Let's take a closer look at these English-language remakes and their international originals:
CODA vs La Famille Bélier
La Famille Bélier was a French movie that originally came out in 2014, earning six Cesar Award nominations (the French equivalent of the Oscars), winning one for its young lead Louane Emera. Seven years later, this emotional story of a girl as the hearing child of deaf parents was retold as CODA, where in addition to besting La Famille Bélier on Rotten Tomatoes it had better luck with awards, winning all three awards its was nominated for, including Best Picture.
The Departed vs Infernal Affairs
Martin Scorsese finally won his much deserved Best Director Oscar for The Departed, tacking Best Picture onto it as well. However, despite all of its laurels, the original version of this story, Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs, bests Scorsese's crime epic in the critics' opinion. Infernal Affair's popularity also resulted in the movie getting a pair of sequels.
A Fistful of Dollars vs Yojimbo
This is the greatest divergence between original and remake in this group, as Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo is a samurai movie while A Fistful of Dollars is Sergio Leone's first movie spaghetti western with Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name. But despite the genre difference, the stories are practically identical. When it came to comparing them, the critics gave the edge to A Fistful of Dollars, but both were incredibly well received.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) vs The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
Stieg Larsson's international best-seller was always going to get a Hollywood adaptation, which came in the form of a David Fincher movie starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. But Larsson's homeland of Sweden made their own well regarded version, which helped introduce Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist to international audiences. In the closest comparison of these six movies, Hollywood's take bests Sweden's by 1% point on Rotten Tomatoes.
Insomnia (2002) vs Insomnia (1997)
While Christopher Nolan does not have a writing credit on Insomnia (his only movie where that's the case), it feels like a story that Nolan could sink his teeth into, and critics agreed, with the movie earning a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Even so, it's
Erik Skjoldbjærg's original version of the story, which stars Stellan Skarsgård, that edges out Nolan.
Three Men and a Baby vs Three Men and a Cradle
Three Men and a Baby is an 80s classic, so successful that it spawned a sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady. But despite the charm of Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson as a trio of unsuspecting dads, the Rotten Tomatoes score says the French did it better with the original Three Men and a Cradle.
