Willard

Reviewing a remake, one can't help but compare it to the original film - in this case "Willard (1971)". While the overarching plot has been changed very little, the remake takes some creative liberties with parts of the story, some for the better and some for the worse.

The titular character Willard has been altered to a point where he is almost a caricature of his former self. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on what you want from this movie. It does however change the direction and gives the film a less serious and more comedic tone. I will say that the acting is pretty decent regardless.

The changes to the rats, Ben in particular, were pretty good. I enjoyed the fact that he had a bit more personality. He was also substantially larger than the others, giving him a more unique appearance.

I was however not a fan of the changes made to the ending and it felt much cheaper and less impactful than the 1971 version. The "moral" that the original had was nowhere to be found and it also did not tie in with the 1972 sequel "Ben", which I thought was a bit of a shame.

I also felt like Laura Harring's character was kind of wasted and had not enough screen time. Willard's whole family was missing from this film and so where unfortunately a lot of the deeper relationships between characters. The whole build-up with Willard taking his rats on "missions" was also limited to just two scenes that were not nearly as tense in the remake.

That said, Willard is not a bad movie by any means. You might very well enjoy this film, even if you're a fan of the original.