At the end of my review for the original "The Wages of Fear" I suggested that a remake could be made as there were material enough to improve
some of its small problems, and also as the American remake "Sorcerer" was also lacking on something as both differed a little from the novel by
Georges Arnaud. I wasn't wrong in asking for a new version. But what I couldn't predict was this new take by Netflix would turn into such a weird and
lackluster experience.
The risky adventures of a group of men while dealing with countless obstacles in order to perform a dangerous mission was turned into
a punch-throwing/gun shooting action film instead of the two previous thrilling character studies on courage and cowardice. For the many updates
made to bring this story to the 21st century and little homages to the classic 1953 film, it's no use of seeing it as what's been done before is a
hundred times better, more effective and enjoyable than this near disaster of a movie.
But I gotta be honest: it offers some decent entertainment and it has potential to attract curious hearts who might like the many thrills
faced by the characters. This time, we have two brothers (Franck Gastambide and Alban Lenoir) in the crew, rather than all complete strangers joining
forces in order to save a village from the disastrous perils offered by an oil rig explosion. The duo goes against each other after a mistake from the
past made one of them went to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Throw in the bunch the lover (Ana Girardot) of one of them, a ruthless commander
(Sofiane Zermani) and his team, all driving through the desert carrying a huge cargo of dynamite, crossing an African nation in turmoil in the
middle of a major political turnover. The way to their mission isn't just dangerous because of the terrible roads, but also the presence of armed
rebels who kills whoever comes to their territory.
A handful of good moments doesn't satisfy as a whole, and Julien Leclercq's sense of direction isn't strong enough to make it a compelling work.
This "Wages of Fear" turned into a confusing action-driven flick with one dimensional characters, and the whole cruel greedy from them felt forced,
simply used to form a "plot twist". Add to the mix the insane ammount of plot holes put on this, that it's not even funny. You may want to watch the
film just to witness everything that goes wrong.
It wasn't a total waste of time (loved the land mine sequence but I've seen it done before), and I really think it could go worse - almost left after the first minutes as it felt like a sequel of some
movie I haven't seen before due to the terrible presentation of the lead characters. It'll find some audience, but my advice remains the same: watch
Clouzot's film and/or Friedkin's remake as they are near perfect in matters of cinema and positively better on all accounts if compared to this unwanted
new take. 5/10.
