PAPILLON – A Review by Hollywood Hernandez
Papillon is a remake of the 70's movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. It's also based on a book that tells the true store of Henri Charriere aka Papillon and his single-minded plan to escape from a hell-hole of a prison called Devil's Island, after he receives a life sentence for being falsely accused of murder.
While in prison Papillon meets and becomes friends with a convicted counterfeiter names Louis Dega. Dega, who has tucked away a stash of cash (in a place that I won't go into depth about), and in return for Papillon's protection in prison, finances Charriere's several failed escape attempts.
While the two main actors do an adequate job of playing the two lead characters, Charlie Hunnam, who does resemble a young Steve McQueen, and Rami Malek pale in comparison to the two original actors from the 1973 film. The depth of the emotions of the two actors just wasn't there for me. The director chose to make a more documentary style film with facts about the French prison system and it also shows Henri Charriere at the end of the movie as an old man who returns to French Guiana to have his memories published (which in real life became a best seller in France).
I was very disappointed with the remake of this movie. I think Hollywood needs to learn that some movies are just better left alone. The movie runs 2 hours and 33 minutes and is rated R. On my "Hollywood Popcorn Scale" I rate Papillon a MEDIUM.
