As for remakes, it’s also not unheard of for cinephiles to get a film near the par of John Carpenter’s The Thing or David Cronenberg’s The Fly. Those two remakes are brilliant, and the five we’re going to go through today are similar improvements over their respective original films.
5) 3:10 to Yuma
image courtesy of lionsgate
Long before they were being underutilized in Thor: Love and Thunder Christian Bale and Russell Crowe were starring in one of the best Western films of the 2000s. In fact, were it not for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, it would almost certainly be the very best.
That would be 3:10 to Yuma, which features fantastic performances all around and expert direction by James Mangold (who later made another excellent Western with Logan). The original is a very good movie, don’t get us wrong, but the remake absolutely beats it in terms of establishing characters with depth.
Stream 3:10 to Yuma on FRNDLY TV.
4) True Grit
Image courtesy of paramount pictures
Here we are back in Western-land with the Coen brothers’ sublime remake of the John Wayne classic True Grit. Speaking of Wayne, one’s enjoyment of the original film very much hinged on how much they liked him as an actor, because it was his show through and through.
The remake, however, is a more loyal adaptation of Charles Portis’s source material. This is most vividly seen via its focus on Mattie Ross, which was the role that introduced Hailee Steinfeld as a tour de force in the entertainment industry. Jeff Bridges’ drawl-mumble performance isn’t for everyone, but for most it works quite well.
3) Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Image Courtesy of United Artists
There have been four adaptations of Jack Finney’s 1954 novel The Body Snatchers, and three of them are very much worth watching. The 1956 original is better than most sci-fi horror movies of its era and Abel Ferrara’s 1993 Body Snatchers is an intense and claustrophobic chiller, but without a doubt the 1978 version is at the top of the heap.
This is a movie that knows how to make our world seem desolate. It’s consistently building an air of tension that reaches a fever pitch come act three. And, as far as unforgettably bleak sci-fi horror remake endings go, this one is right up there, tied for first with The Thing.
2) Scarface
image courtesy of universal pictures
Both the 1932 and 1983 versions of Scarfaceare excellent and, not unreasonably, some may disagree with us saying Brian De Palma’s version is better. But at the very least it’s more ambitious and, without a doubt, it’s more stylish.
This is a three-hour movie that breezes by. Be it the magnetism of Al Pacino’s performance or the zippy and bleeding cool script, this is one of the gold standard of rise and fall gangster film narratives. As far as movies that capture ’80s excess go, there really is no beating De Palma’s Scarface.
1) The Blob
image courtesy of tri-star pictures
The year after he directed the best Freddy Krueger sequel in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Chuck Russell made the ultimate companion piece to The Thing and The Fly in his modernized version of The Blob. And like with those two other classic sci-fi horror remakes, the 1988 version is easily better than the ’50s version because the ’50s version wasn’t all that great to begin with.
This is a movie that knows how to shock the audience. It crafts a Mayberry-esque small town, populates it with some really lovely people, and then has the Blob disintegrate the ones you least expect to go. And just like with The Thing, the practical effects are fantastic, making every death feel like something to shield your eyes from. This remake incorporates what worked about the original film (e.g. the movie theater set piece) and alters the rest just enough to feel almost entirely different, much to its own benefit.
What other remakes do you think outdid the original? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
