Rob Zombie's The Munsters

[zombiehorror]

Lester made an appearance on the original Munsters series in the series in the episode "Herman's Rival" Herman made him a loan. He appears at the end of the episode, in the Gypsy Tea Room, where Lily has taken a job.

I know Lester was on the original series, my point was I don't believe there was specific dialog about a recessive werewolf gene or why Lily was a vampire but Lester (and Eddie) was a werewolf. My assumption is that the show creators/writers wanted a werewolf on the show so theh threw in Lester and never in a million years thought the shows concepts would be being discussed years and years later.

[Mike...In 3-D!]

I enjoyed it enough to pop it on in the background sometime in the future, but it won't get my full attention again. Like most of you folks I wasn't a huge fan but I didn't hate it. The only thing I couldn't stand was Sheri Moon Zombie's performance. The way she delivered her lines drove me nuts. It was gorgeous to look at and I found some high points. I wish it wasn't nearly two hours, because it didn't really need that much time.

[Anton Phibes]

I know Lester was on the original series, my point was I don't believe there was specific dialog about a recessive werewolf gene or why Lily was a vampire but Lester (and Eddie) was a werewolf. My assumption is that the show creators/writers wanted a werewolf on the show so theh threw in Lester and never in a million years thought the shows concepts would be being discussed years and years later.

I didn't even know Lester was on the original show. Like I said....I had a difficult time with The Munsters as a kid. Maybe I will go find that episode online.

[zombiehorror]

What made Munster, Go Home and Munsters Revenge so watchable was seeing the original cast.  Would this film have been better with Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo?  Undoubtedly.  Would it have changed how I view it?  Undoubtedly.  Would I watch it again and again with them?  Probably.  That's the interesting thing about The Munsters.  It was the chemistry of the original cast that made it work, even when it didn't.  It was Fred Gwynne that made Herman so lovable, even when the scripts weren't very good.  Could we ever get any actors to fill the shoes of Gwynne and De Carlo?  I don't know.  Dan did a phenomenal job as Grandpa, so possibly.  But this is the film we got.  And it doesn't deserve the hate it's probably going to get.

I don't feel that way about the original cast. For me Munster, Go Home is just a fun movie but Munsters Revenge isn't even saved by having the original cast. I enjoy both Here Come The Munsters and Munsters Scary Little Christmas despite the fact that Fred, Al, Yvonne, Butch or Pat aren't in them but on the other hand don't care for Munsters Today....and I doubt I would have changed my mind if any of the original cast were part of that show.

[aura of foreboding]

I don't feel that way about the original cast. For me Munster, Go Home is just a fun movie but Munsters Revenge isn't even saved by having the original cast. I enjoy both Here Come The Munsters and Munsters Scary Little Christmas despite the fact that Fred, Al, Yvonne, Butch or Pat aren't in them but on the other hand don't care for Munsters Today....and I doubt I would have changed my mind if any of the original cast were part of that show.

Fair.  But if you had someone more like Yvonne as Lily, would you enjoy this more? 

I think, more so than having the same actors like I said before, it's more about familiarity of the characters, and I didn't find Lily all that familiar here, either in writing or acting.  There were some familiar phrases written in the script for her, but, it just wasn't Lily.  Herman was written okay, but JDP didn't always deliver on the material in a way we, as Munsters fans, are familiar with.  And I think that's an inherent problem with remakes.  Either you go all in and try to re-create exactly what was in the original or you take it in a totally different direction.  Zombie tried to do the former, and we got this.  The NBC Mockingbird Lane (?) series did the latter, and it was awful as an attempt at The Munsters.  There are some remakes that actually work.  How and why?  I don't know.   

[zombiehorror]

Fair.  But if you had someone more like Yvonne as Lily, would you enjoy this more? 

No. I didn't have an issue with SMZ's Lily, although she was rather generic but the other portrayals of Lily (post Yvonne of course) have been too.

I enjoyed Mockingbird Lane was looking forward to where they would have taken it. Was it "The Munsters"? Definitely not but it wasn't trying to be; Rob's was trying to be but in my opinion it was a misguided attempt. It's like he watched episodes of the 60's Batman series (or maybe the movie from that era), Munsters Revenge and some Munsters Today while he was writing the script and thinking of what direction he wanted to go.

[AndyFish]

I don't understand the negative reviews at all-- Dan is fantastic, the movie is fun, it's far more fun than ANY other Munsters movie including GO HOME which is nearly unwatchable.   Is it the original show?  Nope.  But that TV Series remake tried to do an exact remake in the 80s or 90s and it was wretched.   This is a fresh take and while it's no BEETLEJUICE or even ED WOOD it was a really good Halloween movie and Zombie's affection fro the characters was readily apparent.

Thumbs up.

[zombiehorror]

Most reboots/remakes are created by fans of the source material but regardless of intention there are always ones that are just misguided attempts no matter how much of a love letter it is to the original.

Munster, Go Home unwatchable?? How is it any different than watching episodes of the series? Besides of course Eddie and Marilyn's casting.

[marsattacks666]

Munster, go home!(1966)
Is a totally funny film. Great plot and acting. The later Munster films are,  just okay. Munsters' revenge.....not the best, yet entertaining.

[AndyFish]

Your personal mileage may vary-- and no offense to those of you who like MUNSTER GO HOME-- I find it incredibly unfunny and the gags completely played out.   I never thought I'd miss a laugh track, but I did.

The original show had a lot of charm, but honestly it was Fred and Al's chemistry that made it work. 
Zombie's take doesn't try to mimic either Fred or Al-- each actor brings his own spin to it.  The fact that it had to be in color and Rob decided to go bonkers crazy with that color in the first ⅔ really worked.   It started to fall flat for me when they got to Karloffornia and everything was filmed straight.

I'd be happy to see a sequel (and I don't normally root for ANY sequels) if only to see Herman and Grandpa team up as their friendship grows.

[YoungestMonsterKid]

Glad to see several people liked the new movie.
It was.... interesting. Hard to say if it was good or bad but I liked it.

[MikeSTZillak]

Munster, go home!(1966)
Is a totally funny film. Great plot and acting. The later Munster films are,  just okay. Munsters' revenge.....not the best, yet entertaining.

Agreed on Go Home, though I will say Here Comes The Munsters was quite a pleasant surprise. Few more passes at the script and it could have been as good as The Addams Family (1992).

[Haunted hearse]

Having seen it yesterday, and again today with the comentary, I genuinely liked it, and even enjoyed Sheri Moon Zombie as Lily. I wrote a blog about my thoughts on Rob Zombie's "The Munsters"
https://baronvonkrieger.tumblr.com/post/696689985194262528/rob-zombies-the-munsters

[MikeSTZillak]

Honestly wasn't that bad. Granted, it being one of Universal's DTV films, it's rough but nowhere near as awful as people said it was. Considering it's seems to be quite the seller in terms of sales, hoping they're able to fix some of the issues they had here.

I do hope they film in the Universal Backlot in the sequel as well. Considering they had it for filming Distressed Housewives or some kind of soap crap, Universal can let Rob film in the classic street for one of their DTV films.

Anyone who thinks "Scary Little Christmas" is better than this though is koo-koo crazy.

[Lunkenstein]

Looking forward to watching it this weekend.