The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Those who have seen the original Rocky Horror need not watch this remake and for those who haven’t seen the original, bless yourself with the one true Frank N’ Furter.

Review (with Spoilers)

I never understood why the Network TV stations decided to do musicals which already have movies out there. To me, it would have made more sense to beat the movie studios to producing these musicals so they would hold the mainstream original people compare the movie to. Yet, alas, name recognition is everything and even if you never saw the original Rocky Horror Picture Show you have either heard of it, seen one of the costumes, heard of the Time Warp, or at the very least know of Tim Curry whose career pretty much was launched with the musical. So, without further ado, let’s talk about this unnecessary and stressing remake.

Characters & Story

Brad (Ryan McCartan) & Janet (Victoria Justice)

Fresh from a friend’s wedding, Brad and Janet are driving through the woods when a tire gets blown. They hike their way up to Frank-N-Furter’s (Laverne Cox) castle and are seduce by their charm and go from nice and wholesome to just a little bit dirty.

Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Laverne Cox)

All the good doctor wants is to have a good time. Be it a party with their fellow Transylvanians, the good doctor’s maid and butler, Magenta (Christina Milian) and Riff Raff (Reeve Carney), or a really good time with the doctor’s creation Rocky (Staz Nair). But, someone always has to ruin the doctor’s fun.

Highlights

Reeve Carney as Riff Raff

The only casting choice, outside of maybe McCartan as Brad, that actually didn’t leave me cringing was Carney as Riff Raff. Be it because he didn’t really try to make the role his own but pretty much, to a better degree than anyone else, just emulated his predecessor.

Seeing Tim Curry

With Tim Curry having a stroke, naturally some his vibrancy which made the musical relevant is lost. Yet, seeing him is a reminder of what this musical was, is, and why watching these people create some tarnished version of it is damn near sacrilegious.

 Low Points

Far Too Hollywood

The Transylvanians aren’t a bunch of normal everyday people anymore. Now they are a bunch of model/ dancer types who look like hipsters on Halloween. Which I find to be a problem since it is the first real strike against the movie. Rocky Horror was never mainstream. It isn’t like a Disney musical or anything like that. It is made for and by people who didn’t fit a norm or were ostracized because of their identity. So with all these modelesque types, it is like the heart of Rocky Horror has a stake put through it. Making it where Laverne Cox seems like the sole actor who would fit in with the original musical.

On top of that, the casting is, for the most part, horrible. Now, I should note that the cast members that I’m aware of, like Cox, Justice and Annaleigh Ashford, from Masters of Sex, I like in the roles that strengthened their brand. However, with this movie they, alongside damn near everyone else, present many of the reasons why no one wanted this remade. Yes, they may like and respect the original movie, but they have no ability to capture the spirit of it. Of which I kind of want to blame Kenny Ortega for this movie, altogether, seems like a High School Music spin-off.

Laverne Cox’s Accent

With that said, I don’t know what the hell she was doing. A part of me felt like she was milking playing the starring role as much as she could. Yet, that accent. I’m very used to her playing down and out on Orange is the New Black so to hear this accent which I guess is to imitate Tim Curry, or just play up the campiness of the film, it just feels like nails on a chalkboard or how I’m sure people feel when a foreigner tries to imitate their accent.

The Soundtrack

While I can’t deny that I got shivers as Cox paused during antici… pation, the rest of the soundtrack sounds like it was made by the producers of Kidz Bop. Like with the casting, it all seems too Hollywood, and too polished. It is like, anything which was raw about the original movie was shined up real nice and given a brand new look.

Overall: Negative (Skip It)

I wanted to give this a chance for it has actresses I enjoy from other productions. However, you can’t remake a classic. Especially one which didn’t have a lot of areas to improve on for its imperfections were the best part about it. So with this shiny version, it is like the people behind it didn’t fully get what made the original one of the biggest musicals ever. All FOX saw is a musical NBC hasn’t snatched up yet and an opportunity to jump on this trend while it is still profitable.