Hollywood is constantly recycling material for newer, "better" versions of movies. Remakes and reboots are big business, as there's generally less risk when it comes to finding an audience. Studios know a property like Godzilla will always bring in viewers — when it comes to dropping millions of dollars on a production, it helps if it's familiar.
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00:00These days, it seems like Hollywood is churning out more remakes, revivals,
00:03and reimaginings than ever before. Truth is, though, it's been happening for decades,
00:07and there are some movies you might never have known were actually remakes.
00:11It's hard to imagine anyone replicating the energy and diamondism of Jean-Claude Van Damme,
00:16but Michael J. White held his own in the 2020 remake of Sudden Death, titled Welcome to Sudden
00:20Death. Van Damme starred as a hockey stadium security guard in the original 1995 action flick
00:25from director Peter Hyams, in which he fights to save the entire crowd and his two daughters
00:30from being blown to smithereens. The movie's $35 million production budget pulled in a dismal $65
00:36million worldwide in the film Completely Divided Critics, but to this day, it still has its
00:41advocates. Director and screenwriter Dallas Jackson pulled many of those same story threads
00:45in the updated version, and while it doesn't have the best Rotten Tomatoes score in the world,
00:49it did break into the top 10 on Netflix when it dropped in 2020. As one critic pointed out,
00:54Welcome is a flick that greatly benefits from its winking self-awareness and from
00:58White's winning performance.
01:01Is there a movie mobster more iconic than Al Pacino's Tony Montana?
01:05"'Shut up to my little friend!"
01:10There are a few gangster movies that hold up to Brian De Palma's 1983 hit.
01:14Not only does it hold a 93% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it pulled in an 8.9
01:19score with users on Metacritic, too. It also killed at the box office,
01:23and put a then-25-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer on the map.
01:26So some may be surprised to hear that the movie wasn't the first of its kind.
01:30Back in 1932, Scarface first debuted with Paul Muni in the leading role of Tony Comante,
01:35an immigrant who turns to the gangster lifestyle in Chicago. That flick was based on the 1930 novel
01:40of the same name by Artemis Trail, who based his story on the life of the notorious gangster Al
01:44Capone. This tale of an outsider working his way up the criminal ladder is clearly as timeless as
01:49it is thrilling. And if you haven't caught the original, it's worth a side-by-side watch just
01:54to catch the similarities, despite the changes in both character and location.
01:59In 2012, after the Harry Potter films had wrapped for good, Daniel Radcliffe set out to prove that
02:04he was more than just the boy who lived, beginning with an adaptation of Susan Hill's 1983 novel The
02:08Woman in Black. Certainly, this gothic horror film was about as far as you could get from the
02:13wizarding world of Harry Potter and his pals. However, Radcliffe and director James Watkins
02:17weren't the first to tackle this particular tale. In 1989, British filmmakers attempted a
02:22straight-to-TV adaptation of the novel, one that was nominated for four below-the-line BAFTA awards
02:27that year. Watkins' adaptation didn't hit the same notes with critics, but it did rake in nearly $130
02:32million in the global box office against a budget of $15 million. The film was successful enough to
02:38earn a sequel, The Woman in Black, Angel of Death, in 2015. However, neither Radcliffe nor Watkins
02:43were involved, and the movie bombed, both with critics and at the box office.
02:48Stunt casting and fancy visual effects don't always do a horror thriller much good,
02:52especially when you're talking about a remake of a movie that was already considered pretty great.
02:56Enter Nicolas Cage, who in 2006 took the lead role in Neil LaBute's The Wicker Man.
03:01"'Lots of bees! Lots of bees! Ahhhh! I don't have my eyes! My eyes!"
03:08When it first debuted, not everyone realized that the movie was an updated version of the
03:121973 offering starring Edward Woodward and directed by Robin Hardy. In horror circles,
03:17however, that film has been beloved for decades for its unsettling tone,
03:21its memorable performances, and its truly horrific ending.
03:24Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Cage's adaptation. Audiences and critics alike
03:29panned the movie at the time of its release thanks to its unintentionally hilarious nature,
03:33and its near-total failure to tackle its scarier side in a cohesive manner. In other words,
03:38if you're looking for a creepy thrill and aren't familiar with either film,
03:42you're better off sticking with the original.
