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Everyone says the original is always better, but is that true? This video explores 15 movie remakes that, despite initial criticism, have redeeming qualities, unique takes, or have aged better than you'd think.
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00:00There's a consensus among film fans that certain films just shouldn't be remade, and a lot of the time this
00:07is correct.
00:08Many beloved classics have been remade and, surprise surprise, they're not nearly as good as the original.
00:14They bomb, and they're dragged across the critical hot coals.
00:17But that doesn't necessarily mean they should be banished for good.
00:21Some are good, harmless fun, have something more relevant to say now, are artistically significant in their own right,
00:29actually improve on the originals in certain areas, and were unfairly and lazily dismissed in the first place.
00:36Not all of them are exactly masterpieces, and none can be said to be outright better than the original,
00:42but they all pack a good reason to return to them and take another look.
00:45So with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture, and let's discuss these underrated movie remakes that deserve another look.
00:52Starting with The Omen.
00:54Given Richard Donner's beloved original omen sparked a whole franchise and made Damien the Devil's son Thorne a household name,
01:03remaking it was always going to be a big task.
01:06Even with a stacked cast, horror audiences were broadly opposed to John Moore's version long before anyone had seen a
01:14sell of footage.
01:15The film fared well at the box office but did not go down well with the critics,
01:20and given it's a direct remake of Donner's film, all the unfavorable reviews wanted to talk about at the time
01:26was how it didn't stack up.
01:28With enough distance from its release, almost 20 years, it is easier now to return to Moore's Omen and see
01:34what makes it great.
01:35The plot is familiar, sure, but this version has a grim sense of danger to it and a cold palette
01:42to match,
01:42and the acting and staging similarly skews towards realism, eschewing the gothic formality of the original.
01:49The Day the Earth Stood Still
01:51Robert Weiser's original is a sci-fi classic.
01:54The Scott Derrickson remake is, um, not.
01:58For the 2008 remake, Keanu Reeves stepped into the role of Klaatu,
02:02an interplanetary alien envoy sent to try and save the Earth from human-inflicted ecocide,
02:07and it did not go too well.
02:09Critics recognised the film's reverence for its source material, but that didn't stop them from savaging it.
02:15Pretty much everything that could be criticised was, but all sources seemed to agree on one thing.
02:20The story was slow, meandering, and just not up to scratch.
02:24Be that as it may, and it may,
02:26Derrickson's Day the Earth Stood Still still has some delights to offer genre fans.
02:30First and foremost is Reeves' casting.
02:33It's widely acknowledged that Keanu is made of at least 50% wood,
02:36and that is what makes him so perfect as Klaatu.
02:39He is a stoic, blunt, and unemotional alien acclimatising to Earth in real time,
02:45and his blank acting style sells it.
02:48The scale of the thing is also impressive, and still looks good,
02:51the effects delivering on its promises.
02:53Plus, the ecological bent of the story feels prescient as ever,
02:57with a staying power that far outmatches the original's Cold War theme.
03:00The Jackal
03:01Michael Caton Jones' The Jackal adapts the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal,
03:06itself based on the 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth,
03:11and stars Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier
03:14in an action-thriller conspiracy plot that failed to ensnare the critics.
03:18Willis stars as the titular hitman, a ruthless ex-KGB asset
03:22who has been hired to assassinate the US First Lady for $70 million.
03:26Richard Gere is Declan Joseph Mulqueen, an ex-IRA sniper
03:31whom the feds believe can foil the plot.
03:34Carnage ensues.
03:35Now, people didn't really like it when compared to the 1973 film,
03:39and it does have its flaws.
03:41Gere's accent, for example, is shocking,
03:43and if you boil it down, the plot is effectively the same
03:46as every Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlund adaptation.
03:49But contrary to most assassin movies,
03:51which either pitch from the side of the killer,
03:53or have them crop up every now and again as a fly in the ointment
03:56to keep the plot moving,
03:58the Jackal wedges us somewhere in between,
04:00and as a result, is genuinely exhilarating.
