Worst adaptations
by Attila85 | created - 30 Dec 2011 | updated - 23 Feb 2022 | PublicThe most disappointing adaptations ever made. Some of them have nothing in common with the novels, excepting their titles. Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and the others spin in their graves when they see this craps.
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1. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Romance
Shakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 244,007 | Gross: $46.35M
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Lovers' lives are complicated by city law, feuding faerie royalty, and... love.
Director: Michael Hoffman | Stars: Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci
Votes: 26,899 | Gross: $16.07M
3. Macbeth (I) (2015)
R | 113 min | Drama, History, War
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Director: Justin Kurzel | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jack Madigan, Frank Madigan
Votes: 59,413 | Gross: $1.11M
4. The Three Musketeers (2011)
PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
The hot-headed young D'Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down-on-their-luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson, Milla Jovovich
Votes: 111,860 | Gross: $20.38M
5. The Man in the Iron Mask (I) (1998)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The cruel King Louis XIV of France has a secret twin brother whom he keeps imprisoned. Can the twin be substituted for the real king?
Director: Randall Wallace | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gérard Depardieu
Votes: 178,324 | Gross: $56.97M
6. Planet of the Apes (2001)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In 2029, an Air Force astronaut crash-lands on a mysterious planet where evolved, talking apes dominate a race of primitive humans.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Michael Clarke Duncan
Votes: 228,316 | Gross: $180.01M
7. Great Expectations (1998)
R | 111 min | Drama, Romance
Modernization of Charles Dickens' classic story finds the hapless Finn as a painter in New York City pursuing his unrequited and haughty childhood love.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hank Azaria, Chris Cooper
Votes: 56,795 | Gross: $26.33M
8. Papillon (1973)
R | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon
Votes: 138,047 | Gross: $53.27M
9. The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
Approved | 138 min | Biography, Drama, History
The biographical story of Michelangelo's troubles while painting the Sistine Chapel at the urging of Pope Julius II.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews
Votes: 8,020
10. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
G | 91 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A deformed bell-ringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancer.
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Demi Moore, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Bergman, Corey Burton
Votes: 171,079 | Gross: $100.14M
11. Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
PG | 93 min | Action, Adventure, Family
On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew and their mountain guide discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth.
Director: Eric Brevig | Stars: Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Aníta Briem, Seth Meyers
Votes: 131,310 | Gross: $101.70M
12. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
PG | 94 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Sean Anderson partners with his mom's husband on a mission to find his grandfather, who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.
Director: Brad Peyton | Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Luis Guzmán
Votes: 111,752 | Gross: $103.86M
13. Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
PG | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
To win a bet, an eccentric British inventor embarks, with his Chinese valet and an aspiring French artist, on a trip full of adventures and dangers around the world in exactly 80 days.
Director: Frank Coraci | Stars: Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Jim Broadbent, Kathy Bates
Votes: 94,566 | Gross: $24.01M
14. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
G | 175 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.
Directors: Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Stars: David Niven, Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley
Votes: 29,586 | Gross: $42.00M
15. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
R | 123 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
When the brilliant but unorthodox scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein rejects the artificial man that he has created, the Creature escapes and later swears revenge.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hulce
Votes: 59,175 | Gross: $22.01M
16. Gulliver's Travels (2010)
PG | 85 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver takes an assignment in Bermuda but ends up on the island of Lilliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens.
Director: Rob Letterman | Stars: Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet
Votes: 73,386 | Gross: $42.78M
17. Dune (1984)
PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis to free their desert world from the emperor's rule.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Francesca Annis, Leonardo Cimino
Votes: 177,100 | Gross: $30.93M
18. War of the Worlds (2005)
PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
An alien invasion threatens the future of humanity. The catastrophic nightmare is depicted through the eyes of one American family fighting for survival.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto
Votes: 473,838 | Gross: $234.28M
19. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
PG-13 | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
After being rescued and brought to an island, a man discovers that its inhabitants are experimental animals being turned into strange-looking humans, all of it the work of a visionary doctor.
Directors: John Frankenheimer, Richard Stanley | Stars: David Thewlis, Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk
Votes: 35,399 | Gross: $27.66M
20. The Time Machine (2002)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds humankind divided into two warring races.
Director: Simon Wells | Stars: Guy Pearce, Yancey Arias, Mark Addy, Phyllida Law
Votes: 130,121 | Gross: $56.68M
21. Bel Ami (2012)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, History
A chronicle of a young man's rise to power in Paris via his manipulation of the city's wealthiest and most influential women.
Directors: Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod | Stars: Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci
Votes: 19,244 | Gross: $0.12M
22. The Scarlet Letter (1995)
R | 135 min | Drama, Romance
An affair between a young woman and a pastor has disastrous consequences.
Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall, Lisa Andoh
Votes: 16,257 | Gross: $10.40M
23. Dorian Gray (2009)
R | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
Director: Oliver Parker | Stars: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, John Hollingworth
Votes: 67,986
24. Lolita (1997)
R | 137 min | Drama, Romance
An English professor falls for a minor, and has to face the consequences of his actions.
Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, Melanie Griffith, Frank Langella
Votes: 66,231 | Gross: $1.40M
25. The Magus (1968)
R | 117 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A teacher on a Greek island becomes involved in bizarre mind-games with the island's magus (magician) and a beautiful young woman.
