Best Movie Remakes
AMC Movie List

Best Movie Remakes

These days, it seems like every good movie is being remade but in some cases, take two tops the original. Which of these re-dos were most worth the effort?

rank title points votes your vote
1 Ocean's Eleven
The 1960 original featured the Rat Pack, but didn't care if the audience was in on the fun. With a glint in his eye and a smirk on his face, George Clooney's Danny Ocean includes everybody in the scheming. 86 280
2 The Departed
Remaking the 2002 Hong Kong hit Infernal Affairs didn't seem like an obvious choice. Then again, neither did setting the movie in Irish Boston. But it works. 85 257
3 Casino Royale
Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and Ursula Andress all starred in the original, a painfully discombobulated spy spoof. It's mind-boggling that the same Ian Fleming tale also served as the action-packed platform for a revamped Bond in 2006. 81 283
4 The Thing
Has very little to do with 1951's The Thing from Another World, but no matter. It's not only one of the best remakes ever -- it's also one of the best horror movies ever made, period. 80 258
5 The Fly
A cheesy 1958 B-movie begat this moving modern-day horror/love story. Jeff Goldblum plays a scientist in love a journalist (Geena Davis), and with his experiments on matter transmission. 54 222
6 12 Monkeys
Thanks to an acknowledgment in the opening credits, fans of this madcap movie know that this film is based on the 1962 art-house fave La Jetée. 54 210
7 The Magnificent Seven
Turning Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai into a western was an act of genius. The old West makes for a surprisingly good match with feudal Japan. 33 205
8 Little Shop of Horrors
Most viewers don't realize just how long this Shop has been in business. 17 193
9 The Talented Mr. Ripley
This 1999 reincarnation of Highsmith's amoral hero makes the audience understand the seductive allure of his pal Dickie Greenleaf's rich-kid lifestyle even more than the original. -16 192
10 The Thomas Crown Affair
Pairing the world's coolest man, Steve McQueen, with the ice-queen cheekbones of Faye Dunaway would seem to make the 1968 original a tough act to follow. Enter René Russo and Pierce Brosnan. -20 204