04:03It's as much 90s zeitgeist as Leon or Fight Club,
04:07and every scene involving the Jackal's long-range heavy machine gun
04:10deserves its place in the action canon.
04:12Godzilla.
04:13Roland Emmerich is not a name associated with high art,
04:16but we'll be damned if he hasn't made
04:18some of the most popcorn-ready movies of the past few decades.
04:22But while everyone agrees on the entertainment value
04:25of the likes of Independence Day,
04:27the director's take on Godzilla is another matter.
04:30Technically more a remake of 1953's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
04:35than 1954's Godzilla,
04:37although Godzilla 54 was heavily inspired by The Beast.
04:40Godzilla 98 is the first incarnation of Godzilla
04:43to feature in an American-made film,
04:45and takes the big Saurian beastie into New York
04:48for a spot of chaotic fun.
04:50But folks didn't like the monster design.
04:52They didn't like the lack of the kind of thematic messaging
04:55the original had, re. nuclear warfare,
04:58and the critics destroyed it.
04:59But it remains deeply nostalgic for anyone who was young at the time,
05:04with an iconic look that sets it apart from most other Godzilla movies.
05:08Show any 90s kid a few frames of Godzilla 98's flood-lit New York City
05:12in the rain, and they'll know exactly when and where they are,
05:15and what's about to come stomping round the corner.
05:17The monster has since been retconned,
05:20so it's technically not Godzilla,
05:21but some other large dinosaur-type thing.
05:24But that's beside the point.
05:26What matters here is that the film gives an authentic Godzilla experience
05:29for those willing to try.
05:31Total Recall
05:32Len Wiseman's Total Recall remake
05:35hits cinemas and then bargain bins like lightning,
05:38leaving many of us wondering if it ever actually happened.
05:41But happen it did,
05:42bringing the original story into a 21st century
05:45where chemical warfare has devastated the planet,
05:48a gravity elevator runs through the Earth's core,
05:51companies can implant fake memories for cash,
05:54and Colin Farrell's factory worker Douglas Quaid
05:56finds himself at the centre of a grand conspiracy,
05:59uncertain if he really is who he thinks he is,
06:02or if he's living a life of captivity,
06:04subversion, and control.
06:06Visual aesthetic aside,
06:07Paul Verhoeven's 1990 original
06:09isn't quite as great as you remember.
06:12And if you like your sci-fi cold and shiny
06:14rather than body horror red,
06:16the remake is the one for you.
06:17The same ideas and story are present,
06:19although the remake's major faux pas
06:21is removing the uncertainty of the original.
06:24But it is a winner on several other fronts,
06:26especially, it should go without saying,
06:28as Colin Farrell is a far better actor than Arnie,
06:31and Bryan Cranston does an excellent turn opposite him
06:34as malignant baddie Chancellor Villos Cohegan.
06:37All in all,
06:37it is difficult to deny
06:38that the remake has plenty going for it
06:41and is a solid sci-fi action thriller in its own right.
06:44House of Wax
06:45Dismissed by many as another noughties retread
06:48that drafted in big names
06:49like Chad Michael Murray
06:50and perplexingly Paris Hilton,
06:53Ja McAulet-Sara's House of Wax
06:55has more staying power than these bare facts suggest.
06:58The film only just broke even
06:59by Hollywood accounting standards,
07:02and critics gave it less than a fair hearing.
07:04But as a fun, no-stakes slasher,
07:06it has everything you could want.
07:08House of Wax follows a group of college pals
07:10to a town with an old wax museum,
07:12watched over by a pair of insane twin brothers
07:15who have some dark secrets behind their waxwork collection.
07:18The premise is familiar,
07:20and the reveal that they have permanently waxed
07:22a bunch of real people into their fake town
07:24is similarly unsurprising,
07:26but the joy of the film is watching it all unfold.
07:29It is fun, high concept,
07:31and makes the most of its stars' varying abilities
07:34by putting the focus on the creep factor
07:36and the many grim waxings and kills.
07:39The women are shrill,
07:40the guys macho,
07:42the villains chew the scenery,
07:43and every moment is guilt-free fun to watch.
