Is Hollywood running out of ideas? Over the passed few months we’ve seen film remakes of Tron, Let The Right One In, The Mechanic, and now the Coen brothers have turned their hand to True Grit, going all cowboy on us with the country and western story that earned John Wayne his one and only Oscar. But rather than hearing grumblings of ‘I can’t believe they’re remaking this classic,’ True Grit The Second has been gaining a whole lot of positive attention, receiving numerous nominations for the 2011 Academy Awards. Could the remake be even better than the original?

It’s the 1870s and 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is determined to track down Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man responsible for the murder of her father. She comes across U.S. Marshall, Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) - a reckless, eye-patch wearing, cantankerous old drunk - and promptly recruits him to help her find the killer, just so long as she can go along and finish off the job.

But cocky Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) swaggers in with his comedy tassels and impressive spurs and wiggles in on the action, claiming to want Chaney for his own purposes.

Deciding that two pistol-wielding men are better than one, Cogburn and LaBoeuf team up and agree to split the reward money, leaving a frustrated Mattie at home. Never one to be out-smarted however, the pig-tailed teen out-wits a local horse trader with the fast calculations of a courageous Carol Vorderman and struggles through a river to catch up with Cogburn and LaBoeuf, before setting off on the adventure with the unlikely double-act.

True Grit sees the directing duo in unfamiliar territory: a restrained, old-school western drama. Focusing on the characters and the chemistry between the three main parts, the simplicity enables the actors to work their magic with the script. Bridges hams it up to comedic effect as the occasionally incoherent Cogburn but it is Steinfeld who really shines, more than earning her Oscar nod for Supporting Actress (even though she should have been considered in the Best Actress category).

With stunning cinematography, an excellent cast and consistently witty dialogue, True Grit is about as good as a remake can possibly get. It’s a refreshingly modest flick for the Coens, which works best for the genre they’ve tackled and there’s enough tension, humour and sentimentality to appeal to even the least likely of western enthusiasts. We don’t like to throw the term ‘modern classic’ around, but True Grit is more than deserving of the acknowledgement, breathing new life into Hollywood’s forgotten genre. Yee haw.