It’s not easy to remake a classic, especially one about the Devil. After all, you don’t want to screw it up and piss him off. But this new version of The Omen is a capable do over. Sure Liev Schreiber isn’t exactly Gregory Peck, but he’s in a fairly well made horror film and that’s good enough.
If you’ve seen the original then you know what happens in the new one. The Omen 2006 sticks pretty strictly to the tenants of its predecessor, with the changes limited to modifying a few of the old movie’s bigger scenes with modern horror sensibilities. Mostly this boils down to switching a few locations, and showing in places where the old one might only have implied. If you haven’t seen the original, then here’s a quick sketch: A boy is born on 6/6/06, and he’s the son of the devil. He’s the anti-Christ. His adopted mother (Julia Stiles) doesn’t know he’s pure evil, but she starts to wonder when the five year old boy starts inspiring people to commit suicide in her honor.
The kid’s name is appropriately, Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), and what’s always been interesting about The Omen, both old and new, is how neutral Damien himself seems throughout the film. In the original he never overtly acts out, and it’s not entirely certain until the end that he really is the spawn of Satan. In the new version, it’s a little more obvious, but the creep factor is still there pushed by questions of is he or isn’t he the fruit of the great serpent’s loins.
Another critic remarked to me last night that what always freaked him out the most about The Omen was the crazed devotion Damien’s followers exercise towards him. But I think if you really want to be scared to death by Damien’s misadventures in parent killing, you have to come into the thing with at least some belief in the actual existence of Satan. If you’re superstitious, you’ll probably walk out waiting for Armageddon to start. If you’re not, you’ll still enjoy this remake, but I can’t see anyone without a predisposition towards belief in the supernatural having nightmares because of it.
That’s not because of any flaw in director John Moore’s remake; if anything I think this one does a little bit better job of ratcheting up the tension than the first one, which at times seems a little humdrum for a horror flick. The story is just something designed primarily for people eager to buy into all this Christ anti-Christ conflict. Whatever it is about The Omen that does or doesn’t scare you though, this new version is a capable horror film with a quality cast and enough sense to avoid going too over the top. Moore can’t resist a good decapitation now and then, but for the most part he’s got enough sense to let things unfold as they should.
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well the omen,all i can say is AWSOME! best random kill's ever (well in my opinion) but seemed to much like final destination with all the previews of the kills before they happen.
i saw it last night and it was the 9 oclock sitting it was awsome and everyone who reads this and has n0ot seen it yet should go see it because it is great movie
I saw the Omen and thought it was great. The scenes that I remember from the original were greatly portrayed in this film such as the graveyard dogs, the mother being pushed off the banister by Damien, and Damien's evil smirk at the ending funeral. The zoo scene was really good, and the scene with the nanny going insane at the end also makes you think, " Wow tough break"
Flying CowSome years ago a chinese fishing ship sank in the chinese sea, it was a bright, sunny day with almost no wind and no more ships around than usually and all of the crewmen were experienced and had worked together for years and years....Now, one of the sailors where saved. But for a long while nobody could figure out what happened to the ship. The onlythey could make the sailor say was something about a flying...Naturally most people thought he was in shock.But it turned out he was right. On the tragic day of the sinking, some Russian army personel had stolen a cow from some farmers on a little south Chinese island where they had their airbase. They had shoved the cow into their cargo plane bound for Russia and taken off. Happy and convinced that they should make a good profit off the cow. Cows, however, are entirely special beings. Beings not at all suited for airtravel. And so the cow started to act up in the now high airborn plane. In fact it acted up so much that the pilots decided to get rid of the cow to ensure their continued saftety.The concluding step to this decision was to open the freight doors and shove the cow out. Over the Suoth Chinese sea.The sailors saw a plane dumpings something into midair. They observed the little dot growing bigger for a couple of seconds before the cow plummeted through their deck, effectively sinking their ship...I wonder if cows can scream.....? If they can, these sailors should be likely candidates to have heard it. Briefly
William Shakespeare. Sonnet VII Lo! in the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, Serving with looks his sacred majesty; And having climb'd the steep-up heavenly hill, Resembling strong youth in his middle age, yet mortal looks adore his beauty still, Attending on his golden pilgrimage; But when from highmost pitch, with weary car, Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day, The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are From his low tract and look another way: So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon, Unlook'd on diest, unless thou get a son.
I watched both the new movie and the old. The parts i like from the old one are the nanny's sinister behaviour and the dogs chasing the father of damien in the graveyard. The old one was decent. The new one had modern cinematography, good filming obviously, but lacked any power. It was just a quick remake of the old one and so I wasn't impressed by the new version of The omen.
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June 10th, 2006 at 01:47
i saw the new omen and thought it excellent.