Miracle on 34th Street
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Movie Reviews of Miracle on 34th Street
Movie Review: Great Purchase
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a great purchase. Delivered as promised. Received item very quickly and packaged well.Movie Review: feel good movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Ordered this to replace the VHS version we had from years back, it's still fun to watch!Movie Review: Miracle on 34th Street
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this movie. The DVD arrived quickly, I am very pleased.Movie Review: The Best
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best Christmas movie I have ever seen!Movie Review: You Really Can't Get Too Much of This Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Few things are more amusing that reading the comments from the crybaby dishrags who whine about remaking a classic like "Miracle On 34th Street" (1947). How are these weepy rants helpful?
Did it need to be remade? No. But the source material is good enough that any number of professionally done remakes would still be entertaining. If this 1994 version had been the original, people would already be crowning it with the classic tag.
But it is not the original. It strikes a decent compromise by keeping many of the original story elements, deleting some, updating others, and making a few generally ill-advised additions.
There are even some clear improvements. Elizabeth Perkins and Mara Wilson are a much better mother and daughter match than Natalie Wood and Maureen O'Hara. There is a real chemistry between them and the producers appear to have grasped this connection. This "Miracle" is told much more from their respective points of view and in that sense is much more their story than in the original. Wilson brings a focus and intensity to her roles that few child actors can match. She gave a similar performance the next year in Matilda. Perkins is one of those actresses you don't really notice at first, memorable in "Big" and "Speak" for performances filled with subtle nuances.
It is no surprise that Richard Attenborough falls short of the Edmund Gwenn standard but that was Gwenn's signature role; and as much a part of cinema history as Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch.
As long as Perkins and/or Wilson are being featured, the film works quite well. And it really only stumbles seriously during the courtroom scene and during the subplot elements featuring James Remar and Jane Leeves. The film staggers along a bit but recovers itself in time for an original and very effective conclusion. As Roger Ebbert said, while it will never replace the original; this is a sweet, gentle, good-hearted film that stays true to the spirit of the original and doesn't try to make everything slick and exploitative.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.