William Smith is a freelance writer currently living in the Midwest with his wife and daughter, where he spends too much time watching movies and then writing about them. He doesn't read your hurtful comments and doesn't have any social media, so any criticisms must be sent by carrier pigeon.
Remakes are, to put it kindly, a mixed bag. The best can sometimes eclipse their original and even go on to become Oscar-nominated, while the worst remakes are unwatchable. When it comes to action movies, remakes can be a good idea on paper.
Updated effects technology may offer new freedom to expand the action sequences or modern themes can be applied to make stories more relevant. Whatever the motivation for making new versions of older or international action movies, the results have invariably failed to live up to the high expectations. Some of these remakes simply pale in comparison to the pulse-pounding originals, while others fail to elevate heart rates even on their own terms. However one cuts it, these ten action movie remakes are the worst. 10 'The Killer' Directed by John Woo On the surface, 2024's The Killer is completely harmless. It's just another competent, if generic, action movie that was dropped on to a streaming service that can be forgotten in less time than it takes to watch it. The problem is that it's a remake of one of the best action movies of all time by one of the best action directors of all time, John Woo. It's all the more egregious that Woo returned to direct this milquetoast update of his action masterpiece. Hollywood has been trying to remake the original, which follows Chow Yun-fat as a lonesome assassin who accidentally blinds a singer and continues to take on hit jobs in order to pay for her surgery, since its release. Action director Walter Hill was attached at one point and even Woo himself initially turned down the offer until eventually returning. Woo still knows how to stage action sequences very well, as seen in his other recent output, like Manhunt and Silent Night, but they lack the bravura energy of his Hong Kong work and the storylines built around them have been diluted by the Hollywood processing machine. The result is an action movie bereft of personality that can't hold a slow-motion dove to the original's intensity. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 9 'Point of No Return' Directed by John Badham La Femme Nikita was an essential international action movie that helped launch Luc Besson's Hollywood career. It inspired two separate TV series, Hong Kong and American remakes, and influenced countless other female-centric action movies. Anne Parillaud played a drug addict who, after a robbery turned homicide, is recruited to be an assassin by a shadowy government organization. The premise might sound like typical action pap now, but it succeeded thanks to Besson's slick action direction and its stylish neo-noir visuals. The American remake, Point of No Return, failed to pull off the same trick. Bridget Fonda is a solid substitution for Parillaud and director John Badham is a steady hand behind the camera, but the movie is just a dull retread that never makes any bold choices of its own and every single sequence is lesser in comparison to the original. It's a remake that has been all but forgotten. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Point of No Return R Action Crime Thriller Release Date March 19, 1993 Runtime 108 minutes Director John Badham Powered by Expand Collapse 8 'RoboCop' Directed by Jose Padilha 2014's RoboCop may be the most frustrating action movie remake. All the right parts are in place for a solid update. The cast is terrific, the effects work is well done, and director José Padilha knows how to direct gritty action, but somewhere in the process the whole thing malfunctioned. The movie has lots of ideas; the militarization of police forces, RoboCop being used as a marketing tool, and corporate manipulation of political policies. Unfortunately, those ideas are all a surface-level paint job. Paul Verhoeven's original RoboCop was a sci-fi satire that was punctuated by over-the-top humor and violence. The remake trades all of that for empty, bloodless PG-13 action. Even the emotional engine of the original has been completely gutted. It's a slick, high-tech body that lacks the soul of the original. