Jun 08, 2014
It's hard to deny the fact that this film has a certain charm about it. Perhaps it lays it on too thickly at times, but the fact that it is charming, at times, is undeniable. It's also hard to deny Vince Vaughn's inherent likability in this role, even if you wish that he'd do something different than the usual 'lovable loser' type role. The problem is that, sadly, this film is almost shot for shot exactly the same as the film that inspired it. It's not like the Oldboy remake, where the main plot pots were exactly the same, but the way the film was shot was different, this one is almost, literally, exactly the same. The only thing that's any different is that this David Wozniak is obsessed with basketball, whereas in the original Wozniak was obsessed with soccer. That's pretty much it. It doesn't really affect much of the actual plot however. It got to the point where, if I'm not mistaken, they used some of the same actors from the original in the remake. Or perhaps they were just made up to look exactly the same. I think that's why the film got the rating that it did. Yes, it has that same spirit and charm...but it's only a replication of it. An exact replica of a film that I've already seen, and enjoyed more. It's kinda hard to get pumped up about seeing an exact remake of a film you've already seen. I'm sure the original isn't THAT hard to find. I'm sure there's also a very poor English-dub version of the original film if you can't stand to read subtitles. The first film wasn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, I thought it was fun, but it's like you didn't even try to improve, or modify, aspects of the film. You just took the original script, translated it to English and then went out and filmed it. That's all it is. And you know the funny thing is, that I STILL liked this film. Even with all its faults, I still found myself enjoying the film. I wouldn't say it was good, because of the reasons I just mentioned, but I was having a good time. Even if it is a replica, it's a pretty decent one at that. I can imagine if I hadn't seen the original, that I'd have given this film a better rating, it'd all been new and fresh to me. The fact that I saw it before, done exactly the same way, and better, then that definitely took a lot away from it. This is practically interchangeable, as far as plot goes, from the original, but I'd still go ahead and watch that one over this one any day of the week. It's not a bad movie, it's just content to go down the same path as the original rather than trying to make something different from what has already been done. It's a slippery slope though, people are never satisfied. Be too faithful to the film and people complain you're just repeating it...stray too far from the original and people complain it doesn't have the same spirit as the original. I think there's a middle ground that can, and HAS been reached by the likes of Let Me In, where you can be faithful to the original, while also adding enough that is different to make it a refreshing experience for those in the audience who happened to watch the original film. This doesn't do that. So if the original film is your favorite movie ever, then I can't really see this movie doing much for you. This would be better appreciated by those who haven't seen the film that it is based on. Nothing you need to go out of your way to see but, much like Pompeii, something that won't require much brainpower and will provide some painless hours of 'entertainment'.
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