Though revisiting a good idea is largely considered a sensible practice, there are occasions when it doesn’t work. Hollywood’s fascination with recycling yesteryear’s success is something that irks many film fans, with countless reboots and remakes announced and released year on year. The sad part is, that many movie remakes are entirely pointless, and don’t deserve to ever have existed at all.
Often, the decision to remake a movie is based on it being successful or respected in its own right. However, more often than not, the original is respected enough that a remake seems like movie blasphemy, immediately turning off a good portion of the prospective audience. Despite the fact that these copycats rarely achieve the success of the original, Hollywood continues to churn them out. For our sins, we’ve collected them for your reading pleasure: here are 8 of the most pointless movie remakes of all time.
8. Overboard (2018)
1987 romantic comedy Overboard starred Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, and despite glossing over predatory behavior, remains something of an ‘80s hit. Remaking the film in 2018 was worse than pointless – it was borderline offensive. The thing is, Overboard’s plot really isn’t the sort of thing that holds up under the microscope of today’s society.
Despite gender-swapping its protagonists, 2018’s Overboard follows the same story. A privileged (spoiled) person develops amnesia, and a hard-working stiff is on hand to lie and manipulate them into effectively acting as their slave. Despite being played for laughs, it’s pretty dark.
Who exactly thought the story would still fly 30 years later was clearly mistaken, but they also underestimate the power of Russell and Hawn’s on-screen chemistry. Despite the comedic talents of Anna Faris, the 2018 remake was a huge dud. In other words, it was one of those pointless movie remakes that never should have been made.