The 25 Best Movie Remakes of All Time

The 1999 thriller “The Thomas Crown Affair” is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. The movie follows a billionaire who steals art and is being pursued by a private insurance investigator and the two end up falling in love. According to Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus, the remake is “of uncommon charm.” “The Thomas Crown Affair” is getting another remake, starring Michael B. Jordan (Creed movies).

The 1994 hit action-comedy movie “True Lies” is based on a 1991 French comedy “La Totale!” The plot of the American movie is centered on a salesman who is actually a secret agent tracking down nuclear missiles. “La Totale!” follows a civil servant who is actually a secret agent using his skills and resources to find where his son has been going instead of school. Remake director James Cameron is developing a “True Lies” TV reboot.

Disney’s live-action “Aladdin” is a remake of the studio’s 1992 critically-acclaimed animated version. The remake was surrounded by much controversy, including for not being true to the original Middle Eastern story and hiring Guy Ritchie, who is better known for making gangster movies, to be director. Despite that, and not being liked by critics as much as the original, the remake was a financial success, grossing over $1 billion worldwide against a budget of $182 million.

The 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap” helped turn Lindsay Lohan into a star. In this retelling of the 1961 film, Lohan plays a set of twins who, after being separated at birth, happen across each other at a summer camp. There, they decide to switch places to spend time with the parent they have never met and try to push the parents back together.

“Beauty and the Beast” is one of the best reviewed movies in Disney’s recent string of live-action remakes of the studio’s classic animated films. The Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus describes the film as a “faithful yet fresh retelling” of the original. It stars Emma Watson as Belle, who is taken prisoner by a prince-turned-beast (Dan Stevens) who needs to find love to turn back into a man.

The 2003 heist action movie “The Italian Job” is a remake of the 1969 British film of the same name, starring Michael Cane. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes describe the remake as a “modern take” on the 1969 original — and entertaining but largely because of the charismatic actors. The 2003 movie follows a crew of thieves who plan revenge against a former crew member who double-crossed them.

“Eight Below” is a remake of one of Japan’s most popular movies, “Antarctica,” from 1983. The American version is a fictionalized tale of the true story from the 1950s about a group of huskies that were left to fend for themselves in Antarctica’s brutal winter after severe weather forced Japanese researchers to leave them behind. “Eight Below” offers a Disneyfied version of that story, with Paul Walker and Jason Biggs playing the guilt-ridden explorers who want to go back and rescue their dogs as soon as they can.

Martin Scorsese remade the classic 1962 thriller “Cape Fear” in 1991. Like the original, Scorsese’s version is about a lawyer (Nick Nolte) who withholds evidence to put a violent sex offender (Robert De Niro) in prison for 14 years. When the convict is released, he aims to ruin the lawyer’s life through stalking and violence. Eventually, the lawyer must go outside the law to protect his family. Both De Niro and Juliette Lewis, who plays the lawyer’s daughter, were nominated for Oscars for their performances.

Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” is a remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 horror film of the same name. The movie follows a woman who escapes from her zombified neighbor and realizes everyone in her neighborhood is a zombie. The 2004 version is a “worthy remake,” according to Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus, and “pays homage to the original while working on its own terms.”

A mix of live action and animation, “Pete’s Dragon” was originally released by Disney in 1977. The original, with Hollywood legends Mickey Rooney and Shelley Winters, was described on Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus as “boring and slow” and “a lesser Disney work.” Its 2016 reimagining was a success, with the Critics Consensus saying the update “gives the original a visual overhaul without overwhelming its sweet, soulful charm.”

“The Birdcage” is a classic comedy in which a gay cabaret owner (Robin Williams) and his drag queen partner (Nathan Lane) pretend to be a straight couple to impress the straight-laced parents of their son’s new fiancée. The story was adapted from the French film “La Cage aux Folles,” which became the highest-grossing foreign-language film in American movie history when it was released in 1978.

“Let Me in” is a horror movie about a lonely 12-year-old boy who strikes up a friendship with a neighbor. He soon grows suspicious that she is involved in a string of gruesome murders in the area. The film was adapted from a Swedish movie released just two years earlier. The Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus says “Let Me In” is “similar to the original in all the right ways — but with enough changes to stand on its own.” Both audiences and critics gave the film largely positive reviews.

The 1986 version itself is already a remake of an off-Broadway play and a 1960 comedy movie starring Jonathan Haze and Jack Nicolson. In the original, a florist creates a man-eating plant. In the 1986 remake, the florist finds the plant, which feeds on human flesh during a total eclipse. Another remake of “Little Shop of Horrors” is already in the works.

