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| Sony (Australia). Region 2, 4 & 5 PAL. 2.35:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 5.1, Czech DD 5.1, Hungarian DD 5.1, Polish DD 5.1. English, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Hindi, Icelandic, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, English, (FHI) Subtitles. 99 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Rupert Wainwright
Starring: Tom Welling,
Maggie Grace, Selma Blair, DeRay Davis
Screenplay: Cooper Layne
Country: USA |
Remakes, remakes, remakes…you better
get used to them, folks, because they are here
to stay. The remake has always been something
that Hollywood has used as a tool to get people
into a movie. Give the people a name that is familiar,
and they will see it just because somewhere in
their mind they have heard something about it.
Not only that, but fans of the original use their
internal critic to compare it to the original,
and then get to use the phrase 'It's
not as good as the first one.' Sometimes
remakes work really well, John Carpenter's The Thing and Croenenberg's The Fly are great examples of
that. Occasionally remakes almost get it right,
like the remakes of Dawn of the Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre…and
then there are those that just don't work.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to
the remake of John Carpenter's The
Fog.
This is the story about Nick Castle (Tom Welling)
who has a charter boat service on the waters of
Antonio Island, Oregon, which is about to celebrate
it centenary. Nick, like others from the town,
including prodigal daughter and girlfriend of
Nick, Elizabeth Williams (Maggie Grace) and her
mother Kathy (Sara Botsford), local radio personality
and Tom's occasional piece on the side Stevie
Wayne (Selma Blair) and her son, Andy (Cole Heppell),
and local priest Father Malone (Adrian Hough),
are all related to the town's four founding
fathers, on which the celebration for the centenary
is to be held around, including the presentation
of a statue of the four to the town itself. Nick
is not too impressed with his grand heritage,
and believes the money being spent on the celebration
could be better spent on the town itself. When
Nick's friend, Spooner (DeRay Davis) doesn't
come back from a night out partying on the sea
in his boat, Nick goes searching for him, only
to find him hiding in the freezer of the boat,
with three corpses on board, and declaring they
were killed by something in the fog… the
same fog that has started to roll in off the sea
and into the town…a fog that contains something
that wants revenge.
It is hard to argue for the benefits of 'the
remake' when films like this exist. The
original worked so well due to the build up of
tension. This films biggest problem is there is
NO tension, and the characters are so wishy washy
that you really couldn't give a damn WHAT
happens to them anyway. Tension works best in
a film when there is some emotional involvement
from the viewer to the character, and you care
about what happens to them, this is not the case
here. The direction of this film is passable,
but the performances extracted from the cast are
below average. There are some classic examples
of miscasting (Selma Blair as the mother of a
ten year old just doesn't quite work, and
let's face it, doesn't quite hold
up to the sultry Adrienne Barbeau, who played
the same role in the original). The script must
have read like a Little Golden Book as the viewer
is treated like an idiot and led hand in hand
through the story and everything is explained
very carefully, and this is all notwithstanding
the most ridiculous case of purposeless obstruction
of justice ever seen in the history of cinema.
There is a re-incarnation plot device that is
obvious very early, and is executed so badly it
is almost laughable, and makes no sense. I understand
that most of these remakes use slightly different
plot devices to differentiate the original from
the sequel, but this one was just plain out stupid.
Now I am no detractor of remakes, I actually
really liked the remakes of Dawn of the
Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
but I am disappointed to see that John Carpenter,
a man who's career is defined by probably
the best remake ever in The Thing,
would have allowed his original story to be fed
to a modern audience in this insulting manner. |
| Video |
| The quality is quite crisp, but I found the digital
fog let the overall image down. The image of the
fog on occasion was really flat, and seemed to lack
depth. As usual though, these big studio releases
have images that are impeccable. |
| Audio |
| Again, a big studio release that has a spectacular
5.1 soundtrack…it is a shame that its ability
to use sound to create a feeling of unease was not
used in the slightest. |
| Extra Features |
The commentary is done by director Rupert Wainwright,
and while not spectacular, it still is pretty
informative. He discusses the tools of making
a film, some of the performances within, and recounts
some amusing anecdotes.
There are 7 deleted scenes (13 minutes 10 seconds
in total) that can be watched with or without
a commentary by Wainwright, they are: Sean and
Lucas see Machen, Andy Tucked Into Bed, Elizabeth
and Mom, Lantern Flies and Dan's Death,
The Fog Disables the Power Station, Entire Flashback
and Fireball Through Town Hall. To be quite honest
this film could have done with a few more cuts,
about 99 minutes of them! There are pedestrian
scenes that really don't effect the run
of the film at all, and Wainright gives a rundown
of each clip, and tells why they were cut
There are 3 featurettes on this disc: Whiteout
Conditions: The Remaking of a Horror Classic (8
minutes 24 seconds) which is an introduction to The Fog and has interviews with
Producers John Carpenter and David Foster, writer
Cooper Layne and director Rupert Wainwright, Seeing
Through the Fog (10 minutes 7 seconds) which discusses
the origins of the original and the choices made
with the remake and remakes in general and features
interviews with Carpenter, Wainwright, Foster,
Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair and DeRay
Davis and Feeling the Effects of the Fog (14 minutes
29 seconds) again interviews Carpenter, Wainwright,
Foster and also adds SFX guy Bob Comer, Prosthetic
Effects expert Toby Lindala, Visual Effects Supervisor
Chris Watts and Visual Effects Designers Greg
and Colin Strause to the mix. These are your usual
makings of, with the last one being the most interesting
if you have an interest in Special Effects.
This disc has trailer for The Da Vinci
Code, Rent, The
Net 2.0, The Exorcism of Emily
Rose and Into the Blue. |
| The Verdict |
This is a cookie cutter film. The makers have
obviously looked at the checklist for modern horror
and ticked everything off. Bankable title –
check. TV stars in lead roles – check. Crazy
old hobo who speaks prophetically – check.
Excessive use of CGI where a smoke machine and
funky lights previously worked – check.
A faux ironic ending – check.
A soul-less, unnecessary, disappointing remake
which makes me so mad that I don't think
I even want to watch the original ever again. |
| The Rating |
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| User Comments (2) |
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