A lot of re-re-boot news today. And, thank goodness someone is going to tackle this mess. For those of you too young to remember the first go round of this picture, the best I can give you is that it’s very “David Lynch” like. Not Lynch in an artistic sense, but more Lynchian in the sense that the ending wasn’t satisfying. At all.
One might even say the ending was terrible. No backwards talking little people or anything like that. Just bad.
Super fun ride right up to the end though, had me guessing the whole way. Apparently the original film makers were guessing the whole way too, because I actually believe they shot the whole thing hoping “something would come to them” before they had to schedule shoot time for the end sequence.
What is instantly remarkable on the redo, simply for its seemingly poor design, is that LD Entertainment (The Grey) has decided to entrust what I would imagine to be a very valuable piece of intellectual real estate to an otherwise largely unremarkable screenwriter in Jeff Buhler. I mean, the guy’s last title managed to gross $74,000 on a $15 million dollar budget.
He apparently wants to bring his particular brilliance to the film by “contemporizing” the story, which doesn’t seem too much of a creative stretch. He basically has to swap out the Vietnam war for Iraq or Afghanistan. I mean, come on, it’s not as if the original was made in the 50’s. Anyway, I just wish he wouldn’t mess around too much and just find a satisfying ending to an otherwise fun film.
All I know is, if I were a gambling man, and I am, I would bet that we’ll be seeing a new writer sooner rather than later. Who knows, maybe the kid will bring the goods? In the meantime you can call me “dubious”.
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LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 