Cinematical Seven: Remakes that are better than the original

Yeah, we hate it when Hollywood remakes films that were perfectly good the first time around. Horror films like The Fog and House on Haunted Hill, TV series like The Fugitive, The Beverly Hillbillies and I Spy, comedies like Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and sci-fi movies like Planet of the Apes. But, you know what? Some remakes are actually better than the original. Below is my list. What's yours?

1. Ocean's 11: Sure, the original has Sinatra and Martin and Sammy and has a certain 60s Rat Pack cool about it (love the furniture!), but the remake with George Clooney and Brad Pitt is approximately 19,000 times better. It handles the plot much more effectively (the original is pretty damn boring in many parts), it's perfectly cast, and Soderbergh's direction is inventive and fun. A crowd-pleasing popcorn flick that also happens to be smart and artistic.
2. The Bourne Identity: Yeah, there was an earlier version, a TV mini-series with Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith. I have it on tape and it's actually a good version of the story, but the Doug Liman-directed version with Matt Damon is better, more propulsive, more exciting, more believable. 
3. Titanic: There have been several versions of the Titanic story, most notably the 1953 version with Clifton Webb and the British A Night To Remember. Both films are good (especially A Night..."), but for pure historical accuracy and epic grandeur and emotional pull, you have to give it to James Cameron's blockbuster. And if that makes me "uncool," well, then I'm very uncool.
4. The Thomas Crown Affair: Steve McQueen was a great American actor, and the original version of this movie, with Faye Dunaway, has a pace and style all it's own, but they really did something special with the Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo remake. It's a lot like the Ocean's Eleven remake: a clever, crowd pleasing popcorn flick, but it's also witty and stylish, with lots of fun twists. I consider it Brosnan's fifth Bond flick. His best one. 
5. Alien: As many have reported, this is a remake of a 50s sci-fi flick called It! The Terror From Beyond Space. And that film is fun in a campy 50s sort of way, but Alien was completely terrifying when it came out. I actually think the sequel, Aliens, is an even better flick, but Alien really freaked people out and had lots of tension, especially that scene at the dinner table...eeek.
6. Evil Dead II: I know, I know, you're saying this is a sequel, not a remake, but watch both movies again. This has basically the same exact plot as the original, and the same leading man (Bruce Campbell) and is much more a remake than a sequel, even if it does have "II" in it. This one is so incredibly energetic and gross and funny, right from the start. The first one was a little bit more low budget in it's look and execution. Evil Dead II isn't exactly a big budget flick, of course, but it's much better than the original in every way, a movie that succeeds in being really funny but also scary in some spots.  
7. The Maltese Falcon: Yup, this movie was a remake too, of a couple of minor flicks in the 30s, and I don't even have to explain why this isn't just a better film but also one of the great mystery movies of all-time, do I? Of course I don't.

(Oh, and if I can predict another one? Casino Royale will be a much better film than the 1967 comedy version. I don't care who they have as James Bond...Daniel Craig, Andy Dick, Paris Hilton, it doesn't matter. This movie will be better than the original. You heard it here first.)