OK, it’s been 30 years now since Overboard was released with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn in the starring roles. It was funny, cute, and even heartwarming. Now, MGM has done a remake only with a gender-swap. Don’t you just hate that? I know I do. I had always hoped for an actual sequel to Overboard because I love Goldie and Kurt together in just about anything and this Overboard remake is just, well, what can I say? It just doesn’t look nearly as good as the original.
Anna and Eugenio
The Overboard remake brings us Anna Faris as Annie and Eugenio Derbez as Leonardo. The roles were reversed in the original and played by Hawn and Russell respectively. Now, Anna is probably best known for her roles in 22 Jump Street, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Scary Movie 4, and most recently for “Mom” on TV. Yep, she’s a great comedic actress but no Goldie Hawn or Kurt Russell either for that matter. Eugenio is a Mexican actor, among many other things like writer, producer, director, and entrepreneur. In fact, Variety named him the most influential Hispanic male in the entertainment industry in 2014. OK, so the two starring roles aren’t lacking in talent and experience but the gender switch thing really doesn’t look like it works as well as MGM and its creators might have hoped.
Supporting Cast
The remake does have one of my favorite child actors in it, namely Alyvia Alyn Lind ,who plays Faith Newman on the soap, “The Young & the Restless”. as well as young Dolly Parton in “Coat of Many Colors, “Circle of Love”, and “Christmas of Many Colors”. In the Overboard remake, she plays Annie’s daughter. Rounding out the cast is the lovely Eva Longoria, who is always funny, playing Annie’s friend.
Same Story
So, the trailer has just been released and brings us Derbez in the Goldie Hawn role only now he’s male and a playboy on a big yacht. Anna, in the Kurt Russell role, is a lady carper cleaner. By now you’ve undoubtedly guessed the rest. Playboy treats carpet-cleaning-lady badly and she gets her revenge when he falls off the yacht in the middle of the night and ends up in the hospital in her very small town with amnesia. It’s basically all the same storyline as the original only Leonardo goes to work in construction rather than staying home and learning to be a wife and mother like the original. And, somehow the construction thing doesn’t look like it’ll be nearly as funny as the homemaker thing in the first film.
Where’s the Chemistry?
Unfortunately, the two stars in the remake of “Overboard” don’t look like they have anywhere near the chemistry of real-life couple Hawn and Russell. But, then again, I guess we should give Derbez and Farris a little leeway since those are pretty big shoes to fill. All you have to do is compare the two trailers to see that. And, this gender-swapped clash-of-the-classes can’t possibly live up to that final scene in the original where Goldie says, “A little girl”, in response to Russell’s question about what he could possibly give her that she doesn’t already have. Now, that’s the magic of the movies right there.
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