We all can take our own insights from a film like that. I'm well aware that Donner wanted to do it in a way that would have suggested Peck was nuts. I'm also aware though that the person who originally thought up the idea for the movie, was doing it from a religious oriented perspective. So for me, having had to see a lot of badly produced movies by the Christian film companies growing up and reading novels with them, I was just impressed by the fact that secular Hollywood could take the same story premise and come up with something that I think is a more chillingly effective representation of how that kind of scenario would probably play out if it happened under those kinds of circumstances.
As to whether I choose to take something more from a film like that beyond "thrills", I think I'll be the judge of whether or not I'm "wasting my time" or not coming away with a deeper insight dealing with a matter that is of meaning to me.
the omen 666
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AndyDursin
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I find THE OMEN very intriguing on a number of levels but the original was a movie that COULD HAVE BEEN IMPROVED UPON. It was stylishly made by Donner, scored by Goldsmith, etc., but the story is very simplistic and could have been further developed for a remake.
Let's face it -- everything about this remake screamed fast and cheap, rushed into production to meet the hallowed 6/6/06 date with B-list actors and a director whose credits have been, let's say, anything but impressive.
That they opted to do a shot-for-shot remake of a film that's a genre favorite, maybe, but no classic...I'm just not surprised by the reaction this has been getting, and I'm certainly not going to waste my $10 on seeing it, not when the DVD will be out in a matter of weeks! (and if I want to see the story, I'll just re-watch the original).
Let's face it -- everything about this remake screamed fast and cheap, rushed into production to meet the hallowed 6/6/06 date with B-list actors and a director whose credits have been, let's say, anything but impressive.
That they opted to do a shot-for-shot remake of a film that's a genre favorite, maybe, but no classic...I'm just not surprised by the reaction this has been getting, and I'm certainly not going to waste my $10 on seeing it, not when the DVD will be out in a matter of weeks! (and if I want to see the story, I'll just re-watch the original).
yeah, that's what I said and think... if you know the original there is no need to watch this one... if you don't know the original you may enjoy it...
at least they set up a possible sequel that definitely will be better than DAMIEN or FINAL CONFLICT... whether that will happen we'll see... with 25 million budget it's hard not to make any profit.
at least they set up a possible sequel that definitely will be better than DAMIEN or FINAL CONFLICT... whether that will happen we'll see... with 25 million budget it's hard not to make any profit.
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AndyDursin
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AndyDursin
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I have the pilot on tape as NBC aired it once.
It's pretty much an X-FILES lite...had nothing to do with THE OMEN movies, just used the name, and starred William Sadler as the head (if I'm not correct) of a team investigating a group of weird supernatural occurrences.
Beyond that I don't recall much of anything about it, and I even sat through the entire thing!
And yes I will pass along some pics! We're both going on diets when this is over, too much eating out over the last couple of weeks!!!!!!
It's pretty much an X-FILES lite...had nothing to do with THE OMEN movies, just used the name, and starred William Sadler as the head (if I'm not correct) of a team investigating a group of weird supernatural occurrences.
Beyond that I don't recall much of anything about it, and I even sat through the entire thing!
And yes I will pass along some pics! We're both going on diets when this is over, too much eating out over the last couple of weeks!!!!!!
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Monterey Jack
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Well, I found the remake to be moderately enjoyable, although so close to the original as the be slightly ridiculous. The supporting cast is great (although Mia Farrow is underused), and it's visually handsome enough. Schrieber and Stiles are miscast, though. Stiles may be 25, but she looks like a 15-year-old playing dress-up in mommy's clothes, and Schrieber is disappointingly stiff, never once generating the gravitas and anguish that Peck brought to the original film. For some reason, I kept thinking what Harrison Ford mgiht have brought to the role. Despite Ford's recent string of turkeys, he's an icon to an older generation, and it might've been interesting to see him "classing up" the remake like Peck did for the first film. Beltrami's score is okay. Aside from a few, very subtle quotes of the "sanwis mimmivuus" choral text, there's virtually no hints of Goldsmith's themes from the original until the lovely suite over the end credits, but it's effective enough (I'll have to listen to the CD a couple of times).
the 3 note motif appears a couple times.. maybe it got buried in the mix, but it was used in the tender moments, so it should be audible during the movie.
havent seen it yet with the final cut and mix, will watch it Tuesday I think...
spoiler:
what did you think of the beheading variation? I found it disappointing that it happens at the exact same moment and the chain reaction wasn't really strong, the final effect however amazing... especially how the body falls down the stairs
havent seen it yet with the final cut and mix, will watch it Tuesday I think...