07:46All the way from the
07:47oh no, whoops,
07:48we are stranded in the middle of nowhere
07:50through to seeing a still-alive,
07:52waxing-case Jared Padalecki
07:53get his face peeled off by his pal.
07:56Robocop
07:57Hot off the back of a run of Swedish films,
07:59Joel Kinnaman crashed into action
08:01as the titular Robocop in 2014,
08:04giving Jose Padilla's take on the character
08:06and universe a true modern movie star sheen.
08:09But Paul Verhoeven's original had been so iconic,
08:12and Peter Weller so iconic in the role,
08:15that nobody was really interested
08:16whether it was good or not.
08:18Remaking the 1987 first film,
08:20Robocop moves the action to 2028,
08:23where Detective Alex Murphy is critically injured
08:25and becomes a cyborg police officer
08:28who is nigh unstoppable,
08:29but struggles existentially,
08:31not knowing where the man ends
08:33and the machine begins.
08:34It made enough money on release,
08:36but the reception to the film overrule
08:37was lukewarm,
08:39killing ideas of a new franchise
08:40and sending this one down the back of the sofa.
08:43Well, it's about time to dig it out
08:45because 2014's Robocop looks good,
08:47makes the best use of the CG advancements
08:49since the original to upgrade the action,
08:52weaponry, battles, and chase sequences,
08:54and features Gary Oldman,
08:56Michael Keaton,
08:57Jackie L. Haley,
08:58and Samuel L. Jackson.
09:00Nobody is aiming for an Oscar on this one,
09:02but that's to its credit,
09:03and while it may lack the satirical bent of its source,
09:07the occasionally OTT performances
09:09keep things fun enough
09:10to make it worth revisiting.
09:12Bedazzled.
09:13Bedazzled.
09:13Early noughties fluff and star vehicle
09:16for Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley.
09:18Right?
09:19Well, there's actually a bit more to it,
09:20but you've got to go back
09:22and take a look for yourselves.
09:23Remaking the 1967 Peter Cook and Dudley Moore version,
09:27a film that won't have meant a whole lot
09:28to hip young millennium audiences,
09:31Harold Ramis's Bedazzled
09:32embraces the late 90s, early noughties
09:34Hollywood trend of fantasy
09:36and magical realist rom-com setups
09:38that ask us to suspend
09:39our most incredulous disbeliefs
09:41in order to elevate conventional romantic plots
09:44to a whole other play.
09:45The film puts Fraser in the shoes of Elliot Richards,
09:48a company man who makes a deal with the devil
09:50to help him pursue the woman he loves.
09:53The device to get there is wishes,
09:55and needless to say,
09:56few of them go to plan.
09:57Now, naturally,
09:58this Americanised picture
09:59could never live up to
10:01Cook Moore's cracking British satire,
10:03but it arguably never tried to.
10:05Ramis used the star power behind his film
10:08to get everybody on board
10:09and then directed it into absurdity,
10:11with a series of standout scenes
10:13and set pieces that throw Fraser and Hurley
10:15around the globe and beyond,
10:17milking the premise for all it's worth.
10:19It's an overlooked romp
10:20from a master of comedy
10:21and is timeless enough
10:23to reward repeat viewing.
10:25Meet Joe Black
10:26ITV viewers will remember
10:27Meet Joe Black
10:28from every other Sunday afternoon
10:30throughout the noughties,
10:32a position which unfortunately
10:33turned it into background noise
10:35for even the most dedicated audiences.
10:37Its quick and firm transition to TV
10:39was in no small part
10:40due to its combination
10:41of recognisable stars
10:43in Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins,
10:45lukewarm critical reception
10:47and lack of significant box office returns,
10:49but also its ability
10:50to fill a big programming slot
10:52running at just over three hours.
10:54And of course,
10:55the length was one of the reasons
10:56it wasn't more widely seen
10:57or accepted by audiences
10:59who are usually suckers
11:00for this sort of thing.
11:01Death finds himself
11:02temporarily earthbound
11:04when he trades businessman Bill Parrish
11:06a few days of extra life
11:08for some roaming time
11:09finding out what it's like
11:10to be human,
11:11all while Bill's daughter Susan
11:13falls head over heels for him.