03:44In 1999, Geoffrey Rush led an all-star cast in a remake of William Castle's 1959 horror
03:50movie House on Haunted Hill. The 1999 version of the story was the first project for Dark Castle
03:55Entertainment, a production label that originally intended to remake all of Castle's legendary
03:59films. Like many horror movie updates, the more recent iteration injected its scares with more
04:04impressive technology and special effects under new director William Malone. But that wasn't the
04:09only difference between the movies. Both films begin with the same classic premise. A group of
04:14strangers are told they'll earn a large sum of cash if they can survive the night in a haunted
04:18location. But while the original film takes place in a haunted house, the remake uses a long-abandoned
04:23asylum as the backdrop. From there, the story is a winding tale of deceit, betrayal, supernatural
04:28forces, and other creepy occurrences. The biggest difference of all, however, is that while almost
04:33everything that happens can be logically explained in the original version, the ghosts are very much
04:38real in the newer one. And as for Dark Castle Entertainment? The studio went on to remake
04:42another Castle classic, 13 Ghosts, before expanding its vision and tackling a number
04:46of original films, such as 2009's Orphan. Think of Canadian director David Cronenberg,
04:52and you'll inevitably conjure up images of Jeff Goldblum as a half-man, half-insect from the 1986
04:57body horror film The Fly. However, that particular box office hit wasn't the first big-screen offering
05:02based on George Langland's 1957 short story. In 1958, director Kurt Newman put his spin on the
05:08tale of a scientist whose life is irrevocably changed after testing out his teleportation
05:13device. Al Hedison, Patricia Owens, and horror legend Vincent Price all starred in a movie so
05:18successful that it spawned two sequels, 1959's Return of the Fly and 1965's Curse of the Fly.
05:24Sadly, those films had been largely forgotten by the time Cronenberg put his stamp on the story,
05:29with the latter-day version still considered the director's greatest film.
05:32That movie also launched a sequel, The Fly 2, which was directed by makeup effects artist
05:36Chris Walas, who had taken home an Oscar for his work on the original.
05:40In 1987, emerging star Kevin Costner was having quite the year, what with his starring role
05:45alongside Sean Connery in the classic gangster movie The Untouchables. But that wasn't Costner's
05:50only movie to be released in 87. He also starred as Tom Farrell in the politically-charged thriller
05:55No Way Out. In the latter movie, Costner's character is a Navy lieutenant who investigates
06:00the death of a woman with whom he was romantically involved. But when the scandalous
06:03circumstances surrounding her death are revealed, they set off a string of high-stakes calamities.
06:08The movie was quite the hit with critics at the time of its debut.
06:12But this wasn't the first time Kenneth Beering's 1946 novel The Big Clock had been translated to
06:17the big screen. In 1948, John Farrell directed a film also called The Big Clock. Then, in 1976,
06:23French director Alain Cournot took a stab at the story with Police Python 357. While all three
06:29films differ in terms of exact plot details, all three successfully capture the neo-noir vibe of
06:34the original story. The Coen brothers had long established themselves as some of Hollywood's
06:39most influential filmmakers when they decided to remake True Grit in 2010. And maybe that's why
06:44some people didn't notice that the movie was actually a remake of a 1969 cowboy flick starring
06:49John Wayne. That said, even the Coen brothers insisted the movie wasn't a remake, claiming that
06:53they were basing their own movie directly on the 1968 novel of the same name by Charles Portis.
06:58But they weren't fooling anybody.
07:00I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.
07:03I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.
07:08The original True Grit was the movie that landed Wayne his only Oscar win,
07:12and while Jeff Bridges put his own spin on the character of Rooster Cogburn,
07:15Wayne was clearly a tough act to follow. Still, the updated take did put Hailee
07:19Steinfeld on the map thanks to her breakout role as vengeful teen Mattie Ross.
07:23And while the movie didn't take home any Oscar wins, it was nominated for 10 awards,
07:27including Best Picture, Best Director, and Actor and Actress for Bridges and Steinfeld, respectively.
07:33If you grew up in the 1990s, you probably have vivid memories of Alfonso Cuarón's A
07:37Little Princess. The movie revolves around a little girl named Sarah Crew,
07:41whose adoring father leaves her at a boarding school to serve in the war.
07:44When her father goes missing and is presumed dead, Sarah winds up as one of the school's
07:48servants under the cruel mismention. This tragic tale is based on a 1905 book of the same name by
07:53Francis Hodgson Burnett, so it may not surprise you to learn that the 1995 movie wasn't the first
07:58big-screen adaptation of the story. Another Little Princess had hit theaters in 1939 and starred the
08:04famous child actor Shirley Temple in the role of Sarah, and was equally beloved in its time.
