"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (2016) - SPOILERS!

Surprised there's not a thread about this....

Alright - knowing I may raise some vitriol, what did we all think about Fox's made-for-TV "Rocky Horror" remake? My personal thoughts (SPOILERS AHEAD):

THE GOOD
* I liked that they didn't just duplicate the lips, and did "Science Fiction" in a way that nodded to the stage show.
* The sets were amazing, especially the laboratory.
* Reeve Carney did a fair job emulating Richard O'Brien.
* Laverne Cox was a great successor to Tim Curry. Yes, she was a controversial choice (a lot of people seemed to wish Adam Lambert had been Frank instead), but she certainly served the part well.
* Though I would've liked to have seen more of Tim (several of his scenes were cut and may appear on the DVD), I'm glad they were able to incorporate him, and work around whatever he wasn't able to do.
* The new Brad and Janet were well cast. I was very skeptical about Victoria Justice as Janet - but like Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo, she surprised me.
* They put the bridge of "Sword Of Damocles" back in! Sort of!

THE BAD
* Not the movie's fault, but Fox's - the commercial breaks really spoiled the flow of the movie towards the end, and putting a break in the middle of a song? That's ridiculous.
* Eddie in the table didn't work this time around. It was played for laughs rather than a shock, and it didn't work.
* I'm very on the fence about Columbia. I don't quite 'get' this stoned-out version of the character. I did like her pajamas, though!
* The Transylvanians coming back for the Floor Show was *way* over the top. The Floor Show worked in the original because they were in an empty room, performing for Frank's own entertainment. You got more of a sense that Frank was coming totally unhinged. This time, the whole scene just came off very overcrowded.
* None of the casting choices really bugged me.... except Ben Vereen. He was quite honestly the most random and strange Dr. Scott I've ever seen.

Your thoughts?

 

My wife and I liked it.
Although, we thought L Cox was trying to impersonate Tim.

It was well done.

jerol

 

She was, definitely - but I thought it was a great impression; and her character was just different enough, too.

 

I only caught the last hour of it, but I wasn't terribly impressed.

Victoria Justice was cute though...

It was nice to see Tim Curry as the narrator/criminologist, it was the first time I'd seen him in anything since he had a stroke a few years ago.

 

Yeah, this was the only thing he's done since then (to my knowledge) - on screen, at least.

 

I'm glad some of you found it interesting, but I found it pointless & slow in spots. Laverne Cox was *not* a good casting choice - I like the idea of Adam Lambert doing the role better. The song arrangements were odd and the song performances from the movie I grew up with were better. Another unnecessary remake in my book...

Derek

 

Of course they could not do a scene for scene remake but I did not care for most of it,the signing was bad IMO and showing an audience reacting was kind of lame.Cool they put the song Superheroes in.i did think the line about "not meatloaf again" was kind of funny.

 

The set and costume design was fun. Bringing back the soda cooler as the vessel for Rocky's birth was a great touch. "41st Annual Transylvanian Convention" nodding to the anniversary of the original film was also nice.

Some of the choices done for goofy humor actually made me laugh - replacing applause with snapping being a good example. Sometimes the campiness was just a little too high, though. Ryan McCartan surprised me with his comic timing.

This version had the pace and tone of a stage show, not a movie. I imagine it would be fun to see done on stage in this manner.

Most of the re-arrangements done to the songs were interesting or at least passable. "Eddie's Teddy" was possibly the worst. "Sweet Transvestite" I thought had a great swing and adding the trio of backing vocalists gave it a different vibe.

I do not understand the modern vocal styling of singers like Ivy Levan (who did "Science Fiction/Double Feature"). Singers like her seem to be putting on this affected soulful voice with odd enunciations (her "I really got hot when I saw Jannette Scott" sounded like "I really got high..." (??)). It feels like the lineage that came through Christina Aguilera and Amy Winehouse, but now it just sounds over-emoted to me. Too bad, because Ivy Levan did a nice job bringing character to the usherette. She seemed believable as both wistful and feisty throughout the song, making it seem like the late night double feature picture show really had some magic to it.

 

Wow, I thought it sucked in every way imaginable. Well, perhaps not that bad, but...yeah, actually it was that bad. Even my 13 year old son thought it was crap compared to the original, but we just couldn't keep away from making a comparison. If they hadn't jacked with so many of the melodies I could have closed my eyes and forgiven most of the horrible showing from cast and crew.

I usually don't come in and trash anything without putting much thought into it, but since everyone involved in this remake didn't put much thought into it, then screw it, I'll stand my ground.

 

I thought the music was all in tact and actually not that bad. I love the songs in the RHPS, and I wasn't dissapointed there. I own four different cast recordings of the RHPS and wish I had seen the original London production. Listen to that one and you'll hear how every production has its own sound.But the production itself (except for the opening, which was excellent. That usherette was terrific) was CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP. It looked one step away from a high school production. The costumes were horrible. The choreography just okay. And I thought the casting was so, so. with the performances also so-so. I have no problems with remakes of the RHPS, as it was originally a play and has been performed thousands of times in a many productions, so it's not like the original film (which I really don't like) is some holiest of holy. I think it's actually more palatable as a play than a film.

 

I finally got fed up with the constant barrage of negativity towards the remake (to the point where people just started personally insulting the actors for being involved), and I made a video about it. Take a look...

 

I watched about half of this and didn't enjoy it. It felt very Disney-fied and fake to me. It totally lost the core of the original, which had a little something sinister to it.

 

Nice video. You're a well-spoken young man! I personally thought Laverne Cox was the best thing in it, it make me smile every time she imitated Tim Curry's bizarre speech! I don't have any problem bashing productions online and I don't care if the actors do see a rant. They're getting a couple hundred grand (or a couple million) for playing dress up and bouncing around with a bunch of other actors for a month with catered meals, bad reviews should be the least of their worries. Actors are such shameless extrovert show-offs, they need a little beating back now and then to keep their egos in check.

 

It was........ 'OKAY'.... (to quote Columbia). It had too much to live up to & I felt that it was quite
2nd rate. I did enjoy the 'live band' feel created in the musical scenes. That was a good
idea.

 

What was once cutting edge and counterculture is now mainstream. I've got almost a dozen cast recordings, and many of the ones that aren't in English were more enjoyable than this. I understand that they want to remake it for a modern audience but making it sound like something from High School Musical wasn't the way to go, IMHO.

 

I'll watch anything with Victoria Justice.

 

*SMACK* OKAY?!!!

....Yeah, it was okay.

 

Tell that to Leslie Jones. Actors *do* have hearts.

 

Of course they do, they're so in love with themselves their hearts are huge!

 

Columbia was drugged out because she was a drug addict in the play - "the only thing that gives me hope is my love of a certain dope". I didn't like having the musicians present. I'm guessing some tv exec figured that kids today wouldn't understand why people just started singing and music magically appeared.

 

Agreed. This is Rocky Horror with the life sucked out of it. It's a sanitized, glossy approximation of the original, but fails to recapture its spirit and grit.

 

Unlike the original, which was more edgy and fake. I mean, if you are looking for realism, you've come to the wrong place.

But I do agree that the remake was appreciably less edgy. Combined with it being 2016, not 1976, that's not a good thing.

And I am sure someone somewhere thought casting a transgendered actress in the Frankenfurter role is genius. But it's not. Tim Curry brought more to the role.

 

My friend last night said he didn't watch it because he hates the songs!

 

So was Dr. Frankenfurter a real transexual this time? I'm confused.

 

Yeah, the implication is that Frank is transgender - which makes "Sweet Transvestite" incorrect.

That's one of the biggest and most common gripes about this version.