Remaking a classic film is always a risky proposition, especially when it has already been remade as a classic film in its own right French filmmaker Julien Leclerc had an uphill battle even before he began work on his remake of "The Reward of Fear" Georges Arnault's 1950 novel was adapted into a 1953 film by Henri-Georges Clouzot, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival

Leclerc's film follows a group of desperate outsiders driving a truck full of volatile nitroglycerin through dangerous terrain Leclercq adds gunfights and car chases, awkwardly blending the lean action movie style with the slow psychological anguish of the original story

The result has been a successful but unsatisfying miscalculation on Netflix since its March 29 release For those disappointed by Leclerc's efforts, here are five better films

William Friedkin's 1977 film "The Reward of Fear" is closer to the tone of Clouseau's film, focusing on the internal trauma of characters living on the margins of society and willing to take the most dangerous jobs for enough money to escape their dire circumstances Like Leclerc, Friedkin adds thriller elements, but The Magician still creates suspense from the volatile cargo on the truck that the characters are hired to drive

Roy Scheider plays a wanted man hiding out in South America Friedkin sustains tension throughout, including a spectacular sequence that takes place on a decaying bridge, leaving the audience standing beside frustrated and possessed men on the brink of apparent doom

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82 Watch on the Criterion Channel

Leclerc stumbled with "Reward for Fear," but has recently built an impressive filmography of gritty, elegant action films with this revenge thriller starring Olga Kurylenko She plays a French soldier reassigned to a domestic terrorism surveillance unit after a botched overseas mission, and wracked with PTSD and guilt over her failure to find a bomb strapped to a young child, Kurylenko's Clara lashes out at the search for the perpetrators of a brutal attack on her sister

Curylenko's character, played by Kurtikov, is a young woman who has been living in the city for years

Kurylenko refines Clara's anguish and anger into a single-minded purpose, while Leclerc creates savage close calls in cramped places like nightclub bathrooms and hospital basements Leclercq does not need a high-concept source material to create an emotionally resonant and intuitively exciting action film

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70 View on Netflix

Liam Neeson played a "Reward for Fear" parody in the 2021 Netflix film "Ice Road," but this pre-Neeson snowbound survival thriller handles similar material far better Neeson continues to show off his fighting prowess, but director Joe Carnahan's film is more about the internal struggles of Alaskan oil workers stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash

There are also plenty of external struggles, especially in the form of a pack of hungry wolves, and Neeson's John Ottway must eventually fight off those wild animals But John must also deal with conflicts among his fellow survivors, and he must meet basic needs such as food and shelter while clinging to the hope of rescue Carnahan provides a stark and intense drama about the primal struggle between man and nature

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80 John Huston's Academy Award-winning Western is a dark drama of greed and deception, with Humphrey Bogart as an American drifter who becomes increasingly deranged as he searches for gold in Mexico Houston captures the insidious and cowardly side of the gold rush, and the characters quickly turn on each other when they become convinced that their fortunes are at stake

Bogart uses his inherent charm to play the ruthless and cruel outlaw, while Tim Holt and Houston's father Walter play the more honorable sidekicks; all three are ultimately blinded by their lust for wealth and set themselves on a dangerous path that leads to a bleak and disappointing end There are no heroic confrontations or triumphant escapes, only the emptiness of life's pursuit of wealth, which should be quick and easy

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100 Rent / Buy on Apple or Amazon

Denis Villeneuve's crime thriller set along the US-Mexico border is an exploration of moral gray areas, with characters who carry out ruthless executions in the name of law and order The title refers to a hit man (Benicio del Toro) who works secretly for the CIA to stabilize the drug trade throughout the Americas Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent who gets caught in the middle of a CIA operation and gradually realizes that she is being used as a pawn The script by Taylor Sheridan, author of [Yellowstone], is layered and complex, shifting the audience's perspective on who is in control and who is doing the right thing The film's centerpiece is a breathtaking action scene that takes place on a crowded border, and the pressure is on, as it is in the best moments of any version of "Reward for Fear"

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92 Watch on Prime Video