08:08In fact, to this day, it's still considered one of Temple's greatest movies.
08:13In 2017, Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston starred in the funny but heartfelt dramedy The Upside,
08:18in which a wealthy paraplegic hires a man with a criminal record named Dell to help him out.
08:22Right away, the movie ran into problems, with the Weinstein Company selling the film off in the wake
08:26of the lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein, and Hart being hired and then fired from hosting the Oscars.
08:32Still, the upside to The Upside was that it fared well with audiences when it finally
08:36opened in theaters in 2019, pulling in just over $125 million at the global box office.
08:42What many moviegoers didn't realize, however, was that the film is actually a remake of the
08:462011 French film The Untouchables. While both share a similar premise, there are a few key
08:51differences, including the setting, a new love interest in the American version,
08:55and the inclusion of a son for the character of Dell.
08:58To celebrate Valentine's Day in 2014, director Shana Feste unleashed young love on moviegoers
09:03everywhere with an adaptation of Scott Spencer's 1979 novel Endless Love. The movie starred Gabriella
09:09Wilde and Alex Pettifer as Jade and David, two pretty young things who fall in love,
09:13much to the chagrin of Jade's father. The film was clearly targeted at a younger generation,
09:18being co-written by former Gossip Girl scribe Joshua Safran and produced by the
09:21show's executive producer Josh Schwartz. So it'd be more than understandable if you
09:26didn't catch that the movie is technically a remake of a 1981 film starring Brooke Shields
09:30and Martin Hewitt. That film was also based on Spencer's novel, but its plot turns were
09:35much different than the newer version. Still, the 1981 movie deserves a place in the pop culture
09:39vault. It isn't exactly beloved by movie fans, but it does at least feature the film debut of
09:44a guy called Tom Cruise. It also helped to popularize the Endless Love collaboration
09:48between Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, a prom anthem that topped the charts on its release
09:53that same year. There was no shortage of star power in the 2006 ocean survival thriller Poseidon,
09:59a movie shot under a whopping $160 million budget. Unfortunately, the movie pulled in just $180
10:05million at the box office, and after the costs of promotion and distribution were factored in,
10:09it ended up losing money for the studio. Director Wolfgang Petersen later revealed
10:13he regretted ever taking on the project. It was a different story in 1972, however,
10:18when director Ronald Neame helmed the first on-screen iteration of Paul Gallico's 1969
10:23novel The Poseidon Adventure. The original movie starred Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters,
10:27and earned nine Oscar nominations, including wins for Best Original Song and Visual Effects.
10:32That version also fared well with critics and viewers,
10:35who practically doubled the lousy Rotten Tomatoes scores of the remake.
10:39Just because you change the name of a film doesn't make it any less of a remake. At least,
10:43that's the case with Oliver Hirschbegel's 2007 film The Invasion, which is the fourth film
10:48adaptation of The Body Snatchers, a 1955 novel by Jack Finney. There's no denying the project
10:53was buzzworthy in its own right, however, what with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in the leading
10:57roles. The movie follows a psychiatrist as she figures out aliens are planning — you guessed
11:02it — an invasion, with her son being the only person who can stop them. It's a female-led,
11:06updated take on the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
11:10as well as the 1978 Philip Kaufman release of the same name. And of course,
11:14those are separate projects from the 1993 offering Body Snatchers, in which a teenager and her dad
11:19try to stop an invasion stemming from a nearby military base. Of all the iterations, it's still
11:24the first two films that critics and viewers respond to the best, so if you find yourself
11:28deciding between all four, you may want to lean towards the early years.
11:32Who needs humans when you've got talking pets?
11:35In 1993, Disney brought in Michael J. Fox, Don Amici, and Sally Field to voice the two dogs
11:40and a cat at the heart of Homeward Bound The Incredible Journey, in which the animals traverse
11:44the Sierra Nevada mountains to return home. Families turned out in droves to the movie,
11:48which was a box office hit, pulling in more than $40 million worldwide. It was even enough
11:53to prompt a San Francisco-based sequel three years later, with Field and Fox reprising their
11:58original roles. That's not too shabby, especially considering the movie was actually an updated
12:02version of the Mouse House's 1963 film The Incredible Journey. Of course, in the original
12:07film, the animals don't talk, which definitely makes things at least a little different.
12:11It's also worth pointing out that both are based on a book of the same name,
12:14written by Scottish author Celia Burnford.
