Escape to the Movies: Carrie Pages 1 2 NEXT | |
I feel for you, Bob. I saw this movie last night and I nearly fell asleep. I'm surprised you, who said "Magneto was Right", were able to tear this film a new one. | |
Heh. "Someone tried to beat up Michael Bay with an air conditioner." Nobody deserved it more. | |
I knew, deep down, that this probably wasn't going to be very good, but I still had some semblance of hope, making this all the more disappointing. I guess I'll just be watching the original again for Halloween. | |
This screams of a potentially really good remake that was demolished by studio intervention. You've got far too much talent in the room to come away with mediocrity in every aspect because it seems like it was designed that way rather than reaching too far and falling flat. | |
OK... That's kind of weird. I mean, being mad at Michael Bay is fine, but trying to beat him up with an a/c of all things is kind of ... over the top. | |
Even if this film is a disappoint, NOTHING is as bad as Carrie 2: The Rage. NOTHINGGGGG! | |
You can just tell from the trailers how little effort they put into this. If it wasn't for the name nobody would care.
If only the guy had shouted "Autobots Roll out!" when he did it. | |
What made Sissy Spacek work so well is that she looked like an easy bully victim. She was a pretty girl, but her hair was drapped across her face, and the part of her face you could see was contorted in a state of constant fear and vigilance. Kinda like a ginger version of the Japanese spooky girl. She oozed weakness, which is a death sentence in high school. Along with the original Carrie the only movies that present you with believable bully victims are Welcome to the Dollhouse and Let the Right One In. | |
The assault had nothing to do with his movies being terrible: | |
Well honestly, who didn't see this coming? I saw the trailer for this last weekend when I went to see Machete Kills, and just by doing that I'd seen the whole movie. It's been a while since I read the book, but the trailer showed clips up to what I think must be the last 10 minutes of the movie. Completely pointless. | |
But how else are people gonna know the movie's awesome if they don't show all the awesome bits in the trailer? | |
Right away I thought the casting choice for Carrie was off. She's a very good young actress, but even in the previews you could see that she's just too darn good-looking to play a highschool reject convincingly. | |
Apparently, he not only failed, but was beaten up by Bay instead. Its like the "Uwe Boll fights the critics" stunt. | |
I'm torn on this. I don't like what Bay did to the Transformers, and don't care for him all that much, but to get beat up? It's not like he committed a real crime so I have a tough time mustering a "he deserved it" urge. I know so many people who really deserve it. And then, to find out Bay beat the guys up and so kind of comes off like the victor? I don't think he deserved that either. | |
Well that's a shame. I really enjoyed the original Carrie. It's a shame that this one apparently didn't capture what made the original so good.
There was a sequel?? Oh god... | |
I enjoyed the amount the Bob talked cinematography and tone in this review, it's nice to hear him talk about the more technical aspects of film-making. | |
It's as bad as you might think it is...but worse. Don't even watch it out of curiosity. This is your official warning... | |
Sissy Spacek wasn't a swamp witch either. Just look up some pictures from her early career, she's a fine looking lady. The problem here, as Bob mentioned, is the direction. And it has to be the direction, because Grace-Moretz was just in Kick-Ass 2 where she played for most of the movie a high school reject, and she did it really well. The devil's in the details like make-up, mannerisms and body language. | |
Wait, is this a Michael Bay horror remake ala Nightmare on Elm Street? Did he just hire this director to take the fall for his soulless movie? | |
I appreciate that Bob had the guts to say it: Sissy Spacek is a plain girl and Chloe is not. So, her outcast role doesn't fit. At best, they could go for the "She's All That" thing: have her undolled up, and then let her shine through.