11:15Based on Death Takes a Holiday,
11:16Meet Joe Black
11:17actually manages to improve
11:19on the original
11:19in several key ways,
11:21not just with a bigger budget
11:22and more lavish scenes,
11:24but by making death
11:25a lighter and more relatable subject.
11:27It's romantic,
11:28it's heartwarming,
11:29and if you can park
11:30the afternoon telly feeling,
11:32it's well worth another watch.
11:34Ghost in the Shell
11:35Rupert Sanders brought
11:36Ghost in the Shell
11:37into the real world in 2017
11:39with Scarlett Johansson
11:40as major Mira Killian,
11:42a brain in an artificial body
11:44whose position as a hyper-efficient
11:45counter-terrorism operative
11:47brings her face to face
11:48with her true past,
11:50a past she can't remember
11:51shrouded in conspiracy.
11:53Now, as Ghost in the Shell
11:54is one of the most celebrated
11:55animes of all time,
11:57it was always going to be
11:58a tough sell.
11:59The film was good enough
12:00not to bomb
12:01and made its money back,
12:02but due to the comparisons
12:04it couldn't help but draw,
12:05it received a middling
12:06to bad appraisal
12:08from critics
12:08and was neither a breakout success
12:10nor went down in history.
12:12But that doesn't mean
12:12we shouldn't take another look.
12:14Fact is,
12:14Sanders' film is pure spectacle,
12:16but not just pure spectacle,
12:18as it does an admirable job
12:19of making the surreal
12:20source material look
12:22and seem credible
12:23in live-action format.
12:24It's uber cool,
12:25the effects blend
12:26pretty much seamlessly,
12:27and the characters
12:28by and large
12:29feel true to the source.
12:31Yes, Killian should have
12:32been played by an Asian actor
12:33and the plot is very familiar,
12:35but if those are
12:36the biggest gripes we've got,
12:37and they are,
12:38then we're doing well.
12:39The Stepford Wives
12:41Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives
12:43has never had
12:43a perfect adaptation,
12:45with filmmakers
12:45either being too faithful
12:47to the source
12:47or deviating too far.
12:49Brian Forbes' 1975 version
12:51is in the former camp,
12:53although most consider it
12:54to be the definitive adaptation.
12:56Frank Oz waited until 2004
12:58to remake it.
13:00By the time Stepford Wives
13:01had entered common parlance
13:03and everyone had their own vision
13:04of what it should be.
13:06The 2004 Stepford Wives
13:07sees Joanna and her husband,
13:09Walter,
13:10move to Stepford
13:10after Joanna's career
13:12falls to pieces,
13:13where life is a neotrad dream
13:15and the women are controlled
13:16by nanochips in their brains.
13:18Unfortunately,
13:19audiences weren't fussed for it,
13:21it didn't break even,
13:22and critics dragged it
13:23through the mud.
13:24And yet,
13:25Oz took the original
13:26and the novel
13:27and struck a totally different tone,
13:29making something genuinely funny
13:31and highlighting the plot's absurdity.
13:33It is something of a slapstick romp
13:35and lacks the sinister overtones
13:37of the original,
13:38but this is precisely why it works.
13:41The characters feel more lived in,
13:43especially Joanna,
13:44and the film has an even stronger
13:45gender focus,
13:46portraying the men
13:47as weak and jealous
13:48of their high-powered wives.
13:50The film's only major flaw
13:51is that it doesn't know when to stop.
13:53Nevertheless,
13:54it's ever more relevant today
13:55and is definitely worth a rewatch.
13:58Psycho
13:59Gus Van Sant drew the ire of everyone
14:01when he made a shot-for-shot remake
14:03of Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic Psycho,
14:06starring Vince Vaughn,
14:07no less.
14:08The arthouse experiment put Vaughn in place
14:10as the monstrous Norman Bates
14:12and crafted around him
14:13a film that challenges the source
14:15with new bursts of colour
14:16and consciously different direction.