spoiler:
what did you think of the beheading variation? I found it disappointing that it happens at the exact same moment and the chain reaction wasn't really strong, the final effect however amazing... especially how the body falls down the stairs
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Monterey Jack
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While it was certainly less plausible than the "sheet of glass" verison in the original (I can't imagine that the edge of that sign would be sharp enough to so cleanly lop off somebody's head like that), I found it gruesomely amusing (and at least it was different from the original, unlike so many other scenes). I also quite enjoyed the alternate version of Kathy Thorn's demise, which was actually rather chilling (and more plausible than the original...of all the ways to kill off that character, Mrs. Bayock decides to throw her out the window?).romanD wrote:spoiler:
what did you think of the beheading variation? I found it disappointing that it happens at the exact same moment and the chain reaction wasn't really strong, the final effect however amazing... especially how the body falls down the stairs
finally I watched it at the theaters... there were a couple minor changes to the cut I saw in London.
First: They took out Damien's self-awareness to a certain degree. Like when Stiles falls down they cut out how he watches her, winks and says BYE BYE. They tried a couple musical effects for her falling down, but left them out.
The Spear Scene has no music. They recorded a couple cues, one of them you can hear at marco's website and is not included on the Varese Album.
The trip to the Monastery was shorter now, left off some dialogue.
The music before the beheading was different and had a pretty obvious music cut I thought. I think they uesed some piece which was for another scene.
The main titles were now more elaborate.
The final scenes with the pope had no sound and no subtitles. Originally you could hear what they say in in Italian and the subtitles said: The boy is safe, we can't get to him. Let the battle commence!
I guess they took it out, because it already told you the boy is alive, but on the other hand it would have set up the FINAL CONFLICT storyline...
overall, now wiht everything finsihed and done I have to say I like the movie probably as much as the original. Ok, it wasn't the greatest movie to begin with, but overall both have their strengths and weaknesses, so in the end it maybe only depends on whether you like the actors and such.
First: They took out Damien's self-awareness to a certain degree. Like when Stiles falls down they cut out how he watches her, winks and says BYE BYE. They tried a couple musical effects for her falling down, but left them out.
The Spear Scene has no music. They recorded a couple cues, one of them you can hear at marco's website and is not included on the Varese Album.
The trip to the Monastery was shorter now, left off some dialogue.
The music before the beheading was different and had a pretty obvious music cut I thought. I think they uesed some piece which was for another scene.
The main titles were now more elaborate.
The final scenes with the pope had no sound and no subtitles. Originally you could hear what they say in in Italian and the subtitles said: The boy is safe, we can't get to him. Let the battle commence!
I guess they took it out, because it already told you the boy is alive, but on the other hand it would have set up the FINAL CONFLICT storyline...
overall, now wiht everything finsihed and done I have to say I like the movie probably as much as the original. Ok, it wasn't the greatest movie to begin with, but overall both have their strengths and weaknesses, so in the end it maybe only depends on whether you like the actors and such.
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AndyDursin
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I'm late to the game but we finally had a chance to get out this afternoon.
It was better than I thought it would be, but in the end also just as pointless as I initially thought.
The good -- Liev Schrieber was intense and believable. I liked Postelthwaite, Thewlis, and what little of Gambon there was. A few decent shocks like the dream sequences, and I liked the graveyard scene. Moore brought a few good touches visually and thankfully left behind the motion-iducing sickness that he has to a lot of his past work in the editing.
The bad -- Julia Stiles was completely unbelievable. I felt no connection between her and the kid whatsoever. Speaking of which, the kid wasn't spooky at all (and there wasn't nearly enough of Damien to register), and most of the death sequences had a prefunctory feel to them, with too much music making you all too aware what was going to happen. I HATED the addition of the death of the U.S. official at the beginning, which really felt like upping the body count for no good reason at all. Lame.
The change in the Robert Thorn character, making him more "receptive" to the horrors that are going on and being more in-tune with Stiles' doubts about Damien, also made his late rejection of the daggers utterly absurd (this wasn't like the original where Peck really had no suspicion his kid was the anti-christ until the very end). Dramatically a big mistake because in this version he basically was convinced Damien was the devil by then.
The music -- what a frustrating experience. Beltrami flirts with the Goldsmith motif here and there but never uses it...still trying to figure out the point of that, when nothing he wrote in that score is nearly as memorable, thematic, creepy or musical as Goldsmith's. I mean, it's an OK score, but what's the point of referring to it? The movie NEEDED it, badly, and instead we got a serviceable but unmemorable score. The cue that ends the film sums up the difference between a classic score and a pretender, no doubt in my mind. Blah.
Anyone else notice all of Damien's "one liners" they showed in the trailer WEREN'T in the film? (like when he says "bye bye" to Julia Stiles while she's hanging on the ledge).
