MovieChat Forums > The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again (2016) Discussion > My thoughts on the remake

My thoughts on the remake

posted 8 years ago by smcarter1966
2 replies | jump to latest

When a movie's been a part of your life for over 30 years and it holds a certain place in your heart, like Rocky Horror has, you tend to be defensive of it. When I first heard of the remake, I was wary. So is it a equal to the original or was my fear confirmed.

First off, the concept is this version of Rocky Horror is that we are part of the audience at The Castle theater. We are guided into the theater by The Usherette as she sings "Science Fiction Double Feature". The performance of the song by Ivy Levan was fantastic. The theater setting allows for the occasional cuts to the audience doing participation things so that those cuts don't appear out of the ordinary.

But the theater setting leads to something that comes across as less than being meta. After Brad and Janet get their flat tire, they go to "The castle they passed back down the road a few miles". Well, the castle they go to is The Castle theater, which is run down. So basicly, we are in the theater watching the film which takes place in the theater. Ehhhh???

And the dialogue most of the time is said at a rapid pace with no pause between sentences, which makes it feel unnatural. The cuts during the scenes also made the action seem unnatural also. I don't know if this was done to fit the entire show in the movie's 88 minutes in order to fit a two hour broadcast timeslot that also has commercials, but it feels that the whole thing is on speed, but they did fit all the dialogue from the original movie (except for a couple of things, see below), along with all the songs (including "Planet, Schmanet, Janet" with the phrase "A mental mind *beep* changed to "A mental mind game"), which makes the whole thing disorientating if you are accustomed to the pace of the original.

The performances were, for the most part, o.k. The only ones that I liked were Annaleigh Ashford, who played Columbia, and Adam Lambert who played Eddie. Laverne Cox, who played Frank-N-Furter, was very lackluster. Props to FOX for casting a transgender actress to play Frank, but her performance wasn't dynamic enough, which is a bad thing when it comes to Frank-N-Furter, who is supposed to stand out, but Laverne Cox wasn't able to do this, I'm sorry to say.

But the big news for fans of the original film was the appearance of Tim Curry, in his first on camera role in four years (he is basicly semi-retired due to a stroke he suffered in 2012, he is mostly doing voice roles these days) as the Criminologist. His performance gave me mixed feelings as the criminologist had an assistant (Jayne Eastwood, credited as "Butler") who did what he couldn't do, like turn the pages of The Denton Affair casebook and dance on the desk during the Time Warp. But they also cut about half of his scenes in the film, which I felt they shouldn't have done, because it's Freaking Tim Curry we're dealing with here. It was great to see Tim Curry, but was sad to see him basicly restricted to a chair and talking and not being able to do anything else.

The standout performances of songs were, in my opinion, Science Fiction Double Feature, Hot Patootie - Bless My Soul, Time Warp (Song was great, sounded like the version from the Roxy Cast album, but the choreography for the number was terrible), and I'm Going Home (The best number Laverne Cox did in the film).

So was the remake equal to the original? No, it wasn't. It pales in comparison to the original.

If you've never seen Rocky Horror and are wanting the remake to be your first time, skip the remake and go see the original Rocky Horror with an audience. It is the proper way to see Rocky Horror for the first time and is an experience that you'll remember for quite a while, and who knows, maybe it'll become an annual event you'll look forward to attending every year at Halloween time.

Criminals:
The stupid ones get arrested,
The smart ones get re-elected.

[–] jaidibear81-605-619841 8 years ago

I think you put into words what I couldn't. I was into it for the songs, but the acting for the most part was not very good. And then there's the costumes and the set that was just too flashy and not gritty enough.

[–] yabbadabbadu2 8 years ago

I think you hit a number of good points. After being a huge RHPS fan for several decades (shhh), I was almost afraid to watch this. And, of course, the Cubs were on last night so I had to watch this morning.

The biggest problem with this product was the direction. NOT the casting. I know it's supposed to be a "tribute" - but ya know, we would have gotten that out of it had certain things been more.....kept to the original...

What bothered me most was the clutter and chaos. When the scenes involved full cast dancing, it was chaotic, which the original never was. I think part of the problem was the band on the stage, and the non-unison dancing. I know it's supposed to be set in a theater, but then, if that is the case, the band should have been in the orchestra pit. And the result was that the stage was such a mess, it distracted me from the song, from the main voices, etc. The original Never does that. The best scenes were the smaller, more intimate ones, and the ones that are supposed to be fun and upbeat end up being confusing.

Victoria Justice was absolutely the best. And not just because she had the Sarandon voice inflections. She stayed in character - she knew the essence of who she was playing and she nailed it.

Brad - evolved into more of a metrosexual, which Bostwick's Brad never did. Brad is a nerd, even in a garter and stockings. And this one didn't even check to see that he couldn't move his socks.

The worst IMO was Magenta. Magenta is creepy. Christina Milian's is at times schizo, at times sex kitten, at times cutesy - and Magenta was NEVER that. That's not her fault. That's the director's. And maybe the casting director. She might have been too cute and sexy for the role.

Ben Vereen was not quite Nazi enough.... and this Riff should Not have sung. He was great at the speaking part. But the singing, or the way he did it, anyway, wasn't in character. Riff doesn't have that much personality, and really doesn't sing until the end in the original. There's a reason for that.

As for Laverne, I didn't think she was bad at all. I think the direction affected a lot of what she did and when, and a director who wanted to pay tribute to the original would not have cut out certain iconic parts of the original - they wouldn't have used a cherry picker all over the place instead of an elevator, or a runway.

Being supposedly on a stage is not an excuse. They had a pool, didn't they? They wouldn't have taken a lot of the iconic moves - the Tim Curry kick, some of the shots, particularly close ups. WHY would you take the camera off her face, not in a major closeup, when she said Antici.....pation??? And cutting entirely the climbing of the tower??? They lost the WHOLE point of the King Kong era meets scifi.....I mean, come on.

The one I am loving the most right now is Staz Nair's Rocky. OMG this guy is a howl. Next time maybe a cable network will do a remake instead of Fake Clean Faux. Would have liked to have seen him in a Speedo. WTH long boxers.... ;)