Top 10 Best and Worst Movie Remakes

Oct. 14, 2011 — -- intro: More than a few fans of "Footloose" will squint at the remake of the 1984 classic, in theaters today, and question if newcomer Kenny Wormald can really fill Kevin Bacon's sacred shoes.

Reviews are mixed. The movie currently has a 70 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Variety decreed that the "reboot never quite cuts loose enough to distinguish itself from the original."

It's a perennial problem. Box office remakes often fall flat, but occasionally, you'll find one that soars. Click through for 10 of the best and worst remakes in recent film history:

quicklist: 1title: Best: 'The Departed,' 2006text: "The Departed's" predecessor, 2002's "Internal Affairs," was a slick Hong Kong thriller. Director Martin Scorsese transported the action to Boston and cast Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in a twisted tale about the Irish mob and Beantown's cops. Many don't consider "The Departed" to be Scorsese's best work, but it won him his first best director and best picture Oscars.media: 14729612

quicklist: 2title: Worst: 'Psycho,' 1998text: If you're going to remake the Alfred Hitchcock movie that became the grandaddy of horror films, you'd better make it good. That didn't happen with 1998's "Psycho," starring Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche. But Roger Ebert found a silver lining. Writing in the Chicago Sun Times, Ebert said, "The movie is an invaluable experiment in the theory of cinema, because it demonstrates that a shot-by-shot remake is pointless; genius apparently resides between or beneath the shots, or in chemistry that cannot be timed or counted." media: 14732624

quicklist: 3title: Best: 'Oceans 11,' 2001text: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon: Seeing all three on a single screen would be enough to make most movie lovers speed to the theater, but "Oceans 11" went further, turning the original 1960 heist flick into a rollicking ride fit for modern times. media: 14729590

quicklist: 4title: Worst: 'Vanilla Sky,' 2001text: Penelope Cruz should've left it at "Abre Los Ojos." She starred in the 1997 Spanish film that director Cameron Crowe remade as "Vanilla Sky." With a disjointed script and nonsensical plot twists, even the all-star cast of Cruz, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz couldn't keep "Sky" from falling. media: 14729623

quicklist: 5title: Best: 'Father of the Bride,' 1991text: It's not often a movie succeeds to the degree that few people remember it was actually a remake. "Father of the Bride" did that, turning the 1950 original with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor into ancient, if beloved, history. The Steve Martin and Diane Keaton-led romantic comedy remains a must-see two decades after its release. media: 14729557

quicklist: 6title: Worst: 'The Pink Panther,' 2006.text: But the man who made "Father of the Bride" such a delight can't win 'em all. Steve Martin failed as Inspector Clouseau in the reboot of Peter Sellers' 1963 hit. The San Francisco Chronicle summed it up in four words: "A graceless, embarrassing effort." media: 14729601

quicklist: 7title: Best: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' 2005text: Only Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton could come up with such a delightfully weird version of Gene Wilder's 1971 classic. Critics ate it up. "It's full of witty or awesome scenes," wrote the Chicago Tribune. "Flights of fancy and characters either totally, lovably sweet or outrageously, humorously rotten." media: 14729537

quicklist: 8title: Worst: 'The Stepford Wives,' 2004text: You'd think that with Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick at the helm, it'd be smooth sailing. You'd be wrong. The 2004 remake of the 1975 satire didn't offer much commentary on the current state of marriages; shiny dresses and special effects were paltry concessions. The New York Times noted that the film managed "to fire off a handful of decent jokes and a few sneaky insights before losing its nerve and collapsing into incoherence." media: 14729495

quicklist: 9title: Best: 'True Grit,' 2010text: With an Oscar-nominated performances from Jeff Bridges and his young co-star, Hailee Steinfeld, the 2010 Coen-brothers reboot of "True Bridges" pretty much bested John Wayne's 1969 original. "Great filmmaking," wrote Rolling Stone's Peter Travers. "Great acting. Great movie. Saddle up." media: 14732670

quicklist: 10title: Worst: 'Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights'text: Nobody puts baby in a corner and no one takes the beloved 1987 classic and turns it into, as the Dallas Observer wrote, a "silly, misguided, formulaic … piece of trash." Technically it was a prequel to the original film, not a reboot. But producers of the upcoming "Dirty Dancing" remake, take note. media: 14732496