5. Highlander
On paper the original Highlander shouldve never worked. French actor Christopher Lambert as an immortal Scotsman, Sean Connery as an Egyptian/Spaniard, and lots of sword fighting in New York City. Maybe it was the amazing Queen soundtrack or maybe it was the fact that sword fighting in NYC is actually awesome, but Highlander did end up working and worked real well. Unfortunately There Can Be Only One just turned out to be a clever catchphrase because sequel after sequel was released, tarnishing the original with each subsequent film. They even released a television show which in itself wasnt too shabby other than the fact that it retconned every movie that came before it including the original. The goal, like most remakes these days, is to modernize the dated material. In the case of Highlander, what does that even mean? Instead of just sensing when another Immortal is around are they just going to check one anothers Twitter feeds? Is the Gathering just going to end up as a Facebook event? One shudders to think. The only thing the remake had going for it was the casting of Ryan Reynolds. Unfortunately he walked away from the project last summer, perhaps knowing the people would be clamoring to see him get his head cut off on camera and not the other way around. All in all, the original Highlander was a fluke. A good fluke but a fluke nonetheless. Theres something rather special about it that makes it continuously enjoyable to watch. However, each Highlander film that has followed has proven that you cant capture lightening in a bottle- no matter how awesome of a song Princes Of The Universe is.