**½
I’m not sure I entirely see the point in the remaking of a film if all you are going to do is remake it. Just as the first one was, but with different actors. Perhaps if the original was diabolical and really warranted a more professional effort, then it might be excusable, but that cannot be said to be the case here. The ‘69 True Grit directed by Henry Hathaway and starring big John Wayne himself is an excellent picture, the only low-point perhaps being the irritating interpretation of Mattie Ross by Kim Darby (who? Exactly. She went on to star in star in Teen Wolf Too) who was far too annoying and deserved to be left in the snake pit. Hailee Steinfeld as the same character in the Coen Brother’s vision is superb, the fact that she is headstrong and exasperating is intentional – and she certainly is both. But why remake a perfectly good film? The Coen brothers are better than this. If they want to make a Western, then by all means, make a Western – but why not be ‘Coen Brothersy’ about it and reinvent the western genre or parody it or have some fun with it at least? The only significant differences between this and the original were that the Coens shot a few scenes at night and changed the location to one more befitting the source material. Oh and they stuck in a man who wears a bear hat. Wow, big difference. I just don’t see what all the awards hype is about - 10 Oscar noms, seriously?! - and am so thankful that it didn’t win anything. I am sure that much of its success is simply due to it having been made by the Coen Brothers. Had the exact same film been made by anybody else, it would not have had half the recognition, but “ooh, it is the Coens, it must be good’. Not so.
**½
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Wow. This is so startlingly bad that I cannot quite fathom it. It was just embarrassing to watch. For a moment, I even felt bad for the multi-millionaire actors caught up in this car wreck of a film. And then I remembered that they’re multi-millionaires and my pity disappeared about as quickly as one of the punch-lines. I caught it on TV and kept thinking that something funny would happen soon. I mean, surely, something funny had to happen. But I was just kept waiting until the credits. I’d expect this stupid base humour of someone generally talentless like David Spade or Rob Schneider, but I expect more from Adam Sandler – and what was Steve Buscemi doing in there?! It was cringe-worthy. There was no plot, just episodic moments of awkward and stupid behaviour. I’m just angry that $80 million dollars of money was spent making this. Aren’t we supposed to be in a huge recession right now? $80 million! For what? For awkwardness and hitting yourself in the head and hoping this isn’t really happening.
Perhaps more astounding is that it made $271 million worldwide. That makes it a hugely successful movie in financial terms (#28 for the 2010 Worldwide Grosses) and that shocks me. How?!? It’s one thing for a movie this bad to be made in the first place, but it’s another thing entirely for so many people to pay to go and see it. If you think I am being overly melodramatic, let’s just look at a couple of quotes from the film shall we: Roxanne: [an older woman approaches them] And this must be your mother. Rob: My wife. Roxanne: I’m sorry. Or how about this… Bean: [as milk is shooting out of Sally's breast] You're wasting it! [Sally's breast milk gets all over Deanne's face] Sally: I'm sorry. Deanne: [while tasting the breast milk] Actually, it's not that bad. And I rest my case. * |
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November 2012
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