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Should there be a rule in Hollywood that great movies are not to be remade? Not sure myself. Oceans 11 was fabulous, though 12 should have been left in the can. Psycho was just as creepy with Vince Vaughn but still not even close to the original. Columbia Pictures is now releasing All the King's Men, a remake of the Oscar winning best picture of 1949. But beware the curse of the huge mega star ensemble. More than five big names in a film many times spells disaster.It's as if they are trying to cover up the lack of writing and story line with dazzling performances so we won't notice the bad writing and zero story line. This time it almost works. 

All the King's Men is based on the Robert Penn Warren novel that details the life of populist Southerner Willie Stark, a political creature loosely
centered on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana. In this latest version Stark is played brilliantly by Sean Penn. Love him or hate him, you can't deny Penn's talent as an actor. He becomes possessed by the character he is playing and it takes over his whole being. The result is one riveting accomplishment after another. His performance as the man for the commoner makes you forget that Stark is fictional to the point he could run for office tomorrow.

Thrown in for good measure are lesser known names like Judd Law, Mark Ruffalo, Kate Winslet, Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, and Anthony Hopkins. And as expected they all truly earn their paycheck on this one. Problem is that the storyline doesn't stay focused nearly enough on Willie Starks. Naturally he is the underlining theme to all the subplots but there are too many side characters that never get a chance to breath. So what happens is you have two hours of film stretched thin trying to get everything covered. This makes for a very long and very shallow movie which is a shame with a character like Stark and Penn's performance of him.

Should you see this film? That is the question right? Isn't that why you read reviews, to see if it is worth spending your hard earned dough on? If
you can sit through two hours of great performances with little or no imagination. Yes. If you watch a movie for performance alone. Yes. If you
want a riveting movie with twists and turns and high energy? No. If you are ADD in any way. Big No. But catch it sometime, even on a rainy Saturday at the dollar show. But opening weekend? Other things better suited I am sure. 

All the King's Men is rated PG-13 for an intense sequence of violence, sexual content and partial nudity. The sex is implied in the context of
infidelity and the partial nudity is arty and for many would fall under the radar. The violence is minimal and limited to one maybe two brief scenes.
All in all I have a hard time giving this a rating. If it were on acting alone it would be very high, but for an overall movie, I would have to give
it a really thin 3 out of 5. With a look at All the King's Men, I'm Matt Mungle.

The Mungle 9/20/06

Matt is a member of the North Texas Film Critics Association (NTFCA) and hosts the weekly syndicated Indie Rock Radio Show Spin 180. Plus with his wife Cindy they do a weekly radio feature, The Mungles on Movies. For additional reviews and interview clips visit the website www.mungleshow.com