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Michael Chabon's Keynote at the Eisner's »

It's probably best to go into this movie having not seen the original. Though they did a good job of making the premise more topical for a modern audience, this remake just isn't as chilling or as effective as it's Cold War predecessor. If you've seen the original, nothing here is really going to surprise you. There's a few twists that go in a slightly different direction but for the most part Jonathan Demme drops the ball in making this a truly relevant and frightening film.

Nothing here is able to one-up the bizarre garden party hypnosis scene from the original the way it should. They tease you early in with some eerie drawings in a notebook and a few flashes to a island fortress and some women in burkas but when they reveal the truth to both the viewer and Denzel's character it's a bit of a letdown.

Missing the sleek aesthetic of the original, this version seems to go in the opposite direction, visually. With it's over the top "footage" of news programs and political conventions that are so computerized, and I would assume purposefully fake, that it seemed trying to be satirical but instead just seemed out of place.

Meryl Streep is amazing and as scary as Angela Landsbury was in the first. She's like a blood thirsty Hillary Clinton here. And I'm glad they kept the oedipal angle but it was a bit overplayed here in one scene.

Overall a clunky film but it is hurt mostly by comparisons to the original. It draws some interesting parallels to things that are happening today like terrorism, politicians being owned by Halliburton-type companies. But it doesn't go far enough into the frightening realities of these ideas.

(B-)

Posted at August 2, 2004 4:26 PM

Nice write up ... I went B on this one.

Saw Collateral on Friday ... excellent but not quite as good as HEAT ... solid A-

Posted by: Mike at August 7, 2004 3:27 PM