Barendd Nobeard
Explorer
Can you spoil the ending for me? How is it different from the original? We rented the original forgfunk said:
my bachelor party
Ebert gives Texas Chainsaw remake 0 stars
- Thread starter Krug
- Start date
Holy Bovine
First Post
I think he took on Roeper to make himself look that much more intelligent.Branduil said:
Ebert is just about the only movie reviewer I read anymore - I don't always agree with him but I have found him to be spot on on many occassion.
Also I can't say I'm surprised that the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre sucked - with the crap material it had to work with hoiw could it do anything else?
gregweller
First Post
I guess I must be in the minority here, but I actually enjoyed the movie (and enough people checked it out to make it the number one movie in the country). It looked good, it sounded good, the cast did a good job of portraying stupid soon-to-be-dead-teenagers. Of course Ebert comes off as a hypocrite of the Grand Inquisitor who is caught committing unnatural acts with the acolytes variety, when he tries to argue that TCM is vile, while Kill Bill is brilliant. The new version does strip away the political and social subtexts of the original, but in a postmodern sort of way, that doesn't make the movie any less powerful. I'd compare the new version and the old version to different strategies that the Marquise de Sade used in his novels. 'Justine' and 'Juliette' both have a very strong political subtext, but '120 Days of Sodom' is devoid of that context, but that doesn't make the latter any less powerful of a novel (even though, I'll admit, that it's almost unreadable). And I won't argue that the makers of TCM had any pretensions to Art. I think that the great Anxiety of the modern age is a sort of pointless violence, and I'd argue that the remake does capture that. But I can't imagine Ebert saying something like that.
OK, you asked for it!Barendd Nobeard said:
SPOILERS.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Original: Leatherface chases girl around with chainsaw. Girl finds truck, hops on board and screaming all the while, as Leatherface chases her down the road.
Re-make: Girl escapes in Sheriff's car (Leatherface's dad), runs over Sheriff multiple times before leaving. Police come to investigate crime scene and "forget" to secure it first. Police die horrible deaths as Leatherface kills 'em (caught on tape, a la' Blair Witch).
Last edited:
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
uv23 said:I think its extrenmely hypocritical of Ebert to give one mindless ultraviolent, no-story movie 4 stars (kill bill) and another 0 stars (TCSM remake). They belong in the same dungheap as far as I'm concerned.
And ato offset some of the bitterness of my post.
Did you read Ebert's review of Texas Chainsaw Massacre? TCSM didn't get 0 stars because it's violent, nor did Kill Bill get 4 stars because it's violent. He explains his reason behind his ratings. I suggest you check the review out before slinging around accusation of hyprocrisy.
Knightcrawler
First Post
Holy Crap! What a review, I had to stop reading it half way through because I was laughing so hard. I figure I'll wait until its out on video and then rent it.
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
Ebert is a very good writer, and gives a good perspective on film, but his taste and my taste rarely overlap.
Our local newspaper. www.mountainx.com, has my favorite reviewer. He's a pompous git a lot of the time, but his taste in movies neatly matches mine, and when he hates a movie, he's hilarious. I think the worst thing he's ever said about a movie is that it "Out-Pooty Tanged Pooty Tang."
Daniel
Our local newspaper. www.mountainx.com, has my favorite reviewer. He's a pompous git a lot of the time, but his taste in movies neatly matches mine, and when he hates a movie, he's hilarious. I think the worst thing he's ever said about a movie is that it "Out-Pooty Tanged Pooty Tang."
Daniel
Kai Lord
Hero
Wow, I just read the Ebert review and must say it might possibly be the most pathetic and hypocritical review I've ever read.
TCM was "vile, ugly, and brutal" while Kill Bill was "redeemed, justified, illustrated and explained by the style?" TCM, not Kill Bill, is a "meditation on the geek-show movie?" Good. Lord.
Ebert is so far gone its not even funny. TCM was fantastic. For starters the cinematography rivaled the best work of David Fincher. You know what I mean, dripping, decaying, and yet strangely beautiful.
The tension was great, I get VERY irritated when a movie resorts to making you jump simply by blasting the speakers (28 Days Later I'm looking at YOU...and a thousand other recent attempts at scary films), but TCM just keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. Its relentless. As it should be.
Ebert complains that its "strewn with blood, bones, rats, fetishes and severed limbs, photographed in murky darkness, and scored with screams???" WTF? Did he think he was purchasing a ticket to the Texas Oven Mitt Massage Parlor? The film's based on the dementia of Ed Gein (who also inspired the characters of Norman Bates, Buffalo Bill, and Hannibal Lecter), the guy who made lamp shades and wastebaskets out of human skin, and yes even full body suits and masks. The guy who went crazy after his wacked out mother died and started digging up graves of recently buried women before upgrading to live ones.
Truly sick stuff, to be sure, and any movie that references or draws inspiration from Gein's work is definitely one to be aware of going into it. But damn TCM for drawing from the same inspirational source as other ZERO STAR films such as Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. Damn them for including Gein's fetishes into the Leatherface character, and DAMN THEM FOR HACKING OFF LIMBS.
