Top 10 Best Remakes

A version of this list appears in my collection Everyone Else is Wrong (And You Know It): Criticism/Humor/Non-Fiction. Click the link to purchase the hardcover or paperback edition along with some of my other published work.

As we looked at the worst remakes two weeks ago, it seemed appropriate now to look at some of the finest. Just because these movies are listed doesn't mean they necessarily were better films than the original (King Kong) or that they are even great movies (Four Brothers), but that they capture something of the original and improve on certain aspects. Unlike in my book, I elaborate more fully below on why these 10 were chosen. Happy reading!

10. The Parent Trap–(1998)

One of the relatively few films that needed an update, this version of 1961's The Parent Trap brought the charming story to my generation (and in the sweetest, most well-made way). With a brilliant performance by Lindsay Lohan and equal magic from Dennis Quaid and the always marvelous Natasha Richardson (God rest her soul), Nancy Myers' movie is funny, touching, and endearing.

9. Angels in the Outfield–(1994)

Few now know the original 1951 film (apparently "Ike" Eisenhower's favorite movie), but Disney's remake is a wonderful kids' film with terrific performances from a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christopher Lloyd, and Brenda Fricker (mostly known in this country as the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York), Angels was one of my favorite movies growing up. Baseball's about the only sport I understand and I say it ranks with some of the great films about the sport (though low on the list given that we have The Natural and other such fare).

8. Death at a Funeral–(2010)

Dean Craig himself provided the American version of his British screenplay (a classic in its own right) and the result is probably one of Neil LaBute's best films (besides In the Company of Men and Possession). An all-African American cast (including Danny Glover, Chris Rock, and the underrated Regina Hall) recreates the madcap farce with aplomb.

7. Four Brothers–(2005)

In an unlikely remake of 1965's The Sons of Katie Elder, cowboys turn to gangsters in John Singleton's action-packed comedy (with a very funny early performance by Sofía Vergara) and, to make up for the "Worst Remake" double-punch, Mark Wahlberg (Planet of the Apes and The Truth about Charlie). While critically derided, the film was a modest success at the box office and is better than most people give it credit for.

6. Meet Joe Black–(1998)

Martin Brest was known for facile dramas with stellar casts, like Scent of a Woman, until he hit rock-bottom with Gigli (2003). To be fair, that film was taken from him in the editing room, but it still bore his name and he has not made a movie since. His take on the film and play Death Takes a Holiday is what every critic said it was (overlong, sometimes pretentious) and yet I find it deeply moving, especially with a perfect trifecta in the lead actors Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, and Claire Forlani (in her best work by far).

5. The Ten Commandments–(1956)

While actors struggled to make the leap from silent pictures to "talkies," most directors rode the wave just fine. Chief among them was Cecil B. DeMille. His 1923 original Ten Commandments was a spectacle for its time, but his color remake still speaks to audiences today. In my father and mother's hometowns, schools were closed so the kids could see it. There is some theology thrown in amongst pulp novels that filled in the story gaps to achieve its length. It also got away with explicitly (for the time) sexual behavior onscreen because it was a Biblical epic. Nevertheless, Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner make quite the duo and, for some, this film defines what an "epic" should be.

4. The Fly–(1986)

David Cronenberg is one of the world's finest directors with Videodrome, A History of Violence, and Eastern Promises among his credits. The Fly is a necessary remake. Taking its cue from the 1958 schlock film, itself an adaptation of a short story, it fits perfectly in Cronenberg's body-horror ouevre and gave Jeff Goldblum the star status he deserved. Later on, Howard Shore and David Henry Hwang would adapt the film as an opera which Cronenberg also directed.

3. Heat–(1995)

Few know Michael Mann's Heat is actually a film version of a television pilot he directed called L. A. Takedown (1989). While the series was not picked up, it did air as a television film in the late '80s. But, Heat is Mann's best film by a landslide. The genius of finally pairing Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro together onscreen, and with a marvelous supporting performance by Val Kilmer, the movie earns its length and is a masterpiece of film action.

2. King Kong–(2005)

Visually impressive, Peter Jackson's take on King Kong was certainly unnecessary. If I had to choose between this and Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1933 original, I would pick the latter any day of the week. But, as reimagined for the 21st century, it uses the technology Jackson had perfected in his Lord of the Rings trilogy for tremendous action scenes. It is an inferior film to the original because what it simply does is drag out the plot and fill in all the backstory the original film simply infers. Personally, as a dramatist, I would rather enter a movie mid-scene than at the dawn of time. Jackson repeated the same error when he adapted Tolkien's The Hobbit into three overblown and overlong movies.

1. The Departed–(2006)

A remake of the Hong Kong action film Internal Affairs, Martin Scorcese's The Departed is one of the best films of the century thus far. Each and every actor is at their effervescent best and there are enough twists and turns to keep you reeling in your seat and your head spinning like a top. While many argued it took the Academy too long to give Scorcese a Best Director Oscar with this one, it was more deserving for it than all of his films excepting Goodfellas. Yeah, I'll fight you on that.

