Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

The Witches (2020) 

This is a horrible retelling of this classic story! Robert Zemeckis is one of cinemas greatest filmmakers and a truly gifted guy who has brought us films like Back To The Future, Forrest Gump, Cast Away and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. So when I heard he was attached to this film I had a glimmer of hope it could be at the most passable because of the big name director attached to the project. Sadly That hope that Robert could do a great retelling of this classic novel and 90’s adaptation was sadly not even close to passable. Witches (2020) is boring, on an entertaining level incredibly empty in terms of fun and enjoyment and truly one of the worst remakes I have seen probably ever. This film misses the mark hugely as the original book it is based upon and its terrific 1990’s film of the same name both were incredibly well done at mixing the comedy and darkness of it without one never compromising the other. This retelling of the same story not only fails at doing just that but it isn’t scary in any sense of the word its over relyance on CGI and big overblown special effects ruined the magic of what this story stands for. 

Firstly, The acting was terrible! Now the film has an interesting cast from Stanley Tucci, Octavia Spencer and then Anne Hathaway not to mention a narration of the story by Chris Rock. The only person who showed up to attempt to try was Anne as what she is doing with her accent is questionable and flat out weird. That being said she is truly the glue of this film from it falling apart as the films cast has not a thread of care to make their performances stand out. The only person who cared to was Anne Hathaway who gives this over the top and very over dramatic take on the iconic character who at times can come across as very jokey but it is the sheer commitment to the character from Anne that makes it enjoyable. Everyone else very much fell into the background as Stanley Tucci plays the hotel manager and pops up every now and then but does nothing really substantial for me to care at all about his character and it just felt shallow in terms of his character and honesty his performance as well. Octavia Spencer I will say she  does try her best to really lift this horrible script of a great book by giving a really wholesome performance that does show a great range of emotional layers from her. Besides Anne and Octavia all the performances from everyone involved all fell flat and were totally hollow. If not for Anne’s over the top performance and Octavia’s wholesome performance this film would be truly unbearable to watch. 

Secondly, The biggest problem I had with the film was its tone. The film is very colourful and splashes in great vibrance onscreen. That being said the film never knows what it wants to be. As it is all over the place with its approach to the story as one moment it goes way to the left with its humour and goes well over the top and then the next it can be incredibly unsettling and in not the way it wants to be. As Robert Zemeckis seems to be conflicted on how to showcase this story to the big screen and it shows in a really confused mess of a film that constantly is shifting horribly between tones in an undecided way. The film also adds things to the story that either was totally unneeded or just stupid as the film also rushes through its story at a rapid pace. The reveal scene with the Witches is the iconic scene we all remember and to have it rushed through was such a disgrace to the story. The film could not decide what it wanted to be and the approach to rush through the story only to add extra bagage to it that was so not needed was horrible.

Lastly, The Witches (2020) was a massive disappointment on so many levels. Not only am I let down that the great Robert Zemeckis couldn’t try harder to make this retelling at all memorable is truly sad. On top of the overblown use of CGI, the horrible flat performances from the cast. Thankfully the only thing that made this train wreck of a film at all enjoyable was Octavia Spencer and Anne Hathaway. The Witch (2020) didn’t need to happen it was just a total disgrace to the source material if you want to see the Witches done right just go watch the original with Angelica Huston. Save yourself from the mess that is Witches (2020) a truly horrible film I will not be wanting to see again. 

This film is a retelling of the classic Story of Witches that pry on children to stay youthful and use children at their own gain to accomplish their evil deeds. 

Rated PG : Language|Thematic Elements|Scary Images/Moments

Anne Hathaway : Anne Hathaway gives this over the top crazy performance that is very entertaining! This film is for the most part unbearable to watch and if not for Anne’s over the top take on this character I would have  been hating this entire film for how it was done. That being said Anne did show up with this cheesy and funny yet also freaky performance that I found incredibly fun to watch. She plays the main Witch that the film centres around now the only problem I will say I had with her performance was this accent she uses throughout the film. I don’t know why she felt like she needed to create this accent for the character as it did at times distract me from enjoying her performance as it is very noticeable and she isn being exactly subtle about it. It definitely comes across as comedic in her exaction of the accent it never at one time felt like it was used for dramatic serious effect. She also takes the character she plays and cranks up the fun to one thousand percent. As you can see Anne is having such fun on the set of this film as she plays between totally creepy and then very campy and I love that as she is constantly shifting between one or the other and she chews up the screen with her charismatic and energetic onscreen presence. She can be so intimidating and eerie one moment with the way she lifts the words and gives it such dazzle in the way she speaks. Then the next she can be hilarious with her dry wit and insanity of it all and it is a performance Anne throws herself entirely into to deliver this truly chaotic, funny, creepy and very over the top performance you can’t help but enjoy despite the overall let down of the film she is the one out of the two highlights of the film that you can’t help but love her performance here. 

Robert Zemeckis : Robert Zemeckis really disappointed me! This man I can’t stress enough is incredibly talented its been 5 years since he gave us a solid film with the Walk. That was a fantastic telling of the unbelievable true story and he brought his great style to it and I was so pleased to seeing Robert making top notch films once again. Now he has given us a retelling of The Witches which I think may be his worst directed film of his career. He gave us a book adaptation in 2009 with a Christmas Carol which despite a lot of people being displeased with that film and its dark approach I really enjoyed it despite the large criticisms it got. Witches (2020) Though really got me sad that the great Robert Zemeckis didn’t try harder to really lift this story to the screen. As the film felt incredibly rushed through the material its based on and on top of the fact he added a lot of stuff that wasn’t in the book that was not needed whosoever. Then the main issue I had with Roberts Approach was his over use of CGI as a lot of the film could have just used prosthetics for it and not only would   it have looked better but it wouldn’t look as cartoony and poorly presented. As he does lean on that crutch a lot to bring the story to the screen and if he had focused on just the boy and not two other kids and focused mainly on the central character the film would have been more straight forward with its narrative. Instead of going into these side plots that could have  been cut entirely as it adds so much to it that Robert seemed to have lost focus of what the initial story was. The film tone wise was all over the place and never found its footing as it was either way to comedic, way to freaky and not in the way it intended or way to reliant on CGI. Robert really drops the ball with this film and by biting off more then he can chew the most heartbreaking thing about the film is the lack of effort on Robert Zemeckis part as I know he’s a great director but you can tell that Robert Zemeckis heart and passion was not present when bringing this story to life.