Showing posts with label remake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label remake. Show all posts
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| Marlon Brando |
Sailing to Tahiti in 1787 to get breadfruit, the crew of the Bounty eventually rebel against what they see as the heartless tyranny of their captain. This second film version [of three] of the famous story is also based on the novel whose fictionalized events have sometimes replaced the true story in the mind of the public. For some reason, Marlon Brando chose to portray Fletcher Christian as an affected fop, possibly the only way he could keep up the British accent -- other than that, his performance isn't bad, although it is not as good as Trevor Howard's as the notorious Captain Bligh or Richard Harris' as a sailor named Mills. Hugh Griffith, Richard Hadyn [The Lost World], Percy Herbert and Tim Seely as young midshipman Ned, are also notable, among others. The movie is long and bloated and follows the mutineers onto Pitcairn Island, where they settled, but a framing sequence that takes place on the island with Haydn and Torin Thatcher was excised from the film and can be seen on the DVD. As Maimiti, the king's daughter, who falls for Christian, Tarita strikes the right note [as she obviously did with Brando, who married her]; Frank Silvera is convincing as her father. One problem with the movie is that at times it has a very fortyish tone, becoming awfully "cute." However Milestone keeps things moving and Bronislau Kaper's score is very effective. Originally shown in ultra-Panavision 70. Ultimately, this is not a bad picture, although it's no better than the other versions, the original Mutiny on the Bounty and The Bounty.
Verdict: If you can't get enough of Christian and Bligh. ***.
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| Samantha Eggar |
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1973 telefilm). Director: Jack Smight.
In one of television's more pointless exercises, this TV movie is a remake of the Billy Wilder 1944 classic. The story, based on James Cain's novel, remains the same. Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Richard Crenna) and Phyllis Dietrichson (Samantha Eggar) conspire to do away with her husband (Arch Johnson), hoping to invoke a double indemnity clause in his insurance by making it look like an unusual accident. If you've never seen the original movie, or even if you have, this version will still prove entertaining because of the suspenseful storyline, but compared to the Wilder version with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson, this is like a high school production. The actors aren't bad, with Eggar making a suitably sociopathic Phyllis and Lee J. Cobb as good as ever in the Robinson role [if not as good as Robinson, whom he apes to some degree]. As for Richard Crenna? He rushes through the opening and closing scenes like a complete amateur [possibly he was directed that way as this telefilm is only 75 minutes long!] but for the rest of the movie he's okay, and was probably cast for the same reason MacMurray [who was much better] was, that likability factor that makes the unpleasant character more palatable. Jack Smight's direction is strictly by the numbers, completely devoid of style, and he does nothing to increase the tension. The murder scene itself might as well be a trip to the supermarket. It also has to be said that this kind of noirish material plays better in the right time period, the forties, than updated to the seventies.
Verdict: Stick to the original. **1/2.
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| Geena Davis trapped in the teleport pod |
THE FLY (1986). Director: David Cronenberg.
Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldbum) is a scientist who piques the curiosity of journalist Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), who hopes there's a story in his research, as does her editor and former lover, Stathis Borans (John Getz). As Seth and Ronnie are drawn into a relationship, Seth reveals that he has invented a device that can transmit matter from one pod to another. Unfortunately, when he tries to transmit living matter, the animals wind up turned inside out. Licking that problem, he decides to transmit himself, but is unaware that a house fly has gotten into his pod with him. Unlike the original Fly, where the hero winds up as two separate, freakish beings, Brundle's fly becomes part of him on a genetic and molecular level, slowly transforming him into a monster. Not faithful to its source material, The Fly is an alternate take on the story with a more gruesome approach. Ronnie seems to take forever to react to the weird changes in Seth's face, and the second half of the film is rather slow until the decidedly suspenseful final sequence. Just like the original film, The Fly turns into a burlesque -- especially when the "Brundle-fly" runs off with Ronnie in its arms -- with Goldblum (otherwise effective in his quirky way) uncertain of how to play his mutating character and apparently opting for black comedy which doesn't really work. Davis, however, gives an outstanding performance, reacting realistically and emotionally to every insane thing that the script -- and Brundle -- can throw at her. Cronenberg's [The Brood] direction is generally good, and the special effects and make-up work is excellent. In his screenplay most of Charles Edward Pogue's originality appears to have gone into the character names!
Verdict: Some good moments, but the original still has this beat. **1/2.