14:18But audiences weren't ready for it in 1998,
14:21and even if it had enjoyed a wide release,
14:23it would have been ignored
14:24and dismissed all the same.
14:26And sure,
14:26there's an argument to be made
14:27for why one would want to remake a film
14:30most people consider perfect,
14:31but if Gus Van Sant ever asked why,
14:33he might never have filmed a frame of anything.
14:36Using the original material,
14:37each actor in a killer cast
14:39featuring William H. Macy,
14:41Viggo Mortensen and Julianne Moore
14:43manages to put their own spin on the parts,
14:46although Vaughn's is the most interesting.
14:49Indubitably encouraged to do so by Van Sant,
14:51he gives Bates a campness
14:52that gives another dimension to his cross-dressing,
14:55while also driving into his performance
14:57a neuroticism that suggests an unsound mind.
15:00This effectively splits the fact
15:02of his Oedipal complex and psychopathy
15:04into separate areas.
15:06One is sexuality,
15:08the other mental illness,
15:09running against the original's
15:11problematic conflation of the two.
15:13Solaris.
15:14Andrei Tarkovsky's psychological sci-fi opus Solaris
15:18is often listed alongside Kubrick's 2001
15:20as being one of the most significant
15:22and impactful contributions
15:24to the science fiction cinematic canon of all time.
15:27Steven Soderbergh's 2002 made George Clooney
15:30starring remake is not.
15:32The former film won the Grand Prix Special De Jure
15:34at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival
15:37as well as being nominated for the Palmed Ore.
15:39The latter didn't make back its budget.
15:42But some 23 years after Soderbergh did the unadvisable,
15:45there are a few good reasons to return to his corner of space.
15:49Clooney stars as Dr. Chris Kelvin,
15:51a clinical psychologist who is sent to a space station
15:54orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris.
15:56Once there, he finds a skeleton crew,
15:58several bodies in the morgue,
16:00and the spectre of impossible people haunting the ship,
16:03including his own dead wife.
16:05While this version is not as existential or cerebral
16:08as its predecessor,
16:09there is more than enough to ponder
16:11while watching beautiful shots of beautiful people
16:14in a beautiful part of the universe.
16:16Soderbergh repackages the avant-garde classic as a romance,
16:19avoiding the American habit of just remaking the film in English
16:23by shifting the focus to Chris' memories of his wife
16:26and unpacking their tragic story,
16:28while still leaving plenty of narrative room to breathe.
16:31Soderbergh's version is also mercifully short,
16:34adopting the basic plot
16:35but condensing Tarkovsky's meandering three-hour epic
16:38down to a tight hour forty.
16:41And finally,
16:42The Thomas Crown Affair.
16:44John Muktiernan's remake of The Thomas Crown Affair
16:46brought Pierce Brosnan in as the titular billionaire thief
16:49for two hours of romance and heist drama
16:52opposite Rene Russo's insurance investigator Catherine Banning.
16:56And pretty much everyone who remembers it
16:57agrees that it's slick, stylish and well-made,
17:01managing to treat the source material with reverence
17:03whilst giving it a modern spin.
17:05But who remembers it?
17:06Arriving in the late 90s,
17:08when Brosnan was known worldwide as James Bond,
17:10the film garnered a decent amount of attention
17:12and was generally looked upon favourably.
17:15It helped that the Steve McQueen-starring 1968 original
17:18was only really iconic for its soundtrack,
17:21popularising Michael Legrand's The Windmills of Your Mind.
17:24However, Brosnan's performance isn't worlds away
17:26from what he did with Bond
17:27and this had a double effect.
17:30On the one hand,
17:31it meant we got to see 007 do all the naughty
17:33and extra-legal things he was never able to do
17:35as a true blue government agent.
17:37But it also shunted the film
17:39into the James Bond segment of popular memory
17:41and was promptly forgotten.
17:42Under-seen and under-appreciated,
17:45The Thomas Crown Affair balances
17:46each of its genre elements perfectly,
17:48with genuinely thrilling heists,
17:50spicy romance between its leads
17:52and an unusual plot that keeps you guessing.
17:55And it's high time we introduced it into the canon.