Blake in Bloom: A Review of IT ENDS WITH US

***1/2 out of ****

It was completely by accident that I saw It Ends with Us. In a confusing back-and-forth with my fellow moviegoer, I booked tickets to the wrong movie. Since I had assumed they had chosen it (they actually wanted to see something with much worse reviews), I was intrigued as I’ve been waiting a long time for a movie that would let Blake Lively’s obvious talent shine. Perhaps booking the wrong tickets was the best decision I’ve made all year.

Based on Colleen Hoover’s New York Times best-seller, It End with Us follows Lily Bloom (Lively) as she returns to her hometown in Maine to deliver a eulogy for her father, a wife-beater for whom she can find no positive words at all. From the very beginning, you can see Justin Baldoni’s direction is leading to something explosive, but you rightly cannot tell what. Lily returns to Boston to open a florist’s shop. Even the obvious silliness of her name is handled in such a way to belie the often too-on-the-nose words of a popular fiction bestseller.

We learn her name through a rooftop discussion she has with the neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (played by the director). Bloom, a free spirit with a deeply hurt soul but a smile that was infectious even to me, has a rooftop spot where she likes to look out on the city. The issue is the apartment complex is not her own, but Ryle’s. Our first introduction to Ryle foreshadows much to come later, but their pleasant conversation sets up what you think is going to be a run-of-the-mill romantic dramedy, but It Ends with Us is far from that.

While they are almost certain they will never meet again, this plan is foiled when Lily hires Ryle’s sister Allysa (a rare dramatic part for Jenny Slate) and Ryle drops by to see where she has been working. Through a series of nights-out that eventually become double dates, Ryle and Lily do form a relationship much to the surprise of Allysa, who sees her brother as a perpetual womanizer. Intercut with all of this is Lily’s backstory. The perfectly cast young Lily is newcomer Isabela Ferrer. The likeness and behavior between the two actresses is one of the small marvels of the movie. Lily’s backstory is not only full of dealing with living in domestic violence, but also her first relationship—one with a young man named Atlas (Alex Neustaedter)—who is homeless and living in an abandoned house across from the Bloom family.

We are doled out the right measures of the past and present as we discover a creeping instability in her adult relationship with Ryle and the catastrophic way Atlas left her life. On one double date, Lily, Ryle, Alyssa, and her husband (Hasan Minhaj), try out the hottest place to eat in Boston—a new restaurant owned by none other than the grown-up Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) who has turned out well despite his upbringing. Bloom’s emotions flounder when they re-connect, and Ryle’s suspicious nature becomes more acute.

To give away much more would ruin the experience of the film to those who haven’t seen it, even though the novel has been out for eight years. Suffice it to say, the early moments of the film remain in the back of your mind as you try to make out whether Ryle is the real deal or not and the resolution of the following plot machinations are superbly rendered. For those who haven’t read the book (like me) it was a roller coaster that left me a bit weepy, with fullness of heart, and enraptured as I left the theater.

The film has received mixed reviews, but audiences love it, and I have to side with the audiences on this one. We sat in front of a young woman already seeing the film for the second time and recommending the book even higher. I have never been much of a fan of popular fiction, but such books often make better movies than highly regarded literary novels. For example, if The Godfather has been shot the way Mario Puzo’s potboiler was written, it would be not a masterpiece, but an embarrassment. It’s a crapshoot. Pop fiction writers often come up with better stories and more interesting characters (think Thomas Harris, Stephen King occasionally), but lit fiction writers are more concerned with style and their novels, like Snow Falling on Cedars, make turgid films, despite that author, David Guterson, being one of its few admirers.

Lively is magnificent in the part of Lily. This is a grown-up part for an actress who has been underutilized in most of her efforts. The other actors are equally at home in their roles, though Skelnar doesn’t rise to more than a Netflix series level of acting and seeing Jenny Slate doing something other than sketch comedy felt a bit off-kilter. It is not that she’s bad in the part, it’s just a change for me. One, perhaps, I’ll have to get used to.

Much has been made of the film’s publicity not giving appropriate “trigger warnings” for the grown-up children posing as adults we have now, but to do so would have been to betray how the story is told and what it is trying to say. Lively was bullied into making an online statement that she had no moral responsibility to make. Our modern bullies think they’re the good guys. Really, they are proof that adolescent thinking has now persisted in many people well into their 40s.

It Ends with Us

Blake Lively as Lily Bloom

Justin Baldoni as Ryle Kincaid

Brandon Skelnar as Atlas Corrigan

Jenny Slate as Allysa

Hasan Minhaj as Marshall

Directed by Justin Baldoni

Screenplay by Christy Hall, based on the novel by Colleen Hoover

Produced by Alex Saks, Jarney Heath, Blake Lively, and Christy Hall

Photographed by Barry Peterson

Edited by Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan

Music by Rob Simonsen and Duncan Blickenstaff

Columbia Pictures

"Top" 10 Worst Remakes

A version of this list appears in my collection Everyone Else is Wrong (And You Know It): Criticism/Humor/Non-Fiction. Click the link to purchase the hardcover or paperback edition along with some of my other published work.