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| Zachary Scott and Ann Sheridan |
While her husband is out of town, Chris Hunter (Ann Sheridan) returns from a party and is attacked in her home, ultimately killing her assailant. Chris tells her husband, Bob (Zachary Scott), as well as the police, that she never met the man, a sculptor named Tanner. But if that's the case, why did Tanner do a bust of a woman who looks exactly like Chris Hunter, and why are some people offering it to her husband for sale ..? This is an excellent Americanized variation on, and post-WW2 updating of, The Letter, but it takes awhile for the viewer to realize it as it has so many interesting elements of its own. Sheridan [Nora Prentiss] gives one of her best performances, and has an especially good moment when she has a heart to heart talk with her husband about things she did when he was overseas and why she did them. Zachary Scott [Ruthless] is also excellent, as is Lew Ayres [Damian: Omen 2] as the friend and lawyer who comes to the couple's assistance. Eve Arden certainly scores in the somewhat edgier-than-usual role of Bob's cousin, Paula, and the dialogue [by David Goodis and James Gunn] as she tries to explain Chris' wartime actions to Bob is trenchant and memorable. Marta Mitrovich is quietly effective as the angry widow, Mrs. Tanner; Steven Geray suitably oily as a kind of blackmailer and art dealer; Jerome Cowan appropriately wily as a prosecutor; and John Hoyt ever-grim as a suspicious police detective. This is probably director Vincent Sherman's [The Damned Don't Cry] finest hour and a half. A first-rate score by Max Steiner and fine Ernest Haller photography complete the ensemble.
Verdict: A snappy, sophisticated picture that on its own terms is nearly as good as the original ***1/2.
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| Andromeda: Like Benjamin Bratt, everything's too casual |
When an entire town is suddenly wiped out by a plague, scientists are called in to identify the organism, possibly extra-terrestrial in origin, that killed everyone, and find out why two people -- an old man and a baby -- survived. They take them to a hidden base to try and find the answers. One scene in particular illustrates the problem with this three hour remake of 1971's far superior The Andromeda Strain. Project leader Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt of Catwoman) confers with a colleague while sitting in a very casual position that belies the urgency of what's going on, a problem with the telefilm in general. [I'm not saying people might not relax even during a crisis, but this is supposed to be a thriller, right?] The movie is padded with unnecessary scenes, such as entire tiresome sequences built around a reporter played bv Eric McCormack, who is good but at times seems to be reverting to Will of Will and Grace,and much more is made of the political/paranoia angle than before. The performances are okay but Kate Reid of the original film is sorely missed, although Daniel Dae Kim, Viola Davis, and Andre Braugher make more of an impression than the others. In this the old man survivor, Tobler (Tom McBeath, who is good), is more dimensional, and one character, Major Keane (Ricky Schroder), is openly gay [yet conservative], but the script doesn't allow him to be a hero. It's interesting that one of the producers of this ultimately tedious TV production is Ridley Scott, whose Alien sort of borrowed the climax of the original (a character desperately racing to countermand an order to self-destruct), a scene repeated in this with some variations but which still manages to lack tension and excitement. To be fair there are a couple of creepy moments, and the early sections may be compelling to people who are unfamiliar with the story.
Verdict: Stick with the original. **.
Composer Gary Stuart (Ray Milland), who has been neglecting his wife, Connie (Jane Wyman), to go off and play drums in clubs, walks out on her when he thinks she's had an affair with a rival composer, Courtney Craig (Tom Helmore). Connie is then courted by a handsome theatrical backer named Frank (Aldo Ray), while Gary dallies with an uppercrust lady named Deborah (Karin Booth of The Unfinished Dance). It may be hard to recognize this as a musical remake of The Awful Truth, but the awful truth is that this isn't that bad a movie. What makes it most watchable is the excellent performance by Jane Wyman. The usually demure Wyman is turned into the "go girl" in this movie: she sparkles, she sasses, she sings, she dances with verve, she sintillates. She brilliantly interprets her song numbers even though she isn't really singing (Milland is also dubbed), and she does a Latin number near the end that scandalizes a whole roomful of snobbish party guests. What would Angela Channing say? Her sexy, dead-on delivery of "Slow Burn Over a Fast Man" in an earlier party scene is the movie's highlight. Milland is also quite good, as are Leon Ames as his brother and Mary Treen as Connie's housekeeper. Aldo Ray is charming and has a killer smile. Wyman is outfitted with one spectacular gown after another, and she and Gary have rather beautiful apartments. Valerie Bettis plays Gary's friend, Lilly, who has a provocative dance number of her own. Bettis was apparently a dancer who did only a couple of movies and some television work. Hall also directed the bizarre Once Upon a Time.
Verdict: Watch the "go girl" go! ***.
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| Nicolas Cage in a --what else? -- tense moment |
THE WICKER MAN (2006).Writer/ director: Neil LaBute. Based on a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer.
