I'm sorry, I know I'm repeating myself, but...

[filthgoblin]

There just seems to be no escape from the epic fail that is the movie remake of State of Play. If I could just quietly ignore it and go about my day, then I might feel less seethingly angry than I do right now when I've just been offered FREE FUCKING TICKETS to go see it and say how amazingly wonderful it is. I kid you not.

The sales patter for the movie included in the email I received trying to coerce me to volunteer over two hours of my life I will never get back, read as follows:

Oscar® winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast in a blistering thriller about a rising congressman and an investigative journalist embroiled in an case of seemingly unrelated, brutal murders. Crowe plays D.C. reporter Cal McCaffrey, whose street smarts lead him to untangle a mystery of murder and collusion among some of the nation's most promising political and corporate figures in State of Play, from acclaimed director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland).

Handsome, unflappable U.S. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is the future of his political party: an honorable appointee who serves as the chairman of a committee overseeing defense spending. All eyes are upon the rising star to be his party's contender for the upcoming presidential race. Until his research assistant/mistress is brutally murdered and buried secrets come tumbling out.

McCaffrey has the dubious fortune of both an old friendship with Collins and a ruthless editor, Cameron (Oscar® winner Helen Mirren), who has assigned him to investigate. As he and partner Della (Rachel McAdams) try to uncover the killer's identity, McCaffrey steps into a cover-up that threatens to shake the nation's power structures. And in a town of spin-doctors and wealthy politicos, he will discover one truth: when billions are at stake, no one's integrity, love or life is ever safe.

Can anyone please tell me if they recognise anything apart from the names as bearing any resemblance to the plot of a show that I love so much? Or am I going completely insane?

Comments

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

Russell looks absolutely disgusting in this movie. He's never been my cup of sake, but I'm willing to admit he can look half-way decent, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.

I am not going to see it under any circumstances, but I'll be interested to hear how much of the Cal/Anne plot survives or how much moral ambiguity is left in Cal's character at all. Not only is Helen gone, but Dan as well, which is just infuriating. I'm trying to figure out if Jason Bateman is Dominic or one of the sleazy political handlers.

Meanwhile, Affleck, at least when talking to Rachel Maddow seems to see it as a "heroic reporter" movie, which is still not exactly what the original was getting at.

[coneyislandbaby]

Jason Bateman is credited as Dominic Foy on IMDB. So one would presume that is who he is playing.

Incidentally, in the movie message board on IMDB (and I am still not sure why I braved it...) someone asked if "the gay redhead" from the original was in it.

Yes they meant Dominic (though I've had it argued that Marc Warren has blonde hair).

I think that was the point I yelled "Philistine!" at the screen. Because it was so wtf?

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting choice. I wonder if they'll give him some equivalent of that big fluffy coat. Redhead? NO! And Dominic certainly has a big case of ambiguous sexuality, if I'm remembering his endlessly changing stories completely. I'll bet the beating gets even MORE graphic.

Of course Rachel also seemed to be going with the "heroic reporter" angle, which makes me think a lot of Cal's conflicted loyalty is missing from the remake as well.