*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Leave it to the French to mangle two of American film director William Friedkin's classic 1970's films.
First, they remade The French Connection (1971) by giving us the awful La French (2014) (The Connection (United States title)). It was a complete snooze fest and had no action at all. It was deadly dull.
Then they decided to redo Sorcerer (1977), but hurriedly put it into a desert setting because it would be a lot cheaper when they learned their budget would have been blown by going out to the wild jungles. So now we are stuck with The Wages of Fear (2024). Unfortunately.
In today's delicate time, you know they are going to ruffle up the script just a tad so no one in the audience will get offended. This includes adding a bunch of sensitive "tough guys", putting in a rugged female character who has the body of a super model but can cripple five men in brawls, and appeasing the political climate by adding the obligatory, different and diverse ethnic characters.
The problem is, it's absurd. Totally awful. Why ride on the coattails of Wages of Fear (1953) and Sorcerer (1977)? Why not just put another generic name on it? Probably because they are banking on the past movies to score some easy movie profit. Thus, they have to slander those other great movies with rubbish like this. Henri-Georges Clouzot and William Friedkin are tumbling in their graves. This modern version has none of the perilous existentialism to be found in the wonderfully profound Wages of Fear (1953), or the absolutely bleak fatalism of the brilliant Sorcerer (1977).
The extremely bland tough guys are of the Jason Statham variety. No ability to act, appear overtly smug, grunt, and the capacity to kick everyone's teeth in with the greatest of ease. They have some bald idiot who looks like Vin Diesel, and he is very dull.
The opening of the movie tells you that it is going to be one tough ride to boredom, or hell. A woman is escaping in a truck from some Arabs in another truck, who have an automatic machine gun, but they have no idea how to shoot. They are 2 seconds behind her, and then her truck gets stuck, and tough bald guy comes out in his own truck, and pushes her out, and they escape the Arabs somehow. Supposedly the Arabs got stuck in time and were frozen (?). Then the man and woman make it to their compound, and horsemen come out after the Arabs in the truck. Apparently whoever wrote this nonsense never got the memorandum that horsemen are useless against an automatic machine gun (see Mexican Revolution 1910, Balkan Wars 1912, World War I, etc).
Then they throw in a gratuitous sex scene, for who knows what purpose. Just like that, five minutes into the movie and it is already entirely useless and dumb. The rest of the movie is like hitting your head with a soft brick made from compacted sand.
Most level-headed audience members will probably decide to forfeit watching the rest of the movie. Others, may want to attempt to reach the end. But be warned, you may not make it.
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Leave it to the French to mangle two of American film director William Friedkin's classic 1970's films.
First, they remade The French Connection (1971) by giving us the awful La French (2014) (The Connection (United States title)). It was a complete snooze fest and had no action at all. It was deadly dull.
Then they decided to redo Sorcerer (1977), but hurriedly put it into a desert setting because it would be a lot cheaper when they learned their budget would have been blown by going out to the wild jungles. So now we are stuck with The Wages of Fear (2024). Unfortunately.
In today's delicate time, you know they are going to ruffle up the script just a tad so no one in the audience will get offended. This includes adding a bunch of sensitive "tough guys", putting in a rugged female character who has the body of a super model but can cripple five men in brawls, and appeasing the political climate by adding the obligatory, different and diverse ethnic characters.
The problem is, it's absurd. Totally awful. Why ride on the coattails of Wages of Fear (1953) and Sorcerer (1977)? Why not just put another generic name on it? Probably because they are banking on the past movies to score some easy movie profit. Thus, they have to slander those other great movies with rubbish like this. Henri-Georges Clouzot and William Friedkin are tumbling in their graves. This modern version has none of the perilous existentialism to be found in the wonderfully profound Wages of Fear (1953), or the absolutely bleak fatalism of the brilliant Sorcerer (1977).
The extremely bland tough guys are of the Jason Statham variety. No ability to act, appear overtly smug, grunt, and the capacity to kick everyone's teeth in with the greatest of ease. They have some bald idiot who looks like Vin Diesel, and he is very dull.
The opening of the movie tells you that it is going to be one tough ride to boredom, or hell. A woman is escaping in a truck from some Arabs in another truck, who have an automatic machine gun, but they have no idea how to shoot. They are 2 seconds behind her, and then her truck gets stuck, and tough bald guy comes out in his own truck, and pushes her out, and they escape the Arabs somehow. Supposedly the Arabs got stuck in time and were frozen (?). Then the man and woman make it to their compound, and horsemen come out after the Arabs in the truck. Apparently whoever wrote this nonsense never got the memorandum that horsemen are useless against an automatic machine gun (see Mexican Revolution 1910, Balkan Wars 1912, World War I, etc).
Then they throw in a gratuitous sex scene, for who knows what purpose. Just like that, five minutes into the movie and it is already entirely useless and dumb. The rest of the movie is like hitting your head with a soft brick made from compacted sand.
Most level-headed audience members will probably decide to forfeit watching the rest of the movie. Others, may want to attempt to reach the end. But be warned, you may not make it.