Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, The |
  • USA • 2016 • 88m •   • Directed by: Kenny Ortega. • Starring: Ivy Levan, Ben Vereen, Staz Nair, Christina Milian, Reeve Carney, Tim Curry, Adam Lambert, Annaleigh Ashford, Ryan McCartan, Victoria Justice, Laverne Cox, Kelly Van der Burg, Jeff Lillico..     A straitlaced, square couple, seeking shelter from a storm, find themselves in the castle of a transsexual alien mad scientist intent on creating a buff bodybuilder.
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Review:
There's a lot of things that I disliked about this remake, and I feel like I'm going to be dissecting everything. However I will give props on the costumes for Brad and Janet, but that's where I draw the line on accuracy. I love Victoria Justice's voice. It's very satisfying to listen to, but that's about it. She, among a lot of the cast, are clearly very into it, almost too into it, however there's not as much energy as the original, which I didn't think would be possible.
The casting of Frank N Furter was sorta uncomfortable to watch, maybe it's just me that sees it as a little iffy for a transgender woman to play a man who just dresses as a woman (Frank is a transvestite, not a transgender woman). Clearly if Laverne Cox has no issue, then it's probably a complaint from a trans person with a differing point of view, as much as it may not be a real issue, it was still hard to watch due to the performance, especially with the accent slipping every so often. I'm a fan of Cox, but choosing a woman for the role, and making Frank a woman, isn't really the direction I saw this going in, nor am I a fan of it.
There's the casting of Brad and Janet, who easily made the best performances of the movie. Reeve Carney was also one of the better choices in casting, the actor has a great voice which suited the character of Riff-Raff, and didn't blend into the background as much as Magenta did. When she did have dialogue, she was hard to watch and had a very grating high voice. Columbia wasn't memorable. They tried to compensate for the flat performance with the bright pink and blue hair, but didn't really succeed. In the original she had plenty of energy, but this version seemed to take the punk aesthetic too far with the "not caring attitude" but it just made her unlikeable. There's not much room for complaint with Rocky, as he stayed mostly close to the original character, there's not much dialogue to mess up for him. Ben Vereen turned Dr Scott into a comedic character, which isn't a very favourable character change either.
The biggest flaw in casting to me was Adam Lambert being picked to play Eddie. I understand he's a big LGBT icon, and I have a feeling the modern LGBT community was the audience this remake was mostly aimed at, and that he's a singer with a great voice, I unironically listen to his old hits on a regular basis as well as his new ones. But his voice just doesn't do it for me in this particular genre (being rock n roll). Meatloaf gave some amazing grinding vocals for a real rock n roll feel, but I wouldn't say that Lambert's voice achieved this, and like a lot of the other parts of the movie, fell flat, turning a rock n roll song into a horrendous and sloppy pop anthem.
Some of the songs were okay, such as "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place", and "Dammit Janet". But the Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite were butchered, which is a shame, as those are the most iconic parts of the movie. In other words, a complete debacle, like "Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul" and "Eddie" (though arguably we hear some rock-style vocals from Lambert, which would have been nice to see earlier when he had a full song).
"Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" fell flat (I feel like I've said this a lot), I feel like it was watered down from the original. The song is supposed to be sexier, the subject matter of the song can't exactly be watered down like they did here, and the mismatch of the song lyrics and the actions from everyone involved in the song made me feel like I was watching a school production as opposed to the movie that gives a nod to a few adult themes. The whole movie seems watered down to get as low of an age rating as possible and to cause as little offense as possible. That and making it "old school rock and roll" but as modern as possible? This is another mismatch that just didn't sit right.
I enjoyed seeing Tim Curry making an appearance, but it was also unsettling, considering he'd be associated with a movie that was a mockery of the one that helped to start his career, I wonder how he feels about it post- production?
The remake didn't do the original any justice, but you can tell they really tried. Props to everyone involved for really trying to make this a good production but the efforts didn't really have a great result. The audience participation prompts were an interesting addition, but didn't revive the performances from half of the cast. The original should have been left alone, as the cult classic we know and love, that is almost a decade shy of being 50 years old.
Review by Ross The Giraffe from the Internet Movie Database.
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