12:17It's hard not to be blinded by the sheer star power that drove Ocean's Eleven to a box office
12:22win when it first debuted in 2001. Director Steven Soderbergh recruited a veritable hooshoo
12:27of household names and Hollywood stars to pull off the heist drama, which was filled with all
12:31kinds of twists and turns against its Las Vegas casino setting.
12:35You're a thief and a liar.
12:37I only lied about being a thief. I don't do that anymore.
12:41Steal?
12:41Lie.
12:42But it's no wonder the movie attracted such high-caliber talent, as it was based on an
12:46original 1960s Rat Pack film of the same name. It later came out that the new cast members weren't
12:52exactly fans of the original film, although $450 million worth of global moviegoers would probably
12:58agree that the new class had earned themselves the right to their opinion.
13:01That same cast later reunited for 2004's Ocean's Twelve and 2007's Ocean's Thirteen.
13:07Years before Tony Goldwyn made a name for himself on the political thriller Scandal,
13:11he played a father-out for justice in the 2009 revenge horror flick The Last House on the Left.
13:16This is a movie that asked how far a scorned family would go to avenge their daughter,
13:20who was attacked by a gang of miscreants. Director Denis Iliadis didn't have to go
13:24too far for inspiration, though. The Last House on the Left was actually a remake of
13:28Forremaster Wes Craven's 1972 film of the same name, which also happened to be the director's
13:33debut. That movie was made on a shoestring budget of just $87,000, but pulled in more
13:39than $3 million at the box office. The project has been applauded for being an anti-establishment
13:44shocker and the first of its kind, though in spite of the remake's notable cast, bigger budget,
13:48and Craven's return to produce, it wasn't quite as well-received as the original.
13:53Adam Sandler fans are a pretty loyal bunch, which probably explains why 2002's Mr. Deeds
13:58snagged a 59% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to the 21%
14:03critics' score. And sure, it's one of the lesser-loved Sandler projects out there,
14:07but the movie does have its defenders. Maybe that comes down to the fact that it's actually
14:11a remake of the 1936 romantic dramedy Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. That film,
14:16which in turn is based on the 1935 short story Opera Hat, starred Gary Cooper and
14:20Gene Arthur in the leading roles. And although Sandler's remake was a box office success,
14:24it's clear that critics much preferred the original, with the former's Rotten Tomatoes
14:28consensus reading,
14:29"...this update of Capra doesn't hold a candle to the original,
14:32and even on its own merits, Mr. Deeds is still indifferently active and stale."
14:37The Coen brothers already had a successful string of movies under their belt by 2004,
14:41including instant classics like Fargo and The Big Lebowski. But they were also coming off the
14:45glossier Universal Pictures rom-com Intolerable Cruelty, which to this day is considered one of
14:50their worst films. So it was something of a gamble when they opted to remake the beloved 1955 British
14:56movie The Lady Killers. In fact, the Coens and star Tom Hanks were well aware that Brit viewers
15:01were going to crucify them for doing it. Yet they went about this comedy of errors in their own way,
15:06updating the characters and setting for an American audience that wasn't so aware of
15:09the original movie. In the 2004 film, Hanks stars as a professor who charms his way into
15:14renting a room from an unassuming older lady, and then uses her home as a hideout from which
15:18he can plan to rob a casino. As it turned out, The Lady Killers was another hugely divisive
15:23film that managed to do at least one positive thing for the filmmakers. It finally changed
15:28some critics' minds about which Coen brothers movie is the worst.
15:32Longtime Western fans will fondly remember Clint Eastwood's starring turn in Sergio
15:36Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, which hit theaters back in 1964 and was the star's first major big
15:41screen role. This story of a gunfighter who pits two feuding families against each other was so
15:46well-received that it spawned two follow-ups as part of the so-called Dollars Trilogy,
15:50for a few dollars more in the good, the bad, and the ugly. But the original film wasn't so
15:55original after all. It was actually an unofficial and unlicensed remake of a 1961 Japanese samurai
16:01film called Yojimbo. When filmmaker Akira Kurosawa found out about A Fistful of Dollars,
16:06he sued Leone, and the pair eventually settled out of court. However, despite the drama,
16:10both films are incredibly influential flicks, and when comparing Eastwood's gunslinger to
16:15Toshiro Mifune's samurai, it's genuinely difficult to decide who's cooler.
16:20Jay Roach's Meet the Parents turned out to be a smash hit when it landed in theaters in 2000.
