8 Movies That Were Secretly Remakes Of Remakes

2. Last Man Standing

The Original: Yojimbo (1961)

The Remake: A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)

The Remake Remake: Last Man Standing (1996)

More Kurosawa? But of course! Although his films are firmly rooted in a Japanese historical setting, their stories are pretty universal and can transplanted to another culture without losing their essence.

Sergio Leone did this most brazenly with A Fistful Of Dollars, taking the plot (a newcomer pits two crime groups against each other) of Kurosawa's Yojimbo and adding some dust and Clint Eastwood. Unfortunately for studio funds, it was so obvious that Toho successfully sued United Artists. Not that it mattered - Dollars, and its two "sequels" are now regarded as landmarks in the genre.

The ethos of remaking was a bit different a few decades later when Last Man Standing arrived, doing the exact same thing as the previous films, only with Bruce Willis during prohibition. It was less successful and no lawsuits were made.