petangi

Having seen the British original umpteen times and understanding the affection with which it is held in the UK, I fell into the trap of thinking that "The Ladykillers" would remain reasonably to the mood of the older version or at least tip it's cap to it. It didn't. I really can't understand why they used the original title except but to steal some of the goodwill that would inevitably accompany the name. It never caught my imagination, my sympathy and by the end I was resenting it. Too many films keep the name of the older version and do themselves a disservice in so doing. The remake is just half a stolen idea, the title is misrepresented and half the public, the older half, feel cheated. Pinch half the idea if you must but change the name. I ask you, would the public stand for a remake of "The Godfather"? Most remakes remain a huge disappointment. Please stop it or call it something totally different.

It's occurred to me that the cartoons these days are becoming more human in their reactions and facial responses and the modern-day action films are becoming more cartoon-like in the antics and tricks they can display. There seems to be whole new treatment of films now by the new generation of directors. They are dead keen on the fast editing, cut out the establishing shots and bombard the customers with this endless drumming which for me, is a total pain. Can the Sound Editing of the film really have got an Oscar?? The mind boggles. I enjoyed the film but only because I had a DVD of it and had the subtitles showing. Without them, I would have lost 30 to 40 percent of it. Films these days take no account of the difficulties for the hard of hearing with their multi-sound sources coming through the speakers. Having an unnecessary drumming racket going, virtually uninterrupted throughout the whole film was a bit hard to take. The story, the dialogue, the action, does not necessarily need an endless racket to keep the attention of the viewer. Tell them to watch RIFIFI.

I've seen it twice but am still bemused and wonder whether bothering to watch it again is really worth my while. A film which has lots of people applauding it but for me, an average film-goer, it remains uninvolving and a tad too clever for its own good. I'm not against clever film making but it seemed to go out of its way to make sure that there were no sympathetic characters and a storyline which left me for dead after half an hour. The editing timeframe was unhelpful and left me struggling to equate that with the story of events in the police interview room and where that conversation would place me next. You can't win them all, I guess.