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"Do I Really Look
Like Rosemary's Baby?" |
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Directed by John Moore -
Written by David Seltzer
Starring Liev Schreiber,
Julia Stiles, Pete
Postlethwaite, Seamus
Davey-Patrick
Distributed by 20th
Century Fox - 2006 -
104mins - Rated R |
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Jacob Hall's
Review
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C |
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His day will come! |
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The
best thing about “The Omen” is it’s release date. Seriously, the
decision to release a film about the son of the devil on June 6th,
2006 is a stroke of marketing genius (that date may also be the only
reason this movie exists in the first place). Other than the novelty
of it’s release, “The Omen” has very little to offer…all it does is
retell the basic elements from the 1976 original while attempting to
be stylish.
The reason the first “Omen” film is still watched today can be
attributed to two reasons: star Gregory Peck and Jerry Goldsmith’s
Oscar winning musical score. Peck, one of the finest actors of all
time, brought a sense of reality to a premise that we have seen
countless times in horror films and Goldsmith’s score was scary as
hell.
The remake lacks both of these elements, leaving behind a story that
anyone who has watched a few horror movies knows all about. Liev
Schreiber takes over the Peck role, and while he’s a fine actor, he
brings nothing to make the film better. And the score? Hell, I didn’t
even notice it.
For those who haven’t watched a few horror movies, the story revolves
around Robert Thorne (Schreiber), the American ambassador to Great
Britain, whose son died at birth and was replaced by an orphaned baby
that was born the same night. Unfortunately, young Damien is actually
the son of Satan and wants his adoptive mother (Julia Stiles) dead.
I believe I have made it obvious before that I am not fond of child
actors…kids just don’t seem to have the life experience or training to
adequately perform a role. Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien is
further evidence that all children should somehow be written out of
scripts. He has few lines, but somehow manages to bomb them all. The
rest of his silent role is spent looking like a kid who has been given
a full frontal lobotomy: staring into space and just looking like an
idiot.
Overall, this is a tremendously mediocre film. The only thing it has
going for it is a rather neat decapitation. It’s trite, boring and if
you know any thing about horror movies (or the original) predictable.
Director John Moore never lets imagery or suspense provide
scares…instead he resorts to the modern tactic of having something
enter frame really quickly and send an extremely loud screech out from
the soundtrack.
This is not scary. This is surprising. Did it make me jump a few
times? Yes, but only because my senses were temporarily overwhelmed by
a loud noise, not because I was frightened.
Rent the original. I have nothing against remakes, but I have a lot
against shoddy, half-assed remakes.
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© Written by Jacob Hall -
Email
Me! |
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How We Rated This Film
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TC Candler -
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| Richard Propes
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Jacob Hall
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C |
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TC Candler's Comment
n/a
Richard Propes' Comment
n/a
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