Carrie
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Movie Reviews of Carrie
Movie Review: groovy
Summary: 4 Stars
As i find the orginal the best and the rage: carrie 2 dumb the tv movie of carrie is nearly as good as the real carrie.
What make it good is that this one is more to the book story line they have done a good job with this one.
Movie Review: Angela Does Her Best In This Somewhat Bloated Remake
Summary: 3 Stars
Like "Dawn of the Dead", the original "Carrie" story is so good that generally faithful remakes like this are still entertaining even if they are not equal to the original De Palma film. And "film" is an important word in this particular case because this Canadian remake was shot on digital video instead of film. Each year video technology gets closer to reproducing the look of film but in 2002 it still had a long way to go. Video has a sharper more realistic look than film and a much lower contrast ratio, making it appropriate for documentary and historical films but not so good for expressionistic stuff or stylistic horror films in the Hitchcock and Argento tradition. This could have been a fatal flaw had the remake of "Carrie" been a theatrical release or even if it had been introduced to a world of high definition big screen televisions. But most 2002 viewers watched this thing on 19-inch standard definition televisions where these differences are barely detectable.
Both the original and the remake stay "generally" faithful to the Stephen King novel so long-time fans will have little to cringe about. On the plus side, the remake does a good job of creating some destruction in the town, something that De Palma could not do for budgetary reasons. On the minus side, the original ending is altered (extended) in a totally contrived way to keep things open for a future television series (maybe Carrie finds her "Tru Calling") for which the producers ultimately could not find adequate financing.
Angela Bettis' "Carrie" is virtually identical to the Sissy Spacek version. Her performance is at least as good and probably better but the entire supporting cast is so much weaker that it is hard to judge. Bettis is clearly too old for the role but so is everyone playing her high school classmates so it is not a glaring problem. As Carrie's mother, Patricia Clarkson is a poor substitute for Piper Laurie. This is no surprise since Laurie's performance was the best thing about the original but Clarkson's repressed version of the character takes away from the sympathy factor Bettis is going for. The two of them, however, are responsible for the remake's best moment as Carrie mentally slides her mother out of the bedroom and slams the door after her, but not before she warns her to be careful about keeping her fingers away from the slamming the door.
It is a matter of personal choice about whether it is best to watch Bettis' incredible performance in "May" before or after viewing "Carrie". She plays a similar character in "May" (including the sewing skills) but the supporting cast and the directing is so much better, making May a more believable, sympathetic, and terrifying character. But Bettis has one truly extraordinary scene in "Carrie", watch for the cosmetics scene in the drug store midway into the film. The camera stays tight on her face for several minutes and the emotional range she cycles through renders any dialogue unnecessary. She turns a very ordinary sequence into something truly special.
The DVD release of the Carrie remake would have benefited from some serious trimming. They needed a lot of padding to get up to a 2 Hour 12 Minute running length (for a three hour television broadcast) and the DVD authors did not even bother to edit out the fades in and out for the many commercials. There are several useless sequences like ten minutes at the local pig farm. Better to have used the time to put some dimensionality into the main villains; the really popular kids do not have the time or the interest to harass classmates at the absolute bottom of the pecking order. King's weakness has traditionally been a failure to adequately explain the motivations driving his villains and the remake had time to address this issue.
The main device for upping the running time was the addition of a post-prom police investigation headed by David Keith in a rather nothing performance. This serves to introduce the real story in a series of linearly told flashbacks and therefore could not be carved out of a re-cut version.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Movie Review: Interesting New Take On
Summary: 3 Stars
Ultimately intended to serve as a backdoor pilot to a possible weekly series (depending on the ratings the film received on its opening night), NBC's TV movie version of "Carrie" is entertaining in its own right, although not on the same level as the 1976 version. This time around the story is set in present day Maine, with the obvious technological and pop culture references updated from the novel, and the screenplay is more faithful to the book. The film itself was advertised on NBC as an adaptation of the "novel by Stephen King" and not as a remake of the 1976 film (although in quite a few scenes it uses dialogue and camera angles from the that version, i.e. the angle with the bucket in the prom scene, Margaret White's "red, I might have known it would be red" line on Carrie's prom dress when in actuality it is pink). What really sets this version apart from the original is the wrap-around storyline detailing a police investigation of the events yet to come in the film. This technique of storytelling is similar to the one used by Stephen King in the novel, with a series of excerpts from research papers and books published after the story's climax appearing throughout the tale alongside the main plot. While this worked well in the novel, essentially the film finds itself both a strength and a weakness in using this wrap-around plot technique. Although it helps to build the necessary tension in leading up to the climatic events of the film, the cuts from the main story to the wrap-around story often occur too frequently and for too long at a time, thus giving the movie a sort of disjointed, jagged pace at certain points. The movie would have been improved greatly if the wrap-around plot was used more sparingly and discreetly.
