At least time we got an actress who actually looks like a 17 yr old girl.
Especially since she was 16 when it was filmed. I haven’t seen it yet, but one thing I’m noticing in a lot of reviews are a variation on this thought:
“I know that saying “she’s too pretty for this role” is a cheat and a little unfair to Chloe Grace Moretz. But I’m going to say it anyway, she is too pretty to be taken seriously as Carrie.”
I have to admit, I feel the same way.
But when they had an actress reprise the role that would rival Sissy Spacek in the awkward and homely looks department, it didn’t help sell the film at all. Sure, it was a made for TV shitfest, but the idea that her looks need to be a certain way was thoroughly debunked with Angela Bettis.
Shrug
I haven’t seen Carrie yet, but I’m solely going to judge it on its own merits, not how much I love the original. Oh and of course the ending packed more punch in the original. No one had seen it done before and now it’s such old hat that it’s considered lame or a cheat to go for such a cheap scare.
Because she was definitely a homely monster.
You know, the second Carrie was a looker too.
Of course, Chloe is better looking than either the literary Carrie or Sissy Spacek, but she still conveyed Carrie’s outsiderness. She showed a googly-eyed cluelessness that practically screamed “Kick me!”
Definitely NOT a shot-for-shot remake (that was the 2006 OMEN), did tip the hat to the tuxedo scene. But the biggest difference-----
Piper Laurie’s Margaret White was a cartoon character. Julianne Moore’s was a sad & damaged person.
I don’t see the problem with her being “too pretty” for the role. Being pretty doesn’t make someone NOT an outsider, particularly when she’s weird and her mother had an existing small-town reputation for being weird. There were plenty of girls in my small hometown who were pretty but not popular. They didn’t know how to dress/couldn’t afford to dress nicely, didn’t do it up on a daily basis in terms of hair and makeup, and lacked the social skills or desire to “act popular.”
But they were completely friendless and had trouble finding dates? That’s the problem with casting a pretty girl as Carrie (or in the other go-to example, She’s All That).
If someone is weird enough and the town is small enough, it’s completely believable.
For me, Moretz’s problematic casting has nothing to do with looks. She just seems too naturally confident and self-assured to pass for a weirdo outsider. Sissy Spacek brought an almost alien quality to her Carrie, which really played up the character’s Otherness. Moretz hunching her shoulders and having her hair hang in her eyes just doesn’t have the same effect. She definitely fits the character better after Carrie snaps, but it feels like she was cast specifically for that part of the movie, not for the first two-thirds of it. Actually, she probably would have been better cast as Chris.
For a comparison, imagine a version of Office Space that starred Bruce Willis as Milton Waddams. The casting doesn’t work not because of Willis’s appearance, but because his screen presence doesn’t fit the character he’s playing.
Anyway, I didn’t think much of this movie. It doesn’t bring anything new to the story, and for any complaints about the original movie’s technical values, I point to all the awful CGI in this movie. This one certainly won’t age any better than the first one, and it will probably look worse in ten years than the first one does now.
I know this has been a pattern for a while now, but man, the trailer for this movie gives EVERYTHING away. Everything. Even if I’d never seen the original Carrie, I’d have a pretty darn good idea of what happens by the end.
I used to complain about this too. But watch the original 1976 trailer… it’s worse.
And they even had principal mention that Carrie was home-schooled until last year when the state made her mother stop which would make her even more isolated than she was in the original movie or novel.
And that is where I will totally disagree. I can understand the arguments Spacek>Moretz, 1976 SFX>2013 CGI, De Palma’s style>Peirce’s, BUT I will argue that Julianne Moore gives us a totally different feel for Margaret White that is somewhat sympathetic, more restrained, and thus much more disturbing that Piper Laurie’s over-the-top portrayal.
This review really understands it…
Agreed. I can’t help but wonder if the children of the young people today who say, “I can’t watch yucky old black and white movies.” will be saying, “I can’t watch those crappy old movies with CGI in them.”.
Yep. And there will be a remake of the Matrix with the aesthetic preferences of the day and everyone older will hate it because it isn’t the thing they remember.
Julianne Moore was definitely more interesting.
The rest of it was fine but didn’t do anything for me that the original didn’t.
Prom bulletin: Regarding Carrie
Please don’t make her mood too contrary.
One bucket of blood
Comes down with a thud
And things will soon get very scary.
Did this remake have the same scene, at the very, very end of the film, as the original?
I remember waiting in line in NYC to watch the film, and suddenly there was a roar of screams from inside the theater and minutes later people were walking out, still smiling and somewhat embarrassed from having jumped out of their seats at that last little “surprise”.
Included in this?
Same thing or variation?
Back in the day, seeing it in a crowded theater, I could feel the row of seats move at that moment. It was my second time seeing it, so I was waiting for everyone else’s reaction.