Suddenly (2013)

Remaking classic films is admirable. It is a great way to introduce a new generation to the classic stories of our culture, when it's done correctly. Suddenly is a remake of the 1954 Frank Sinatra film by the same name, starring Ray Liotta as Tod Shaw. Shaw is an aging, alcoholic cop in a small town, who is at the end of his career. One day, rather suddenly, the President makes a surprise stop in the town where he works. As they make the final preparations for the visit, Shaw comes to realize that a local family has been taken hostage, and the President is in danger. In remaking a film like this, producers should only consider going one of two ways. Either make it a true remake, set in 1954, or adapt the story to fit the times, Uwe Boll did neither. This remake is very much the same story, but takes place in 2013. This is problematic, as it makes the story somewhat unbelievable. There are better ways of doing things, modern technology, many different things the story could have and should have changed, but it didn't. As for Ray Liotta, he's probably the last person I would cast to reprise Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra made this film, he was 39 years old, Liotta is 58 years old, and he more than acts his age. Are we really supposed to believe that at nearly 60 years old, Liotta can even attempt to take on a beast like Dominic Purcell? The whole thing was just way off target, but I am giving it 2 1/2 stars, because of Purcell. This guy just gets better with every performance, weather it's the lovably naive escaped con or the scary cold assassin, Purcell is always believable and fun to watch. Suddenly was never that great of a story to begin with, but for some reason Uwe Boll had a connection to it, and decided to remake it, but the way it is done makes it almost comical and anything but a fitting tribute to the work of Frank Sinatra.

I saw the original 1954 "Suddenly" movie several years ago, and I thought it was pretty good. This remake, however, just doesn't cut it. There are many reasons why it doesn't work, but I think the main reason is that its tone for the most part doesn't fit what should be a hard-edged thriller. The musical score is almost comic in tone at times, characters CONSTANTLY utter "clean" swears like "frigging" and"fudge" instead of real four-letter word swears (at least in the version I saw), and the bad guys seem too disorganized and soft instead of coming across as dangerous and intelligent killers. It seems that notorious director Uwe Boll's heart wasn't in this movie. Maybe it was because this project obviously didn't have a substantial budget compared to his other movies - it has that cheap and tacky look that plague so many other (bad) Canadian films. Boll's apparent lack of enthusiasm might also explain some real continuity flubs in the movie, like why it's snowing and snow- covered in some areas, though around the house where most of the movie takes place there's no sign of snow at all. It's all capped off with an ending that feels unfinished in a number of aspects. The end credits reveal that the creation of this movie was sponsored by a Canadian pay TV network, which are forced by a government-imposed quota system to sponsor a number of (almost always bad) Canadian movies every year. Based on this and the ton of other bad Canadian movies that have come from this quota for years, I'm really glad that Canada does not have a quota system for movie theaters!

"House of the Dead" director Uwe Boll and "The Killing Machine" scenarist Raul Inglis have appropriated Lewis Allen's presidential assassination thriller "Suddenly" (1954) and updated it. Basically, Boll and Inglis preserved the basic plot, but altered the characters. Nobody is truly the equivalent of Sterling Hayden. Hayden was the sheriff, while Ray Liotta is cast as a deputy rather than the chief. Erin Karpluk shares little in common with Nancy Gates as the anxious mother. The filmmakers have aged the character of Pidge, too. In the original, Pidge was an adolescent, but here he is a teenager. Ellen hated guns in the original, but she wound up using a gun to save the day. In the remake, Ellen makes no comments about violence and guns. Ellen's father in the remake is a goofy home-repair screw-up, while James Gleason in the 1954 version was a retired Federal agent. Boll has made a respectable thriller with a top-notch cast. Indeed, the performances are all first-rate with Liotta and Dominic Purcell going toe-to-toe for top acting honors. Clocking in at 90 minutes, "Suddenly" isn't bad, but neither is it above-average. The exterior scenery is majestic.Right-wing assassins take over a house high enough above the town of Suddenly so they can shoot an Obama presidential look-a-like. Ray Liotta plays an alcoholic small town deputy with a dark secret. Liotta is as close as you can get to a hero in this complicated yarn. Altogether, Frank Sinatra version of "Suddenly" released in 1954 surpasses this polished but pale rehash. The good citizens of the small town of Suddenly are surprised when they learn that the President is passing through town. The town fathers stage a reception for him. Meantime, bogus Federal Agents Barren (Dominic Purcell of "Prison Break"), Conklin (Michael Paré of "The Lincoln Lawyer"), and Wheeler (Tyron Leitso) take over the house belonging to Ellen (Erin Karpluk) who has a son named Pidge (newcomer Cole Coker) who likes to make up tall tales. When the film unfolds, Deputy Reed (Ray Liotta) gets into a fight over his gambling debts. Reed's chief rubs him the wrong way about his drinking problem and then demands that he surrender his gun and gunbelt. Our trio of villains stashes Ellen, her son, and her father in the basement. The power has gone out at Ellen's house because her home repair father shorted out the electrics. Eventually, Reed comes to check up on Ellen, and all hell breaks loose. The villains capture Reed, recapture Pidge and the President steps up to the podium to speak as the assassins take aim.

I never saw Lewis Allen's "Suddenly" (1954), but I guess I just don't need, because I know a priori that it is an Oscar-winning film comparing to this atrocious remake made by an unskilled, dull and inept director that, besides being labeled as a movie-killer by making abominable, heretic and unintelligible movies, still get millions to produce plain pointless excrement.Nevertheless, I swallowed an aspirin and, maybe taken a bit away to the fact Boll's last movie drew some fair critics, I finally had the courage to assist a movie made by this European quarreling psyche. Unfortunately my expectations weren't wrong at all: It was like to have an urge to commit suicide or to mutilate myself for being an utterly idiot.Boll's cinematic masterpieces, according to him, 'Alone in the Dark', 'House of the Dead' and 'Far Cry' are all, cemented by virtually 90% of critics and spectators, a collection of rambling-disjointed narratives of absurdity, execrable directing, vile and poorly written scripts and an unbelievable populist egocentric paranoia product of a tormented mind.This movie, for which it was presented with established actors, fails miserably in achieving something other than a mind-blowing overly median hogwash.I really must go out and buy the original movie to make a sincere topic comparison and eventually assert righteously that Uwe Boll must pay in prison terms for brain damage to the public and serious technical incompetence. Even with Liotta and Purcell on the screen the movie drags on into a worn out monosyllabic clichéd and putrid dialog.The story of 3 assassins posing as secret agents who find an excellent sniper spot (a house) to murder the US president is tantalizing enough to draw a good script, but with Uwe Boll, that's not the case: For Boll it seems the only person to sense something about the fake agents is an alcoholic, self-neglecting and psychically affected and sacked ex-marine who can't cope with his friend death years and years ago. Brilliant!I really think there's not much more to say unless citing all the mumbo-jumbo and mediocrity that abounds in this Boll's vision of a film. Ultimately, dare me to advise you to spare your limited lifetime and patience and skip this for real - You won't regret, I CAN assure 100%.PS-> Another priceless story is how I ended up seeing this "piece of art". - But please don't ask me to, I cannot tell, Boll can lawfully sue me or else invite me for a matching box until K.O.