Firestarter

It's almost unbelievable that this new version could turn out so unwatchable.

Director Keith Thomas uses ominous music and moody lighting in an attempt to crank up the tension, but that fails entirely in the face of uniformly wooden performances, unconvincing special effects and a plot that fails to engage.

A premise with a lot of potential but like the original movie this one's pretty inept, thematically empty and dumbed down from the original source material.

Zac Efron looking so bored that blood drips from his eyes, dressing up King's 1980 story as a superhero tale and having its pyrokinetic protagonist say "liar liar, pants on fire" when she's torching someone aren't a recipe for igniting movie magic.

Some solid performances and a few good scenes raise some expectations that this remake can exceed the original, but ultimately the film throws everything away in favor of a ridiculous ending added to set up a sequel no one wants.