Director Adam Shankman’s exuberant 2007 film about dance-crazy Baltimore youth fighting for civil rights in the 1960s adheres more to the Broadway musical version than John Waters’ subversive 1988 take on the culture. The reboot is also noteworthy for John Travolta’s turn in drag as the mother of a teen dance queen.

The 2002 version of “Insomnia” is another American remake of a foreign film — in this case, a 1997 film from Norway. In the American version, detectives are dispatched to find a murderer in a remote town in Alaska where the sun doesn’t set. The detectives struggle with their own personal baggage as well as the sleep deprivation brought about by the midnight sun. Both the original and the remake are certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

For his 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh brought back the tried and true formula that made the 1960 version so successful — putting together a group of A-list stars for a Las Vegas casino heist of epic proportions. In the original “Ocean’s 11” Frank Sinatra plays Danny Ocean. He gathers fellow World War II servicemen (played by Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Cesar Romero, and more) for his crew.

In the remake, George Clooney is the titular Ocean, with A-list accomplices like Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, and more. The remake was so successful that it spawned two sequels as well as the 2018 female-led reboot “Ocean’s 8.”

“It” is a supernatural horror film based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The film is the second adaptation of the novel, with the first being the ’90s TV series “It.” The movie tells the story of seven teenagers fighting an evil entity — which often appears in the form of a clown — in their hometown.

“A Star is Born” is one of those movies that gets a remake every so often. The 2018 remake is the fourth version of the music drama. The original, which is the only one of the four with a perfect critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, was released in 1937. All four movies follow a famous musician struggling with alcoholism who helps a young and promising singer find fame, and the two fall in love.

David Cronenberg’s 1986 “The Fly” is an imaginative remake of the 1958 horror film about the consequences of dabbling with nature. The film follows a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) who transforms into a hybrid between a man and a fly after an experiment goes wrong. Both the 1986 and 1958 movies were well received by both critics and fans.

The 1957 “3:10 to Yuma” is a Western classic. It tells the story of struggling rancher Dan Evans, who volunteers to escort a notorious outlaw to a train station so the criminal can go on trial for his misdeeds. Along the way, Evans contends with the criminal’s gang and family trying to free him, as well as the tempting offer of a large bribe to let him go. Both the original film and the 2007 remake with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale received rave reviews from audience members and critics alike.

Before John Carpenter’s “The Thing” became a horror classic in 1982, audiences were frightened by the original version, “The Thing from Another World,” from 1951. Both films draw from the classic sci-fi novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr. In all iterations of the story, scientists in a remote antarctic research station find a crash-landed alien, which soon unthaws and shapeshifts into identical versions of animals and people alike, and paranoia ensues as the scientists must find and destroy the invader.

Though 1983’s “Scarface” is still well known today, what may be less well known is the fact that it is actually a remake of another movie that came out over 50 years earlier. The 1932 version of “Scarface” was based on a 1929 pulp fiction novel of the same name by Armitage Trail. The book was loosely based on the exploits of Al Capone, one of America’s most notorious gangsters.

In the book and both films, the lead character is an ambitious figure in organized crime whose greed proves to be his downfall. “Scarface” is set for another remake, with “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino attached to the project, as of September 2020.

“Scent of a Woman” is a remake of an Italian drama of the same name. In the Italian version, a blind captain, who is assigned an aide by the army, travels to Naples to meet an old friend. The two former soldiers have palanned to fulfill a suicide pact. The Italian movie was nominated for two Oscars, including best writing and best foreign movie. The American film, which follows a blind retired colonel and a prep student hired to help him around, was nominated for four Oscars, with Al Pacino winning for best actor.

Director Martin Scorcese’s “The Departed” is based on the critically-acclaimed police thriller “Infernal Affairs,” which is set in Hong Kong. Scorsese’s gritty flick about the Irish mob in Boston and the undercover cop who helps take them down and exposes a mole in the FBI took home four Oscars, including for best picture and best director.

The 1959 “Some Like It Hot” movie is a remake of a German film from 1951 titled “Fanfaren Der Liebe,” which happens to be a remake of a 1935 French film “Fanfare of Love.” The German film follows two men who disguise themselves as different people to find work. The American comedy centers on two musicians who witness the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago. They dress up as women so they can join an all-female band traveling the country and thus escaping the mob.