Yeah, it’s Ray Harryhausen with a baseball bat who’s behind you. Um… Duck, You Sucker! Too late… Bonk! That said, I’d imagine Ray would have liked to go after the folks who animated the original, as they certainly mucked it up with some lousy-looking models and super cheesy “magic” effects work that were terrible back than and haven’t held up well at all today. I’d say the best thing here will be Bryan Singer’s direction, as he’s quite good at doing comic book flicks and yeah, yeah, The Usual Suspects is one of those films that keeps you hooked in right from the start.
OK, OK, I’m trying hard to give this one a chance and yes, as I noted a while back, it’s definitely better looking that the awful 1962 original that tried to fool viewers with some piss-poor stop motion ( as in: Hey, we can’t get Harryhausen, but those stoopid kids won’t EVEN know! Well, I sure did…) and wooden acting. Well, this certainly will beat that old flick to a pulp on a few fronts, but will it be remembered as much as the original is… or will it vanish into the bargain bin and into cable recycle mode like the remake of Clash of the Titans and its sequel, Wrath of the Titans. I finally saw that this past weekend and was not impressed despite some pretty wild effects work. These “epics” NEED to feel epic, not like almost two hours of loud, big and forgettable. Well, let’s hope Jack is actually something that works on the right parts of the brains of those who go see it. Me, I’ll hold out for the cable premiere…
Whee! Another repost (but with some additions) – hey, I’m busy, so if you read this on the old blog already, sorry ’bout that! To those who haven’t yet – enjoy!
Hey, I’m old enough to remember seeing the original 1962 flick on TV a few times during the late 60’s and early 70’s, but even then, I thought it was pretty cheesy when it came to the special effects. That was thanks to seeing almost all of Ray Harryhausen’s best work by that time in much better films and noting my my smart little head right away that the “special” effects in Jack weren’t up to snuff. Hell, Alexander Korda’s classic1940 film The Thief of Bag(h)dad beats the original Jack by a few miles in terms of sheer visual punch. Anyway, some who view this trailer are crying “sacrilege!” or claiming Warner Bros has RUINED their childhood memories, but I say this new coat of CG paint might at least be a better film in terms of looks. OK, and acting as well, as I never could stand Kerwin Matthews as a lead. There was something about him was so wooden that the effects in the fantasy films he was in were more compelling (well, except for the ones in the original JtGK). We’ll see about the story and all that in a bit, I suppose…
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