Movie Review: The Omen

There’s really no good reason for this film to exist, except for the rare and undeniably cool release date - 6 / 6 / 06 – a similar set of numbers won’t roll around again for a long, long time. What a great ad campaign!

The makers of the new ‘The Omen’ are assuming our memories are hazy and assuming we remember it all, at the same time! While the film makes attempts at freshness and contemporary relevance, it is awed by the original.Instead of surpassing it, the newcomer imitates and falls flat.It can’t decide whether it’s a remake or a re-tread. Liev Schreiber is no Gregory Peck. He doesn’t do ‘statesmanlike’ opting for a loose-limbed, casual ordinariness. He may be the American ambassador to The Court of St. James, but he’s insistent that he’s just folks.His choice doesn’t work for the film.The more elite the father of the devil child, the greater the fall, so we miss out on the delicious tension Peck provided. Schreiber hangs with a grizzled tabloid photo in a seedy hotel, and there is no tension. Why shouldn’t he be there?Lee Remick, the diplomat’s wife and the anti-Christ’s mother, has been replaced by Julia Stiles. Remick’s performance is fearless she shrieks at her husband to ‘get him out of here’ (the devil child) while Stiles does her best upset babysitter routine. Her face is oddly expressionless as she props up modern mothering methods, repeatedly asking Damien ‘Are you okay?’, ‘Is everything okay?’ instead of God forbid – disciplining the child. That’s one easy mark for the devil!Remick makes it crystal clear the brat’s driving her out of her mind. Stiles doesn’t get it, looking cross and pouting as the child tries to murder her.The writer has revamped certain portions of the script, but much of the original remains. New bits are inexplicably introduced, and we have to wonder why – are they better? Are they more relevant? Do they make more sense? It may work on paper in an executive producer’s office, but waffling is distracting in the reel world.In the original, the mother fell or jumped to her death from a hospital window where she’s being treated for a fall that Damien caused. In the remake, she dies from an air bubble injected into her hospital drip by Damien’s nanny who never saw the light of day back in 1976.But Damien’s nanny’s dramatic suicide is note for note with the original. So is the beheading of another character. The final sequence, too. And the devil dog’s the same, God bless him.That’s’ why the film doesn’t work. It’s at war with itself, wondering whether to be faithful to the old or to be new. If new, it’s not confident enough to be unique. The film opens well. Wildly gothic music plays; a shadowy council of religious figures examines a slide show of events they believe herald the End Days, 9/11, war, genocides, weather changes and what-have-you. It’s exciting and suggests deep things. It sets the stage. But from there the film wobbles and falls.The original ‘Omen’ was an elegantly chilling tale. The filmmakers weren’t afraid of menacing silences, or terrifyingly, agonizingly slow walks towards the devil child’s room. It takes its time and builds tension naturally.The new version relies on the easy out of CGI for its scares – the momentary vision of a devil in the mirror, the usual horror tricks we’ve witnessed in ‘Saw’, ‘The Ring’, ‘Se7en’… and so many others. Then there’s a distracting problem with the camerawork – the abuse of extreme close-ups. We wonder more about what the makeup artists did to create Schreiber’s look or how few pores Stiles has, rather than what they’re thinking or expressing. Even the scene in the cemetery, in which the hounds of hell attack two men, is shot in extreme close-up. They’ve made it impossible to actually see what’s going on. Who’s biting whom? Who just yelped?But here is a lasting contribution from ‘the Omen’ 2006 – it is the first case of a Hollywood film inspired by its own release date.Editor's Note: Our reviewer really rated this movie 6.66 but it did not compute with our computer. The devil must have made her do it!Opened World wide 6/6/06 MPAA rated R

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big bob harisJun 8th, 2006 - 13:01:43

this film was rubbish the original one was way better

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David NunezJun 8th, 2006 - 13:59:08

I just saw the Omen remake and I loved it it was awesome in my opinion and it was very much like the original 1976 movie which I saw when I was 15 years old. when I first heard Hollywood was remaking the Omen I thought Why the original is perfect so why remake it? Then I saw the remake and it was very very good. This remake is as good as Peter jacksons remake of King Kong which is awesome. Many movies have been remade some good some bad this remake of the Omen is a very very good remake and it is made for todays audence it has elements of what has gone on in the last few years as part of the story which I found intersting to watch. What this movie has that the original does not are great special effects and unexpected scenes that really shock you. I hope the entire Omen trilogy is remade because I really enjoyed watching this movie. On a scale from 1 to 10 I give this movie a 10. David Nunez Gojira11354

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