Customer Reviews

The Fog (2005, Rated, Fullscreen)/The Fog (1980, Special Edition) 2-Pk btb

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I can't believe I wasted $8.00 watching this movie. I have only myself to blame, since I was foolish enough to go and see how they would change the original story. Well, it was as bad as I expected it to be. THE FOG has little in common with the original classic except the premise: ghosts rising from the sea to wreak vengeance upon a small town for crimes committed a century ago. Otherwise, this film was an abomination. For example:
1)the original began with an old fisherman telling the story of the Elizabeth Dane to children around a roaring campfire. The remake began with the ship set on fire by the founders, thus eliminating the mystery.
2)Father Malone read his grandfather's journal to tell the audience the truth about the founding of the town and the curse that was about to descend upon its citizens. In the remake,
we learn the truth from Elizabeth's dreams. The journal is included as a token gesture to the original, and Father Malone is all but ignored.
3) The computer-generated images of the fog and the ghosts did not frighten me. John Carpenter and Debra Hill made the fog in the original seem alive as well as menacing.
4) the cast was no different than those of films we have seen since SCREAM was released. Not one actor delivered a convincing let alone a good performance. The original had talented actors
like John Houseman, Janet Leigh, Hal Holbrook, and Jamie Lee Curtis. All of whom performed admirably.
5) the director proved incapable of creating a scary movie. Then again, only a fool would dare to improve upon a horror film made by John Carpenter.
6) the ending defied logic. In the original the ghosts returned to punish Father Malone. Why Elizabeth kissed Blake and joined him in the spirit realm as his bride is incomprehensible.
I hope THE FOG is the last in a long line of wretched remakes of classic horror films, but I doubt it. I can assure you, however, that this is the last time I pay to see one.

After watching John Carpenter's original I was really creeped out by it. I have to say, I think that movie needed to have a facelift like this. I loved the original (I own the DVD), but I think the remake gives the story a nicely darker package. Thanks to todays wonderful little computer toys, "The Fog" is no longer a glowing blue mass, It is a wispy gray/green mass that moves forward with determination and drive. The original may have had some cool effects, but with technology today they can make "The Fog" do so much more. Ok, on to the well above average acting. Selma Blair. What else need I say? Beautiful, talented, and rather sexy Blair brings sweet life to the role of Antonio Island radio personality Stevie Wayne. The role is somewhat less in this version however, but that doesn't make Blair any less compelling in the part. Tom Welling and Maggie Grace are Nick Castle and Elizabeth Williams, respectively. Both do admirable jobs, though Nick was a bit more playboyish in this one. I don't know the young boy playing Andy (Stevie's son), but he deserves mention for being a lot smarter in this version. This Andy actually runs from "The Fog" at first sight of it rolling across the ocean like a blanket ready to smother everything in its icy folds.
I have already mentioned how the effects of today can make "The Fog" do so much more than Carpenter ever imagined in 1980. Now it is time to give THE MAN his due. Rupert Wainwright (director of "Stigmata") delivers the creepy goods fast, hard, and almost nonstop. Kudos, man, Kudos. Cooper Layne's ("The Core") screenplay is also of worthy mention. Yes, some really significant changes have been made to the story. The most obvious would be the ages of the main players. Yes, we have a younger Nick Castle and Elizabeth (in the original she was not related to the town at all) Williams. However, I consider most of the changes to be for the better. Giving us more insight into Blake's (Rade Serbezija) plight was a good move I think. The poor guy really was trying to provide a better life for his people (including his lovely wife, whose role becomes quite important over the course of the film). Sadly, he was screwed over in a major way. Who wouldn't be angry if they had met the horrible fate Blake did at the hands of traitorous thieves. In closing, the movie was awesome. People will moan at the PG-13 rating, but look at the original. There was nothing really gory in that film. I saw much grisslier sights in this remake than I ever did in Carpenter's. Go see for yourself. Can you say Leprosy is really nasty? So, don't judge it on its rating, it is very intense for a PG-13, but it feels just like it should. Some critics have already called it an assembly line picture. Well, if that is true then its a darn good assembly line becasue I like what I saw. Rupert Wainwright has proved himself to be a worthwhile ("assembly line" HA, HA, HA) director. See it, enjoy it, and leave it behind until the DVD comes out. That is one horror DVD I will certainly be picking up. It had better have a good "making of" doc too. BRAVO RUPERT, COOPER, AND SELMA.

The Fog is good. I mean, the movie is good, the fog is bad. It's about resident's of an island haunted by ghosts from the sea. The fog is their medium of travel and they only appear as apparitions in the fog. The story behind the ghosts and their reason for haunting the island is interesting, and while the first part of the movie isn't very scary, as that background story develops it gets scary enough to recommend for horror fans.

I don't know why the movie needed to be remade, but if you want an average scare or are a Tom Welling (Smallville) fan, you won't be disappointed.

