As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but when it comes to movies, sometimes you don’t realize it was ever broken until something new comes along. Movie remakes vary from the good to the awful, but when they’re good – they’re great! New innovations in technology, and societal and cultural changes all contribute to the desire to update classic movies, with some remakes better than the original.

Remakes work best when they’re not trying to merely replicate the original, but instead, offer something new to it. Through new reimaginings of classic movies, remakes are capable of improving the details while maintaining the heart of the original movie. Audiences who are curious to see which film remakes have achieved this status may be surprised to learn that some of their favorites are actually remakes.

15 'Cheaper by the Dozen' (2003)

Director: Shawn Levy

The 1950 comedy film inspired by the autobiographical novel of the same name, Cheaper by the Dozen was originally a movie adaptation of the real-life Gilbreth family.

However, 2003’s remake by Shawn Levy actively moved away from its autobiographical inspirations to instead focus on its own fictional oversized family – the Bakers. With iconic comedic performances from Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, 2003’s Cheaper by the Dozen was a classic family film that found relevance in the early 2000s. With changing family dynamics in the 21st century, Cheaper by the Dozen has been remade yet again in 2022, this time changing the family structure to depict a blended family and interracial couple.

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14 'Freaky' (2020)

Director: Christopher Landon

Based on a 1972 children’s book by Mary Rodgers, Freaky Friday has seen several adaptations, most notably the 2003 film starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. Freaky Friday follows a mother and daughter constantly bickering until one day they wake up to find that they have swapped bodies. As they each get a chance to experience a day in the other’s shoes, they come to learn how the other person lives.

Remakes work best when reimagining the original in creative ways, and 2020’s Freaky puts a horror spin on the classic story. When a high school teenager finds she has swapped bodies with a deranged serial killer played by Vince Vaughn, Freaky balances horror and comedy by reimagining the classic body-swapping tale in a new genre.

13 'I Am Legend' (2007)

Director: Francis Lawrence

I Am Legend is based on the eponymous 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, which had received two other film adaptations before the more famous (and successful) 2007 version starring Will Smith. The two other films – The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971) – are nowhere near as popular nor as entertaining as the latest version.

While the questionable CGI for the "Darkseekers" and the controversial ending in the 2007 movie definitely bring it down, it's still among the best remakes out there for a story with several fans. Still, 2007's I Am Legend's alternate ending could have made it a better movie that would satisfy most readers of the original material.

12 'The Mummy' (1999)

Director: Stephen Sommers

Before Brendan Fraser's swashbuckling misadventures in 1999, the 1932 version of The Mummy gave audiences a supernatural horror take on the story. Directed by Karl Freund, the film became a Universal monster movie with Boris Karloff giving a convincing performance as the eponymous villain.

Viewers had much more fun with the remake, though, which mostly left horror behind in favor of the adventure genre and spawned a massively successful franchise (although the first film remains the best). It also had the added benefit of cutting-edge visuals for its time and undeniable sparks flying between Fraser and Rachel Weisz.

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11 'West Side Story' (2021)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story originally began as a Broadway musical in 1957. Shortly after in 1961, the play’s original creator Jerome Robbins collaborated with director Robert Wise to bring the award-winning stage play to the big screen. Its film adaptation was a success, winning several Academy Awards including Best Picture.

However, Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation updates the classic tragic love story to better reflect the culture of the characters. Unlike its 1961 predecessor which saw its actors Natalie Wood and George Chakiris wearing darker make-up to appear Puerto Rican, Spielberg cast Puetro-Rican and people of Latino descent in his remake. By championing diversity, 2021’s West Side Story has allowed a space for increasingly accurate representations. The success of West Side Story has also seen Rachel Zegler become the first actor of Colombian descent to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical.

10 'War of the Worlds' (2005)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Based on H. G. Wells' 1898 novel, the first version of War of the Worlds premiered in 1953, but failed to live up to readers' expectations. It downgraded the iconic tripods to aliens on spaceships, which only made the film fade into the background of many influential sci-fi movies of the 1950s.

Steven Spielberg's 2005 remake felt like a more accurate representation of the terrifying story, but that isn't to say it doesn't have flaws. Nonetheless, Tom Cruise's entertaining performance as an average protagonist just trying to survive the apocalypse anchors the film and makes it worth watching from the start to its genuinely shocking ending.

9 'It: Chapter 1 and 2' (2017, 2019)

Director: Andrés Muschietti

Stephen King’s horror novel It was first adapted as a TV miniseries in 1990. Despite its 215-page screenplay, Tommy Lee Wallace’s adaptation still needed to omit key subplots from King’s novel to maintain its 3-hour runtime.

To avoid condensing the 1,138-page novel into a single film, the 2017 horror movie remake made the smart decision to split the movie adaptation into two chapters to individually focus on the two time periods of the story. With the first film focusing on The Losers Club’s first encounter with It in 1989, and the second seeing the adults return to Derry in 2016, this remake works thanks to the perfect casting of its older and younger characters, and unlike Wallace’s adaptation, it allowed each of the members of The Losers Club to have more depth.

