It's rare that a remake is all that respectful to the original, and even rarer that it is a true update that keeps the feel of the original without making it an entirely different movie.
The Coen brothers managed to take a film from 1969 that they clearly loved and make it into an updated film that was reverential to the classic John Wayne movie.
The new True Grit was an update more than a remake. They added some details and moved some things around, but there was a lot of dialogue and action that were directly from the original.
Acting was not one of the strengths of the 1969 version, but the 2010 film is full of great performances to complement the strong story that was what made the original worth watching.
Joel and Ethan Coen maintained the feel as well, keeping the somewhat goofy tone popping up through a serious tale of a child's revenge.
True Grit is nowhere near as dark and heavy as No Country For Old Men, but that is the one of the Coen films that people will probably compare it to.
What impressed me the most is that they managed to make the new one stand on it's own as a brilliant piece of cinema while maintaining the familiarity with, and clear respect for, the source material.
True Grit (2010) gets an A-
--John Berry, online editor--