In all it was definitely watchable and mildly entertaining, but in the end didn't approximate the slickness of Donner's version visually. I thought this film had a "cheap" look (no scope cinematography, either) with clausotrphobic sets and many scenes near the beginning had a "cut and paste" feel, with no flow at all.
Thus, between the inferior look and the lack of Goldsmith's score, I'd still pick the original. It's no WHEN A STRANGER CALLS '06 but I can only give it a very mild recommendation.
It was better than I thought it would be, but in the end also just as pointless as I initially thought.
The good -- Liev Schrieber was intense and believable. I liked Postelthwaite, Thewlis, and what little of Gambon there was. A few decent shocks like the dream sequences, and I liked the graveyard scene. Moore brought a few good touches visually and thankfully left behind the motion-iducing sickness that he has to a lot of his past work in the editing.
The bad -- Julia Stiles was completely unbelievable. I felt no connection between her and the kid whatsoever. Speaking of which, the kid wasn't spooky at all (and there wasn't nearly enough of Damien to register), and most of the death sequences had a prefunctory feel to them, with too much music making you all too aware what was going to happen. I HATED the addition of the death of the U.S. official at the beginning, which really felt like upping the body count for no good reason at all. Lame.
The change in the Robert Thorn character, making him more "receptive" to the horrors that are going on and being more in-tune with Stiles' doubts about Damien, also made his late rejection of the daggers utterly absurd (this wasn't like the original where Peck really had no suspicion his kid was the anti-christ until the very end). Dramatically a big mistake because in this version he basically was convinced Damien was the devil by then.
The music -- what a frustrating experience. Beltrami flirts with the Goldsmith motif here and there but never uses it...still trying to figure out the point of that, when nothing he wrote in that score is nearly as memorable, thematic, creepy or musical as Goldsmith's. I mean, it's an OK score, but what's the point of referring to it? The movie NEEDED it, badly, and instead we got a serviceable but unmemorable score. The cue that ends the film sums up the difference between a classic score and a pretender, no doubt in my mind. Blah.
Anyone else notice all of Damien's "one liners" they showed in the trailer WEREN'T in the film? (like when he says "bye bye" to Julia Stiles while she's hanging on the ledge).
In all it was definitely watchable and mildly entertaining, but in the end didn't approximate the slickness of Donner's version visually. I thought this film had a "cheap" look (no scope cinematography, either) with clausotrphobic sets and many scenes near the beginning had a "cut and paste" feel, with no flow at all.
Thus, between the inferior look and the lack of Goldsmith's score, I'd still pick the original. It's no WHEN A STRANGER CALLS '06 but I can only give it a very mild recommendation.
well, I think too, they could have easily done a PSYCHO-thing with the score. That's absolutely not Beltrami's fault, as the studio just didn't want anything from Goldsmith in there. For whatever reason... when you stay already so closely to the original, why not recycle the score, especially when it is so good.
Anyhow... I liked the cemetery set. Did you notice that the entrance looked like a buried skull? that was pretty subtle, yet very spooky looking...
oh and in the showdown you can see pretty clearly czech streetsigns and names on the walls... but well, Prague doesn't look like London anyway... I wasn't thinking once that it was set in London (except the one scene which they shot in front of the London EYE).
Well, it's cheaper to shot there... but at least I would take care of the Czech Signs...
Anyhow... I liked the cemetery set. Did you notice that the entrance looked like a buried skull? that was pretty subtle, yet very spooky looking...
oh and in the showdown you can see pretty clearly czech streetsigns and names on the walls... but well, Prague doesn't look like London anyway... I wasn't thinking once that it was set in London (except the one scene which they shot in front of the London EYE).
Well, it's cheaper to shot there... but at least I would take care of the Czech Signs...
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Monterey Jack
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Hey, at least that was an actual new scene, which this film desperately needed more of. That's why I enjoyed the new version of Kathy Thorn's demise so much. Not only was it different from the original, it was also rather creepy, and made more logical sense (tossing her out the window in the Donner film might have made for a a great, visceral shock, but how on earth was Mrs. Baylock going to explain that?!).AndyDursin wrote:I HATED the addition of the death of the U.S. official at the beginning, which really felt like upping the body count for no good reason at all. Lame.
I think that those "one liners" were only shot with the intention of including them in the trailers and TV spots. I was rather pleased that they were taken out of the film proper.Anyone else notice all of Damien's "one liners" they showed in the trailer WEREN'T in the film? (like when he says "bye bye" to Julia Stiles while she's hanging on the ledge).
As for Omen '06, if it had tried to tell a similar story but with all-new death sequences and a slightly re-jiggered narrative, I probably would have enjoyed it more, but by sticking so ridiculously close to Donner's original, it ended up playing like a forgettable "cover version".
It's certainly far from the worst of the recent glut of 70's horror remakes (The Amityville Horror, The Fog, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), but it's also very disposable.