It has become the norm for Hollywood to go back and find beloved movies from the past for the sole purpose of remaking them. In very few cases are the remakes ever anywhere near as good as the original movies, and in many cases, the drop in quality is dramatic. It often causes people to wonder why they remade it at all since the original was such a beloved movie.
The argument for some people is to remake movies people have not heard of. Whether this means obscure movies that never had a huge modern-day release, classics that have fallen into the seas of time, or even international movies that most Americans have never seen. However, in some of these cases, the new releases still didn't hold a candle to the forgotten movies they remade.
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town / Mr. Deeds
In 2002, Adam Sandler was the king of lowbrow comedy movies and all his releases seemed to be big hits. However, chinks in his armor were forming at this time as well and not all his movies ended up satisfying even his own fans. Mr. Deeds ended up as a movie that was slammed by critics but liked by Sandler's hardcore fans.
However, it didn't hold a candle to the movie it remade, which was a Frank Capra movie from 1936 called Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. While Sandler used the fish out of water gimmick to tell an absurd tale, the original was a comic morality tale with two likable leads in Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur, a true classic.
Ju-On / The Grudge
The problem was that the movie was not very good, and didn't live up to the standards of The Ring when it came to remakes. However, the original movie - Ju-On: The Grudge was a masterclass of terror, and horror fans should always seek out the original over the remake.
Death Takes A Holiday / Meet Joe Black
In 1998, Brad Pitt was still trying to find his way in Hollywood. He had become a hot young star thanks to Thelma & Louise but he had yet to find his groove as an A-list actor. This led to his role in the romantic fantasy Meet Joe Black, starring as the personification of Death, taking over the body of a recently deceased man to attempt to understand humanity.
The movie received mixed reviews but it also received a Razzie nomination for Worst Remake. This is because Meet Joe Black was the remake of a 1934 movie called Death Takes a Holiday. The story was slightly different with Death taking human form to learn why people fear him, where he then falls in love. The AFI added the movie to its 100 Years .. 100 ions list.
Wings Of Desire / City Of Angels
In 1998, Meg Ryan was the queen of the romance movies, supplanting Julia Roberts in that role. This led to her pairing up with an unlikely male romantic lead in Nicolas Cage. The movie was City of Angels and Cage starred as an angel who traded in his wings to meet a mortal woman he fell in love with. However, it all ended with tragic consequences.
While the movie was a good love story, it doesn't measure up with the original it remade. That was Wim Wenders' 1987 movie, Wings of Desire. Made while the Berlin Wall was still standing, the movie received critical acclaim as one that sought German unity and Wenders won the Best Director Award at Cannes. This original has a Criterion Collection release.
Scarface (1932) / Scarface (1983)
One of the most popular gangster movies of all time hit in 1983 with the Brian DePalma movie Scarface, written by Oliver Stone. The movie is endlessly quotable with Al Pacino portraying Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee that arrived in Miami and then built himself into a powerful drug czar.
However, while the movie is popular and quotable, Scarface is dated and problematic in today's society. A better movie is the original Scarface, which hit in 1932. This was a Howard Hawkes movie directed by Howard Hawks with Paul Muni starring as an Italian immigrant who rose from a low-level gangster to a determined king of the underworld.
Abre Los Ojos / Vanilla Sky
Cameron Crowe was riding high in 2001, with his last two movies as huge hits. After the one-two punch of Vanilla Sky. In that movie, Tom Cruise played a man who was in a terrible car accident that killed his former girlfriend and disfigured his face.
However, this was a sci-fi movie where nothing was as it seemed, and Cruise's character ended the movie in a scene that puzzled most viewers. Unlike that movie, which polarized viewers, it was a remake of a superior movie in Alejandro Amenabar's Open Your Eyes. While Penelope Cruz starred in both movies, it was the original Spanish-language film that reigns supreme.
Infernal Affairs / The Departed
Just because an original movie is better than its remake does not mean that the remake was a bad movie. That is true for Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning movie The Departed. This movie featured a mole inside the mafia and the mole inside the Boston police department - both unknown to all but a select few.
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That movie was great and won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. However, Scorsese proved his expertise by almost remaking scenes from the original movie shot-by-shot. That movie was Infernal Affairs, and while it didn't receive the same acclaim as Scorsese's movie, it did everything The Departed did and did it first.
The Ladykillers (1955) / The Ladykillers (2004)
The Coen Brothers have made several critically acclaimed movies and have proven over the years that when they play in their sandbox, the movies will almost always satisfy at least their fans. However, they hit a bump in 2003 and 2004 with back-to-back flops in Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers.
Even with a great cast that was led by Tom Hanks, the Coen Brothers couldn't seem to make the comedy work. However, the movie it remade was a great comedy classic. Released in 1955, the original The Ladykillers starred Alec Guinness, and William Rose won the BAFTA for Best British Screenplay.
A Tale Of Two Sisters / The Uninvited
Released in 2009, The Uninvited was another in a long line of Asian horror remakes. Unlike the ghost girl movies of that era, this was more of a psychological thriller. In it, a girl returns home from a stay in a psychiatric institution and believes that her step-mother is trying to kill her little sister.
Despite a cast that included Emily Browning, Elizabeth Banks, and David Strathairn, it never came close to the brilliance of the movie it remade. The original, A Tale of Twin Sisters told a similar story, but in a much more immersive manner.
Bangkok Dangerous (1999) / Bangkok Dangerous (2008)
In 2008, the Pang Brothers set out to remake one of their own movies for American audiences. This movie was Bangkok Dangerous and they cast Nicolas Cage as a professional contract killer who has a strict set of rules he works under, but when he breaks one of those rules, his entire life falls apart around him.
The movie was certified rotten on Rotten Tomatoes and was a disappointment. However, the Pang Brothers' original movie, released in 1999, was a great international success, working in all the ways the remake never could, and is the preferred version of the movie.
