I haven’t seen the original. From what I’ve heard, the original isn’t very good, but the idea, and the novel, were influential. This is a better movie than I had heard, and I’m not positive why it seems to have such a terrible reception.
I actually watched this twice today. Cathy caught the end of it, and wanted to see it.
The second time through, I recognized a few of the problems with the movie. But I still think it’s pretty strong. The humor is a little predictable, but it doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard. Jon Lovitz gets to insert a few good lines that were most likely improvised. There’s a nice twist at the end, which can’t be seen coming, but it doesn’t seem to matter. The weirdest part of the movie is Christopher Walken, who seems to be hamming it up as hard as he can. He has a few good lines, but he seems to be slipping into self-parody for most of his part.
There’s a mildly amusing element to most of the movie. I think this is the doing of Frank Oz, the director, since it reminds me a little of how I reacted to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels the first time I saw it. I thought it would be more uproariously funny, like L.A. Story. But I found that as I returned to the movie a few more times, I appreciated all of the smaller aspects of the comedy. The nuances to the performances, the novelty of the music.
I’ve read some of the complaints, and they are all things that I noticed. I’m not sure why I’m so forgiving of them. It’s unclear if the women are replaced with outright robots, or if they have just had implants put into their brains. Both methods have their own plot problems. The ATM scene is bizarre. I’m not really positive why it’s in there.
Maybe the main reason people didn't like this was that they expected it to be less comedy, and more thriller.
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