Another remake failure...
OK, I have to say first off that I like a ton of people was a huge fan of the original. Does that taint my opinion of the remake.....it could but I tend to give a few kicks at the can of remakes from my memories hoping that I can find magic again. A good example is Galactica where the remake was actually better than the original.In this case with Five-0 though it has completely missed the mark. Of the four main characters only Scott Caan is close to believable in his part. This is the first part I've seen Scott play that I really enjoy his work. I have to admit he reminds me a lot of is father in this role and I don't mean that to be derogatory at all. He has subtle edge here which is what I always loved about watching his father. Feel like your extraordinarily interesting...without ever actually looking like your extraordinarily interesting. Hard to pull off and I think Scott has this. But the rest of the main characters miss the mark entirely. While putting a female in to a historically male role worked in Galactica, Grace Park just is completely out of place in this role. For the role of McGarrett, who the hell is this guy Alex O'Loughlin? The producers, directors or who ever the hell it was that was casting this totally missed the mark. The whole idea here is that the McGarrett character should be seasoned....experienced....older at least than the team he leads and have insight beyond anyone else in order to be able to solve these crimes. This actor cannot live up to the roll and admittedly without any exposure to his previous work I have to question whether professionally he has the depth to be able to be subtle enough to exude excellence that the character should be dripping with in this environment the way Jack Lord did in the original.
All in all the writing is predictable, formula and uninspired for such an awesome environment to write in. The casting misses the mark by a long shot even if 75% sounds high in a 3 out of 4 main characters.
Oh, I suppose I should mention Daniel Dae Kim.....but why? The way this part is being played it could be an extra. Is this character important to the story thread? It seems the writers are trying from time to time to invent some reason to give a crap about this character but I'm not sold and the acting is shallow. I can't blame Daniel, he's acting the material he's given so is this character pointless because of the writing or the skill of the actor. In the end I have to say....I don't care. How sad is that for both the character and the actor? I've seen Daniel before but not sure in what but he seems intriguing. I suspect he can do better given better material, but not in this vehicle.....or at least not what he's been given so far.
In the old show I was always intrigued by these ancillary characters and wanted to know more about Chin Ho and Kono. The fact we never did made them more interesting but the way the writers and producers have set the characters up in this series is forced and uncomfortable. The biggest worry for them is I don't really want to know more about hem. In fact I've lost interest entirely and what a shame. In comparison to the old series, I always wanted to know more, always couldn't wait for the next... anything. This version not so much.
Not to be racist or anything but two people of Korean heritage playing Hawaiians? The producers think we're stupid or what? When they do have native Hawaiians in an episode Park and Kim look totally out of place playing natives. This is reminiscent of whites playing Chinese in the 30's like Charlie Chan played by Warner Oland who was from Sweden.
I want to love the show but every week so far it has let me down in spades. Rats..... If nothing else the remake of the theme song is dead on and it still gives me a rush to hear it. The remaining 40 minutes or so doesn't live up to the first 40 seconds. I couldn't be more disappointed.
I look forward to seeing Scott Caan in something better in the future.
score 1/10
gizwiz1 11 October 2010
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2323117/131
Pages:
[1]