The Omen

last updated 8 January 2015

Long ago, 'œsomewhere deep in the bowels of Hollywood's Inferno,' an evil marketing manager realized that June 6, 2006, would be a perfect date to release a remake of The Omen, said Bob Longino in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It's got to be the only reason this movie exists. The screenplay is a near-verbatim copy of the 1976 original, and some of the screen shots are identical, too. Satisfying moments are few and far between, but include the classic Rube Goldberg death scenes remixed for the gorier new millennium. The moldy '70s script is just part of the problem, said Christopher Kelly in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A more urgent concern is John Moore's direction, 'œwhich is so lethargic and disengaged that you wonder if he took this job in order to work off some kind of community-service sentence.' The kid who plays Damien looks more bored than homicidal, and Mia Farrow is all Botox in her role as the nanny who doubles as the devil's handmaiden. As Damien's unlucky parents, Julia Stiles and Liev Schreiber should be ashamed of themselves, said Sukhdev Sandhu in the London Daily Telegraph. Stiles looks silly in her costumes—she's not ready for mommy roles yet—and Schreiber continues his illustrious career as 'œone of the most fascinatingly constipated actors in Hollywood today.'

Rating: R