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved RoboCop PG-13 Action Sci-Fi Thriller Superhero Crime Release Date February 12, 2014 Runtime 121 Minutes Director Jose Padilha Powered by Expand Collapse 7 'Total Recall' Directed by Len Wiseman RoboCop wasn't the only Paul Verhoeven action movie to get a bloodless, and unnecessary, remake. Total Recall was the Dutch director's mind-melting follow-up to his cyborg cop classic and was an essential 90s sci-fi movie. Len Wiseman's remake was a bland waste of a good cast with a much less interesting plot, which has even less to do with the original Philip K. Dick short story, loses the Mars setting and settles for a generic sci-fi dystopia. Colin Farrell subs in for Arnold Schwarzenegger as bored factory worker Quaid, who discovers he's had his original memory erased after trying to get new false memories implanted. The movie then follows an amnesiac conspiracy action plotline that pulls more from the Bourne movies than it does the wild original. It's all so unimaginative that audiences didn't need any help erasing it from their memories the second they left the theater. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Total Recall PG-13 Action Science Fiction Thriller Release Date August 2, 2012 Runtime 118 Minutes Director Len Wiseman Powered by Expand Collapse 6 'Sleepless' Directed by Baran bo Odar Remaking the French action thriller Sleepless Night, the American version drops the time of day from the title but should've changed the rest to Sleepy, since it's a completely inert affair with none of the propulsive momentum of the original. Jamie Foxx plays an undercover cop whose involvement in a drug robbery puts him in the sights of dangerous gangsters who kidnap his son and hold him hostage in a Vegas casino. The original managed to maintain its frenetic pace through clever complications that piled anxiety on to its desperate protagonist. Sleepless telegraphs its twists from a mile away, leaving its over-qualified cast stranded in a sea of crime movie clichés and forced to resite generic action movie dialogue. Fans of Foxx as an action star would be better off checking him out in the misunderstood Miami Vice or the Netflix action-horror movie Day Shift. Language English 5 'Point Break' Directed by Ericson Core Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break has a well-deserved cult following thanks to its blend of over-the-top performances, intense action and fantastic stuntwork. The bland remake kept the impressive stuntwork, but heaped on an unnecessary amount of CGI, and lost all the original's style. Instead of Keanu Reeves as a former football star turned FBI agent infiltrating a group of adrenaline junkie surfers who rob banks led by Patrick Swayze, the remake has Luke Bracey taking on Edgar Ramirez's eco-terrorists whose heists are meant to honor the forces of nature. It's ridiculously boring where the original was ridiculously fun, and the two leads can't muster a fraction of the chemistry between Reeves and Swayze. What makes it even more pointless is that there was already a much better remake of the original called The Fast and the Furious. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Point Break PG-13 Action Adventure Crime Thriller Release Date December 3, 2015 Runtime 113 minutes Director Ericson Core Powered by Expand Collapse 4 'Red Dawn' Directed by Dan Bradley Patrick Swayze can't seem to be left alone when it comes to lousy remakes of his cult classics. The original Red Dawn featured Swayze as the leader of a group of teenage guerrilla soldiers fighting off Soviet forces that have invaded their Colorado town. It's the kind of cheesy, ridiculous, patriotic Cold War action movie that could have only come out of the 80s, which makes the notion of a remake all the more ill-conceived. The remake, starring, at the time of filming, a pre-Marvel Chris Hemsworth, had an arduous production, which included a lengthy editing process where the film's invading forces were changed from Chinese to North Korean out of fear of losing profits at the lucrative Chinese box office. The movie bombed hard anyway, since audiences didn't have much interest in a dull action retread that was so aimless it couldn't even accidentally offend anyone. Original director John Milius would see a similar fate befall the failed remake of his Conan the Barbarian. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 3 'Oldboy' Directed by Spike Lee Another remake flop that nobody asked for, Spike Lee's American version of the visceral South Korean thriller Oldboy failed to live up to its predecessor in every way imaginable. How much of the blame can be laid at the feet of Lee is debatable, as the director publicly distanced himself from the film after it was taken away from him in the editing room and had over half an hour cut out from its runtime. Whether those thirty-plus minutes would've saved the remake is questionable, though, as what remains of the movie still is still vastly inferior to the original. The plot is still fairly similar, following an alcoholic businessman who is abducted and imprisoned for over a decade before being freed without explanation and then goes on a violent warpath to uncover the mystery. Surprisingly, the remake keeps the original's shocking sexual twists, but they end up feeling like cheap shock value since the movie never holds any real emotional weight. Much like the subdued recreation of the hammer fight scene, nothing in the movie has any real impact. