Review of This Is 40 (2012) by Matt L — 02 Jun 2013

The dreaded remake continues to be a giant thorn in the side of movie enjoyment. For no legitimate reason other than to make money, Hollywood studios give the green light to filmmakers to completely copy a film, knowing full well that the odds of recapturing the essence of the original is next to impossible. Now, if you're saying there is an occasional remake that defies expectations, you're not wrong. For example, True Grit (2010), Casino Royal (2006), and The Departed (2006) are just a handful of recent films that have collected a high amount of praise for their reenactment of past classic films. But, for every good seed - somehow there's ten bad apples, which include some of the most dismal films known to man, such as Psycho (1998), Halloween (2007), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). Have you notice the horror trend? So, since we're already on the subject of horror remakes, here's another remake/reboot - Texas Chainsaw 3D.

Picking up where The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) leaves off, the locals show up to the Sawyer residence and burn the place to the ground, believing Jed Sawyer/Leatherface (Dan Yeager) is inside and amongst the deceased. Years later, a young woman named Heather (Alexandra Daddario) receives news that her grandmother has passed away - her biological grandmother, Verna Carson. While Heather inherits everything from Carson, including a large estate, it also brings the surprising news that she was adopted. Along with a group of her friends, Heather heads to her newly inherited estate, only to discover it still has one remaining resident, Jed Sawyer. Family secrets come to light as Leatherface once again goes on a killing spree in the town of Newt, Texas. Thom Berry, Paul Rae, Scott Eastwood, Tremaine Neverson, & Tania Raymonde also star in supporting roles.

One of the easiest ways to describe a movie - whether it's good or bad - is to call it ambitious. Films can be ambitious for a variety of different reasons, the main reason being that the overall idea of the film is sound, yet the execution is poor. As this pertains to the horror genre, it's usually a combination of a poorly written script, bad execution, bad acting - mixed with the expectations of fans, which are rarely ever met. In the case of Texas Chainsaw 3D, it is all of the above. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has an abundance of adoring fans that will always flock to theaters to see the next installment, but that doesn't change the fact that the execution of these (most recent) films is all wrong. Much like the most recent Chainsaw sequels/prequels, this newest addition to the franchise tried to be ambitious with its script. And, even though there's more new pretty faces to knock-off, Texas Chainsaw 3D is still an abysmal film that adds very little hope to a franchise that is severely being beaten like a dead horse.

This film has a shady back-story, stemming from an extremely popular original plot - yet this sequel/reboot has no real substance to it, other than to ambitiously hack up teens and police officers with a chain saw. Right from the beginning, it's pretty obvious where this story is going to go, but the idea of making Leatherface into the protagonist is a bit insulting to the foundation of the original character - which has long been established as a classic bad guy. With this rational, Michael Myers might be on his way to playing the next "do-gooder." Who wants to watch a Halloween film where Michael Myers is the good guy? It sounds absolutely ludicrous. Yes, it surely was an interesting and ambitious idea, but at the same time, this is the best they could come up with after two recent failing additions to the franchise? This is just one more film that had high expectations, but ultimately never should have been allowed to make its way on to the big screen.

Aside from the perturbing plot, the cast gets a mostly negative review, as well. The main protagonist, Heather, is unaware of her true origins - so when she finally becomes aware, she goes from interesting to predicable at the snap of a finger. Unfortunately, the film becomes even more bothersome when Heather seems to take a liking to her family heritage of cannibals and murders. Despite the poorly written character, Alexandra Daddario is still strikingly beautiful, and probably too good of an actress to be stuck playing a scream queen - but for those of us that wasted our time sitting through this roughly 90 minute film, she at least helped to alleviate the psychological and emotional distress involved with viewing this monstrosity. It should also be noted that former Grammy nominee Tremaine "Trey Songz" Neverson and Scott Eastwood (the son of Clint Eastwood) were also foolish enough to attach themselves to this easily forgettable film.

Overall, it can't be stressed enough how much of a waste of time and money it is to invest in this film. Even though The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a horror classic, this new sequel/reboot is anything but a classic. It is tasteless nonsense, lacking any memorable scares - all of which will leave you wishing the chainsaw would simply run out of gas. You've been adamantly warned - so if you choose to proceed with viewing the film anyway, here's your "I told you so" in advance.