Rosemary's Baby

Derivative; Antiseptic; Atmospheric for the sake of tourist/holiday atmosphere (Paris; exotic reference; stock evil; blocked writer making his bones at prestigious institution of learning... .) Yes, the cat is black. This re-imagining of the original rests evidently upon the presumption that there is something to be gained by introducing characters who have no clear connection with the narrative, in addition to larding the product with scenes of gratuitous incoherency and gore. At one level or another, dream-sequence passages of leaps from windows, ad nauseum, detract essentially from the inner core of cinematic verity: We know we are heading down. Otherwise, see the Original. Polanski. Weird. Brilliant. Horrific.

Roman Polanski's 1968 original is my all-time favorite horror movie; to surpass this director is an impossible task;but ,curiosity,I can't help it.

Agniezka Holland is Pole ,like her prestigious colleague and she's made interesting works; she can't begin to touch his genius ,but,against all odds ,her miniseries is not as bad as I expected .

Perhaps Holland had in mind a diptych, for the credits claim :based on Ira Levin's novelS "Rosemary's baby " and "son of Rosemary"; it's a blessing she did not carry on with the second book ,for it was as mediocre as the first one was absorbing .

Polanski was faithful to the story but he transcended it with his peerless directing ; Holland's screenplay has undergone lot of changes :first the action takes place in Paris ,where the non-French can visit the Sorbonne and the Catacombes -you can visit this gruesome place, but the guide won't tell you the far-fetched explanations one hears in the movie.

Exit Hutch (replaced by a friend Julie ,and a priest who briefly appears ),Dr Shand , Laura -Louise McBurney ; Terry (replaced by a pregnant woman who jumps out of her window and whose husband reappears later); the Castevet are younger :Roman is a handsome man in his fifties and his wife is no longer old mischievous Minnie (it was probably impossible to match oscar-winning Ruth Gordon) ,but an attractive chic Margaux ; Dr Hill is replaced by Dr Bernard , who has at his disposal a much more modern technology than his American colleague, but in the end ,plays the same role as in the novel. Shady Dr Sapirstein is one of the rare characters whose part is the same as in Ira Levin's book .And ,yes ,Guy is not the actor chasing after any sort of work :he's a professor longing to become a successful writer.

The miniseries is inevitably too long and sometimes drags on ; the new technology (Dr Bernard)could have opened up new horizons for the screenplay ,but it is not fully exploited ; Zoe Saldana is an OK Rosemary but her husband 's playing leaves a lot to be desired : Patrick J.Adams is bland , harmless and not efficient at all : nothing of the great John Cassavetes 'ambiguity .Both Jason Isaacs and French Carole Bouquet are convincing ;the latter is perhaps the best of the lot ,exuding a scent of a poisoned flower .

When Holland tries to imitate her predecessor (the nightmare, the final scene) it's stating the obvious to write she does not rise to the occasion ; adding gore , horrible scenes and a colossal mistake in the final scenes do not help .

The 1968 movie was a masterpiece ;the miniseries is just OK, watchable if you are curious.

When you remake a classic, the goal should be to blow your audience away not barely make a ripple. As one of many viewers of the original, I was pretty open minded, an opportunity to see one of my favorite horror novels brought to the screen again and looking forward to seeing how they could improve on perfection (okay, maybe I wasn't so open minded).

Hats off to the locale. A great choice Paris, urbane and dark, however the apartment building was nowhere near as creepy as The Dakota. The acting was believable with a good looking cast and at first held a lot of promise. Instead of eccentric senior folks, they are replaced by well dressed, well connected and attractive AARP members.

One of my main criticisms of this version is the excessive use of blood and guts. I recently read an interview with Zoe Saldana, who plays Rosemary Woodhouse and she said for today's audience they needed to make it bloody. Really? Gratuitous violence just like gratuitous sex feels false and detracts. How wonderful that the original didn't rely on jump scares(not found here but such a staple in modern horror) and horrific images. Nothing is more scary than the imagination.

Is this the worst remake ever? No, not by any means. It was entertaining though a bit long. The main difference between this and the original is that in the original I didn't want it to end; in this version I couldn't wait for it to end.

It was genuine interest that spiked me to sit down to watch this 2014 TV mini-series of the 1968 classic movie. And now that I have seen this TV mini-series I can honestly say that if you have seen the classic movie and enjoyed that, then you probably am not going to be enjoying this 2014 re-invention too much.

Sure, the Paris setting was a nice touch, given the architecture and the catacombs in Paris, but there was a little bit too much political correctness in this TV mini-series (not saying that political correctness is a bad thing here). Why change the lead role to an African-American when it was a Caucasian in the original movie? Story-wise, then this 2014 re-make is the exact same as the original, just with extra fillings to make it span over a longer running time. Was that really necessary? No, not really.

As for the cast, well people were doing great jobs. But the real talents and stars of the TV mini-series were Carole Bouquet (playing Margaux) and Jason Isaacs (playing Roman).

The 2014 TV mini-series is a great introduction for a new audience unfamiliar with the 1968 classic movie. But for us who watched the original, loved and enjoyed it, then the 2014 version is a pale and hollow experience that the world really didn't need.

The running time of the TV mini-series caused the experience to be stretched to the limit, because there was too much unnecessary materials throughout the course, and the show was starting to halt and lose interest at certain points.

A mediocre 5 out of 10 stars for this 2014 re-make version.

Remaking one of the great films (not just horror) of all time is not a very good idea, and almost certainly was going to be met with resistance and negative feedback and groans of lack of imagination nowadays. But "Rosemary's Baby" does present some interest as a modern updated take on the original 60's set story.

How does the story and Rosemary's actions change in the modern world? What with the internet and cell phones and instant information, and maybe most importantly, a strong independent "modern" woman. The casting of Zoe Saldana as Rosemary, famous for her tough as nails action heroines she's been known to play, would seem to suggest this.

None of this means anything however. The movie does open with Rosemary chasing down a burglar, resulting in a cop calling her brave and reckless, suggesting he needs more cops like her. Yet this leads nowhere. Never again does Rosemary do anything rash or without someone's permission. If the movie were to suggest that her independence had been taken from her, then yes maybe that would be interesting but that's not what's here.

Instead we get a basic retread, expanded upon here and with some added gore there, with a fresh city that really amounts to nothing other than some French accents. Rosemary doesn't every really feel out of place here, except one time near the beginning when she suggest that she can't stay at a party because everyone is speaking French. But then everyone speaks English and that's that. Everything is plot contrivance without any new raison d'etre (I had to). Much like the recent wasted attempt at a "Carrie" remake...