10 Movie Flops You've Probably Forgotten
5. Alfie
3 years before he took the Michael Caine role in a forgettable remake of Sleuth (opposite Caine, who had the Laurence Olivier role), Jude Law took the Michael Caine role in this forgettable remake of Alfie, which has been watered down and relocated to NYC.
Law still talks to the camera, moaning about his lot and explaining his actions, but all of the darker moments from the original (remember Denholm Elliott as a seedy abortionist?) have been excised and replaced by….well, nothing much. There’s a touch of feminism, life lessons are learned but the film still doesn’t add up to very much.
The director is Charles Shyer (Father Of The Bride), who’s not known for edgy humour, and his attempts to make us like the character cost the film dearly at the box office. In the US, it grossed $13 million on a $60 million production budget.