Friday, October 17, 2008

The Omen


(2006) **

Here's all you need to know:  Liev Schrieber is not Gregory Peck, and Julia Stiles is too young.

This movie was eerily faithful to the original, with a few minor changes like oh, the mom is weirded out that Damien doesn't get sick.  Remember how in the first one, it was the dad who thought that was weird?

It seemed that director John Moore treated The Omen like a Shakespearean play and just changed enough to make it modern.  I know, it's a book, but still.  If you're going to do a remake, give it a little twist or something.

The one nuance this time around was the addition of Something Red! in every scene.  It was fun to look for it.  Look--a red balloon!  That means blood.  Arty.  Also there were many skulls.  The whole entrance to the graveyard with the baby skeleton is a big skull.  Check it out.  Looking for the skulls was a fun game.

The baby skeleton was much more disturbing in this film.  It sort of had a little suffering dead baby skeleton...uh, expression.  Quite pathetic.  This got me again.

2 comments:

JPX said...

You know how there are certain actors and actresses that you just don't like for no particular reason? I can't stand Julia Stiles. I can't put my finger on it. Perhaps it's because her head is a perfect circle, or maybe it's her husky voice, whatever it is I just can't stand seeing her onscreen. It's enough to keep me away from this film. Nice review though.

Octopunk said...

I really like Julia Stiles in theory, but she made no sense in this movie. She was 25 when they made this; even if she can act like a mom she just doesn't look like a mom.

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...