16:24The story of Greg Falker meeting his girlfriend's parents was a massive box office success,
16:28and even spawned two sequels, Meet the Falkers and Little Falkers. What most fans might not realize,
16:33however, is that the film is actually a remake of a 1992 movie also called Meet the Parents,
16:38which was co-written, directed, and starred Greg Liena.
16:41After the film's release, Universal Pictures acquired the right to adapt this darkly comic
16:45story of a man coming home to meet his partner's parents. New writers Jim Hertzfield and John
16:49Hamburg took out some of the original film's more morbid elements in the remake, with the result
16:54being a decent enough comedy that made a ton of money, and was even nominated for a handful of
16:58awards. Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Oliver Martinez had viewers everywhere saying,
17:04after seeing Unfaithful, the 2002 movie about a woman whose life unravels in the wake of an
17:09unexpected affair. Director Adrian Lane's hot take on the movie had everything from tingling love
17:14scenes to murderous intrigue, and it earned Lane heaps of critical praise for her performance,
17:18as well as nominations at both the Golden Globes and Oscars.
17:21The leading lady's performance aside, critics were a little more mixed about the movie itself,
17:25but it performed well at the box office and transformed a $50 million budget into nearly
17:30$120 million worldwide. But as it turns out, Unfaithful was faithful to another film,
17:36the 1969 French movie The Unfaithful Wife. While that title may be a little more on the nose than
17:41the remake, critics seemed to enjoy the film itself, which earned far more positive reviews
17:45than the newer version. Brad Pitt may be an illustrious A-lister, but even the Oscar-winning
17:50actor has had his share of bombs. For example, take Martin Bress' Meet Joe Black, co-starring
17:55Anthony Hopkins and Claire Forlani. The three-hour film follows Death, who comes to Earth and
18:00inhabits a man's body to learn the ways of humans. He enlists a media mogul to guide him along the
18:05way, but things get complicated when Death falls for his guide's daughter. The movie didn't even
18:09double its $90 million budget, only earning just under $143 million worldwide. That could explain
18:15why the clip of Pitt's character getting hit by a car went viral in 2019, as new fans discovered
18:20one of the movie's most unintentionally hilarious scenes. It's safe to say that the original film,
18:25on which Meet Joe Black is based, fared better, at least from a critical standpoint.
18:30The 1934 flick Death Takes a Holiday offers a similar premise and story,
18:34starring Frederick March as Death, who inhabits a body in order to better understand humanity.
18:38The difference is that this movie received generally positive reviews from audiences
18:42and critics alike. In 2003, Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron teamed up for The Italian Job,
18:48an adrenaline-packed heist film from F. Gary Gray featuring an all-star cast and a whole lot
18:53of car chases. The movie earned fairly positive reviews from critics and a lot of love from
18:57audiences, with a whopping return of $176 million at the worldwide box office against the $60
19:03million production budget. But this team of international gold-seekers wasn't the first
19:08to connect with audiences. In 1969, Michael Caine headed up the cast of the original British movie,
19:13The Italian Job, under the guidance of director Peter Collinson. When it came to critical and
19:17audience acclaim, that film blew the bloody doors off, largely thanks to its hugely impressive car
19:22chase, which is considered one of the all-time greats. On top of that, The Italian Job helps
19:27cement Caine as an icon of the British film scene, and both he and the movie have since
19:30gone down in movie history.
19:32"'Hang on a minute, lads. I've got a great idea."
19:36Crime capers don't get much better than this.
19:39Long before Robert De Niro was biting off faces in Martin Scorsese's 1991 iteration of Cape Fear,
19:44it was Robert Mitchum who shocked moviegoers with his own take on the Max Cady character in 1962.
19:50Both stories follow a lawyer whose family is terrorized by a man he helped put in jail,
19:54and both versions are based on the 1957 novel The Executioners by John D. McDonald.
19:59But while Gregory Peck starred as the lawyer in question in the first film,
20:03it was Nick Nolte who took over the main role for the remake. While some were divided over
20:06the liberties Scorsese took with his version of the story, the lead performances clearly
20:10resonated with Oscar voters, as both De Niro and supporting actress Juliette Lewis received
20:15nods at the awards. However, both critics and viewers seem to agree that, as an overall story,
20:20it's the original that reigns supreme. On Rotten Tomatoes, the original has a critic score of 96
20:25percent and audience score of 86 percent, while the remake falls below that at 75 percent and
20:3077 percent, respectively.