It's a typical remake. A perfect excuse to get the computers running on overtime to animate the end of the world. Keanu Reeves is his normal wooden self as alien Klaatu trying to sap all the energy out of this movie. There is a common downfall to this movie that occurs in a lot of remakes they seem to forget the message that the original was trying to convey. The original movie made in 1951 was a wonderful look at mankind and it's violent tendencies which is even more apt these days. Yet, the remake only makes vague references to this, only using it as the aliens' excuse to destroy the planet. The movie, despite having a lot of destruction and pretty effects is quite boring compared to other similar movies and even the pure beauty of Jennifer Connelly cannot help this poor attempt.
4. Psycho (1998)
4. Psycho (1998)
Oh dear! If there was ever a movie that didn't need a remake, it was Psycho. One of my most favourite movies ever, directed by one of the most influential people, with a superb performance by Anthony Perkins, everything was just right.
So along comes Gus Van Sant, fresh off directing the brilliant Good Will Hunting and decides, not only to remake Psycho, but also to do it almost shot for shot! But this time, let's get an inferior actor (Vaughn) to play the iconic role, let's slip some daft 'subliminal' shots in random places and generally ruin a perfect movie.
This isn't even a movie that has big special effects etc, which is usually the excuse for a remake. Overall this is not only a pathetic remake, but an unnecessary one.
3. I Am Legend (2007)
So along comes Gus Van Sant, fresh off directing the brilliant Good Will Hunting and decides, not only to remake Psycho, but also to do it almost shot for shot! But this time, let's get an inferior actor (Vaughn) to play the iconic role, let's slip some daft 'subliminal' shots in random places and generally ruin a perfect movie.
This isn't even a movie that has big special effects etc, which is usually the excuse for a remake. Overall this is not only a pathetic remake, but an unnecessary one.
3. I Am Legend (2007)
Now this is a half-decent movie, but again it fell into the aforementioned trap of failing to grasp and convey they message. Not only did it do this but ti also completely changed the ending of the original novel and hence completely changed (or discarded) the whole point that the book was making. Even the alternate ending was a bad attempt at trying to rectify this. The title of this movie makes no sense whatsoever with the changes they made.
What makes this so frustrating is that this remake was in various hands for well over a decade, at one point James Cameron was to direct Arnie. All this time to go on, the opportunity of a fantastic novel to base the screenplay around, and yet it ends up in the hands of the guy who is writing the Oldboy remake!
Add that to that fact that the creatures in the movie (are they vampires or zombies? it doesn't make it clear. They are supposed to be vampires) are so badly made that they look like something out of Doctor Who or Primeval. The whole movie looks like an excuse to show New York deserted and derelict (which looks amazing) and have Will Smith moping around and getting his shirt off (which looks amazing *cough*) and have a Bob Marley soundtrack.
There are plenty of people who loved this movie. To those I say read the novel by Richard Matheson and watch The Last Man on Earth (1964). Not only is the book a highly important work of art in it's genre, but it an intelligent look at the vampire mythos with attempts to understand them from a scientific standpoint. Not only that but the 'twist' totally changes how we see the vampires and als the protagonist.
Dam, even The Omega Man (1971) did a better job.
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
What makes this so frustrating is that this remake was in various hands for well over a decade, at one point James Cameron was to direct Arnie. All this time to go on, the opportunity of a fantastic novel to base the screenplay around, and yet it ends up in the hands of the guy who is writing the Oldboy remake!
Add that to that fact that the creatures in the movie (are they vampires or zombies? it doesn't make it clear. They are supposed to be vampires) are so badly made that they look like something out of Doctor Who or Primeval. The whole movie looks like an excuse to show New York deserted and derelict (which looks amazing) and have Will Smith moping around and getting his shirt off (which looks amazing *cough*) and have a Bob Marley soundtrack.
There are plenty of people who loved this movie. To those I say read the novel by Richard Matheson and watch The Last Man on Earth (1964). Not only is the book a highly important work of art in it's genre, but it an intelligent look at the vampire mythos with attempts to understand them from a scientific standpoint. Not only that but the 'twist' totally changes how we see the vampires and als the protagonist.
Dam, even The Omega Man (1971) did a better job.
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I'll start this by saying I'm not really a fan of the Burton/Depp joint projects. I think Burton has too much style and no substance and that Depp is wasted on quirky characters, he's a great actor. But when I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory it made me think a whole lot less of the pair.
They took a magical kids film and sucked all of the magic out of it. In fact, they sucked all the fun out also. This was not enjoyable at all; the songs were crap and forgettable, the oompa-lumpa's were just awful, Depp sounded like he was doing a bad impression of Dr Evil and, once again, the message of the original was completely lost.
In the original one it's made clear to children that Charlie won because he was innocent and he was a good natured kid, even when Willy Wonka turns out to be Willy Wanker (or so we are lead to believe). His refusal to hand in the gobstopper to Wonka's so-called competition was his final test. So, as in all of Roald Dhals stories, it is a fun story with a little lesson for the kids. Here, however, we have just under two hours of boring, non-magical and non-fun drivel, with terrible performances and dire directing, and the audience comes away with nothing from it.
1. King King (2005)
They took a magical kids film and sucked all of the magic out of it. In fact, they sucked all the fun out also. This was not enjoyable at all; the songs were crap and forgettable, the oompa-lumpa's were just awful, Depp sounded like he was doing a bad impression of Dr Evil and, once again, the message of the original was completely lost.
