12 Great Directors Who Helmed Terrible Movie Remakes

You have to have huge balls to remake a film by Andrei Tarkovsky - especially his acclaimed sci-fi masterpiece Solaris, which opened to rave reviews in 1972 and is often regarded as one of the greatest films of its respective genre. That didn't stop Steven Soderbergh from hitting up a remake in 2002, though. Like I said, balls.

I've always sat firmly in the camp of those who believe that Steven Soderbergh can do no wrong; even his failures - and there are many - are usually interesting. His take on Solaris, however, has always felt bafflingly empty, slow and far too ambiguous for me - a film so self-consciously not about space (despite being set in space) that it actually becomes rather irritating to sit through for the length of its runtime.

Whereas Tarkovsky's 1972 movie was heavy on themes of philosophy and existentialism, Soderbergh carves a melancholy romantic drama between his lead astronauts, played by George Clooney and Natascha McElhone, resulting in a film that feels completely at odds with both the original movie and the source material.

You have to hand it to Soderbergh for at least vying for a different perspective, but Solaris has no sense of pace; it's boring. The author of the original book, Stanislaw Lem, humorously attacked Soderbergh's film upon release, branding it with a new title: "Love in Outer Space."

A remake should be original, of course, but this film seems purposely designed to alienate all those who are brave enough to watch it.