This week sees the release of the long-delayed “Snow White,” Disney’s live-action remake of its 1937 animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” If the early buzz is any kind of indicator, the movie is little more than a nonstop exercise of furrow-browed social messaging.
Remakes have been around since the dawn of filmmaking. However, for most of the 20th century, they were few and far between.
Over the past 25 years, remakes (and sequels) are being produced with the same frequency as original stories. In 2024, 14 of the top 15 highest-grossing movies were prequels, sequels, or remakes.
There are three reasons for this. Audiences are more comfortable investing their time and money on a known, established intellectual property. Recognizing this, studios feel that stamping out a variation on a proven commodity is a better bet than gambling on something new and original. Finally, recycling is far easier than coming up with movies from scratch. In other words, the studios are fat, happy, and lazy.
The number of remakes that are worthy of anyone’s attention is extremely low. In preparing this list, I was only able to come up with 16 titles and found it difficult to whittle that list down to 10. Here, in no particular order, are my favorite remakes.
‘12 Angry Men’ (1997)
Poster for "12 Angry Men." MGM Television
The 1957 feature debut from director Sidney Lumet is one of the most revered movies of all time. When William Friedkin announced his intent to remake the legal drama, fans and critics the world over became incensed. Returning original screenwriter Reginald Rose tweaked the script with a few modern updates and Friedkin’s spot-on casting eventually silenced most of the naysayers.
‘The Magnificent Seven’ (1960)
Poster for "The Magnificent Seven." United Artists
This western by John Sturges is a retooling of the 1954 Japanese classic “Seven Samurai” directed by Akira Kurosawa. In it, swords are replaced by guns in a period western. The plots of both involve the defenseless residents of a town being targeted by opportunistic raiders that hire alpha-male types to protect them. A second remake from 2016 should be avoided at all costs.
‘Ocean’s Eleven’ (2001)
Poster for "Ocean's Eleven." Warner Bros. Pictures
Director Steven Soderbergh had much to gain and little to lose when redoing the limp and pedestrian 1960 original starring Frank Sinatra and the “Rat Pack.” Led by George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, the casino heist movie is a prime example of understated style while Ted Griffin’s taut screenplay is loaded to the gills with snappy, crackling dialogue and brilliant plot twists.
‘3:10 To Yuma’ (2007)
Poster for "3:10 to Yuma." Lionsgate
Director James Mangold’s overhaul of the 1957 original by Delmer Daves (each based on the titular short story by Elmore Leonard) isn’t better—It’s just different. Desperate for cash, a civilian Union Army veteran (Christian Bale) takes on the dangerous job of escorting a captured outlaw (Russell Crowe) to an Arizona train station while thwarting multiple rescue attempts by the outlaw’s gang.
‘A Star Is Born’ (2018)
Poster for "A Star Is Born." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
No disrespect whatsoever intended towards the 1937, 1954, and 1976 versions of the story, but the 2018 incarnation of this dramatic tragedy is the best of the lot. Co-written, co-starring, co-produced, and directed by Bradley Cooper, it is a story of a once great country rocker (Cooper); he falls for and mentors an upstart singer-composer (Lady Gaga), whose rise to fame eventually eclipses him.
‘The Departed’ (2006)
Poster for "The Departed." Warner Bros. Pictures
Martin Scorsese won his sole Oscar for his masterful direction of the epic crime drama loosely based on the equally excellent 2002 Hong Kong procedural “Infernal Affairs.” The story is set in Boston and inspired by real-life gangster Whitey Bulger. An undercover detective (Leonardo DiCaprio) infiltrates a crime outfit and engages in a battle of wits with a planted police insider (Matt Damon).
‘Dune I and II’ (2021 and 2024)
Poster for "Dune." Warner Bros. Pictures
The only misstep in the stellar career of director David Lynch, the 1984 version of “Dune” was doomed from the start. Distilling author Frank Herbert’s novel into a two-hour-plus movie was impossible, something not lost on filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. With the aid of modern technology and a combined running time of 321 minutes, Villeneuve’s two-part opus is a space-opera epic.
‘A Fistful of Dollars’ (1964)
Poster for "Fistful of Dollars." Ocean Films
The first installment in the “Man With No Name” spaghetti-western trilogy from Sergio Leone is a loose reworking of the Japanese “Yojimbo” (1961). In his first leading role, Clint Eastwood plays a mysterious loner who is unwittingly brought into a war between two crime kingpins in a Mexican border war. The influence of this film and its sequels on future Westerns cannot be overstated.
‘The Invisible Man’ (2020)
Poster for "The Invisible Man." Universal Pictures
Bearing little resemblance to the dated 1933 James Whale-directed original and the H.G. Wells 1897 novel, the 2020 version from Leigh Whannell is a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Elisabeth Moss stars as a woman with a frayed nervous system being stalked by her scientist control-freak ex-boyfriend (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who has invented a process that renders him invisible.
‘The Ten Commandments’ (1956)
Poster for "The Ten Commandments." Paramount Pictures
This one is unusual as both the original and remake were directed and produced by the same man (Cecil B. DeMille). The plot of the first was set in modern-day 1923 and employed the Commandments as allegory. The 1956 version is full-tilt period epic, with Charlton Heston as Moses leading the Jews to the Promised Land against the wishes of King Rameses II (Yul Brynner).
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