The Smackdown! Thirty years later, they've re-made the granddaddy of the Son-of-the-Devil genre. It's not quite as shot-by-shot as the "Psycho" re-make was a few years back, but it's still the same movie with different actors.
The Challenger This latest version of "The Omen" was released on June 6 which, numerically, was 6/6/06 which was just so fortuitous a date that it probably got the project greenlit just for the fact we wouldn't have another chance to re-make the movie and use that publicity hook for another 100 years. It's a handsome film with excellent production design and people who have never seen any "The Omen" will enjoy the ride.
"Kid, as your director, I gotta tell ya, you're scaring the crap out of people over at craft services."
The Defending Champion Back in 1976, "The Omen" stood out, along with "The Exorcist", as a new genre that turned Catholic priests from pleasant guys like Bing Crosby to menacing and/or conflicted characters locked in a battle against eternal damnation. That transformation is so complete that it explains why our current "The DaVinci Code" seemed a little listless. I remember seeing this in 1976 and having a hard time sleeping that night. It was fresh and frightening, and took us places we'd never been before.
"I see a future where another Damien will rise to challenge me."
Scorecard Part of the reason to re-make a film is to bring something special to it that was either missed in the original or simply couldn't be done back then. But this latest re-make is so faithful to the original in so many ways, you are left with looking at the actors for the compelling reason to see this made. In that regard, subbing Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles for Gregory Peck and Lee Remick falls short. Schrieber's okay, but he looks like he might be in on the Devil's plot half the time and Stiles looks like such a light-weight presence when compared with Remick. Then there's the kid, Damien, our hell-spawn and again, the truth is, this latest actor, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, is a little shy of the original. In fact, when I saw the film before an almost full house on 06/06/06, there were about a dozen loud people who laughed heartily every time Seamus/Damien gave somebody the evil eye.
Decision This latest re-make is not a bad two-hour diversion and I liked it more than I thought I would. Still, it's not a bold revisioning and the win has to go to the ages. 1976's "The Omen" keeps the title.
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