10 Worst Film Remakes Since 2000

5. The Day The Earth Stood Still

day the earth stood still
20th Century Fox

Based on a story by Harry Bates, Robert Wises The Day The Earth Stood Still is one of the landmark science fiction films of the 1950s. Directed by the guy who made Hellraiser: Inferno, this remake casts Keanu Reeves as an alien named Klaatu who visits Earth in a giant sphere.

The original ended with Klaatu leaving Earth after giving the worlds leaders a choice: you can join the other planets in peace or you can extend your violence into space, in which case this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder.

Having none of that, the remake dissipates the impact of the story by having Klaatu abandon his plans when Jennifer Connelly and Jaden Smith persuade him that humanity is just swell. Now shut up and watch and these special effects.

As if casting Smith as Connellys stepson wasnt odd enough, the movie also throws in Kathy Bates as the Secretary of Defence and John Cleese (playing it straight) as a Nobel Prize winning physicist. Rumours that Uwe Boll was cast as the US President turned out to be untrue.

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Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'