A cop named Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) gets a letter from an ex-fiancee, Willow (Kate Beahan) who tells him that her daughter, Rowan, is missing. He travels to an island in Washington where Willow lives and where she has joined an odd matriarchal and religious society that has an upcoming celebration. The islanders try to convince Malus that the missing child doesn't exist, and even Willow acts strangely, finally confessing that Rowan is also Malus' daughter. Malus fears that the girl is to be used in a horrifying ritual, but on that point he may be slightly mistaken ... This remake of the 1974 British cult film The Wicker Man transplants the action to the U.S. and for some reason does away with all the free-spirited sexuality of the islanders, even as there are some hints that this is essentially a Sapphic society, giving the film a [perhaps unwarranted] homophobic cast-- at one point Cage punches out a stereotypically butch female tavern owner. Instead of Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle, we get Ellen Burstyn as Sister Summerisle, and instead of people breaking out into song we get a lot of bees buzzing about a hero who's allergic to them [but somehow survives]. This version of The Wicker Man may be intriguing (as well as confusing) to viewers who've never seen the original film, as the basic storyline is still absorbing. LaBute has cooked up a more modern-type post script for the film. Cage is not bad, but this is not a "great" performance a la Edward Woodward's in the original. Paul Sarossy's cinematography is a plus.
Verdict: The perfect film version of this story has yet to be made, but the original is better. **1/2.
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| Last and least: Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie White |
CARRIE (2013). Director: Kimberly Peirce.
In another unnecessary remake of Brian De Palma's classic Carrie -- this time a theatrical release -- our telekinetic teen is played by Chloe Grace Moretz. If I recall correctly, Carrie White in King's novel was plain and dumpy. Sissy Spacek in the first screen adaptation was more attractive and Moretz is practically a certified "babe" even before her makeover, so her casting is problematic. Her performance isn't bad -- though not on the level of Spacek's [nor of Angela Bettis' in the 2002 television version] -- even if on occasion she's all twitches and ticks to get across Carrie's shyness and level of anxiety. This version (along with the telefilm) offers another reason for why the students dislike Carrie, that she "goes about saying everyone but her and her mother are going to hell," but this is never demonstrated. Julianne Moore doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to play Carrie's mother; she just completely de-glamorizes herself and hopes that that will work, but it doesn't. The younger actors and the gym coach are satisfactory. Some sequences are well-staged, and Carrie's dispatching of Chris and Billy, her chief tormentors at the prom, is more elaborate. The biggest problem with this version is at the climax -- instead of being numb, her powers growing outward almost accidentally in an explosion she can hardly contain, Carrie's murders of classmates, guilty or innocent, are demonic, conscious, and deliberate. This is definitely a dumbed-down Carrie. Again Lawrence D. Cohen's screenplay for the original is used as the template, with tinkering by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Verdict: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. **1/2.
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| Angela Bettis as Carrie White |
CARRIE (2002 telefilm). Director: David Carson.
This unnecessary TV remake of Brian De Palma's excellent Carrie tells the same story of a tormented telekinetic teen who wreaks havoc after she's humiliated at the prom, but takes half an hour longer to do so. It could be argued that this is somewhat more faithful to the documentary-type approach of the novel, but the scenes with a cop (David Keith) interviewing different people about the prom disaster that are interspersed throughout the telefilm add nothing to the movie, and only pad the running time so this could air in a three hour time slot (with lots of commercials naturally). Angelis Bettis is quite good as Carrie White, looking a bit more neurotic and freakish than Sissy Spacek, but Patricia Clarkson is completely unimpressive as her mother. Perhaps trying not to imitate the flamboyant Piper Laurie in the original, Clarkson underplays too much and is simply dull; she's more natural than Laurie but much less interesting. Rena Sofer is fine as the gym teacher, and the other young people playing assorted high-schoolers are all okay. This includes some other sequences from the book, such as a meteor shower hitting Carrie's house, and a scene when bitchy Chris Hargensen's father threatens the school with a law suit. Otherwise, it pretty much follows Lawrence D. Cohen's screenplay for the original version, using much of the same dialogue, although, incredibly, only Bryan Fuller is credited. The ending was supposed to make room for a weekly television series about the exploits of Carrie White, but low ratings put paid to that lousy idea. The funniest line has someone remarking that mean girl Chris Hargensen has an IQ of 140 -- sure! The original film was actually moving at times, but this one is not.
Verdict: Some good things in this, including Bettis' performance, but far below the level of the De Palma classic. **1/2.
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| Joan Crawford as Harriet Craig |
"I don't like trains. I don't like the feeling of being rushed along in the darkness. Having no control. Having my life completely in someone else's hands" -- Harriet Craig.
This remake of Craig's Wife is actually the third film version of George Kelly's play, which was first made as a silent. In this loose adaptation, Joan Crawford plays Harriet Craig, who likes order and neatness and everything in its place, including her husband, Walter (Wendell Corey of The Big Knife). She and her mother were abandoned by her father, and she needs to be in total control of her life and everyone else's, including her niece, Clare's (K. T. Stevens), who has lived with her and Walter for many years, and whose relationship with Wes (William Bishop of It's a Great Life) she tries to destroy. This version eliminates the character of Walter's aunt, and provides an even stronger motive for Walter's walking out on his wife. Crawford and Corey give very good performances, and the supporting cast, including Lucile Watson, Stevens, Ellen Corby, and Viola Roache, is notable.
Verdict: Crawford in dragon lady mode. ***.