| Author | Message | ||
     Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.184.198 |
As if watching THE EYE remake last night wasn't enough, I decided to sit down with another US version of a decent Asian horror film, Takashi Miike's CHAKUSHIN ARI (ONE MISSED CALL). I wasn't expecting much, but at the very least I thought this film might retain some of the sense of fun and creepiness of the original. Well, I was wrong about that! This is possibly the worst Hollywood remake of an Asian horror film yet, although the PULSE remake of a couple of years ago gives it a close run for its money. It contains no suspense whatsoever, and none of the sense of mounting desperation and weirdness that the original had. The only things on hand to relieve the tedium are the occasional cheap shocks - you know the kind: a friend jumping up behind people, accompanied by a crude jolt in the soundtrack, or a figure shooting past in the background - the kind of uninspired, thoroughly predictable stuff that gives contemporary Hollywood horror the bad name that it so richly deserves. The acting is uniformly awful (Ray Wise is completely wasted), the dialogue utterly inane. Compared to this, THE EYE remake actually seems pretty decent! I don't expect US filmmakers to start coming up with their own ideas while there's still cash to be made from sucking the blood out of superior foreign films, but the least they could do is make these films watchable, give them a modicum of suspense. The lack of energy and imagination on display here is mind-boggling. I hope that people who genuinely enjoy horror films will seek out the originals, and not rely on these dreary, lifeless imitations. I can't imagine quite how anyone could prefer any of these remakes to the source films. I think that, sadly, a lot of people are simply too lazy to be bothered with subtitles, and prefer their movies to be populated by familiar, cosy Western faces and locations. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.38 |
Didn't bother with this remake, but I quite enjoyed the original when I watched it a few weeks back. Bloody Hollywood! | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.237 |
Never mind that - I'm off to watch a brand spanking new print of THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY on the big screen in half an hour! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.38 |
Excellent! Two-and-a-half hours of people staring at each other! :-) 'tis a great film. I have it on DVD, but I've only once seen it on't big screen, and the print was only so-so as well. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.237 |
It was three hours because it was the extended version! I've never seen it & I thought it was superb, especially the end. It struck me that the Leone Westerns are like the Hammer films - ostensibly taking place in a real place and time in history but actually existing in their own universe where the confederacy were all bronzed Italians | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.38 |
Good news then; I wasn't aware of a longer cut... | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
2hrs 59 minutes to you. No idea what the extra bits are I'm afraid | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.38 |
Just looked at my DVD - 2hrs 36mins, so that's a fair bit more. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
More staring probably. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.192.138 |
Don't forget the squinting... Lord P - have you seen DUCK, YOU SUCKER? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
And the s......l.....o......w.......l.......y reaching for their guns. Sounds like a better film than Suck you duckers... or does it? |