A remake of a Kurosawa film… you’re
already on dangerous ground. But when it’s Mike Nichols directing from a
David Mamet script, I’m at least willing to listen. The film in
question is High & Low, the story of a business man whose
child is kidnapped and held for ransom. The original starred the
inimitable Toshiro Mifune, and it’s a really great film – and I think
it’s underrated since people tend to focus on Kurosawa’s samurai cinema.
Now
Chris Rock is writing the remake, according
to AOL Black Voices. What the
hell? How did Chris Rock get into the remake racket so heavily? And how
did somebody decide that Chris Rock was
the dude to write a police procedural?
For those playing along at home,
Rock’s remakes have been:
Down to Earth – a
remake of the Warren Beatty film Heaven Can Wait
I Think I Love My Wife –
a remake of Eric Fucking Rohmer’s Chloe in
the Afternoon
Those
are the ones he wrote. He’s starred in:
Death at a
Funeral – a remake of Death at a Funeral,
a British film from two years ago
The
Longest Yard
Dr. Dolittle
Sgt. Bilko (which I guess is really an
adaptation, but close enough).
And he’s optioned The First
Star,
a 2009 French film, as well!
I don’t know, this whole thing feels
like a comedy bit. I feel like I’m in a weird alternate universe where
Sarah Silverman is about to write a remake of Au Hasard Balthazar.
14 comments
Seven Samurai, in reality, is pretty boring… there someone had to say it. Just cause name dropping Kurosawa has become a fashionable way to establish film related cred, doesn't make the movie any less boring. There is no action and the dialogue is just, well, I fell asleep watching it 80% of the way through it, and never really felt like finishing it. I'm sure I missed an epic samurai sword fight that lasted more than one or two swings.
Seven Samurai is about a village attempting to hire samurai to defend them from bandits. The second act deals with them putting together "the team" and setting up defenses. The third act is devoted entirely to the bandit attack and is 100% action. It's a long movie but it pays off in full.
The Seven Samurai is not boring. It's also not really relevant to this article
I love High and Low. It's yet another Criterion collection film on Instant Watch.
Let's just be honest here: "Let's Be Honest Here's" sole criterion for good film is the presence of action.
But "High & Low" already had a shitty American remake with Ron Howard/Mel Gibson's "Ransom".
Jesus that picture looks like a still shot from a post-civil war minstrel show
Devin, people give you a lot of shit for random stuff. So here's a random compliment – your last sentence is fucking fantastic.
Interesting artcle. . . does make me worried.
But wondering if Death at a Funeral counts as British? I mean, it was directed by Frank Oz.
"Let's be honest here" is a classic example of person who thinks too much of his own opinion. He sees a classic film, doesn't enjoy it, and then immediately imagines a world wide conspiracy of persons watching, rewatching, analyzing, talking about and proclaiming love for a film that they all secretly were bored by. And, man, he going to blow the lid off that! Try this one on for size, dude. Maybe it just wasn't for you. Doesn't make it bad, or everyone else in denial, it just wasn't for you. Here, I'll even give you an example……….I didn't enjoy Cool Hand Luke. It wasn't badly done, it just didn't speak to me or entertain me on any level. I'm glad it makes so many others happy, and maybe I'm really missing something, but I guess it just wasn't for me…….Try that one on for size next time you're feeling self important.
ransom wasn't really a remake of high and low, it was just based on the same source material: ed mcbain's kings ransom.
and I would say something about comment #1, but David above summed everything up so well.
This just the straw that broke the camel's back, but this site has gone well beyond sarcasm to just straight up nasty cynicism. I can't believe how negative you're being about a script that hasn't even been written yet, much less gone before the cameras. You should rename the site to "I fucking hate the world and can't enjoy anything dot fucking com."
Let me know if you relaunch after having some much needed anti-depressants prescribed.
High and Low is an adaptation of an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel called King's Ransom. It is not about a rich man's son being kidnapped. It is about the son of a rich man's employee being mistakenly kidnapped, and the rich man refusing to pay the ransom because he doesn't give a shit about poor people. Hence, high and low. Like Kurasawa's adaptation of Macbeth (Throne of Blood) the story has greater resonance because of the class structure in Japan. Adding the element of Black/White relations in America is a brilliant idea. And, btw, it is not anything remotely like Mel Gibson's Ransom. Also, commenter #1, if you want to see guys banging swords together, watch an Errol Flynn movie. Ending the fight with the first blow is the essence of Japanese sword fighting.
Unless this is a full on adaptation of King's Ransom, with Rock playing Steve Carella, chiwetel Ejiofor as Bert Kling, Samiel l. Jackson as Lt. Byrnes, and Queen Latifah as Teddy Carella, then fuck this movie right in the ass.
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