50 Worst Movie Adaptations

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Why did they even bother?

Scooby-Doo (2002)

Resident Evil (2002)

The Adaptation: Paul W.S. Anderson’s adaptation of the popular video game birthed a popular film franchise (that’s still refusing to die), but that doesn’t stop it from being dreadful.

What They Got Most Wrong: It’s loud, dumb and soul-crushingly perfunctory.

The Saint (1997)

The Adaptation: Val Kilmer attempts to capture the same arrogant charm that Roger Moore bolstered in the original TV series – and entirely fails.

What They Got Most Wrong: The special effects are ropey, especially Templar’s string of ridiculous disguises.

Dreamcatcher (2003)

The Adaptation: Based on Stephen King’s novel, Lawrence Kasdan’s film follows four telepathic friends who get caught up in an alien invasion.

What They Got Most Wrong: Not even trying to make any sort of sense. A confusing mess.

The Avengers (1998)

The Adaptation: Not Joss Whedon’s upcoming Marvel mash-up, but the Uma Thurman/Ralph Fiennes adaptation of the ‘60s TV series.

What They Got Most Wrong: Uh, Sean Connery’s trying to steal the weather? Yeah, we’re not scared either.

Ghost Rider (2007)

The Adaptation: Marvel’s most hot-headed of anti-heroes gets the Nicolas Cage treatment in this underwhelming adap.

What They Got Most Wrong: Just about everything, though Eva Mendes’ lacklustre love interest is most pointless of all.

The Perfect Catch (2005)

The Adaptation: Drew Barrymore teams up with Jimmy Fallon to completely Americanise Nick Hornby’s novel Fever Pitch .

What They Got Most Wrong: Swapping football for baseball is a horrendous misstep, rendering this unrecognisable from Hornby’s original tome.

Max Payne (2008)

The Adaptation: Another duff from Mark Wahlberg in the same year that he brought us The Happening . Here, he’s the titular pain, seeking revenge for his family’s murder.

What They Got Most Wrong: It’s predictable, boring and slow-moving – three of the things that we hate most in this world.

Bewitched (2005)

The Adaptation: The beautiful simplicity of the original TV show – normal guy marries a witch, deals with wacky consequences – gets an unnecessary post-modern spin as Will Ferrell plays an actor in the Bewitched remake who casts a real witch as his wife.

What They Got Most Wrong: Overcooking the pudding – in other words, sometimes simple is best.

The Punisher (1989)

The Adaptation: Dolph Lundgren dyes his hair black and brings the requisite muscle mass (but little else besides) to this adaptation of the Marvel comic, as The Punisher’s origins are given a big screen rejig.

What They Got Most Wrong: Further proving that Lundgren really just can’t act. (But we still love you, Dolph.)

Joshua Winning

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.