Whether it's upcoming 2022 releases like Hellraiser or House Party, the prevailing wisdom is that movie remakes rarely live to up much less surpass the original. While several exceptions to the rule can be cited, more often than not, it's rare when a remake of a great movie achieves the same artistic quality of its inspirational muse.

While less frequent, there have been many great cinematic remakes adapted from woefully inferior films, be they big-budget sci-fi outings, A-list retellings of B-movies, sprawling crime films, classic comedies, and more.

Judge Dredd (1995)

Dredd holds guns in Judge Dredd and Dredd

While it earned far less money at the international box office, Pete Travis' Dredd is categorically superior to its campy, kitschy, and absurdly silly forerunner, Judge Dredd. Written by Alex Garland, the remake strips down the cartoonish comic-book tableau to tell a lean, mean, brutally vicious sci-fi action film that interminably suffered from the poor reputation of its predecessor.

Set in a single day, the story follows Dredd (Karl Urban), a one-man judge, jury, and executioner who takes on a high-rise full of hyper-violent drug dealers. Whereas Judge Dredd currently boasts an abysmal 22% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 5.5 IMDb score, Dredd holds a 79% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, and 7.1 IMDb rating. Although it fared worse financially, most agree Dredd is far more suited to the source material and is considered a great comic book movie not from Marvel or DC.

Ocean's Eleven (1960)

Poster for both Ocean's Eleven movies are pasted side by side

Although the original Ocean's Eleven has its merits, namely the star power of The Rat Pack, the lousy script makes the story far less credible than the sharp, slick, big-budget remake shepherded by Steven Soderbergh. The original plot concerns a rag-tag band of old war buddies who plan to rob five casinos in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve.

But between the low-fi gadgetry that the crew uses in the original, the unconvincing heist itself, and the fact the Rat Pack filmed their scenes after nights performing in the casinos, viewers can feel that their heart wasn't always into the movie. As a result, the original currently holds a 48% Rotten Tomatoes score compared to the 83% Certified Fresh rating of the remake, which gave way to two sequels, and a spinoff thanks to its massive movie star ensemble led by George Clooney.

Little Shop Of Horrors (1960)

Seymour battles the plant in both versions of Little Shop of Horrors

While the original 1960 black-and-white version of Little Shop of Horrors has its fans, Frank Oz's colorful big-budget 1986 remake is better in every conceivable fashion. In addition to adding a musical element with toe-tapping songs and dazzling dance numbers, the glaring difference in the budget is hard to overlook.

The story follows Seymour Krelborn, a geeky florist who buys an alien Venus flytrap-like plant that begins speaking and craving human blood, forcing him to raise it and keep it from killing people. The big difference in each version is the time and resources poured into them, with the original costing roughly $30,000 (according to Roger Corman) and taking just two-and-a-half days to shoot. By contrast, the remake cost closer to $30 million to make (per The Numbers) and the quality shows.

Casino Royale (1967)

007 aims guns in both versions of Casino Royale

Peter Sellers playing faux-James Bond can only be described as a disastrous farce, which is why Casino Royale is always named as one of the worst 007 films on record. By contrast, Martin Campbell's reinvigorating 2006 remake not only has far more visceral set-pieces and stunning locations, but it also introduced the world to Daniel Craig as James Bond for the first time, setting up a 15-year reign of supremacy.

Set in a high-stakes poker game where Bond is forced to outwit a wealthy terrorist backer, the remake is so skillfully made and entertaining from start to finish that both critics (80 Metascore) and casual moviegoers (8.0 IMDb) enjoy the film equally. With a 94% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score for the remake versus the paltry 26% for the original, the difference in quality between the two films couldn't be starker.

La Totale! (1991)

A La Totale poster is pasted beside a True Lies poster

James Cameron fans might be surprised that his beloved action-film True Lies is actually a remake of the obscure and oft-forgotten 1991 French comedy La Totale! Directed by Claude Zidi, the original is silly trifle that is simply eclipsed by the size, scale, scope, runtime, and directorial acumen of James Cameron, a master of high-octane action and scintillating set-pieces.