Director: Guy Green | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, Anna Karina
Votes: 1,897
26. The Decameron (1971)
R | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, History
An adaptation of nine stories from Boccaccio's "Decameron".
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Jovan Jovanovic, Vincenzo Amato
Votes: 12,028
27. Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
The ancient war between humans and a race of giants is reignited when Jack, a young farmhand fighting for a kingdom and the love of a princess, opens a gateway between the two worlds.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy
Votes: 146,622 | Gross: $65.19M
28. Pinocchio (2002)
G | 108 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Despite guidance from the Blue Fairy and the love of his father, a wooden puppet's curious spirit leads him into one wild adventure after another.
Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Carlo Giuffrè, Mino Bellei
Votes: 8,626 | Gross: $3.68M
29. Anna Karenina (I) (2012)
R | 129 min | Drama, Romance
In late-19th-century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen
Votes: 106,264 | Gross: $12.82M
30. Pan (2015)
PG | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Twelve-year-old orphan Peter is spirited away to the magical world of Neverland, where he finds both fun and danger, and ultimately discovers his destiny: to become the hero who will be forever known as Peter Pan.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Levi Miller, Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara
Votes: 67,049 | Gross: $35.09M
31. Beauty and the Beast (2014)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An unexpected romance blooms after the the youngest daughter of a merchant who has fallen on hard times offers herself to the mysterious beast to which her father has become indebted.
Director: Christophe Gans | Stars: Vincent Cassel, Léa Seydoux, André Dussollier, Eduardo Noriega
Votes: 22,366
32. Ben-Hur (2016)
PG-13 | 123 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother, an officer in the Roman army, returns to his homeland after years at sea to seek revenge, but finds redemption.
Director: Timur Bekmambetov | Stars: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro, Nazanin Boniadi
Votes: 46,674 | Gross: $26.41M
33. Holmes & Watson (2018)
PG-13 | 90 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A humorous take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic mysteries featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
Director: Etan Cohen | Stars: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Ralph Fiennes, Rebecca Hall
Votes: 39,264 | Gross: $30.57M
34. The Call of the Wild (2020)
PG | 100 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A sled dog struggles for survival in the wilds of the Yukon.
Director: Chris Sanders | Stars: Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, Dan Stevens
Votes: 56,129 | Gross: $62.34M
35. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
PG-13 | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
When a murder occurs on the train on which he's travelling, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench
Votes: 295,253 | Gross: $102.83M
36. Death on the Nile (2022)
PG-13 | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
While on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Kenneth Branagh, Russell Brand
Votes: 187,379 | Gross: $45.63M
37. Little Women (2018)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Family
Four sisters come of age during the Civil War era. Facing life's triumphs and tragedies with ambition and maturity, their tight sisterly bond endures.
Director: Clare Niederpruem | Stars: Sarah Davenport, Lea Thompson, Allie Jennings, Melanie Stone
Votes: 1,429 | Gross: $1.38M
38. Rebecca (I) (2020)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A young newlywed arrives at her husband's imposing family estate on a windswept English coast and finds herself battling the shadow of his first wife, Rebecca, whose legacy lives on in the house long after her death.
Director: Ben Wheatley | Stars: Lily James, Armie Hammer, Kristin Scott Thomas, Keeley Hawes
Votes: 46,364
39. The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda (1990–1993)
TV-Y | 30 min | Animation, Short, Adventure
Animated series based on Don Quixote with anthropomorphic animals. Unstable heroic knight Don Coyote, his talking horse Rosinante, his sidekick Sancho Panda and Sancho's cynical talking donkey Dapple roam the country and fight villainy.
Stars: Frank Welker, Don Messick, Tim Curry, Brad Garrett
Votes: 107
40. I, Robot (2004)
PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
In 2035, a technophobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.
Director: Alex Proyas | Stars: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, Alan Tudyk
Votes: 573,406 | Gross: $144.80M
41. Master i Margarita (2006)
125 min | Drama, Fantasy
Interwoven are a satire of the 1930's under Stalin, the inner struggle of Pontius Pilate around the execution of Jesus, and the love story between a writer in Moscow and his lover Margarita.
Director: Yuriy Kara | Stars: Viktor Rakov, Anastasiya Vertinskaya, Nikolay Burlyaev, Mikhail Ulyanov
Votes: 697
42. Brave New World (1998 TV Movie)
87 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic totalitarian utopian society, babies are created through genetic engineering, everyone has a predestined place in society and their minds are conditioned to follow the rules. A tragic outsider jeopardizes the status quo.
Directors: Leslie Libman, Larry Williams | Stars: Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy, Tim Guinee, Rya Kihlstedt
Votes: 2,144
43. Brave New World (2020)
TV-MA | 415 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a utopia whose perfection hinges upon control of monogamy and privacy, members of the collective begin to question the rules, putting their regimented society on a collision course with forbidden love and revolution.
Stars: Alden Ehrenreich, Jessica Brown Findlay, Harry Lloyd, Nina Sosanya
Votes: 16,941
44. Elementarteilchen (2006)
113 min | Drama, Romance
Two half brothers in Berlin, 30+, one an introverted scientist, the other a sexually frustrated teacher, have no love life. That's about to change.
Director: Oskar Roehler | Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Ulmen, Franka Potente, Martina Gedeck
Votes: 8,299
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