Most remakes aren’t very good at all, I think that is fair to say, not to say that all remakes are bad, but when you consider the amount of bad ones that have been made and good ones that have been made then it’s fair to say that most aren’t very good. Nowadays Hollywood seems to be churning out remakes of either classic films or foreign films more than ever, and after reading today about another film I like that is being remade, it got me thinking, what are some remakes that I like? Not neccesarily ones that are BETTER than the original, but ones that are good (Or perhaps better), so I made a list of 10 remakes that I like, these are in no particular order.

Scarface - Starring the great Al Pacino, this is a remake of the 1932 movie of the same name.

This sprawling epic of bloodshed and excess, Brian De Palma’s update of the classic 1932 crime drama by Howard Hawks, sparked controversy over its outrageous violence when released in 1983. Scarface is a wretched, fascinating car wreck of a movie, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban refugee who rises to the top of Miami’s cocaine-driven underworld, only to fall hard into his own deadly trap of addiction and inevitable assassination. - [IMDB]

Heat - Remake of a made for television film called LA Takedown. Heat stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Val Kilmer amongst others.

An L.A. cop (Al Pacino) becomes fixated on a deadly thief (Robert De Niro) and his crew ( Val Kilmer & Jon Voight) who are taking Los Angeles to the cleaners. This movie includes one of the most spectacular shoot outs in film history as De Niro and Kilmer rip through downtown Los Angeles with both guns blazing. - [IMDB]

Ocean’s Eleven - Remake starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt amongst others of the 1960 film of the same name.

Fresh out of jail, Ocean masterminds a plot to steal $163 million from the seemingly impervious vault of Las Vegas’s Bellagio casino, not just for the money but to win his ex-wife (Julia Roberts) back from the casino’s ruthless owner (Andy Garcia). Soderbergh doesn’t scrimp on the caper’s comically intricate strategy, but he finds greater joy in assembling a stellar team (including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Carl Reiner) and indulging their strengths as actors and thieves. The result is a film that’s as smooth as a silk suit and just as stylish. - [IMDB]

The Thing - Starring Kurt Russell, this is the remake of the 1951 film The Thing From Another World.

A group of weary scientists enduring the winter in an isolated camp deep in Antarctica chance upon an alien spacecraft buried in the ice. Near the strange craft is the body of an alien being, frozen solid. Thinking they have made the find of a lifetime, the scientists bring the alien body back to camp and thaw it out. The alien awakens, not in the best of moods, and proceeds to take over the identities of the scientists, one by one, body and all. Helicopter pilot MacCready (Kurt Russell) must lead the surviving men in discovering who among them is human and who is not and how they can destroy "the thing" before it takes them all and moves on to the heavily populated mainland and the rest of humanity. - [IMDB]

The Bourne Identity - Starring Matt Damon, this is the remake of the 1988 film of the same name.

The twisting plot revs up in Zurich, where amnesiac CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), with no memory of his name, profession, or recent activities, recruits a penniless German traveler (Franka Potente) to assist in solving the puzzle of his missing identity. While his CIA superior (Chris Cooper) dispatches assassins to kill Bourne and thus cover up his failed mission, Bourne exercises his lethal training to leave a trail of bodies from Switzerland to Paris. - [IMDB]

The Departed - Leonardo DiCaprio leads an all star cast in this remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, and is directed by Martin Scorsese.

Director Martin Scorsese returns to his trademark style with the violent, bruised, and bloody feature THE DEPARTED. Scorsese filched the basic storyline from Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak’s masterful 2002 Hong Kong action film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which saw a policeman going undercover as a mob member and a mob member infiltrating the police force. Scorsese transfers the action to Boston, positioning Leonardo DiCaprio as undercover cop William Costigan and Matt Damon as undercover mobster Colin Sullivan. While Costigan and Sullivan get into plenty of nail-biting situations that almost reveal their true identities, Scorsese gradually unravels his strong supporting cast, including Jack Nicholson as Sullivan’s mob boss, Frank Costello; Ray Winstone as Costello’s meat-headed muscle; Mark Wahlberg as a hot-headed police sergeant; and Vera Farmiga as a love interest for both Damon and Di Caprio’s characters . - [IMDB]

Insomnia - Starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank, this is a remake of a Norwegian film of the same name.

Evading the heat of an Internal Affairs investigation, Los Angeles hotshot homicide cop Dormer (Pacino) flies north to Alaska to dig into the murder of a local girl–but a botched trap for the killer leads to a foggy shoot-out that goes wrong. This leads to an alliance between the cop and the killer, who offers Dorma a nasty bargain. Making the situation worse is the fact that Dormer can’t sleep, his body clock thrown off by the 24-hour thin sunlight of the town of Nightmute, which affords Pacino a chance to crawl deeply inside a flawed hero on the point of cracking up.- [IMDB]

The Fly - Starring Jeff Goldblum this is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name.

Seth Brundle, a brilliant but eccentric scientist attempts to woo investigative journalist Veronica Quaife by offering her a scoop on his latest research in the field of matter transportation, which against all the expectations of the scientific establishment have proved successful. Up to a point. Brundle thinks he has ironed out the last problem when he successfully transports a living creature, but when he attempts to teleport himself a fly enters one of the transmission booths, and Brundle finds he is a changed man. - [IMDB]

Cape Fear - Starring Robert De Niro, this remake is of the 1962 film of the same name.

Robert De Niro plays a serial rapist released from prison after 14 years. Angry because his appalled attorney (Nick Nolte) made it easy for him to be convicted, this monster is out to hurt Nolte’s character through his wife (Jessica Lange) and daughter (Juliette Lewis). - [IMDB]

The Magnificent Seven - Remake of Seven Samurai, starring Steve MqQueen and Charles Bronson amongst others.

Merciless Calvera (Wallach) and his band of ruthless outlaws are terrorizing a poor Mexican village and even the bravest lawmen can’t stop them. Desperate the locals hire Chris Adams (Brynner) and six other gun fighters to defend them. With time running out before Calvera’s next raid the heroic seven must prepare the villagers for battle and help them find the courage to take back their town. - [IMDB]

What are some of your favourite remakes?