House on Haunted Hill (1959-99), a review by addicted2dvd
House on Haunted Hill (1959) Eccentric Millionaire Frederick Loren ('Vincent Price') invites you to join a very special house party: the one guest who can manage to survive an entire night in his eerie (and locked) mansion will walk away with a big wad of cash. It seems simple enough - that is until the dead begin to stalk the living and there is no place to run.
My Thoughts: As I have said before... Vincent Price is a favorite actor of mine. And this is one of my favorites of his movies. (that I have seen so far). a movie that I would highly recommend. When I first heard they were going to remake this movie I thought the idea was completely ridiculous!
House on Haunted Hill (1999) One night in the house, one million bucks, no questions asked. But there is a catch for anyone who accepts the offer. Murder is a way of life at the 'House on Haunted Hill', a jolting, effects-ramped remake of the 1959 cult classic that starred Vincent Price and was directed by screen horror legend William Castle. Geoffrey Rush plays twisted theme park bigshot Steven Price, who's hosting a scary/jokey birthday bash for his wife (Famke Janssen) at an abandoned institute for the criminally insane. Taye Diggs, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson, Peter Gallagher and Chris Kattan portray strangers mysteriously assembled for the event that could make them all very rich. Or profoundly dead. And you? We won't start the party without you.
My Thoughts: As I said before... I was less then thrilled when I first heard they were making this remake. Looking at the movie for what it is... on it's own merits I enjoyed it. Was a little over the top with the CGI... but still a decent watch... not sorry I gave it a chance... can see myself watching it again.
Original/Remake Comparison I still don't feel the remake was necessary... but the same can be said for most all remakes. I think it did a good job at changing some of the story... without changing too much of it. But over all... I definitely prefer the original... I mean you just can't beat Vincent Price in this role.... and I just was not too satisfied with Geoffrey Rush's attempt at it.
The Dimeo family has once again moved to give their eldest son J.J. a chance at a new school. J.J. has cerebral palsy*, an illness that binds him to a wheelchair and makes him unable to speak (but not to express himself).
J.J.'s mom Maya is the driving factor behind this move because her entire life now revolves around J.J., to give him the best care and education possible.
But her other two kids are slowly getting fed up with getting uprooted all the time for some perceived (though sometimes not even actual) improvement of J.J.'s life.
J.J.'s new school is very tolerant and open-minded but no one can meet Maya's standards and expectations which becomes obvious when the new school can only offer the garbage ramp for J.J. instead of a proper wheelchair access at the front door.
J.J.'s dad is a laid-back guy who doesn't really care what other think about him and he manages to counter-balance his wife and not lose focus on the fact that there are two more children to be raised.
I've already seen a few more episodes and this show manages to have an interesting balancing act.
On the one hand they actually show the problems people with disabilities have to face and oftentimes the mom comes out as a textbook Social Justice Warrior who fights the fight just for the sake of fighting the fight.
But they do it so over the top (for example, the entire school wants to make J.J. class president just because he's disabled and not based on any merits) and interlaced with good humour that they manage to get their point across without appearing preachy.
It absolutely helps that J.J. himself is a very balanced kid who overcomes his disabilities with the tools he has at hand.
While Minnie Driver's (Maya) character reminds me of her role in About a Boy (the series), John Ross Bowie's dad on the other hand is nothing like The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon's foil Barry Kripke.
*Both the actor as well the character have cerebral palsy, an illness that also afflicts Breaking Bad's actor RJ Mitte.
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May 14, 2024, 08:28:53 PM
