As so much commentary recently has gone into "the Number of Sequals/Comic Book Movies/Remakes Being Made Will Cause the Apocalypse and Destroy Hollywood!" rhetoric, I thought I would ask for you guys to try and think up some good counterexamples. That is, what are the best movies that are remakes, sequels, or based upon previously established material?

To make this more interesting, try and limit yourselves to the past 15 years.

Based Upons:
Books:
Fight Club
Lord of the Rings
Batman Begins
Watchmen
Iron Man
V for Vendetta
X-Men
Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The X-Files: Fight the Future

Sequels:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, Order of the Phoenix
The Dark Knight
X2
Superman Returns

Remakes:
King Kong

Books:
The Namesake - The book was okay, the movie was very good.
Adaptation. - Captured the spirit of the book while departing, wildly, from the book.
Bringing Out The Dead - Mediocre novel given a strong sense of place, a philosophical heart in the film.
Eyes Wide Shut - Weird Dream Story becomes the best Buñuel film that Buñuel never made.

Sequel:
Babe: Pig in the City

Remakes:
Dawn of the Dead got a fine retelling by the unpopular Zach Snyder.

I'm going with adaptations that bettered the original works. So:

Books:

The Sweet Hereafter - Even Banks agrees the movie tops his novel. And it does so fairly significantly.
Gone Baby Gone - A fairly simple detective story turned into a fairly depthful mystery about loss and real decisions. Mystic River was absolutely not a better film than novel, though.

Sequel:

Aparajito - Easily, for me. A masterwork.

Remakes:

A lot of choices, but I'm going with two Westerns: 3:10 to Yuma & True Grit. Both are better because of a more grown-up approach to what they want to do, and both surpass the original in every way, in my mind.

I agree with Shade on pretty much everything he said. Also,

Books:
Jaws
The Godfather
Goldfinger
Psycho

All of the movies elevate pulpy, largely undistinguished novels into art.

Sequels
Aliens
Terminator 2

James Cameron is a sequel maven. Each movie might not be "better" than the original, but the fact that they're in the running is enough.

Remakes:
What Shade said.

Remakes: I don't like Boudu Saved from Drowning. It was remade in English as Down and Out in Beverly Hills, which I love.

Based upon: I like the movie Creator. It's based on a Jeremy Leven novel which I find unreadable.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the one Harry Potter novel that really needs an editor. The movie cuts the fat and is one of the best of the Harry Potter films. I single it out as a model of good adaptation.

I much prefer Duck Amuck to its thematic remake, A Serious Man. Perhaps if Daffy Duck had starred in the Coen Brothers film?

Not that I think it's better than El Mariachi, but what do you guys call Desperado? Sequel, based upon, or remake?

Sequel.

Most sequels we'd never dream of calling remakes are essentially just that, so we might as well incorporate that into how we define a sequel.

It's like Evil Dead 2 -- a hybrid of remake and sequel. A requel, if you will

Like all Kunz's selection (excepting Psycho in the books just because I have not read it) plus

Books:
Silence of the lambs
Jurassic Park


Sequels:
The Dark Knight
Superman 2
Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan


Remakes:
The Fly


Cheers

Some sequels that I consider better, or at least on par with the original...

Aliens
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Godfather Part II
Spider-Man 2
Superman II
The Dark Knight
The Empire Strikes Back
Toy Story 2
X2
Dawn of the Dead
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
The Naked Gun 2 1/2
28 Weeks Later
Mission: Impossible III
Back to the Future Part II
Lethal Weapon 2
The Bourne Supremacy