under par remake

Rating: 2/10 (12 May 2012)

yes, i know they label it a movie made from a 2005' book.in reality, both the book and the 2011 movie borrow so much from 1978 original(starring Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern and Isabelle Adjani)that i wonder if some copyright rules are not broken.the getaway driver theme is very much the same(they even show the same quirk of not using fire arms), the women in trouble is also present and so are the treacherous villains, with minor modifications.leaving aside this hypocrisy of the producers, the other aspects of the 2011 film make it worst than the 1978 original.
First , the casting issues:i would start with the male lead,cause this bothers me the most.i know he's supposed to be "the strong ,silent type" of guy,but he only manages to be pretty ridiculous.i'm no expert in what males should do to appeal "macho" to girls but i just find Gosling's long periods of silence as very boring and highly unattractive.About the female lead choice, i would say only this:uninspired choice.i was unfortunate enough to see her in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps(a mess of a script,another overrated flop, way below the first one)and let me say she did not improved a bit since then.of course, i may be biased and compare her a lot with Adjani,but still her acting lets a lot to be deserved.
But even a better casting effort from the producers could not save the film.Why am i saying this?The script and the pace is terrible.Some directors tend to believe if u film slow,boring scenes with a lot of close-ups of the male lead is art.granted, it can be , but not when u film an emotionless Gosling for like half of the movie,pondering the situation to the world end and then making some pretty bad decisions and acting accordingly.Also, the minor details are just wrong:the scary-than-a-gun hammer,the corny scorpion jacket( which i bet it's supposed to became a trademark of the character) is just a sign of bad taste, not to mention it magically becomes clean even after a scene with heavy blood spilling.
Verdict: watch the 1978 original.unless your a female(or gay) fan of Gosling and then i can't really do anything