The Omen (*1/2)

I laughed loud and often at this remake of the horror classic. Having never seen Richard Donner's original, I didn't have any preconceptions, which I guess is good because this movie supposedly follows the original very closely. It's not quite Gus Van Sant's Psycho remake, but it's close enough. Anyway, the kid in this movie provides a lot of campy fun. Maybe it's just the plot of The Omen--Satan takes the form of a child and does evil deeds--but the whole thing is just silly. I mean, the kid is basically the devil and he is supposed to be pure evil, but the child actor makes these frowny faces the whole time. The movie takes itself way too seriously and has little, if any, scares. It just has the usual jump cuts and loud music cues that are meant to startle you out of your seat. It didn't work. Plus the director, John Moore, loves the color red. Everytime something evil is afoot, there is a bright color red somewhere in the frame. Subtle. The best thing about this flick was the release date: 6/6/06. You know the suits at Fox saw that date, and said, hell, let's greenlight a remake of The Omen. Kudos to the marketing folk.