12 Iconic Movie Characters Who Were Disastrously Recast

3. Longfellow Deeds - Adam Sandler

The Film: Mr Deeds (2002)

In The Original: Gary Cooper

There should be a law against anyone trying to remake Frank Capra's work, and while Mr Deeds Goes To Town would never quite be considered in the same breath as It's A Wonderful Life or It Happened One Night, it still deserves preservation.

What it absolutely didn't deserve was Adam Sandler riding rough-shot over everything that made it a heart-warming, hugely charming classic and turning it into a schlub about town comedy with a weird line on gross-out gags.

Though Sandler has undeniable every man appeal, it's to an audience of morons predominantly, and he's nowhere near as authentically likeable or earnest as Cooper's version of Mr Deeds. He seems to be well-intentioned because he's an idiot in an ocean of cynics and corporate villains, and he never makes anything like the wholesome decision to provide homes for the homeless that the original did.

In Cooper's hands, the sacharine contrivances are entirely forgivable, while Sandler's version feels ridiculous and manipulative and not at all real.