12 Great Directors Who Helmed Terrible Movie Remakes

12. Steven Spielberg - Always (1989)

After scoring major hits with Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg did that thing that so many directors do when they realise they're get old; he attempted to re-establish himself as a "serious artist."

Instead of jumping into bed with another Indy movie, Spielberg entered a new phase of his career, waving goodbye to the giant sharks and aliens and, you know, fun, in favour of more seriously-minded films like The Colour Purple and Empire of the Sun. Then, in 1989, he re-teamed with his Jaws star, Richard Dreyfuss, for Always.

As a remake of Victor Fleming's 1943 drama A Guy Named Joe, Always abandoned the film's original World War II setting and brought events into the present, with the lead character - once a fighter pilot - now positioned as a deceased aerial firefighter who returns from the dead. It's easy to see why Spielberg, long fascinated with aerial combat since childhood, adored Fleming's original film and set about with a remake.

Always is one of Spielberg's least inspired pictures, though - a melodramatic flight of fancy that highlights all of his worst traits as a filmmaker. It fared okay at the box office, but critical opinion was muted.

Afterwards, Spielberg went back to the Indy franchise for the third time, and entered a new, more appropriate period of productivity in which he split his time between both "entertainments" and prestige pictures. Phew.