Unraveling the mystery of the positive critical response to this piece of offensive nonsense has been exponentially more intriguing than the torture of actually watching the film. But I think I've got the answer, or at least part of it. Every once in a while a film comes along that critics would normally pan, but they don't do so because they think, on some level, that Americans are too stupid to figure out what's going on in this country politically. I just can't come up with any other reasonable answer because this is one of the worst films I've ever seen given everything it had going for it before filming.
Others here have articulated the travesty far better than I can, so I'll just mention a couple of the gargantuan mistakes in order to vent a little. The Cold War threat was a fear that had some merit and people were truly uneasy about it. The threat of corporations running the American government is not a threat, but a widely accepted reality. Dear Demme: do you even know who George Bush and Dick Cheney are??? It's hard to invoke the eerie paranoia of the original film when our fears have been replaced with deep resignation. Oooo--scare me with rich, greedy capitalists controlling elections. I am not being cynical when I say that this is the reality, and everybody knows it. To make a film announcing that fact is ludicrous (and offensive).
But that is only one of many reasons why the movie is so incredibly boring. Underlying the original film was a sense of bizarre humor, (remember the ladies tea party?) a sense of things going just a bit awry. This type of subtlety is far more intriguing (and frightening)than a director beating you on the head with blood and gore, pointless extreme close-ups, scenery-chewing, predictable dialogue, inept jump cuts, foolish star-packing (why have Miguel Ferrer if he's just going to stand around and look bewildered--do we NEED a recognizable actor for that role?)a blaring soundtrack, unclear exposition, zero regard for even minimal character development, and an ending that is far too long and far too pat.
Now that I think about it, I'm glad this movie was made. We now have a perfect pairing of films, the original and this one, to show precisely what has gone wrong with mainstream American film.
Others here have articulated the travesty far better than I can, so I'll just mention a couple of the gargantuan mistakes in order to vent a little. The Cold War threat was a fear that had some merit and people were truly uneasy about it. The threat of corporations running the American government is not a threat, but a widely accepted reality. Dear Demme: do you even know who George Bush and Dick Cheney are??? It's hard to invoke the eerie paranoia of the original film when our fears have been replaced with deep resignation. Oooo--scare me with rich, greedy capitalists controlling elections. I am not being cynical when I say that this is the reality, and everybody knows it. To make a film announcing that fact is ludicrous (and offensive).
But that is only one of many reasons why the movie is so incredibly boring. Underlying the original film was a sense of bizarre humor, (remember the ladies tea party?) a sense of things going just a bit awry. This type of subtlety is far more intriguing (and frightening)than a director beating you on the head with blood and gore, pointless extreme close-ups, scenery-chewing, predictable dialogue, inept jump cuts, foolish star-packing (why have Miguel Ferrer if he's just going to stand around and look bewildered--do we NEED a recognizable actor for that role?)a blaring soundtrack, unclear exposition, zero regard for even minimal character development, and an ending that is far too long and far too pat.
Now that I think about it, I'm glad this movie was made. We now have a perfect pairing of films, the original and this one, to show precisely what has gone wrong with mainstream American film.