Why couldn't it be a brilliant and beautiful movie like Kill Bill which had NONE of that? Severed limbs are for geeks. Ditto for fetishes. The whole school girl routine in KB? She was poor and liked wearing her uniform home, right Roger? A mature character study of Japanese youth.
What an utterly, utterly AWFUL review. None of the violence in TCM is played for laughs, none of it. Kill Bill? Give me a break, don't even need to go there, its too easy.
Uma's rampage is high art because she's in a more colorfully shot movie? Yeah, no cynicism or ugliness in her story, because the bouncy soundtrack has us walking out of the theatre feeling happy and exhilirated!
TCM does indeed follow some major slasher film conventions, but it also does them right. Its Silence of the Lambs meets the original Terminator. A truly visceral edge of your seat experience. The characters DON'T behave like stupid horror movie characters (funny that even Roger acknowledges that other critics completely disagree with his assinine claims) and the gore is largely OFF SCREEN.
Spoilers for some of the character deaths:
I won't spoil the other deaths but like those two, they are NOT in your face gory and are nowhere near what you see in Kill Bill. Not. Even. Close.
TCM might not be as elegant as Silence of the Lambs, but if you liked the sheer adrenaline rush go for broke no pulled punches style of the first Terminator or Aliens, I'd definitely recommend it.
TCM was "vile, ugly, and brutal" while Kill Bill was "redeemed, justified, illustrated and explained by the style?" TCM, not Kill Bill, is a "meditation on the geek-show movie?" Good. Lord.
Ebert is so far gone its not even funny. TCM was fantastic. For starters the cinematography rivaled the best work of David Fincher. You know what I mean, dripping, decaying, and yet strangely beautiful.
The tension was great, I get VERY irritated when a movie resorts to making you jump simply by blasting the speakers (28 Days Later I'm looking at YOU...and a thousand other recent attempts at scary films), but TCM just keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. Its relentless. As it should be.
Ebert complains that its "strewn with blood, bones, rats, fetishes and severed limbs, photographed in murky darkness, and scored with screams???" WTF? Did he think he was purchasing a ticket to the Texas Oven Mitt Massage Parlor? The film's based on the dementia of Ed Gein (who also inspired the characters of Norman Bates, Buffalo Bill, and Hannibal Lecter), the guy who made lamp shades and wastebaskets out of human skin, and yes even full body suits and masks. The guy who went crazy after his wacked out mother died and started digging up graves of recently buried women before upgrading to live ones.
Truly sick stuff, to be sure, and any movie that references or draws inspiration from Gein's work is definitely one to be aware of going into it. But damn TCM for drawing from the same inspirational source as other ZERO STAR films such as Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. Damn them for including Gein's fetishes into the Leatherface character, and DAMN THEM FOR HACKING OFF LIMBS.
Why couldn't it be a brilliant and beautiful movie like Kill Bill which had NONE of that? Severed limbs are for geeks. Ditto for fetishes. The whole school girl routine in KB? She was poor and liked wearing her uniform home, right Roger? A mature character study of Japanese youth.
What an utterly, utterly AWFUL review. None of the violence in TCM is played for laughs, none of it. Kill Bill? Give me a break, don't even need to go there, its too easy.
Uma's rampage is high art because she's in a more colorfully shot movie? Yeah, no cynicism or ugliness in her story, because the bouncy soundtrack has us walking out of the theatre feeling happy and exhilirated!
TCM does indeed follow some major slasher film conventions, but it also does them right. Its Silence of the Lambs meets the original Terminator. A truly visceral edge of your seat experience. The characters DON'T behave like stupid horror movie characters (funny that even Roger acknowledges that other critics completely disagree with his assinine claims) and the gore is largely OFF SCREEN.
Spoilers for some of the character deaths:
When Leatherface chases the guy through the hanging linen sheets, he angles in on the guy, swings his chainsaw, and you see a ton of blood splatter the sheets and then the guy collapses and starts rolling around. Only then do you notice his leg's missing, and even still the focus is on him crawling around and trying to keep from being carried off by his attacker.
Later, when Leatherface knocks the one girl down and slices her up you see Jessica Biel's POV from inside the van, from behind Leatherface we see him lower his chainsaw and the down padding from the girl's coat goes spraying up all around him. We know she just got cut in half but they don't even show any blood.
Later, when Leatherface knocks the one girl down and slices her up you see Jessica Biel's POV from inside the van, from behind Leatherface we see him lower his chainsaw and the down padding from the girl's coat goes spraying up all around him. We know she just got cut in half but they don't even show any blood.
I won't spoil the other deaths but like those two, they are NOT in your face gory and are nowhere near what you see in Kill Bill. Not. Even. Close.
TCM might not be as elegant as Silence of the Lambs, but if you liked the sheer adrenaline rush go for broke no pulled punches style of the first Terminator or Aliens, I'd definitely recommend it.
Last edited:
Similar Threads
