Moviefan12: This is a special cross-over that warranted the return of Monstrous Musicals. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical that means a whole deal lot to a huge group of people. So, when it was announced that Fox would be airing a remake, many fans had concerns and well, I feel that those concerns were justified. And while I appreciate the original RHPS for what it is, I know that there are fans on this site that enjoy it much more than I do. And that's why I've brought in, The Creature to help me tackle this beast. Creature, I don't know about you but I think we may be tackling something worse than The Haunted Mansion from last year.
Creature:Much, Much Worse. I had extremely low expectations from this film right from the beginning, but I was not expecting the end result this awful.
Moviefan12: I'm not sure, where to start. The fact that this thing was so sanitized to the point of scrubbing out anything sexual from Rocky Horror. And I know some people had issue with changing Frank's gender.
And well, this is a controversial topic to be sure and I don't want to fault Laverne Cox as she seemed to be giving it her all in the role and the film did try to go halfway with Frank's gender but the issue remains that changing Frank-N-Furter's gender is such a touchy subject. In the original, Brad had quite sexual awakening after what happened with Brad. They could have done something like that with Janet in the remake but while they changed the gender, they seemed to keep other things about the character the same and and while changing of the gender could have played a bigger part in the role of this new take on Frank, it seems like the team behind was afraid to commit to any big new ideas. Wait a sec, who directed this?
Kenny Ortega, the man behind Hocus Pocus, High School Musical, and Descendants. That seems like a poor fit. For those wondering why I'm foregoing the usual plot section here, it's simply because if you've seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show from the '70s, you've seen a better version of this movie. As aside from a movie theater wraparound that is meant to be a wink and nod to the fans that attend midnight screenings of the movie, it is beat for beat, the same movie just without some of the more mature content.
Oh, and that is one other thing, the Usherette is a character that was not in the original film but I believe that she is part of the stage production. And speaking of nods to the original, hi Tim Curry.
Creature: Picking Kenny Ortega to direct this was easily the worst choice ever made. He literally just took the original movie and just dumbed it down a god awful made for TV movie with the budget of a mediocre High School play.
The addition of the Usherette was pretty useless. She did serve a purpose in the original musical to sing ”Science Fiction/Double Feature” to help introduce the plot, but since she didn’t appear in the original film, her addition is unnecessary and felt out of place.
And Tim Curry…poor Tim Curry. I’ve never felt more heartbroken in my life than watching Tim Curry playing the Criminologist as he sits in his Wheel Chair slowly dying on camera and slowly reads his lines. It’s really a very sad site to see in this movie.
Moviefan12: That brings us to the characters. Creature, as you are the bigger RHPS fan, would you care to start and perhaps, we should start with this film's take on the most iconic character from this movie, Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Characters
Dr. Frank-N-Furter played by Laverne Cox
Creature: I thought she did quite an awful job as Frank-N-Furter. In almost every scene she was in, she was trying to constantly have Tim Curry’s accent which ended up being sounding half-assed. Not only that, but she had absolutely no enthusiasm in the role. She looked like she was bored (much like everyone else in this movie) and just didn’t want to be a part of any of this. I don’t really mind that they would pick someone of a different gender to play Frank (I’ve seen it done at Midnight Screenings), but you really should at least put some effort into it.
Moviefan12: I'll actually disagree somewhat and say that I think Cox did the best that she could with the script and material given to her as she seemed to be the only one that was trying to breathe life into this doldrum. I will concede that she was trying to copy Curry a bit too much but I do find that a bit understandable as when people think of Frank, they usually think of how Tim Curry played Frank-N-Furter. And that is perhaps the biggest detriment to her take on this classic character.
Moviefan12: Let's now move onto our leads, Brad & Janet.
Brad & Janet played by Ryan McCartan & Victoria Justice
Moviefan12: Brad & Janet in the original had a dweeby naive charm to them as they were exposed to this new erotic world for the first time as they were for all intents & purposes, a pure & innocent couple that before arriving at the Frankenstein Place would have never interacted with the kind of Riff Raff (heh) that makes up people that party with Frank. In the remake, you don't get a sense of that at all because it feels like Brad & Janet in the 2016 version are in on the joke of what is going on and as though they are playing more to the audience. Their entire performance can be summed as
And yes I do get it and that takes away from the experience because Brad and Janet are meant to be audience surrogates that are just as surprised by the weird things that they see as is the audience. Granted, that is harder to do as the original movie is over 40 years old but they could have attempted to put some effort into this and not lean so heavily on the joke.
