I hate remakes, but sometimes a few squeak by that are tolerable and others wish you had been born blind as to save yourself the horror of seeing it. Here are my top 10 best and worst:

THE SO-CALLED BEST

THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) Dir. by Philip Kaufmann and starring Donald Sutherland, this film truly understands the original film and even keeps a similar tone and more or less just updates the classic.

WAR OF THE WOLRDS Dir. by Steven Spielberg. Whether people like Tom Cruise or not he is not what makes this remake tolerable. The film captures the essence of the original and really ups the ante a bit, despite a poor ending. For the most part this one keeps you on the edge.

OCEANS ELEVEN Dir. by Steven Soderbergh. It's not like the original film was that great to begin with and in many respects this film is tighter and probably to some degree more entertaining.

THE SORCERER Dir. by William Friedkin. Most people probably have not seen the original film called WAGES OF FEAR, but this is a adequate remake and worth seeing even if you haven't seen the original.

MEET JOE BLACK (1998) Not everyone liked this film and it's easy to see why, but despite the really ridiculous Brad Pitt on-screen death, which is worth the price of admission for this film, it's actually much better than most might play it off to be.

KING KONG (2005) Peter Jackson knew what he was doing and finally brought justice to a film that needed a slight update.

SCARFACE DePalma's remake serves it's purpose and is not really a straight up remake and in some ways that's what helps the film out.

THE FLY Cronenberg's masterful film that is both unique and also respectful of the original.

CAPE FEAR (1991) Scorsese handles this classic with such respect and keeps much of the original intact, while adding his own little stylistic moments to freshen it up. I also like the use of Gregory Peck in the courtroom scene as a lawyer, very funny!

DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) Director Zach Snyder does justice to George Romero's Zombie flick and adds some great humor as well that would make any horror fan proud.


THE WORST

PSYCHO Gus van Sant....oh my. Need I say more?

HALLOWEEN This ghost says one thing: BOooooooo!

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE Terrible terrible remake of the classic Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn film CHARADE. Just terrible. Shame on Mark Wahlberg.

THE STEPFORD WIVES Awwwwwwwwful.

THE WICKER MAN The original is certainly unique and has a cult following, but this bizarre remake with Nicolas Cage is insanely dumb.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE There should be laws against making films like this that attempt to out-do the original classic directed by John Frankenheimer.

THE PLANET OF THE APES There should be two laws against this attrocious remake. The first is that Mark Wahlberg should not be allowed to make any more remakes, enough is ENOUGH. The second is that Tim Burton should also not be allowed to remake any more films after this crime.

THE LADYKILLERS The Coen Brothers lost nearly all of my respect after this nightmare.

ROLLERBALL Did anyone actually survive this remake to tell about it?

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY And yet, Tim Burton makes another remake of a classic that should NEVER have been touched.