Aside from this, another weakness I found in the film was its length -- approximatley two hours and fifteen minutes, not including commercials. While it is well-known that the movie was made to fit into the three-hour running time for its televised airing, the filmmakers could have shot some interesting scenes that added to the story to help the film fit the required time, but instead shot what felt like "filler" scenes that appeared only to be present to extend the length. These scenes were another factor in giving the film an undefined, jagged pace.
Aside from these issues, however, the film was overall well-done for a TV movie. The performances were uniformally solid, with Angela Bettis giving a new, more confident take on the title character and Patrica Clarkson giving a more subdued portrayal of the religiously-fanatical character of Margaret White, Carrie's mother. The rest of the cast, mostly as the other students at Carrie's school, also give different portryals of their respective characters than in the 1976 version and together result in assembling a quite realistic high school class.
In terms of genre, this version of "Carrie" seemed to be more of an action/adventure revenge story than a horror movie, which was fine considering the already well-made and hard to top horror feel delivered by the original. The visual effects were at times obviously computer-generated and reflected the smaller scale production values of the film (as mentioned in the editorial review on this page), but they worked well enough to move the story along. All of the former being said, the original still remains as the superior version of the story, and I'd recommended it over this one. Nevertheless, I'd still say that the NBC version of "Carrie" was an interesting enough take on the classic story and worth a viewing.
Movie Review: Stephen King vindicated...sort of
Summary: 3 Stars
I can't remember what came first-I either read Carrie or saw the Sissy Spacek original. I was really disappointed in the movie. Apparently DePalma et al ran out of money and goodbye last third of the book. But the end was also kind of silly. Hands sprouting from the grave-so overdone.
Stephen King has sat through years of mediocre adaptations of his movies. This has been corrected the last few years with the TV remake. And this film was an especially good candidate.
First the good parts. Angela Bettis (you may recall her as Kim Basinger's junkie sister from Bless the Child) is fantastic as Carrie. I like Sissy Spacek but she never really grabbed me in that part. Bettis really conveys Carrie's intelligence and promise while also projecting how close she is to snapping after years of torment. She really makes the movie the sympathetic tragedy that King intended. Ditto for Rena Sofer as the gym teacher who befriends her and Patricia Clarkson as her religious hysteric mother. Clarkson wisely underplays the role rather than re-launching Piper Laurie-style hysterics. This adaptation is much closer to the plot and spirit of the book.
What's not so good is....daggone it, they changed the ending again. I won't spoil anything so enough said. See which one you prefer. Sue Snell is not as sympathetic as she was in the book. I can't tell if that is because Kandyse McClure is miscast or the way the part was written. A little of both I think. Ditto for Emilie de Ravin as Carrie' chief tormenter, Chris Jorgenson. She was bitchy and unlikable but I didn't get the sense she was capable of the stunt she pulls. Many of the special effects are obviously digital-certainly films with far higher budgets have had this problem (The Hulk, we're looking in your direction.) It's a USA TV movie though so good job all things considered.
The plot is updated well (with references to Freddie Prinze and the internet.) If you enjoyed the book and are curious, this is worth a rental. You won't be disappointed over all. If you just loved the book more than life, maybe you should buy this.
Movie Review: Carrie (2nd take of original)
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok this movie has no famous actors/actress's in it and it tells the same story of Carrie just in a made for TV movie. Kind of odd it's a remake by MGM(who also made the first one) This version tells the same story but has some more little features that are covered in the book, like the rocks falling from the sky. I thought it was pretty neat. In the original at the prom Carrie goes ballistic and she is kind of in a trance and I tell ya the look on her face scared even me. But in this version she just kind of stands there and don't even move that lock of hair that is in the way. And in this one ya can tell it's kayro syrup and food coloring, when in the original ya had a hard time telling that it really wasn't pig blood. I do like the way this version ends though, Carrie does not die in the house with her mom and that's pretty cool to leave it open like that. I'll have to read the book by Stephen King and see how this movie is really suppose to happen. One bad thing in this movie is ya can tell when the TV stations insert commercials because there is a black screen every 12 or so minutes in the movie that discouraged me somewhat.