Editor’s Note: Freeline Media’s movie critic, Mike Fried, recently reviewed some classic films from England’s Ealing Studios. Now he review a film that attempted to be a reimagining of an Ealing classic. Does it work? Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
I had recently reviewed Kind Hearts and Coronets a very short while ago, and having just found out that the new movie How to Make a Killing was a reimagining of the Ealing classic (and let’s face it — because I have a Regal Unlimited subscription) I figured that I’d review and report.
How To Make a Killing
**
“Four Hours Until Execution!”
Those are the first words we see after the studio credits.
And then we see Becket Redfellow in his jail cell on death row. A priest comes to see him and Becket tells his tale, which starts with his very rich mother marrying a cello player beneath her station — and by doing so she gets disowned. Becket and his mom are still in the inheritance chain, but they have to live longer than anyone else. Before his mother dies, she makes him promise that he will have the right kind of life. And because her final wish of being buried in the family crypt is ignored, Becket decides he wants what he is owed and will kill to get what he feels he is owed.
Does this sound familiar?
If it does, that’s because this is a remake of Kind Hearts And Coronets, a movie that really did not need to be remade. If you haven’t seen Coronets, watch that instead. That earlier movie — up front, it is in black & white, which is a turn off to many — featured the great Alec Guinness (you may know him as Obi-Wan Kenobi) playing all eight members of the family to be knocked off.
Is this a bad movie? Not by any means. But it’s unnecessary. And unfortunately there’s no actor nowadays that could have played all eight family members. Not that they did a bad job by getting Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace and Ed Harris as members of the Redfellow family. But they ain’t Guinness.
Now, I will say that Glen Powell is the perfect person to play the role of Becket Redfellow. He has all of the good-looking charm that an up and comer would have. He pines for his childhood sweetheart, Julia, who has married into money but he begins to develop feelings for his soon-to-be knocked-off cousin’s girlfriend, Ruth.
Topher Grace is absolutely terrific as Cousin Steven, a drug-addled exercise fanatic and Mega-Preacher. In his short role — because obviously he is one of Becket’s victims — he turns in a wonderful performance. The same can be said for Woods and Camp, but they are woefully underused in the film, Woods more so than Camp.
Even Ed Harris — who is given the most Redfellow screen time outside of Becket — is woefully wasted as Becket’s grandfather.
Margaret Qualley, as the grown up Julia, plays what is for lack of a better term the femme fatale of the piece. She is a a good actress, but she plays the same character each time without showing range. She was much better in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and Honey Don’t. But her role is more defined than the same character in the original. Which worked.
Jessica Henwick is just good as Rose, Becket’s fiancée (you know the girlfriend of the murdered cousin).
The adaptation goes off in different directions than the original and is more stylish, but I again come up to the question of why?
Why was it necessary to remake a classic film that is admittedly a good looking one — but that lacks the wit of the original? It didn’t call itself a remake but a reimagining — it isn’t a reimagining, it’s a remake.
But taking it from its Victorian roots and turning it into a noir, a comic one at that, doesn’t do the story justice nor does it do itself any favors.
One of my biggest complaints of the original was that it was too long. It made its point and could have been over earlier. The same with this film. But at least the original had a wonderfully delicious and wry ending – and this one did not.
SKIP IT!
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.
