17 Really Awful Remakes Hollywood Gave Us That Literally No One Asked For
Hollywood has a bad habit of remaking movies that require no remake. So, when Reddit user, tinglep asked the good people of r/moviecritic, "What’s the worst remake of all time?," they had A LOT to say. Check it out:
1.Point Break (Original: 1991, Remake: 2015)
"It’s fine if you want to enjoy a bit of stunt porn. The action sequences are all well done. They all hang, however, on a loose skeleton of the Point Break story using the names of the original characters. The biggest departure from the original story, the fact that Johnny Utah is an amateur who doesn’t know what he’s doing, is the worst transgression because it eliminates any tension that the JU of the remake will fail. Great stunts. Shit story. Worse acting. Plus no Gary Busey."
2.Total Recall (Original: 1990, Remake: 2012)
"Honorable mention for Total Recall. Which in many ways has more in common with the book than the original movie. Does not change the fact that it's mind-numbing bland garbage."
3.Ghostbusters (Original: 1984, Remake: 2016)
"Although I did enjoy Chris Hemsworth as the receptionist. Common sense disclaimer: I’m 100% okay with females as leads etc., this was just a bad movie."
4.The Karate Kid (Original: 1984, Remake: 2010)
"You mean the 'Kung Fu Kid'?"—tinglep
"I actually liked it, but it was, indeed, a Kung Fu movie."—December12923
5.Red Dawn (Original: 1984, Remake: 2012)
"I watched Red Dawn the other day. I’d say, "Red Dawn holds up,” and then I kept getting asked ‘which one.’ Being that that’s highly offensive I’ve cut people out of my life. Swayze forever."—TherealShrew
6.White Men Can't Jump (Original: 1992, Remake: 2023)
"I wouldn’t know. Skipped that remake completely. You don’t fuck with Wesley Snipes movies."
7.The Wicker Man (Original: 1973, Remake: 2006)
"The Wicker Man is a different beast of a bad movie completely. You get to see Cage in a bear costume run around decking women in the face. The absurdity of how that plays out is worth the price of admission. I think if you know you are getting into some bat shit crazy absurdity and incompetence before you see the movie, then you can enjoy the spectacle for what it is."
8.Flatliners (Original: 1990, Remake: 2017)
9.Planet of the Apes (Original: 1968, Remake: 2001)
"I was so excited to see that. I went with my wife (then girlfriend) and saw it in the theater. I looked so let down walking out of the theater that she couldn't stop laughing. Any time this movie comes up she still, 25 years later, bursts out laughing remembering how disappointed I was. In fairness, it had a great trailer. BOW YOUR HEAD!"
10.Poltergeist (Original: 1982, Remake: 2015)
11.A Nightmare on Elm Street (Original: 1984, Remake: 2010)
"What an absolute dog shit remake that has set the franchise back for over a decade now."
12.Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Original: 1971, Remake: 2005)
"The first one was weird and iconic; Gene Wilder is unhinged perfection."
"Tim Burton's movie is more accurate to the book with certain details, but it also gives Wonka a weird origin story about his father being a dentist that was nowhere in the books. The music in Tim Burton's film is worse and the costume/character designs are abysmal, especially the oompa loompas."
13.Oldboy (Original: 2003, Remake: 2013)
"The remake is atrocious."
—[deleted]
"I don’t think it’s horrible (but not great IMO), but it suffers a lot by comparison to the original, which is fucking amazing."
14.Robocop (Original: 1987, Remake: 2014)
"I fell asleep in the theater. I asked my friend what I missed because I was out for 20 minutes and he said nothing. That pretty much sums up that movie."
15.The Lion King (Original: 1994, Remake: 2019)
16.Ben-Hur (Original: 1959, Remake: 2016)
"Why even bother remaking a timeless classic."—dante-vergil-619
"To be fair, the 1959 Ben-Hur is itself a remake of the 1925 silent film."—PotatoOnMars
"I watched the original Ben-Hur last Easter, really for the first time ever, and there were several sequences where my jaw was on the floor. No idea how the hell they filmed those before CGI. The chariot race gets all the mentions, but that naval battle is incredible. I rewatched it just to see how they did it, and I still don't know how they did it."
17.And finally, Psycho (Original: 1960, Remake: 1998)
"Psycho wasn’t so much a remake as a colorized scene for scene rewatch. Why they greenlit it, I have no idea."
What do you think? Do you agree/disagree with what they said above? Do you have a movie you'd add to the list? Sound off in the comments below!
