Most Improved Remakes
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), over The Lord of the Rings (1978)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), over Robin Hood (1913)
- The Fly (1986), over The Fly (1958)
- Airplane! (1980), over Zero Hour! (1957)
- The Thing (1982), over The Thing From Another World (1951)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941), over The Maltese Falcon (1931)
- Ben-Hur (1959), over Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ (1926)
- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), over Bedtime Story (1964)
- Ocean's Eleven (2001), over Ocean's Eleven (1960)
It seems that usually, the a remake is worse or similar to the original. But sometimes, Hollywood does it better the second time around.
This is not a 'best remakes' list, but a list of movies that most improved on the original. Also, it is not a list of movies that most improved on a previous remake (only the original).
Examples: (the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, Wings of Desire vs. City of Angels, His Girl Friday vs. The Front Page, No Way Out vs. The Big Clock - both members of each pair are of similar quality, so the remake was not a vast improvement over the original).
Also, only feature-length remakes are considered, but not feature-length remakes of an original short (Passion of Joan of Arc, Last Days of Pompeii)
The movies are listed in order of HOW MUCH they improved on the original.
This is an extremely subjective list, and there are hundreds of remakes I have not yet considered for lack of knowledge or memory, so please nominate some remakes that vastly improve on the original!
Actually, Maltese Falcon is the second re-make, of which Satan Met a Lady (1936) is the first.
I also think that Sorcerer (1977) is much more impressive than the French original Wages of Fear (1953).
Yes, it doesn't matter what # the remake is, only how improved it is over the VERY FIRST movie. For example, there have been half a dozen 'Three Musketeers' remakes: all of them are eligible for this list, but only as how they compare to the very first three musketeers film.
As per your recommendation I'll have to watch Sorcerer to see how I think it compares to Wages of Fear - thanks for the heads up.