I don't even know where to start with this one, but let me just say that I am NOT against remakes. There have been some great ones and sometimes they are even better than the original...........NOT THIS TIME!!! The first problem is that this story has been beat to hell. The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man and 28 Days Later are just three that come to mind. So, WHY make this version unless you can be unique and bring something new to the screen? Subsequent problems will be covered below. Finally, a cure for cancer has been discovered using a form of virus. The world celebrates! Three years later 90% of the earth's population is dead and the rest are either mutated cannibals or their prey. New York City has been quarantined by destroying all bridges and Col. Robert Neville (Will Smith) stays behind to find a cure and is the last person alive (well, sorta) in New York. I would tell you more but I am just about as bored writing this as I was watching the total rehash of so many rehashes. I always do my best to never compare remakes with the original going in but after watching one like this it's hard to separate them. There was absolutely nothing new here. In fact, the only two differences between this picture and The Omega Man were, 1) this one was set in New York instead of Los Angeles and 2) it was bad. It was flat and though it started with some promise it quickly deteriorated into a not so good TV movie-of-the-week with one of the worst endings since Jaws IV and almost every Stephan King story ever written. The new millennium Hollywood continues to make the same, tired mistakes. They take a worn out story and add a couple million dollars of CGI and think the paying public will be impressed. It takes more than that, starting with a simple concept known as an "original idea". This picture was as far from that as possible. And then there's the acting. Will Smith did the best he could with this turkey using his usual over the top, over acted style but it was not enough (or maybe too much) to save it. What a waste. "God didn't do this...WE did this!" RECOMMENDATION: Look, it's your money. You do what you want with it but if you're asking ME, spend that money on a DVD of The Omega Man so you won't feel violated as I did. TWO REHASHED, REDONE, REWRITTEN, OVER ACTED AND TOTALLY UNORIGINAL THUMBS DOWN!!! Movie Review © 2007 by Terry Anderson |
