Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Which film remakes do you genuinely prefer to the original?

88 replies

Soubriquet · 24/07/2026 20:01

What remakes of films do you genuinely prefer over the original?

Mine is Jumanji: Welcome to the jungle.

Not technically a remake I guess since it’s a sequel long after the first one, but I really do find it brilliant.

Watching Jack Black be a 16 year old girl is brilliant

OP posts:
OttersOnAPlane · Today 11:15

Thomas Crowne Affair definitely. God, Renee Russo is sex incarnate. She could turn a straight woman with a glance.

Ocean's Eleven because the original is awful.

If we're counting "turned into a musical" as a remake, High Society trumps Philadelphia Story, but not by too much, and musical Hairspray wipes the floor with John Waters Hairspray.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · Today 11:22

I thought the remake of Goodbye Mr Chips, with Martin Clunes in the lead, was excellent.

I don’t usually care for remakes, though. To me nothing will ever beat the original B&W Rebecca, with that wonderfully evil Mrs Danvers!

OttersOnAPlane · Today 11:23

Pride and Prejudice Keira Knightley and Matthew McF is so much better than Greer Garson and Olivier. Anything turning Lady Catherine into a good person is stupid.

Branaugh's Henry V beats Olivier's into a cocked hat.

HRTQueen · Today 11:24

Cape Fear though I do think the original is really good I like that some of the original cast, Robert Mitcham and Gregory Peck, are in the remake

Also prefer the remake of True Grit both are great films

FastFood · Today 11:28

The Ring, I prefer the US version vs Ring, the Japanese version. Sadako is better than Samara though.

Invasion of the body snatchers : 1978 with Donald Sutherland is better than the 1956 version, which is already a great film, but the 1978 is a masterpiece.

Haikuing · Today 12:02

I loved the remake of Jumanji!

I’d say Ghostbusters. I didn’t see the original until I was an adult and just didn’t get the hype. I don’t think the remake is amazing but I would rewatch it over the original.

Elara255 · Today 12:09

I prefer new The Lion King. The animation is very good.

NewspaperTaxis · Today 12:13

TheignT · Yesterday 17:41

Well musicals are always so true to life. I mean who doesn't go tripping over the Alps singing with a gang of kids dressed in curtains.

Is that why Captain von Trapp told them to pull themselves together?

Aur0raAustralis · Today 12:15

Why do you need to put in "genuinely"? To both the title and the question - do you think people will be dishonest otherwise?

IsadoraQuagmire · Today 12:31

OhThePotential · Yesterday 22:57

I’ve never met anyone else who’s seen Mädchen in Uniform!

The costumes alone are worth watching it for.

I'm surprised at that! I've seen both versions so many times. Mind you, I prefer the original!
Actually I've NEVER preferred a remake of anything (when I've actually seen the original that is, a lot of originals are silent films that are lost, eg the 1925 Great Gatsby which only exists as a trailer now😟 The version I love is the 1949 one, because I absolutely adore Alan Ladd, he's the perfect Jay Gatsby)

BettyJoanPerske · Today 12:55

OttersOnAPlane · Today 11:23

Pride and Prejudice Keira Knightley and Matthew McF is so much better than Greer Garson and Olivier. Anything turning Lady Catherine into a good person is stupid.

Branaugh's Henry V beats Olivier's into a cocked hat.

I like Matthew as Darcy, but he is not a patch on Colin Firth. And Keira is awful as Lizzie.

ToadRage · Today 13:01

NutellaEllaElla · 24/07/2026 20:08

The Parent Trap. I prefer the Lindsay Lohan version.

Me too. My MiL was horrified by this. She LOVES Hayley Mills but I have watched both and prefer the newer one but it may be an age thing. I was the target age for the Lindsay Lohan version when it came out, i saw it at the cinema so that maybe why I prefer it.

Switherings · Today 13:03

OttersOnAPlane · Today 11:23

Pride and Prejudice Keira Knightley and Matthew McF is so much better than Greer Garson and Olivier. Anything turning Lady Catherine into a good person is stupid.

Branaugh's Henry V beats Olivier's into a cocked hat.

Agree on Henry V.

There are things I like about the KK/MMcF P and P (like for once a casting director casting someone visibly prettier by most standards as Jane, the supposed family beauty, and the way that Mr and Mrs Bennet are depicted as affectionate at times) but I just can't believe in KK in period roles, she looks so thoroughly 21st-century. I spend the whole time watching her in period films thinking, there's a 21stc actress wearing a powdered wig/ 1790s gown and pretending to be someone from the past.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page