Haven't I seen this before?

Back-to-back viewings of Bad News Bears and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this weekend proved that my pre-summer anticipation of both titles was unfortunately undeserved.

It's not that either movie is terrible, they're both decent enough diversions. But it's hard to justify the existence of either one considering perfectly good versions of the exact same stories already exist and the talented directors behind these projects have already covered similar cinematic ground. And covered it well.

Bears has one thing going for it: Billy Bob Thornton. He's funny, he makes his character's softer moments entirely credible and he makes the movie seem a lot better than it is. Unfortunately the kids are no match for him. They're alternately obnoxious, annoying or dull with only a few exceptions. There's little of value for supporting players Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden to do. The movie has its moments but if you've already seen Thornton's Bad Santa, director Richard Linklater's School of Rock or the original 1976 Bad News Bears then you've already seen the real deal. Don't settle for a pale imitation.

On its own, Bears does kind of work as a modest underdogs-have-their-day story, but that tale is so commonplace that I was a little more fond of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Even if it also ultimately fails it's more ambitious and contains more individual moments of greatness.

Things start off quite well and director Tim Burton seems to be in top form. The story moves along at a brisk pace, the characters are introduced in quick and compelling ways and the visual look is consistently dazzling. As long as the movie belongs to Charlie (well played by Finding Neverland's Freddie Highmore) it works. But once Charlie enters the Chocolate Factory (and Willy Wonka comes into play) the movie loses its focus and becomes a rapid succession of events with little or no emotional context.

Burton has gone on record saying he hates the 1971 film version (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and his "remake" rarely feels like it's mimicking, let alone paying tribute to, its predecessor. In many ways it's as different as it can be while still hitting all the same story points. That might have been a good thing, but unfortunately Burton somehow misses much of the fun and magic present in the first film.

It's obvious that the character Burton is most interested in is Willy Wonka (odd, considering this film retains Roald Dahl's original title yet is less focused on Charlie than Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was). But the attention paid to Wonka, especially his backstory, comes at the expense of the kids. The movie essentially ignores each child unless it's time for his or her "elimination" and consequently gets stuck in a dull cycle: obnoxious brat is done in by a significant character flaw, cue elaborate Oompa Loompa musical number, repeat. Little Charlie is completely lost in the process.

The movie did win me back slightly with its sentimental last act. But the Wonka storyline ultimately feels like second-rate Edward Scissorhands, and again we have a remake that not only suffers in comparison to its predecessor but also fails to match a previous work by the filmmaker.

Most remakes are depressingly futile ventures, but when directors turn out final products that only remind us of better movies they've already made the time wasted on a remake feels even more unnecessary.