Ice Castles (2009 remake/Sony DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: D
In 1978, TV director Donald Wrye had a moderately
successful film with Ice Castles
with Robbie Benson and real-life skater Lynn-Holly Johnson as a couple who must
overcome her fall from big skating star to young and suddenly blind woman
trying to survive and adjust. It was
charming and decent, even sporting a decent theme song in Through The Eyes of Love. In
2009, Wrye decided to remake the film and it is a shorter, pointless remake
that seems slight, mechanical, unnecessary and never works.
Looking more like a bad imitator, Rob Mayes is the
boyfriend who fights her to get her pride and happiness back, while Taylor
Firth is the skater, who is also a major skater in real life. They are not bad and could be a couple, but
this never works, seems very routine and has less character development, as
reflected in its running time versus the original. The remake of Fame that did make it to theaters had the same problem.
Michelle Kwan, Molly Oberstar and Andrea Joyce show up as
themselves, but that seems strained, forced and odes not add one bit of
authenticity to anything. If Wyre and
company thought this needed updating, they were wrong. The original was just fine for what it was
and it is only for the very, very, very curious. And no, Britt Nicole’s remake of the theme
song cannot cut the one Melissa Manchester did.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is very soft
throughout and has more motion blur than even a new production should. Images are flat, color not good and I did not
even like the way it was framed by Director of Photography Eric Cayla. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is really stretching
audio that is sometimes flat, does not have much of a soundfield and even has
some recording flaws from location work.
Extras include Deleted Scenes that could not save this and a
behind-the-scenes featurette entitled Landing
The Jump. I’d rather land the 1978
film on Blu-ray.
- Nicholas Sheffo