8 'A Star is Born' (2018)

Director: Bradley Cooper

Heavily influenced by the 1932 film What Price Hollywood?, the tragic tale of the female lead reaching for stardom while the male lead faces a steady decline due to addiction found a home for itself in A Star is Born. Despite four films sharing the title, the 1937 and 1954 versions of A Star is Born starring Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland focused on an aspiring actor, whereas the 1976 film moved from Hollywood to the music scene. Unfortunately, Barbra Streisand’s character Esther overshadows her male lead, making their dynamic and attempts at romance both unforgettable and lacking chemistry.

Learning from its predecessors, Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut saw him starring alongside Lady Gaga in this modern retelling. With both characters being given their time to shine, 2018’s A Star is Born – along with its memorable soundtrack and award-winning performances – had just the right amount of chemistry to transport the classic Hollywood film into the 21st century.

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7 'Little Women' (2019)

Director: Greta Gerwig

Louisa May Alcott’s classic American novel Little Women has seen many adaptations in cinema, TV, and even anime. Being the first version of the movie directed by a woman, Gillian Armstrong's 1994 adaptation starring Winona Ryder updated the timeless story for a modern generation.

24 years after Armstrong’s adaptation, Little Women found another retelling in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film. Taking creative liberties with the narrative, Gerwig’s Little Women makes great use of non-linear storytelling to strengthen the emotional arcs of the film. But perhaps more strikingly, Gerwig’s film manages to achieve something all its predecessors have failed – making Amy (Florence Pugh) a likable character. Gerwig’s adaptation emphasizes each of the March sisters equally, allowing Amy to be depicted in a more sympathetic light.

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6 'His Girl Friday' (1940)

Director: Howard Hawks

Adapted from the 1928 screenplay The Front Page, the 1931 film of the same name was faithful to the Broadway comedy. With Pat O’Brien as investigative reporter Hildy Johnson and Adolphe Menjou as his editor Walter Burns, the 1931 film is a classic buddy comedy.

However, the 1940 remake, His Girl Friday did something interesting beyond being one of the first films with overlapping dialogue. Casting Rosalind Russell as Hildy alongside Cary Grant’s Walter Burns, this gender-swapped remake finds itself as one of the most iconic romantic screwball comedies and proves what’s possible when filmmakers give their own spin on an established story.

5 'Casino Royale' (2006)

Director: Martin Campbell

There have been a total of 27 James Bond movies, with seven actors helming the titular role throughout history. With the changing face of the iconic secret service agent, so too has the style of movies changed. From the suave Sean Connery to the campy Roger Moore era, each new actor brings on a new style with the changing times.

But with gritty realism gaining popularity, Daniel Craig’s debut as Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale was a refreshing stylistic turn for the franchise. Interestingly, Casino Royale (the novel by Ian Fleming) had been adapted previously as a comedy film in 1967. On the opposite end of the tonal spectrum, the 2006 Casino Royale offered a more brooding take on the suave character, reinventing 007 for the modern action spy era.

4 'Dune' (2021)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Heralded as a landmark science fiction novel, adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune is a gargantuan task, but it is surprisingly among the movies that have been remade more than once. 412 pages of lore and politics, Herbert’s novel is a rich text that has seen itself adapted into movies, miniseries, and video games. Auteur of the surreal, David Lynch attempted to adapt the sci-fi novel in his 1984 film starring Kyle MacLachlan, Sean Young, and Sting.

While Lynch attempted to condense the dense novel into a 2-hour film, Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 adaptation realized the benefit of dividing the story into two chapters to enable time for setting up the rich lore of Arrakis and the Atreides family. With advancements in technology, Villeneuve’s film also updates Lynch’s gross-out effects in favor of dazzling imagery utilizing innovations in CGI and green screen technologies.

3 'Scarface' (1983)

Director: Brian De Palma

Believe it or not, Brian De Palma's iconic 1983 crime movie Scarface wasn't the first iteration of the epic story. It's actually a loose remake of director Howard Hawks' 1983 movie, which has the same title and basic plot.

The 1932 version took place in 1920s Chicago and starred Paul Muni as the main character who would rise to power. In contrast, the far more successful 1983 remake is set in the 1980s and features Al Pacino as the iconic Tony Montana, who would soon become a powerful drug lord in Miami. It's largely Al Pacino's over-the-top legendary portrayal of the character that makes it the clear winner between the two films.

2 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)

Director: Victor Fleming

When fans think of The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 version directed by Victor Fleming is likely the first movie to come to mind. However, before that award-winning iconic fantasy film, there were numerous attempts at bringing L. Frank Baum's children's novel to life. There was 1910's 15-minute The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1914's live-action The Patchwork Girl of Oz, 1933's animated The Wizard of Oz, and more.

It's the use of Technicolor, Judy Garland's brilliant performance, and Fleming's direction that set apart the 1939 adaptation to make it the definitive version of the story. It's never excluded today from discussions about the best and most influential fantasy movies, and will likely continue to be referenced by generations of fans and filmmakers in the future.

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1 'The Thing' (1982)

Director: John Carpenter

Although acknowledged as a sci-fi classic of its time, 1951’s The Thing From Another World was heavily restricted by its lack of technology of the era. Unable to show the shape-shifting extraterrestrial, the film resorted to more creative ways of depicting “The Thing” without actually showing it.

However, as technology advanced, John Carpenter’s 1982 remake allowed “The Thing” to be shown in all its shape-shifting gore and glory. Utilizing practical effects, Carpenter’s The Thing was a creative and terrifying exercise of makeup artist Rob Bottin’s prosthetic skills.

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