Creature: The fact that Brad & Janet are in on it from the beginning really hinders their performance. Bostwick & Sarandon’s performances were definitely more genuine while they were going through the strange events at Frank’s castle, but when they know what’ll happen (like these two do) it’s not as engaging.
Riff Raff played by Reeve Carney
Moviefan12: And here we have our Hot Topic brand Riff Raff and from the moment that he is introduced everything is just wrong. I know that you shouldn't judge based on introductions but the introduction here to Riff Raff is Time Warp and I know everyone and their brother has compared this to the Glee version of the song. And look Glee's RHPS tribute episode wasn't much better than this but they weren't trying to remake a classic movie. Here, it feels like an off brand American Idol number and that brings us to Riff Raff, Reeve Carney plays this role like he won it from a reality show competition and didn't have any prior acting experience. But that's not the case, what are some of his other credentials? It seems the only other big thing to his name is a Taylor Swift video. Oh and he was Spider-Man in Turn Off The Dark.
I think that may have been the more dignified role.
Creature: Riff Raff was a mess. He was very poorly acted, he didn’t fit the part at all, and really felt like an out of place actor thrown in the movie just to be a walking Hot Topic commercial. I bet if you ask him nicely, he’ll pass out some Hot Cash coupons.
Magenta played by Christina Milan
Moviefan12: Christina Milian as Magenta was there. She's not bad but there is nothing to write home about regarding her performance. It's okay but I put part of the blame on Reeve Carney as Riff Raff and Magenta need to be able to play off one another but Milian was given nothing and I mean nothing to work with.
Creature: Well…Magenta showed up. That’s at least something I can say about her role in this. Her character was rendered useless considering she couldn’t work well with Riff Raff (especially considering how well the original actors get along so well in real life).
Columbia played by Annaleigh Ashford
Moviefan12: I do like the biker chick look for Columbia as that gives you a hint of her love with Eddie and I do appreciate that Ashford didn't try to duplicate Little Nell's performance but honestly, when Brad & Janet first met her, I thought she was on quaaludes and that feeling never went away. I felt like she fell asleep during the movie. Oh wait no, sorry that was me. And they gave her one of the worst jokes in the movie.
"I hope it's not Meatloaf again"
Once again, I need to break this out.
Creature: Columbia was so boring in this film. She had no life to her performance at all and just acted like she was, as you mentioned, about to fall asleep. True, she didn’t try to replicate Little Nell’s performance, but she really didn’t add anything of substance to the character.
Eddie played by Adam Lambert
Moviefan12: This could have worked. Adam Lambert knows how to play it up and I had hopes for him in this as casting him as Eddie was a no-brainer. On paper, this casting choice made perfect sense and damn, if Lambert didn't try and give it his all but he was let down by everything around him. I hope Lambert gets another chance to play Eddie , perhaps onstage as he has the chops to pull it off, given better direction.
Creature: I have to admit, Adam Lambert was probably one of the better performances in this movie. He was very energetic and he gave it his all with what little time Eddie appears. Shame the same amount of energy and dedication wasn’t shown in some of the other actors.
Rocky played by Staz Nair
Moviefan12: Staz Nair was okay as Rocky but man, there's nothing to him. Rocky in the original had a sweet & innocent charm that instantly made you care about him, while still looking buff and hot. Nair's Rocky has the latter part but not much else going.
Creature: Rocky was boring. Like you said, there was nothing to him in this movie. He was just there to fill up space and try to ”act” like Rocky from time to time.
Dr. Everett Scott played by Ben Vereen
Moviefan12: Vereen is a veteran of stage & screen having performed in such shows as Jesus Christ Superstar in the '70s on Broadway. And to see someone that has more than paid their dues to get where they are be relegated to such a middling role of Dr. Scott is maddening as this man deserves better, than what he was given.
Creature: Although I’m not too familiar with most of Vereen’s work, it is a shame that an accomplished actor like him was stuck in the minor role of Dr. Scott is quite a disappointment.
Music
Moviefan12: We'd be here all day, if we tried to talk about the way they handled all the songs. So, here's a playlist and we can just give our general thoughts. If I am to give this movie any praise, I loved the opening for Science Fiction/Double Feature as I am sucker for old movie theaters. And that was just gorgeous.
