character got to live, and pursue her dream of opening her own restaurant, and she had a lot more fun than Alec Guiness did, he just seemed to really be wasting time waiting to die, not even enjoying himself until near the end.

The Bat (1959). Now, I'm not saying the original version from 1926 and its 1930 remake aren't good, they are VERY good, however they follow closer to the original play and novel and are a mystery/comedy...whereas the 1959 remake remained a suspenseful, frightening murder mystery, with its characters almost completely different from how they were portrayed two movies before. And it has been one of my FAVORITE movies for about 18 years now.

Peter Pan. I think I'm cheating on this one because I don't like the 1953 Disney version, but I LOVE the 1960 play for TV version with Mary Martin, I never cared for any actual movie versions of it.

That's about all I can think of for this category, anybody else got some to add?

I think when they remake a lesser known film, they might do it better than trying to tackle a classic. They did a whole bunch in the 30s, remaking silent films that they thought no one would ever want to watch again.

I'd say Hitchcock remade his own film, The Man Who Knew Too Much better the second time. Both version are good but I like the 50s version better than the 30s.

Not that I think it's better but I was noticing that the remake of the Manchurian Candidate had a plot that made more sense than the original. Having the son-in-law of the communist backed VP kill the presidential nominee would have ruined their plan. Having the brainwashed son be the candidate and the sgt. be the brainwashed killer made more sense.

The Maltese Falcon
Ocean's Eleven

Halloween 2
Scarface

Godzira.

Rise of the Apes (whatever it was last year)

twas basically a remake of Escape From and Conquest for Planet of the Apes

I really enjoyed this new updated version.. was much more believable than the whole time travel thing