Overboard (1987/2018)
Starring the real-life couple of Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell, it's a bit of an in-joke that at the start of this comedy-romance, they don't get on. In fact, they do rather hate each other.
Hawn plays a spoilt heiress who hires Russell for some carpentry work, but after she reneges on payment he wants some revenge, and finally gets it when he convinces her that she's his wife after she suffers amnesia, using her to look after his unruly kids whilst he goes about his business.
The film is generally good fun, played for laughs and utilises the chemistry between its screen partnership to good effect.
OVERBOARD (12)
D: Rob Greenberg
MGM/Pantelion (Eugenio Derbez, Benjamin Odell & Bob Fisher)
US 2018
112 mins
Comedy/Romance
W: Rob Greenberg, Bob Fisher & Leslie Dixon [based on the screenplay by Leslie Dixon]
DP: Michael Barrett
Ed: Lee Haxall
Mus: Lyle Workman
Anna Faris (Kate Sullivan), Eugenio Darbez (Leonardo Montenegro), Eva Longoria (Theresa), Mel Rodriguez (Bobby), John Hannah (Colin)
Another remake which nobody wanted or asked for, taking the plot from the 1987 Goldie Hawn-Kurt Russell comedy and switching the roles.
The original film wasn't perfect, but it certainly had its charm, helped by the pairing of Hawn & Russell, who were an actual couple and therefore the on-screen chemistry seemed realistic. In this remake, Eugenio Darbez and Anna Faris have no chemistry, and the screenwriters don't include enough comedy to provide any real laughs.
The original film saw Russell's hardworking carpenter screwed over by Hawn's spoiled socialite, getting his own back when she suffers amnesia, convincing her that she's the mother of his unruly kids. In this one, Faris' character is a pizza-delivery girl and cleaner, rather than a carpenter (quite sexist of the screenwriters to assume that a woman couldn't be successful in this trade, isn't it?), and Darbez is an obnoxious playboy who refuses to pay her because "toxic masculinity". The rest is cookie cutter rubbish from practically any rom-com you could wave a stick at.
Personally, I think a film should only be remade if it can be improved upon or a new direction be taken with the original material. This does neither, leaving the cast all at sea.
3/10