Aside from recreating most scenes from the original, Cameron's remake also adds new material that pushes the basic conceit of a secret agent using his tracking skills to keep his wife out of danger. The original also lacks the sheer star wattage of Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his career.

Dune (1984)

Dune posters are set side by side

While it's since amassed legions of defenders, at the time of its release in 1984, David Lynch's adaptation of Dune was deemed a monumental failure. The film was a critical and commercial disaster that reaffirmed the belief that Frank Herbert's epic sci-fi novel was forever unfilmable. Even today, the original holds a paltry 41 Metascore and 42% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Then along came acclaimed movie director Denis Villeneuve and silenced the critics with his jaw-dropping 2021 remake, which, thanks to a breathtaking increase in size and stature, not to mention a tremendous A-list cast, currently holds a 73 Metascore and an 83% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating. Perhaps most telling, the original was nominated for one Oscar (Best Sound), while the remake won 6 Oscars, including Best Sound, Cinematography, and Production Design.

L.A. Takedown (1989)

Vincent aims a gun in L.A. Takedown and Neil runs with a machine gun in Heat

The 1989 TV movie L.A. Takedown it is a much shorter and far inferior version of Heat, also written and directed by movie master Michael Mann. More of a rough draft blueprinting what would become arguably the greatest L.A. crime story on record, L.A. Takedown feels amateurish, unfinished, and downright embarrassing in comparison to what Heat would achieve.

Among other reasons, the dearth of such Oscar-caliber actors as Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino going toe-to-toe in the original leaves a lot to be desired when comparing the two versions of the same story. Moreover, the original is about half as long, with Heat's breathless 170-minute runtime entertaining moviegoers from start to finish en route to becoming the #111 ranked movie on IMDb's Top 250.

Fanfares Der Liebe (1951)

Fanfares Der Liebe versus Some Like It Hot

Although Billy Wilder based his timeless comedic masterpiece comedy Some Like it Hot on the far inferior 1951 German film Fanfares De Liebe, Fanfares Der Liebe was also remade from Fanfares of Love. But thanks to the effortless chemistry between Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis and magnetism of Marilyn Monroe, Wilder's version trumps them all by large a margin.

The story concerns two male musicians on the run who go into hiding by posing as women in all-female orchestra. The waggish dialogue, hilarious fish-out-of-water scenarios, and impeccable craftsmanship across the board add up to Some Like It Hot currently possessing a 98 Metascore, 94% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating, and ranking #129 on IMDb's Top 250.

Heart Of Darkness (1958)

Heart of Darkness versus Apocalypse Now

Adapted in 1958 from the Joseph Conrad novel, Heart of Darkness is a 90-minute TV movie directed by Ron Winston that Francis Ford Coppola would remake as Apocalypse Now two decades later. The original is a limited, cheaply-made black-and-white movie saddled with inferior TV actors. By contrast, Coppola's remake is often considered the greatest Vietnam War movie ever made.

Despite the unthinkable hardships Coppola underwent while making the movie, the artistic achievement of Apocalypse Now is second to none. Between the genuine locations, towering performances, terrifying combat, and tortured soul of narrator Captain Willard, it's easy to see why Apocalypse Now is currently rated #53 on IMDb's Top 250 to go with a 94 Metascore and 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

The Wizard Of Oz (1925)

Two Wizard of Oz posters lay side by side

Who knew there was a version of The Wizard of Oz released before the version everyone on Earth knows and loves? Indeed, the odious 1925 iteration that currently holds a 4.9 IMDb rating is a forgettable affair all around, despite using the same L. Frank Baum source material as Victor Fleming in 1939.

Rather than searching for the Wonderful Wizard to grant her a return home, the version directed by Larry Semon finds Dorothy attempting to reclaim the throne from the evil Prime Minister Kruel. Yet, with a fraction of the fantastic imagination that taps directly into one's childhood, the original can't hold a candle to the 1939 version, which is universally recognized as one of the greatest movies ever made.

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