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I've read a number of negative notices on this film, and yet I adore it. Recently I viewed the "unrated director's cut," and I love that version even more! The wonderful CGI reboot of the 1941 Universal logo, the Max von Sydow uncredited appearance, plus a number of other moments make this one a huge favorite of mine. Comments?
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I thought casting Geraldine Chaplin as the Gypsy/Roma woman was a fantastic choice. This movie strove to be a notch above by casting smaller roles with care. The results were mixed, yet I feel the movie is a success. A good sense of dread is built in the latter three quarters of the film. And no Hollywood studio would consciously make an original movie where the protagonist is essentially doomed anymore. It took a remake to make that acceptable.
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Great film, totally underrated. Loved just about everything about it. And my first Blu-ray! Which is how I saw it for the first time. Any Universal Horror fan should find something to enjoy. For me it was when he ran across the rooftops and howled at the moon! TOTAL ecstasy at this point. Even in a cinema I would have unashamedly cheered here. And quite possibly cried a little. In fact, I think I did at home. I absolutely loved this film. Like many others, The Lone Ranger for one, much maligned by simply one thing. NO promotion. Give a movie enough of this and it will do some business.
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Octoberman, Tall Guy, CinemaScope, Mr. Jack, Francis, BornOfAJackal, paulhickling, Mike_H, Thank you all so much for the wonderfully positive comments that you have shared here! I agree with EVERYTHING you have said, with the one exception that Benicio Del Toro's acting was wooden. I think he played Lawrence with the exact understatement necessary to compliment Anthony Hopkins' similarly low-key (nearly whispering!) performance. However, what I thought was truly hilarious in the director's cut is the sequence where we see Talbot playing "Hamlet" onstage. He's supposed to be a celebrated actor, and Del Toro performs TERRIBLY in this scene! He's playing Shakespeare with all the emotion of a cigar store Indian! This HAD to be a deliberate maneuver between the actor and the director! Having watched all of Joe Johnston's previous films, and having heard all of Danny Elfman's previous scores, I never could have predicted that either of these artists were capable of producing a movie that I would call a MASTERPIECE. I do not use that term very often.
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BA-DUMP-BUMP!
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Posted: |
May 26, 2015 - 2:45 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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Sorry to be the contrarian here (somewhat), but I thought this film failed in some of its aspirations -- i.e. the gothic landscape it tried to conjure felt a bit "CGI" and fake, and over-the-top performances weren't helping much. It really felt like Victorian era aesthetics on steroids, and that includes Elfman's sturm und drang score (although I'm positive that Paul Haslinger's replacement score would have been worse, had they kept it in). That being said, it's not without value, and I feel the outright dismissal is unfair. There are some values here. The photography, Anthony Hopkins and Elfman's score when he takes things down a notch and is more gypsye, less mad dissonance. I haven't seen it since it was in the theatres, so I'm willing to give it another chance regardless.
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To be fair the Universals, wonderful as they are, were pretty ambiguous regarding period and location for that matter. These things were as much all over the place as continuity between the films of the series. I do feel that out of all the remakes of classic Universal monster movies, this one had the best tone, and feel of the lot. And without going quite as far as the Van Helsing film, represented the old Universal atmosphere best. That scene where he runs along the rooftops is real highlight and has less to do with scary horror, than richly gothic fantasy fun.
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