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Oldboy R Action Drama Mystery Thriller Release Date November 27, 2013 Runtime 104 minutes Director Spike Lee Powered by Expand Collapse 2 'The Crow' Directed by Alex Proyas The 1994 film The Crow was an influential thriller based on James O'Barr's acclaimed comic book that was marred by the tragic death of star Brandon Lee during production that nonetheless has held on to its legacy as a dark and brooding gothic action classic. The remake is one of the worst revenge movies ever made and one of the most hated of 2024. Fans tend to hold the original film in high regard, not just because of its peak 90s goth aesthetic, but also because Lee's performance, as a murdered musician resurrected by the titular animal to seek vengeance, had all the promise of a movie star in the making that would never come to fruition because of his accidental death. Of course, that didn't stop the studio behind the film from hammering out several increasingly terrible sequels and a TV series before inevitably turning to the reboot solution. The remake was stuck in development hell for years but, unfortunately, was able to claw its way back to life and submit its suffering on to audiences who quickly wished it had stayed dead. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 1 'Rollerball' Directed by John McTiernan The original 1975 film Rollerball is a dystopic thriller about violence in sports that was never considered great but has had a decent cult following and is a masterpiece in comparison to the remake, which is awful from start to finish. The titular futuristic sport plays like a combination of roller derby, pro wrestling and the UFC that is popular due to its violent nature. Chris Klein is the star player, Jonathan Cross, who begins to suspect that promoters of the sport are purposefully amplifying the violence to keep ratings high. It's a simple premise that is dumbed down to the extreme and incoherently edited into a mess that won't even satisfy fans of mindless action. Rollerball would easily be the worst action remake just on its own merits, but is even more notorious for putting its director in prison. John McTiernan became so paranoid during production that he hired a private investigator to illegally wiretap the film's producer. McTiernan later also lied to the FBI about the wiretapping and was sentenced to a year in federal prison. No movie is worth serving hard time over, especially not one as bad as the Rollerball remake. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Rollerball PG-13 Action Sci-Fi Sport Release Date February 8, 2002 Runtime 98 Minutes Director John McTiernan
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
"Actions Speak Louder Than Words": ‘Bachelor’ Star Grant Ellis Shares Bold Views on What Defines Wife Material&39;The Bachelorette&39; and &39;The Bachelor&39; star Grant Ellis
Read more »
SNL 50 Is The Perfect Time To Bring Back A One-Time Cast Member From The "Weird Year"My name is Christian Eltell. I was born in Colorado, but I&039;ve lived all my life in Brooklyn, New York. I&039;m an NYU Tisch graduate with a Master&039;s Degree in Cinema Studies, and a St. Joseph&039;s College graduate with a Bachelor&039;s Degree as an English major and history minor.
Read more »
5 Best Character Pairings In The 2025 One Chicago CrossoverMy name is Christian Eltell. I was born in Colorado, but I&039;ve lived all my life in Brooklyn, New York. I&039;m an NYU Tisch graduate with a Master&039;s Degree in Cinema Studies, and a St. Joseph&039;s College graduate with a Bachelor&039;s Degree as an English major and history minor.
Read more »
What Is the Hilariously Named Serpent Society That's Set to Debut 'Captain America: Brave New World'?Screenwriter, filmmaker, and &039;Game of Thrones&039; enthusiast.
Read more »
Actually, Chris Evans Returning to the MCU Makes More Sense Than You ThinkScreenwriter, filmmaker, and &039;Game of Thrones&039; enthusiast.
Read more »
Who Is The Void? The ‘Thunderbolts*’ Dark Entity ExplainedScreenwriter, filmmaker, and &039;Game of Thrones&039; enthusiast.
Read more »