This list runs the gamut from unnecessary remakes of movies that weren't all that good to start with (Ocean's Eleven) to remakes of masterpieces that make a mockery of the original (The Jazz Singer) to the mundane and humdrum. We live in an age of continual reboots and remakes and to get into some of the newer flicks would be disingenuous of me as I no longer go to see remakes (or many movies at all). Still, it is interesting that my original list includes so much from the late-'90s and early-00's. Perhaps this was the time this madness began, but there were also original and innovative movies during that time period making the films on this list that much worse.

Please like this post and, in the comments, include the films from 2010 to the present that should be on this list. As with the last three posts, below I give explanations which do not appear in my above-mentioned book. Happy reading?

10. Ocean's Eleven–(2001)

I'm rather vocal about my hatred of filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, a prolific director with maybe a handful of watchable films (among them Magic Mike, Erin Brockovich, and the film version of Spalding Gray's monologue Gray's Anatomy), his films range from unwatchable (Full Frontal) to empty-headed Oscar-bait (Traffic). This one goes in the empty-headed category. While the cast is impressive, one wonders why one needed to dust off the dreadful 1960 Rat Pack heist film in the first place. While successful, with two follow-up films (also directed by Soderbergh) and an all-female reboot that serves as an example for why such endeavors never work, there is nothing to the movie except a suave George Clooney and a fair performance from Brad Pitt. I guess that's all most people want most of the time.

9. The Truth about Charlie–(2002)

While I have personally never been a fan of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn's Charade, it is beloved by many film buffs. Needless to say, Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton (as wonderful as they are) are no comparison to the Hollywood legends who led the original. Another tepid film by the once-talented Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), the real truth about Charlie is it's a dud.

8. The Jazz Singer–(1980)

While making a profit, this 1980 update of the first "talkie" The Jazz Singer is well known as one of the most misguided remakes ever attempted. Neil Diamond, as a songwriter, is the poet of loneliness. As a performer, he is an original with no parallel (it grieves me he is mostly unable to sing due to Parkinson's disease). As an actor–well, let the movie speak for itself. Overblown, with plenty of misused actors (including Sir Laurence Olivier), The Jazz Singer is mostly known for the song "America" which, admittedly, is not Diamond at his best.

7. Alfie–(2004)

1966's Alfie brough Michael Caine international fame. The 2004 remake (a curious choice even then) would be most unwelcome in today's world. Not just for its poor quality, but for its Casanova-lite lead character. Jude Law is always fun to watch–he is a great actor–but only with the right material. Thankfully, he has made more brilliant films than stinkers.

6. Last Holiday–(2006)

While the original 1950 British film was no great work of art, Last Holiday is perhaps the dumbest film on this list. While it has an impressive cast, you might just wish this upcoming Labor Day would be your last holiday if you were forced to sit through it. A grating mixture of slapstick, unfunny dialogue, and melodrama, it brings nothing to the table of interest except how far your eyes can roll to the back of your head.

5. You've Got Mail–(1998)

While Nora Ephron has been much praised after her death, her films are professional, but wearisome. Indiscriminate fans of rom-coms will hate me for including this on the list, but I've seen Sleepless in Seattle. I enjoyed Sleepless in Seattle. You've Got Mail, you're no Sleepless in Seattle. If it weren't crass enough, the fact that it's a remake of the wonderful, charming, tender James Stewart film The Shop around the Corner makes it all the more miserable.

4. The Lake House–(2006)

Written by playwright/screenwriter David Auburn (Proof), this is another in his incredibly bad filmography (including contributing the story for the 2019 remake of Charlie's Angels). A remake of the South Korean film Il Mare, it is utterably unwatchable. While Reeves is a actor of limited talent, Sandra Bullock is not and it is a shame to see her in this murky time-bending tale that's only effect on time is having you consistently check how much longer it could possibly be–perhaps the longest 99 minutes you'll ever sit through.

3. Flubber–(1997)

Incredibly, 1997 saw Robin Williams give a performance in Good Will Hunting that would win him the Academy Award and starring in this kinetic and busy remake of Disney's The Absent-Minded Professor. No one will call the original a masterpiece–most of the early Disney live-action films are incredibly boring. The old-fashioned visual effects are replaced with CGI (and not in its heyday) and the comedy is almost non-existent. After this, Williams' career veered off into milquetoast dramadies not worthy of him–a shame for a personality so beloved and talented.

2. Vanilla Sky–(2001)

This remake of Alejandro Amenábar's Open Your Eyes gives the word "pretentious" new, deeper meaning. Directed by Cameron Crowe (best in his early years) and starring Tom Cruise and a wasted Penélope Cruz is remarkable only in its way of wasting the viewer's time with whisps of half-thought-out ideas and a fleeting attempt at something philosophical among the debris.

1. Planet of the Apes–(2001)

While we all have high expectations for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in my opinion Tim Burton's great creative period ended with 1999's Sleepy Hollow. Everything since has been a lot of garbage beginning with his remake of 1968's Planet of the Apes based on the 1963 Pierre Boulle novel. A garbled embarrassment from a director with no flair for action/adventure, this cumbersome and laughable remake deserves the top spot although the original was campy. But, hey, at least it's watchable.