10 replies to this topic

[Eegah]

I searched, and nothing.

Written by hack extraordinaire Dean Koontz, this USA movie moves the familiar Frankenstein story to America, and will likely be replayed to death between now and Halloween. Oh, and Mary Shelley is given a credit for "certain original characters."

[firestarter]

Thanks for opening this thread Eegah, I looked last night and couldn't find anything and wasn't sure how to proceed.

Maybe I'm just too hard to please lately, but this really didn't do it for me. I wanted to like it, I really did, because TV Land is starved for good dark shows, but man.

First of all, that damn bleach bypass thing that's so trendy for creating atmosphere these days, you know, that greenish tint to everything because they forego the bleaching process when they finish the film so it's full of silver. Gets on my last nerve. It's New Orleans, for Chrissake, and it looks like 'Se7en' meets 'Eddie and the Cruisers.' Show us some color, some contrast, some gothic richness. I found it hard to see what they were focussing on. Maybe that was just bad direction.

Then the gum-cracking, coffee-spilling partner. Good actor, but the character annoyed from the word go.

Then she has a kid. I groaned out loud. Could we declare a moratorium on single-momhood as a source of depth for a lead female character? Pretty please? It didn't help to find out it was her brother. Maybe if they do something with the autism (if this becomes a series), like have the oldest creation guy offer to cure it, or Helios offer to cure it, something that sets up a juicy moral quandary, that would be cool.

Okay, there were some good scenes, Michael Madsen rocked, and I like the main monster guy whose name begins with a 'D.' Helios and his playmate were nice and creepy. Some of it worked. But I hope they work on some things if it becomes a series.

Did Dean Koontz write the script alone? I saw John Shiban's name in the beginning--he wrote for or produced 'The X-Files.'

[missbebe]

The premise was interesting, but where the hell was the ending?

Also, Vincent Perez in so incredibly hot.

[R3E2]

The opening credits seemed a total rip-off of Se7en. Then it went downhill. I would have LOVED more backstory (historical flashbacks, especially) rather than the annoying character building subplot of the autistic brother. Gah. I have no idea how Parker Posy's character made it through police training, let alone in the field, she always seemed ready to burst into tears. Seconding missbebe on the "where the hell was the ending?" I was wondering if it might be a pilot for a tv show.

[Strega]

It is a pilot. I believe USA will decide whether or not to pick it up as a series based on the reaction to the movie.

[R3E2]

Well, at least that justifies the ending. Let's see. It aired Sunday, as of Wednesday we have a grand total of five people posting about it, almost all negative reactions. Magic TV 8 Ball says "Signs point to no."

[TanTan]

Its producers are creditable, but I agree that it fell flat. I loves me some Parker Posey, and in my opinion, the director's (Marcus Nispel) recent remake of Texas Chainsaw was pretty respectable, but the script blew. Also, the thing was so damn stylized that I could hardly follow the story (not that there was much to follow). It wasn't the cinematography that bothered me--I'm a sucker for Daniel Pearl's work which, really, helped pave the way for Se7en in the first place--but rather the editing. It left no room for audience comprehension, much less fear.

I laughed out loud at the credit sequence--even the score was a pretty literal approximation of Coil's sound design for the Se7en credits. However, I do credit Badalamenti for trying his hand at a rather different genre of music than he usually works in.

[samwal]

I actually enjoyed the movie. The whole modern day take was a winner for me and i liked how it was set in New Orleans too. Kind of cool seeing Scorscese doing stuff on TV now..

[dandieandie]

I'm kind of meh about the movie, too. It just seemed to leave waaaaay too many loose threads and kind of just left the audience hanging. It would have been better, IMHO, if it had resolved some of the main arcs and then left us just enough small teasers to spin off into a show, if that makes any sense. That way if it gets turned into a series there would still be some kind of story to tell, but if it ends up not getting picked up we still would have been left with a nice little gothic movie that made us go hmmmm...instead of making me want to pull my hair out by the roots.

[prettyfeet]

The premise was interesting, but where the hell was the ending?

I actually went digging in my TV Guide to see if this was part one and they forgot the "to be continued," or what. Some mention that this wasn't the end, some comment from a character or a blurb on the screen would have been very useful - instead, it was like someone just got tired of the story and turned the camera off.

The plotline wasn't bad but oy, everything else was. Dirty, dingy, greasy sets and actors (apart from the Doc and his babe), awful yellow-green lighting and a stringy, stinky-looking mullet on the leading lady - who's idea was all that?

Vincent Perez looked so much like Vince Vaughn that every time he opened his mouth and spoke, it sounded dubbed to me.

[dandieandie]

Feh. Just read an (old) article about the show on Zap2It. According to this piece, basically the quality of work and/or how many people end up tuning in won't mean squat as far as whether this gets picked up as a series. I didn't know this, but apparently USA just merged with NBC and the results of that will determine whether this gets made into a show. Looking at all of the crapola NBC has been trashing TV screens with, something even vaguely original and thought-provoking like Frankenstein won't have a chance.