But She is very plain. She CAN doll herself up. Even by the end of Carrie, she looks nice. But she is still a plain girl dolled up enough to look nice. EDIT: A girl can add so much to herself to make herself desirable, including attitude. I mean no disrespect to Ms. Spacek. But, they didn't even try to make Chloe plain. And it would have been hard work to try. She just doesn't fit here. | |
Damn, I feel bad for Bay, i've been to Hong Kong, the air conditioners they have on the building over there are freaking huge! | |
Thanks for reminding me that Carrie 2 exists Bob... | |
I think it is part of the "Got to play it safe' mentality going on at studios these days. It is so depressing. I know remakes go back to the silent era but generally you got a name change and a different take. Now you get either soul less gore fests or movies that start out good and then take a tail spin into the 'what were they thinking' bin in the middle of the secont act. | |
Tragic shame. | |
What?, there's actually a sequel of Carrie?... talk about unnecessary sequels... So yeah, I'll give this a pass and instead re-watch the original, it's been a long while since the last time I saw it. | |
It's really too bad they couldn't tap all the potential in this film because bullying has changed and become such a social hot topic that an update to Carrie seemed like a sure win. With things like the cyber bully it seems like so much new territory to mine that the original didn't have for being made in the era when bullying was just seen as part of growing up instead of a serious problem. As to Bay well if crappy movies like Pearl Harbor and Revenge of the Fallen can't stop him from being a plague upon the cinematic arts then an angry Chinese man with an air conditioner didn't have a chance at stopping him from making a horrible Transformers 4. | |
I had a hunch this would tank. It's a remake AND a horror movie; double whammy. You know what's weird? On the poster, Julianne Moore looks like Jodie Foster. What gives? Now about Chloe Grace-Moretz: she's how old and she's been an how many movies involving violence and gore? Depending on what kind of upbringing she had, we could be looking at the making of a human trainwreck of Lohanesque proportions. | |
Now I feel like the odd man in the room because I actually enjoyed this remake. I watched the original a few days ago and just came home from the newer version. Color me simple, but I enjoyed a lot of the ways they reworked classic lines and scenes in this version. I also never once felt sympathy for Carrie's mother. Obviously she was mentally ill, but all her self-mutilation kept me reminded of just how dangerously insane she was. If anything, it made me wonder why no one ever called child services to investigate her house/have Carrie taken away. They clearly brought SOME legal action against her by forcing her to stop homeschooling her child, so why didn't anyone think to dig a little deeper there? Anyway. I had fun. | |
Complaining about Chloe Grace Moretz being too pretty reminds me of Rex Reed complaining that Melissa McCartney is too fat. What the actress looks like shouldn't effect the movie unless that is what the plot is about. The reason Carrie is being bullied is because of her religious beliefs. It's been awhile since I read the book. I have never seen the original movie. So, this movie might be a good place to start. | |
Now can we PLEASE get a Dark Tower adaptation? Of something? | |
She totally does. And it's not even just a vague resemblance, she looks exactly like Jody Foster. On topic- Bob just confirmed what I had predicted for this movie. There was no way that a reboot was going to live up to such a good movie. | |
Any hardcore Steven King fans out there who have seen this? I haven't seen the movie yet (and don't know if I will) but I notice on the Wikipedia entry that the stated intent was for the movie to be made more accurate to King's books. Bob on the other hand is saying it's pretty much identical to the De Palma version but not as good. This makes me wonder if perhaps it includes a lot more subtle allusions to the central multiversal mythology, "The Dark Tower" series, etc. Making the mother more sympathetic, or trying to, occurs to me as potentially being a part of this due to the role Gan (or God) plays in the overall body of work. Not to mention the argument that can be sort of made giving his MO that since a lot of the harassment has a religious base that the way things go down might themselves be a form of divine retaliation (Gan is pretty much good, but operates under some strict limits apparently, and has one heck of an old testament temper). I'm wondering because if there is, it might be a sign that someone is considering doing "The Dark Tower" in some video format, and might want people to be able to look back at a lot of the movies and such and go "aha!" when they notice things. Sort of like how if your familiar with "The Dark Tower" you can make an educated guess about the car and events surrounding it in "Tales From a Buick 8", and similar things. Also as odd as it is in Steven King's cosmology he and the real world where he's a writer and all of this are just stories are part of it (and necessary to guide Roland and hold the universal cycle together). Him casting himself in a much better defined role similar to what M. Night tried with "Lady Of The Water" (especially seeing as King is a far better creator). Something which also arguably justifies his minor "Hitchcock"-like appearances in movies and TV shows based on his own work.... I have to wonder, does he show up in the "Carrie" remake as a janitor or something? :) | |
Isn't it usually the "wholesome" young actresses/singers who go off at the deep end when they get older? See for example Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and indeed Lindsay Lohan (who originally appeared in family films like The Parent Trap and Herbie). On the movie: from the clips shown here, Moretz looks angry rather than downtrodden in most of the pre-prom scenes, as far as I can see. | |
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Carrie
MovieBob dodges a bucket of blood to bring you this week's review of the Carrie remake.
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