Alfie

Bravo! A remake that tops the original! I loved this movie. Kudos to Charles Shyer, Jude Law, and screenwriter Elaine Pope for making this awesome movie! Sure, I wish Michael Caine could have played the role of Joe and Shirley Winters had played Alfie's neighbor, but other than that I totally dug the film.

Oh! And too bad the Rolling Stones didn't do the music. Sure, Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart did a great job, but if the Stones had done the music? Man! That woulda been ultra awesome! But yeah, this is a great story of a pretty boy Englishman ladies man and his trials and tribulations in modern day Manhattan! Great new setting for the remake! I think Alfie should have driven a motorcycle. A Rune. Other than his Vespa. I think the Vespa worked. But it wasn't ballsy enough I think. Still, it worked for the retro 60's vibe they were going for.

The rest of the cast is perfect. Nia Long and Omar Epps are perfectly cast. And Jude Law? Whoa, this is one of his best performances. And Alfie's words about F.B.B. -- face, boobs, bum! And how those things are what matter most to men. Too true.

And Jane Krakowski was great in her role. The scene where she is in the limo. It had a kind of S&M feel to it with her hands in those straps. And man, her legs! Awesome! She is smokin' hot! You see just a bit of her naked bum in a shot where she walks off to meet her husband Phil the Pill after saying bye to Alfie. Hmmmmmmmm. Hot stuff.

This is more of a guy flick than a chick flick. Hell, a story about a guy getting women left and right? Now that's a dick flick! HA! I liked lots of little details about this film. Alfie's relationship with Julie and the scene where she makes him a late night dinner of chili and French bread. Yum! And Alfie selecting his wardrobe of Gucci and pink shirt at the start of the film. I could never wear that color but it works in this flick! And the ending. Man! Heartbreaking, tragic and magic! A guy who is doomed. But maybe there is some hope for him. Maybe. And! This is probably the old Charles Shyer directed film I've ever loved.

Old habits die hard. As does the memory of this great movie.

... as I haven't (FAR too young when it originally came out!), and can judge the movie without preconceptions, it's actually quite, quite good. From others' comments, I believe this should be called a reconception rather than a remake - and face it, if they followed the original, time-bound character/plot, it really WOULDN'T work today - so there is no sense in decrying that this isn't slavish to the Caine version. On its own terms, the movie is very stylish, with excellent cinematography, directing and editing, and the acting is top-notch across the board [For Broadway aficionados, look for Tony winners Jefferson (I Am My Own Wife) Mays as the Doctor and Hairspray's Dick Latessa as Joe].

Law is disarmingly charming as Alfie, and that goes a long way in selling the character, and making his attitude towards women somewhat tolerable. Of the women, Sarandon {looking incredible for 58! ... and delivering her final coup de grace with devilish elan], Long, Krakowski and especially (surprisingly?) Law's current squeeze Miller all make strong impressions. Tomei is OK, but is really neither attractive or special enough to justify Law's interest in her [and his fixation on her young son is a little creepy/unbelievable for such a womanizer]. The substitution of the interracial dalliance with Long for the abortion is a stroke of genius, as it will probably have the same 'shocking' effect for some in the audience. Yes, the direct address is a little jarring at times, but is necessary and DOES follow the original.

On the minus side, the Mick Jagger/Dave Stewart music DOESN'T work, but Joss Stone's remake of the title song is effective. If you can forget, or better yet, haven't seen the original to compare this version to, I think you will find it a very entertaining, relevant movie (compared to most Hollywood remake dreck). I wouldn't even be surprised to find this garnering quite a few Oscar noms (given this year's weak field) come the end of the year... Give it a chance.

Jude Law takes the title role in this remake of the 1966 flick that was the follow-up hit that confirmed Michael Caine as a star. He's been an enduring one, still turning them out, as British actors do, whenever he's asked. 130 movies, with three n various stages of production. Good on him.

But we're talking about the 2004 production, and Jude Law here. Remakes of classics always start with a disadvantage. Just as Caine undoubtedly had to contend with comparisons to Terence Stamp's performance in the original stage production (Stamp turned down the movie, and helped talk Caine into it, impelled, no doubt, by a hope that a good paycheck would get Caine out of his apartment and into his own flat). So lets get to it: Law plays a playboy, not uncaring, but happy with his life of plenty of women and no attachments, who comes to realize that's not what he wants. Caine played the same facade and base.... and then layered them with the coldness he plays so well. Law thinks he has it all; Caine brought an amount of misogynistic disdain into the mix. That might not play in the 21st century, but it's a more nuanced and interesting performance, watching Alfie's change from a cheap villain into his own victim.

Still, this is a handsome production, reset in New York City for no particular reason, and offering a good time. It's not a classic, but it is a good film.

