You must forgive the poor talent, for they know not what they do. For even gifted actors have to eat. And there’s no shame in accepting work and cashing a paycheck on the pointless remake train if you have to. But did they have to? For example what is Michael Gambon, the original singing detective and the most recent Dumbledore doing in the title credits of this movie if he only momentarily portrays a lunatic drunk with a few lines of slurred dialog?

At least the appearances of another Harry Potter alumni David Thewlis and the always enjoyable Pete Postlethwaite keep the Omen’s remake, plotting along. And we get to see legends like Mia Farrow bestow her eccentric actress torch onto Damien’s ward, Julia Stiles who quickly deteriorates in front of her characters husband Liev Schrieber. Of course Stiles doesn’t have the product placement sedan to run from the devil in, so she clearly will not get away. The sponsorship deal must have said that only characters driving this year’s model of luxury car can beat the devil.

I suppose from screenwriter David Seltzers point of view this "Omen" remake thing is fat city for him, as not only can he make his career on his devil child script early in his career, but he can fund his retirement by dusting off the same screenplay and milking it thirty years later. Sadly, Seltzer will likely be remembered for his tale of the anti-Christ more than "Lucas" the sweet teen romance he wrote and directed in the eighties, but those are the breaks when you make your deal with the devil.

As a fright fest, "the Omen" remake is more startling instead of scary. Audiences will surely jump on cue as they are pummeled with crazy evil events dropping in out of the blue. However, "the Omen" only teases us with brief glimpses of the kind of spooky scenes you hope for, before resuming its mundane ride to the predictable end. The filmmakers fill in the screen time by using overdone horror movie manipulation tools and over dressing scenes with as many obvious ominous overtones that they can cram in.

As today’s news constantly reminds us, It certainly feels like we’re in the last days leading up to the apocalypse so why not take in a flick and some popcorn to celebrate it? Perhaps this "Omen" was some sort of marketing experiment to see how many people they could get to go out to the movies on a Tuesday or its just that Hollywood can’t resist the low hanging fruit of ticket sales from people who will soon be counting the minutes until the end of this movie, these remakes or the world. Whichever comes first we in the audience win. For Movie Magazine this is Purple.

© 2007 - Purple - Air Date: 6/14/06