Films you wish had never been made

[Phil Moors]

I thought that this might be an interesting topic, films you wish had never been made, for whatever reason, either they were so bad, or they took a great story and wrecked it, or they don’t now when to stop making sequels long after the freshness of the original has faded, or the acting was poor. There may be many other reasons so please feel free to add other reasons.

I will start this off. Aladdin live action remake .... why bother when the original animated film was so good
Star Wars. .... the interminable sequels, tv series, this is now lazy film making.
Indiana Jones 5. .... true it hasn’t come out yet, but an 80 year old adventurer?
Need for Speed. .... will this franchise ever end, it’s not great film making.
Swallows & Amazons. .... the new version, where they have added extra plot elements not in
the book. And changed a character in case the name ‘titty’ is deemed offensive
Jumanji the next level. .... this is so bad, the previous film was pretty decent. Wooden acting.

I hope you will add your favourite ‘Films you wish had never have been made’ to the list

[Steve Klare]

Not Crocodile Dundee,
Not Crocodile Dundee II,
-but Crocodile Dundee III!

What's sad is I grew to love the other two from seeing them on TV (including cable and VHS), so I actually made a point of seeing "III" in the theater: and regretted it even before the lights came up! There just comes a time when you are too old for your character and it's time to do something else!


OH! The same goes for Star Trek Nemesis, which should have been titled "We've been here many times before: it's time to Boldly Go Away!"


Toy Story 4! -where do I even begin!

Just once I want to see the writers sitting around with a first draft script of one of these retreads and have one of them say "No! Let's not do this again! There are plenty of great stories left to be told. -let's start something brand new!"

[Bill Phelps]

Grease.....or any musical for that matter.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Terminator series - everything beyond T2 was/is what shouldn't have been existed in the first place. Thanks goodness The Dark Fate seems already buried the chance of any sequels pretty completely.

While The first Matrix is timeless legend, Reloaded seems too confusing, Revolution is a BIG disappointment ending of the trilogy to me. And don't ever mention about Matrix4 - I had no hope left for that.

The "first" Star Wars trilogy (ep.4-6 of course) was perfect as the way it was until Lucas smashed it down with "Special Edition". The "second" trilogy (ep.1-3) while not perfect, at least it serves it purpose. Anything beyond that is forgettable experience, except The Rouge One.

Oh had I already mentioned Bourne trilogy? Another prime example how to ruin already great trilogy to a mess by excessively bland sequels - 2 of them.

In summary - 90% of sequels/prequels/spin-offs of already perfectly complete films.

[Brian Fretwell]

Any "Disney" sequel/remake - Walt would never have done something not new when he was alive.

Also a few UK TV comedy shows that were "adapted" into film versions as the premise of the comedy didn't stretch to movie length.

[Ali Hipperson]

So naturally of course most of the above are sequels and here are my 'two cents' worth.

Firstly, there should be a law that says that no generally accepted 'good/great/classic' film should ever be allowed to be remade - let alone spawn any sequel, simply to cash-in on the original.

For 'Exhibit A' in this instance I give you the Coen Brothers 2010 remake of True Grit. At the time I read the review of a well respected film critic who stated that 'you really must see this great film, it's completely different from the original, and it follows the book unlike the original'. Well upon watching it I found the critics review completely inaccurate in as much as it was virtually an exact facsimile of the original film and pretty much word for word - with the exception of one scene that adds nothing to the film only to raise the question, 'what was the point of those few minutes??' If the original film had never been made then the Coen's film would have been fine - but this film HAD already been made! 🙄

Of course, for every 'rule' there has to be an exception 😉 and so I give you 'Exhibit B'....

'Ocean's 11' (the original) Despite it's stellar cast, this was such such a dire film and only made because the 'Rat-Pack' were in Vegas at the time performing their various live shows in the evenings and Warner Bros thought that they might as well get extra value from some of their (fortunately) assembled stars. Having seen the original film a couple of times before the Clooney remake, I claim that whereas any remake ever made of an at least 'good' film - this is the best example of the rare occasion when any remake of this particular film could only be better, such was the poor effort made of the original!

Finally, and as already stated above, the 1980's saw the studios slip into the 'lazy' habit of making unnecessary sequels (which have now morphed into 'franchises') - that has now evolved into remaking not just any old film but accepted classics, such as: The Magnificent 7, A Star is Born, The Poseidon Adventure etc.. what's next, Gone With The Wind? 😯

I wouldn't put it past them! 🙄

[Chip Gelmini]

Prison movies. They should have never been released.....only paroled.....

[Brian Fretwell]

Wasn't the colour Psycho virtually a shot for shot remake of the original? I never bothered to watch the remake but did hear that in reviews.

[Charlie Peich]

Why? There is the new Spielberg remake of "Westside Story" to look forward to at the end of this year. 🤷♂️ Any bets??

[Graham Ritchie]

We ran "Poseidon Adventure" at the cinema, now that was a disaster compared to the 1972 original. Regarding "True Grit" though, I never really did see the end to the first screening of the re-make due to the cinema taking serious damage in the Feb 2011 Earthquake while watching it at Reading, so that is one sequel I cant say either way.

A couple of sequels I did think were very good was "Flight Of The Phoenix" and "3/10 to Yuma". However I don't have a list of films I don't like, as I generally like most of what I see.

[Ed Gordon]

There is no accounting for taste. There is no movie that should have never been made. Plan 9 From Outer Space was so bad it is now a cult classic. I found the True Grit remake superior to the John Wayne original (and the Rotten Tomato scores agree with me). The recent movie of Cats is a candidate for the "should never have been made" award, but I can't nominate it since I never saw it, and probably never will...

[Mark Mander]

The following remakes shouldn't have been done, The Italian Job, King Kong,Total Recall, Ghostbusters, The Ladykillers, these spring to mind, it seems to be the norm to just rehash films these days, some definitely should be left well alone, Mark

[Douglas Meltzer]

The 1998 Godzilla.

Actually, every Hollywood Godzilla. I do have a bit of hope though, for the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong.

[Osi Osgood]

I actually agree with Phil on the Disney live action remakes of they're own animated features. Disney used to specialize in animation. When was the last one? Princess and the frog? Oh, and by the way, for the past almost 30 years, how do they pick what feature to do next? Gee, which nationality have we not covered yet? Close eyes, point. Coming to a theater near you ..
Twisted Albanian Dwarves on ice in Frozen 3!

[Melvin England]

A film that was actually made and shouldn't have been: "Paint Your Wagon." ( LP Soundtrack: Excellent. Film: Garbage )(IMHO)

A film that was never made and should never be made - A NON SINGING and NON DANCING film...................wait for it........................................."The Sound of Music II - Keep Your Trapp Shut!"