D.O.A.
Dir: Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton
1988
*
Rudolph Maté's D.O.A. is an impressive and criminally overlooked film noir. Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton's version is an updated remake, made out of respect and admiration I'm sure. Unfortunately the remake is bad decision followed by worse decision. Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton's only other credits are The Max Headroom Show and Super Mario Bros., so they're not exactly the first choices one would have for remaking the classic film and they more than prove why. Dennis Quaid is quite good but the rest of the actors are miscast and for most of the time don't know how to play it. The film clumsily flicks form genre to genre and even switches from black and white to colour and then back to black and white again, presumably to remind people that it is meant to be a film noir and in doing so fantastically miss the point about what actually makes a good noir. It's another classic example of an 80's film failing spectacularly at being something it isn't. Somehow there is nostalgia there, which makes me wonder if '80's films that get it spectacularly wrong' shouldn't be regarded as a genre in it's own right? "All because of one kids homework". Yikes.