THE FOG IT ROCKS IT WILL KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF YOUR FEET

why does everybody hate this film. sure the plot sucks,but its just so cool and creepy that you don't care.call me crazy, but this could be one of the best horror films of the year.considering how bad venom,the amityville horror,hide and seek,and cursed were.ok I admit it I liked the ring two and boogeyman.this movie is up with the ring as one of the best
PG-13 horror movies ever

Is it a good thing that sitting there watching this movie that I was constantly shaking my head in disgust and feeling my internal organs fluttering around, ready to explode in order to alieviate my burden of having to sit through this crap any longer.
I don't understand Hollywood.
-B list actors
-cheesy slow motion death scenes
-rubber masks, I mean come on rubber bleeping masks. I've seen better costumes on Halloween night at my door.
- then there was about 3 car collisions within 10 minutes. There was a point in the middle of the flick that I thought " hey wait I looks like it might be getting better" but NOOOOO!!! They had to ruin the only thing the movie had going for it (the fog) and show the people , in those rubber bleeping masks, that occupied the fog. At that point I closed my eyes and wished for death or any end to the misery that was "The Fog".
It probably would have been better served as a sequel rather than a remake. Carpenter version relied on suspense rather than effects. This version had little suspense and the effects were no that much better than the original, in fact, I thought the original fog was far spookier.
Go see it if you dare, but the prospect of sitting through this movie again, for me, is scarier than the film itself.
Well thank you Hollywood for ruining another classic movie by doing such trash remakes like this.
Keep up the good work.

As the town of Antonio Bay gears up for its 100th anniversary, a thick fog works its way toward the town. Something in the fog begins to kill the townspeople, and it is up to Nick Castle (Welling) and his girlfriend (Grace) to figure out what is going on and save the town from the danger in the fog.

I've never seen the original and this newer version does not particularly make me want to. Despite starting out well, the ending is a mess, not making much sense at all. The effects are pretty good and give some genuine scary moments, but that is not enough to save the movie. If you want to see this, wait for the DVD.

I went into the remake of the Fog with average expectations. I saw the original movie from the early 1980s, so I knew that even the first one wasn't exactly a classic. Yes, it was atmospheric and claustrophic, and it did have a couple of genuinely scary moments, but for the most part, I just felt like they could have done so much more with it than they did. That was why when I heard they were remaking the movie, I was excited to see what they would do with it.

Well, it honestly only took about 5 minutes before I heard the first whisperings in front of me and behind me about how poorly the film looked and sounded. The direction, editing, choreography... everything just seemed somewhat off and out of place. The special effects were not an improvement at all, (even the cheesy "glowing" fog from the original was better than the horrible CGI Fog of this one). The acting was stilted and wooden, and the dialogue was laughable. Very quickly I realized that I was basically watching what should have been a straight-to-video horror movie. And what's even worse is that as time went on, the movie got tedious, dull, and even preposterous at the end. (At least the original succeeded in building some sort of tension).

I highly recommend staying away from this movie. Two of my friends left in the middle, another fell asleep, and I asked for my money back. It's the only movie in my life where the audience actually boo'd at the end.

Hollywood slump? There definitely is a slump in Hollywood, and look no further than this dreadful remake of John Carpenter's 1980 flick, 'The Fog', for proof that Hollywood is on a losing streak.

The 1980 original is not a classic that was beggining to be remade, but I guess having the name of John Carpenter attached, and the current trend of horror remakes (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Amityville Horror) made this seem like a can't-lose situation. Well, the result is one of the worst films of the year. Twenty minutes into this film, you will know this is a stinker.

The basic storyline revolves ghosts exacting revenge on a town via a fog. It is preposterous but at least Carpenter was able to create some effective chills through spooky atmosphere in his version. This remake is not scary; just silly.

The cast is uniformly bad. Tom Welling's one good moment involves him taking his shirt off to display his well-toned body. His co-star Maggie Grace is neither charming or appealing. They both come off like models on their first film set.

The movie even features a drunken priest - who is drunk in every scene. It's so laughable, although that is not as funny as the scene where a character finds a man frozen in a freezer - and it's clear this character has been locked up overnight - yet he's still alive.

It's obvious this film was made for a quick buck. But as box office receipts diminish, Hollywood can only blame itself for being stuck in this rut -- or more appropriately, this fog.

If they want to find their way out of it, make some decent movies, and think of something original.

Like all remakes I am very skeptical of what they do, be it Texas Chainsaw Massarce, the first one was alright but the remake...well the two remakes were total awful. This year, there were a bunch of remakes like War Of The Worlds, The Longest Yard, Bad News Bears, and The Amityville Horror and so on....I dont know, I like to complain some times a lot on remakes because sometimes they do horrible jobs and sometimes they do a decent job and some surprise me. The remake of John Carpenter's 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis flick, The Fog is not that successful. I like the fog effect when the fog rolls into the town, they did a good job at that. The story consists of a town called Antonio Bay and a curse from a ship wreck which involving the towns Four Fathers. The crew from the ship are ghosts and they bring the fog along with them. A failed attempt, too bad John Carpenter didnt remake it, that would of been interesting but Rupert Wainwright's directing only goes so far and the ghosts are only effective when we cant see them up close, only when we see them from afar and walking. Starring Tom Welling (Cheaper By The Dozen movies, Tv's Smallville), Maggie Grace (Tv's LOST), Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions, Hellboy), Rade Sherbedgia (Eyes Wide Shut, Snatch) in a wasted role, Kenneth Walsh and DeRay Davis. Some pretty interesting moments direction wise, Grace and Welling cant save it, only Selma Blair rises above the rest of the cast.