The 10 Best Remakes of the Last 10 Years

There are two schools of thought about remakes. According to one school, remakes are about digging through those IP mines, finding something with a little name value, polishing it up, and selling it back to audiences for a second or third or fourth time.

According to the other school, film remakes are no different than a new production of an old stage play. Just as a classic Shakespearean tragedy originally written hundreds of years ago might hold new resonances for modern audiences, so too might a new movie about, oh I don’t know, the battle for control of a desert planet rich in psychedelic spice but devoid of other natural resources like water, offer new opportunities for contemporary storytellers. (This is a purely hypothetical example, obviously. Any resemblance to any actual movies living or dead is purely coincidental. )

So who’s right? They both are, depending on the circumstances and the filmmakers, and their motivations for a particular remake. The ten films below, my picks for the ten best remakes of the last ten years, all belong to that second school of thought.

They don’t mean we couldn’t create the exact opposite list; we absolutely could. (Knowing this website, we probably will sooner rather than later.) They just mean that remakes should not be dismissed sight unseen. Like any other kind of film, they deserved to be judged on their own merits. And the ten titles on this list have an awful lot of merits.