Not a lot of people know this, but Terence Stamp first played the role of Alfie on stage over thirty years ago. He was then offered the film role, but turned it down. His flatmate, a struggling up and coming actor, tried to convince him to take the part, but Terence was not budging. And so his flatmate took the role. His name, was Michael Caine, and that film, Alfie, spring boarded the young actor to be the most famous cockney in the world. Of all Caine's films this ranks alongside Get Carter and The Italian Job as his best, and so why re-make it I hear you cry! Hollywood had a go at remaking The Italian Job and Get Carter but only came out with turkeys so big you couldn't fit them in your oven. But instead of remaking a Michael Caine film that wasn't good (THE SWARM, BLAME IT ON RIO!) Caine's golden classic Alfie has had the makeover, with pretty boy Jude Law bought in to ask what it's all about. Well for those who don't know what it's all about, Alfie's world is women, pulling them and dumping them. Sounds a little cold, but that is Alfie, a bird puller extraordinaire who lives for the conquests, but soon bores of them whenever commitment rears it's ugly head. Of course Alfie has to be bought down a peg or two, and this happens as a result of another conquest, which has further reaching consequences than Alfie can realize. But should Alfie have been dusted down for the 2004 audience? Well the answer is no. But why? Well, to analyse this we have to go back to the beginning and what Alfie was in Caine's day. Alfie was a man about town stuck in the poor end of London, sleeping his way through a never ending supply of 'birds' while fighting his working class shackles. Back then women were not the powerful sex they are today, at least not on the cinema screen, and were happy to get Alfie's dinner and scrub his floors. Now lets look at Jude Laws Alfie, living in present day New York, and sleeping with a seemingly never ending amount of stunners, who all seem to be getting as much out of him as he gets out of them. And so what's he got to fight against? Not his surroundings (he's in glamorous Manhattan) and his job isn't that bad (still a driver, but look at the perks), and he even likes the kid of one of his girlfriends. And so he's a nice guy, and there is problem 1, bang goes Alfie's cold side. And so what we are left with is a man who lives in New York and finds it hard to commit. Hardly a rare phenomenon. Problem number 2 is the original Alfie movie's use of the shock factor. Denholm Elliott turning up to do a back street abortion was enough to make some walk out the cinema in 1966. In this film the subject of abortion, although delicately handled, has lost it's cinematic impact, which is no doubt due to the three decades that has passed between films. And so we come to problem number 3, the films flaw being that the Alfie of today is simply not as relevant to the Alfie of yesterday. Today we have 'Sex and the City', empowered women, whom one can't help but feel would eat Alfie up alive. Indeed, the film would be more realistic if the lead was a female, although that would send traditionalists (like myself) running up the nearest tree. The makers of this re-make obviously think that illnesses has to be stepped up, and so while Caine's Alfie was given shadows on his lung to make him give pause, Law's Alfie gets a lump on his…erm…'Big Ben' (I hope to God that's not the new word for it) But what about performances? Well, Law as Alfie is fine, giving emotion where its needed, although his performance does not bounce along like Caines did. When Caine spoke to the camera, immediately breaking the fourth wall and bonding with the audience, it was the height of cool, when Law does the same it feels cheesy, and like cheese, it soon starts to grate. Susan Sarandon, as the sexy older woman, certainly fulfils her characters description, while Sienna Miller gives a promising portrayal as a young women who looks like a young Marianne Faithful (circa 1965) minus her Rolling Stone. And so the blame for the films failure cannot be left at its actors doors, nor its director. The film is simply a victim of its time. Alfie belongs in the sixties, when the world (or London at least) was swinging. Right now the only thing swinging is the cinema doors, and that's because I've just left.

What's it all about? (opening line from the original-movie 1966)

"Alfie" is a remake of the 1966 British film that made an international star of Michael Caine. It takes a story very much associated with a particular time and place -- London in the swinging '60s -- and successfully transplants it to modern-day New York City. The cockney lothario played by Caine has been turned into a working-class British émigré played by Jude Law, who makes Alfie a bit less cockney and a bit more self-aware.

Alfie's a smooth talking Londoner in New York who does his very best to avoid succumbing to the dreaded 'c' word commitment. Along the way, we're introduced to some of his ladies on the go – Dorie, Julie, Liz and Nikki, to name but a few.

Like the earlier "Alfie," it's the story of a sexually promiscuous man. Alfie (Law), a chauffeur, lives in a small Manhattan apartment and dedicates his life to seducing women. Talking directly into the camera, and preening with a self-satisfaction so complete as to seem a form of innocence, he expounds on clothes, the proper application of cologne and the various rules he employs in his libidinous pursuits. His goal, it seems, is to have sex with as many women as possible but to get close to none of them.

Each one starts off as a fling, but somehow manages to influence Alfie's life. He slowly starts to realize that he is actually alone and that there is more to life than what he has done so far.

Like the earlier "Alfie," the new version could be called a cautionary tale, about a way of life that leads to the existential confusion embodied in the famous catchphrase, "What's it all about?"

Anyone we know in it? Jude Law is fresh and funny as Alfie, with just the right amount of smug attitude. The stunning Sienna Miller is the beautiful but 'damaged' Nikki, and Susan Sarandon sizzles as the sexy older woman, Liz. There's also Marisa Tomei (Julie), Nia Long (Lonette) and Omar Epps plays Alfie's best friend, Marlon.

Would I recommend it? Definitely. Although remakes do not usually come through smelling of roses, this one does. It's fresh, colourful and funny. Jude Law is magnificent, introducing us to a slightly warmer side of Alfie than Michael Caine.