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But should it be saved? Well, sure, if we're to have any rooting interest in the movie and its protagonists. But from the start, Gary is painted as a self-centered, insensitive man-child whose greatest passions are video games and baseball; the only reason audiences like this character at all is because he's played by the charismatic Vaughn, whose motormouth wit is always good for a few laughs. Brooke, meanwhile, is intelligent, classy, mature, patient, and on and on and on. He's a prick; she's a saint. Um, why exactly would we have a vested interest in whether these two remain together?
Simple answer: We don't. And since we don't care about the central plot thrust, we're left to find the odd pleasure here and there: the sharp supporting turn by Judy Davis as a haughty art gallery owner; the startling vulgarities uttered by Gary's sleazeball brother (Cole Hauser); and, best of all, the scenes between Vaughn and his Swingers co-star Jon Favreau, here cast as Gary's intriguing friend Johnny O.
Vaughn is a guy's-guy kind of actor -- his characters are more comfortable shooting pool or knocking back beers than getting romantic on the couch -- so it's no surprise that the chemistry he generates is with Favreau rather than Aniston (this fraternal rapport is also why he and Owen Wilson clicked so beautifully in Wedding Crashers). However, Vaughn and Aniston do a nice job of creating genuine tension whenever their characters find themselves immersed in yet another nasty argument -- these aren't sitcom-fake spats that resolve themselves before the next commercial break but real body-blow confrontations that sting with real-life familiarity. Now what this says about the pair's future as a real-life couple, I'll leave for the tabloids to dissect.
THE 1976 VERSION of The Omen still holds up after 30 years. That's reason enough to Netflix that baby and skip the new version that's currently haunting multiplexes.
Granted, director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines) remaking The Omen isn't as sacrilegious as Gus Van Sant remaking Psycho, but it still comes across as an unnecessary effort, as if the primary motivation was to be able to release a picture called The Omen on 6/6/06 (hence the movie's odd opening on a Tuesday). That lack of a sound reason affects the picture itself, which is competent though curiously flat. The devil taking over the world is a terrifying concept, yet here there's so little urgency to the proceedings that you'd think his master plan extended only to prank phone calls to the Vatican and TPing ministers' houses.
The new film is mostly faithful to its predecessor: An American ambassador (Gregory Peck in the original, Liev Schreiber here) and his wife (Julia Stiles replacing Lee Remick) learn too late that their adopted son is the Antichrist. Individual shock scenes -- the hanging, the gutting, the beheading, etc. -- mimic those from the original, and the British vets in the cast (David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Gambon) make the best impressions and match the efforts of those who earlier essayed their roles.
The changes from the '76 model are for the most part minor and insignificant. In an effort to inject topicality, a Biblical passage warning of the approaching Armageddon is accompanied by images of real-life horrors: A mention of collapsing mountains leads to a glimpse of the falling Twin Towers; a line about the oceans swallowing up people prompts the use of Katrina footage; and a verse about how the Antichrist will emerge from the world of politics is followed by photographs of George W. Bush. (OK, just kidding about the Dubya shots, but it would hardly be out of line, would it?) Moore also tosses in a few dream sequences, but they produce titters rather than scares. In fact, several aspects of this remake inspired scattered snickers at a preview screening, implying that if the movie fails as a horror yarn (and it does), it might yet find its niche as a camp outing.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
****
DIRECTED BY Robert Altman
STARS Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline
CARS
***1/2
DIRECTED BY John Lasseter
STARS Owen Wilson, Paul Newman
THE BREAK-UP
**
DIRECTED BY Peyton Reed
STARS Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston
THE OMEN
**
DIRECTED BY John Moore
STARS Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber