If the goal is to remake a bad movie, at least try and do it better. It’s faithful — give or take the nude mud-wrestling scene and ceaseless closing credits — but this make over of Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1973 blockbuster based on the best-selling autobiography of framed Devil’s Island denizen, Henri 'Papillon' Charriere isn’t a patch on it’s pompous-enough-as-is forerunner. The studio threw a ton of cash into the original (a then unheard of $13.5 million), had the real Charriere on set during part of the production, built an 800 foot replica of the prison, and tracked down some of the most remote locations on the globe in which to shoot. (The film ran so long that theater owners had barbers stationed in the lobby.) Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek fit the prison duds once worn by Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, but those longing to kill a few hours in a French Guiana penal colony, would be better off downloading the original. (2017) — Scott Marks
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