In the original one it's made clear to children that Charlie won because he was innocent and he was a good natured kid, even when Willy Wonka turns out to be Willy Wanker (or so we are lead to believe). His refusal to hand in the gobstopper to Wonka's so-called competition was his final test. So, as in all of Roald Dhals stories, it is a fun story with a little lesson for the kids. Here, however, we have just under two hours of boring, non-magical and non-fun drivel, with terrible performances and dire directing, and the audience comes away with nothing from it.
1. King King (2005)
Well, here we have number one, the worst remake ever, in my opinion. King Kong, everyone's favourite movie about inferred bestiality.
Peter Jackson claimed that this was his favourite movie (the original, that is) and always wanted to remake it. Now, first of all, why on earth would you want to remake your favourite movie? Secondly, why would you then, given the opportunity, completely destroy the legacy of King Kong and replace with a drawn out, badly acted and directed, badly paced, badly CGI'd mess of a movie?
The extended edition is 201 minutes long. I like a long movie, if i'm enjoying it then I wanna see the longest edit possible. But King Kong had so much crap in it, and unnecessary crap at that, he could have easily shortened it to two hours tops. Naomi Watts is a brilliant actress, but for some reason she is terrible in this. Adrian Brody is good also and yet in this he is bland. Jack Black is crap and annoying, yet he doesnt break his trend in this movie.
King Kong himself was brilliant animated, but it looks like too much focus was placed on this as other effects looked awful, especially the scene when they are running down the canyon with the dinosaurs. Scenes just dragged for too long, the battle of the dinosaurs with king kong, I didnt care about anything apart from how numb my arse was getting.
I like Peter Jackson, I liked his earlier worked and I love the LOTR trilogy. It was a great achievement to get it made and it mostly stands up well. Therefore, it baffles me just how he managed to make this so bad, not just bad, but soooooo bad. $207 million went into this, and it mostly went on geeks sat at a computer. For less than half of that they could have tightened the script, shortened the movie (and hence the number of effects) and made a better movie.
The original is famous for the quote 'It was beauty killed the beast' well, in the remake it was the fat beast that killed the beauty.
Peter Jackson claimed that this was his favourite movie (the original, that is) and always wanted to remake it. Now, first of all, why on earth would you want to remake your favourite movie? Secondly, why would you then, given the opportunity, completely destroy the legacy of King Kong and replace with a drawn out, badly acted and directed, badly paced, badly CGI'd mess of a movie?
The extended edition is 201 minutes long. I like a long movie, if i'm enjoying it then I wanna see the longest edit possible. But King Kong had so much crap in it, and unnecessary crap at that, he could have easily shortened it to two hours tops. Naomi Watts is a brilliant actress, but for some reason she is terrible in this. Adrian Brody is good also and yet in this he is bland. Jack Black is crap and annoying, yet he doesnt break his trend in this movie.
King Kong himself was brilliant animated, but it looks like too much focus was placed on this as other effects looked awful, especially the scene when they are running down the canyon with the dinosaurs. Scenes just dragged for too long, the battle of the dinosaurs with king kong, I didnt care about anything apart from how numb my arse was getting.
I like Peter Jackson, I liked his earlier worked and I love the LOTR trilogy. It was a great achievement to get it made and it mostly stands up well. Therefore, it baffles me just how he managed to make this so bad, not just bad, but soooooo bad. $207 million went into this, and it mostly went on geeks sat at a computer. For less than half of that they could have tightened the script, shortened the movie (and hence the number of effects) and made a better movie.
The original is famous for the quote 'It was beauty killed the beast' well, in the remake it was the fat beast that killed the beauty.
The Day the Earth Stood Still eh? I still resent the good money I paid for my IMAX ticket. Now I'm a bit of an IMAX whore and the whole immersion in the massive screen usually adds at least a point to a film's score. Not this time. It was an unforgivable trashing of a classic. FX do not make a film, they definitely can't rescue it from the level of acting in this bag of excrement.
ReplyDeleteI Am Legend also an IMAX ticket. I quite enjoyed it as a piece of fun tosh. It could have been a lot worse. I haven't seen the original but I did like Omega Man (blushes) that was great 70's fun!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - I hated the original and adored the remake. It had Burton and Depp and all I like about them. The original had Wilder maybe my least favourite actor to date. The 2001 tribute and the squirrel scenes were two of my faves in the remake.
Psycho - I've only ever seen the original and I expect it to stay that way.
King Kong - I love the original and the length has put me off watching the remake.
Like your thoughts on these films, here is my take for you.
ReplyDeleteThe day the earth stood still - not interested in it, not actually heard anything good about it.
I am legend, looked forward to thnis film, was very disappointed in it. Then I read the book and it has become one of my least favorite films of all time, the book is fantastic and you are right makes a fantastic point totally lost within the film.
Charlie and the chocolate factory - Have very fond memories of the book and the original film and had some apprehension about the remake but i actually enjoyed it, you do need to disconnect it from the original and it is a bit of fun.
Psycho - I think you mirroed my thought son this totally unnecessary, why was this given the green light?
King Kong - I love the original and actually quite enjoyed this, I thought they did enough to make it entertaining and good and hopefully it will encourage people to go and see the original.