Originals or Remakes?

The other night I decided to watch the 1995 remake of Sabrina, which stars Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, and Greg Kinnear. Now, I suspect that people will start hurling tomatoes at me for the following statement, but I think that the remade version of Sabrina is superior to the 1954 version which stars Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, and William Holden. Before you start tossing those tomatoes, know that I am a fan of Bogart, Hepburn, and Holden, just not in Sabrina. I think Bogart is woefully miscast, and there is almost no chemistry between Hepburn and Bogart, which is kind of necessary in a romantic comedy. 

I started thinking about all the remakes of movies that have been done over the past century and tried to tally up whether on average I preferred the original films or the remakes. Quite the difficult task. I couldn't possibly list all the movies and their remakes here. How did I narrow what amounts to an untold number of movies? I decided to focus on the movies that I enjoy re-watching on a fairly regular basis. Let's see what I came up with (in no particular order):

Sabrina

Plot:  "Linus Larrabee, a busy tycoon who has no room for love in his appointment book. But when a romance between his playboy brother and Sabrina, daughter of the family chauffeur, threatens one of Linus' business deals, the CEO clears his schedule for some ruthlessness." (Amazon.com)
Cast lists: see above
Preference: Remake over original.

The Parent Trap

Plot: Identical twins, separated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents, discover each other for the first time at summer camp and make a plan to bring their wayward parents back together.
Original (1961) cast: Hayley Mills, Brian Keith, and Maureen O'Hara - great cast!
Remake (1998) cast: Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, and Natasha Richardson - great cast!
Preference: It's a toss up; both are equally good and entertaining. 

Love Affair/An Affair to Remember/Love Affair

Plot: "A handsome playboy and a beautiful night club singer have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, one of the two doesn't show up. Will they discover the truth behind the absence and reunite, or has fate and destiny passed them by?" (imdb.com) (One of the most beautiful, charming and heartbreaking love stories)
The 1939 Love Affair cast: Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer - great cast!
The 1957 An Affair to Remember cast: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr - great cast!
The 1994 Love Affair cast: Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Katherine Hepburn - average cast.
Preference: The original and the 1957 remake are both equally fabulous and far outstrip the 1994 debacle; which might be worth watching once if only to see Katherine Hepburn's last film. 

The Shop Around the Corner/In The Good Old Summertime/You've Got Mail

Plot: "Two employees at a gift shop (or rival bookstore owners) can barely stand one another, without realizing that they're falling in love through the post/internet as each other's anonymous pen pal." (imbd.com)  There's also a musical stage version, She Loves Me, which has this plot and I just adore it.
The Shop Around the Corner cast: Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart - great cast!
In The Good Old Summertime cast: Judy Garland and Van Johnson - great cast! (Musical version of Shop Around)
You've Got Mail cast: Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks - great cast!
Preference: While I enjoy all three movies, Shop Around and Mail are wonderful movies and just ever so slightly edge out Summertime.

Arthur

Plot: "Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she will make something of him the family expects. Arthur proposes but then meets a girl with no money who he could easily fall in love with" (imdb.com).

Original (1981) cast: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, and Sir John Gielgud - great cast!

Remake (2011) cast: Russell Brand, Greta Gerwig (who?), and Helen Mirren - meh cast (other than Mirren).

Preference: Oh come on, there's no doubt about this one - the ORIGINAL! What was Helen Mirren thinking?

La Cage Aux Folles/The Birdcage

Plot: "Two gay men have their lives turned upside down when the son of one of the men announces he is getting married. They try conceal their lifestyle and their ownership of the drag club downstairs when the fiancée and her ultra conservative parents come for dinner" (imdb.com).

La Cage cast: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Rémi Laurent, Carmen Scarpitta, and Michel Galabru - good cast.

Birdcage cast: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Dan Futterman, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Calista Flockhart, and Hank Azaria - great cast!

Preference: Birdcage! While La Cage is good, there's something very endearing about the remake. Perhaps it's because the cast includes some of my favorite performers. 

The Goodbye Girl

Plot: "After being dumped by her live-in boyfriend, an unemployed dancer and her 10-year-old daughter are reluctantly forced to live with a struggling off-Broadway actor" (imdb.com).

Original (1977) cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, and Quinn Cummings - great cast!

Remake (2004) cast: Jeff Daniels, Patricia Heaton, and Hallie Kate Eisenberg - meh cast.

Preference: Original. Two words: Richard Dreyfuss! Need I say more:?

There were some other movies that I considered commenting on, but I feel like I don't know enough about all versions of the movies to actually judge them (i.e., Ocean's Eleven - love the remake but haven't seen the original). What do you think of this list? Do you agree with me? Or do I have to cut you off at the knees for disagreeing? Did I miss any of your favorites? And in general do you prefer the original or the remake? It would seem that I am split on that issue.