And while the Usherette may have been pointless, Ivy Levan who plays her has a wonderful voice. I talked about my feelings regarding their take on Time Warp last year before the movie came out and I think my opinion has more than soured.
This version more than any ever I feel is being asked to be compared to the movie as that is why this movie is being or being promoted as being made to celebrate the movie. But wow, I just can’t get a feel on this song. I don’t hate this version but more baffled by it because it takes the song in such a drastically different direction. Again, I don’t think that’s a bad thing but I think it takes so far away from what Time Warp was, that at points this song doesn’t feel like Time Warp. Again, I don’t hate it but it doesn’t feel like Time Warp. It’s hard to grasp, what is going on with this version because while you know that this is Time Warp, it doesn’t sound like Time Warp. Again, I don’t think it’s bad as you actually hear effort being put into the number unlike The Groovie Ghoulies cover but you hear how drastically different this version is at the very beginning as it sounds almost smooth and that is rather odd to say about Time Warp. It livens up as the number goes on but it never really feels like Time Warp.
But nothing to me more is egregious than what they did to Planet Schament Janet (my favorite song from the movie) This is such a great villain number for Frank and it has my favorite lyric in the entire film.
A mental mind fuck can be nice.
That lyric to me sums how nasty and devious Frank is. Frank is someone that'll use you and move on, when he or she is done with you. But the remake changed it and I get it but augh.
A mental mindgame can be nice
This is the changed for network airing version of that lyric and......
Censoring that line takes away any bite that Frank is meant to have in that moment. I don't know what this was rated but clearly, it wasn't a TV MA. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it's not rated but with this being a network airing, you knew that they couldn't use the F word and while I was prepared for that, I didn't realize how much I was going to hate the forced changed lyric. And it is forced as when Cox sings that lyric, you do not believe that there is any menace in her voice. Whereas with Curry, he made the original lyric, scary and sexy at the same time.
Creature: If anything, Science Fiction/Double Feature was the best song in the film. Other than that, the others are not that great . They have little to no life to them and they’re not as energetic as the original where those would make you want to make you get up & dance along. In this, you’d probably just think about the original songs instead. For that line change in Planet, Schmanet, Janet, I expected that to happen considering it’s a TV movie but even then it still weakens the song in regards to Frank’s personality.
Our Final Thoughts
Moviefan12: I think Frank-N-Furter can sum up my feelings watching this movie.
I'm pretty sure, there were numerous times throughout this remake, I made that exact face at many of the decisions made. Like Frank here, I tried to keep my cool but this remake really tested me. Four years ago, when I did my Monstrous Musicals review of the original , I said that the film celebrated weirdness and having an identity. Being older and having a better understanding of what that weirdness is, Rocky Horror is a movie that lets the audience know that you can be yourself. No matter, how big and loud or quiet your personality is. There is a reason that so many theater nerds have taken this mantra to heart.
Yes, we are taking a lesson from the villain of the piece but Frank's message isn't wrong. Be proud to be who you are and Frank does that. And I think that brings me to the key thing that this remake doesn't understand about Frank's message. It dreams of being Rocky Horror but it doesn't be it's own take on Rocky Horror. Kenny Ortega was so afraid of being experimental with this remake of a movie that was originally experimental that it is an inferior version because it doesn't take any risks. The only thing added that was new was the movie theater wraparound with fans going to a screening of Rocky Horror but that added nothing and felt like nothing more than fan pandering. And if I'm to look at certain Rocky Horror Facebook Fan pages, they even got that wrong.
Creature: I think I know of another gif of Frank to describe my feelings while watching this:
This movie is awful. It doesn’t embrace the wonderfully strange nature the original had, but rather dumb it down to a rather poorly made, sanitized rendition of the film. It doesn’t do anything to make it stand out from other adaptations nor does it try to do anything new with it and that really does make it far inferior to the original film (Hell, the Midnight Screening of RHPS in Perks of Being A Wallflower did a better tribute to and that was a minor thing in that movie). Not to mention in regards of it being a tribute to B-Movies of old, they completely abandoned that notion as well and make it feel like some tongue-in-cheek cutesy thing that basically says ”we know they are there, but they aren’t that important to the film”. If anything, that just adds insult to injury for me.
Moviefan12: Folks, stick with the original. That's your best bet. As for me, I've got some reading to do.
Let's just say that I'm getting ready for next year's 31 Days of Halloween. Honestly, folks, there is no reason to watch this sanitized take on Rocky Horror. Peace!
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