5 Movie Remakes That Didn’t Need to be Remade
The new Dr. Dolittle movie starring Robert Downey Jr. is flopping like a fish out of water at the box office and according to reports, is projected to lose over $100 Million. It's seems like whenever Hollywood runs out of original ideas, or needs to make a quick cash grab, they release a remake.
Some movies like "War of the Worlds", and 'Godzilla' can be successful as remakes because they can take advantage of new technologies with special and visual effects that just weren't available when the original movies were released. Others, however try to pass off a flop of a film by capitalizing off the cult following of the original, without bring anything new, interesting or innovative to the table.
Here's a list of 5 Movie Remakes That Didn't Need to be Remade:
- Dr. Doolittle (2019) - This one stars Roberts Downey Jr. and takes place in 19th century England where Dolittle and his animal companions go on a mission to save a sick Queen Elizabeth. It's like they tried to capture the spark of Downey's "Sherlock Holmes" character and give him the ability to talk to animals.
- Total Recall (2012) - An unnecessary remake of a cult classic starring Colin Farrell instead of the Arnold as regular guy looking to add some excitement in his life by getting fake memories of being a superspy implanted in his head. Only in this remake the make no mention of his trip to Mars and it tries to get pseudo-serious with a film that was meant to be campy and over-the-top.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - This film directed by Samuel Bayer stars Jackie Earle Haley, best known for his protrayal of Walter Kovacs aka 'Rorschach' in the movie 'Watchmen'. It is a remake of Wes Craven's 1984 film of the same name which had me terrified to go to sleep as a kid. This remake was so lame, and the burn make up was so bad looking, that it actually had me feeling almost sorry for Freddy.
- Ghostbusters (2016) - Just like the original movie, this one features 4 cast members from Saturday Night Live as 3 scientists and an out-of-place fourth investigating paranormal activity around the New York area. Only this time they flipped the genders of all the major roles. This movie goes to proves that not all members of SNL are created equally funny!
- Lion King (Live Action) - If you turned off the sound you would think you were watching a nature documentary on the National Geographic channel. This live action remake featured the voice acting of many famous singers and actors, but other than the animals looking super-realistic, nothing innovative or original was done. The main attraction about the animated version was seeing the exaggerated, human like facial expressions conveying emotions that just wasn't quite captured in the remake.
These are just a few of the movies Hollywood tried to remake that just didn't have the same appeal as the original. If there are any other movies you can think of that didn't make good remakes, leave your answers in the comment box.