Amy Adams, Javier Bardems revival is a brutal…
Apple’s “Cape Fear” revival is slick, fashionable — and brutal.
It’s a star-studded crime drama with standout performances from Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson and Javier Bardem.
It’s also laborious to see why this show exists when there are two well-known “Cape Fear” motion pictures — can we need a third model? But if you ignore that component, if you just need a sun-drenched, blood-soaked thriller collection, it’s a compelling watch.
Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson in “Cape Fear.” APPLE TV
Javier Bardem in “Cape Fear.” APPLE TV
“Cape Fear” follows prosperous lawyer couple, Tom (Wilson) and Anna Bowden (Adams), who live in Savannah, Georgia, with their teenage son and daughter.
Their lives get shaken up when Anna’s former shopper, Max Cady (Bardem), will get launched from prison after 17 years. It turns into a sizzling news merchandise; he’s dubbed America’s most well-known exoneree.
Years in the past, Cady pleaded guilty to murdering his pregnant spouse. Now that he has apparently been deemed harmless — his mistress claimed that she did the grisly crime — the public sentiment is turning against Anna, who was his lawyer at the time.
To make issues look worse for her, Tom was the prosecutor who put Max in prison, and Anna and Tom bought together during the trial.
A newly freed Cady is out for revenge on the couple.
Patrick Wilson and Amy Adams in “Cape Fear.” APPLE TV
Amy Adams in “Cape Fear.” APPLE TV
The collection is the third iteration of this story. Every model of the plot follows Cady, an ex con out to menace Bowden, the lawyer he blames for his incarceration.
It began as a 1957 novel called “The Executioners.”
Then, it was tailored into the first “Cape Fear,” a 1962 film starring Gregory Peck as Bowden and Robert Mitchum as Cady. In the film, Cady was a psycho and Bowden was a good man.
The most well-known model is the 1991 “Cape Fear” from Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro as Cady and Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis as members of the Bowden household. In this film, Cady is a madman but Bowden is more morally grey.
Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck in 1962’s “Cape Fear.” Courtesy Everett Collection
Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in 1962’s “Cape Fear.” Courtesy Everett Collection
Scorsese is concerned in this collection as an exec producer, and so is Steven Spielberg, who also produced the ’91 flick.
The new “Cape Fear” is as competent and polished as the star energy would recommend.
Still, it’s baffling why there are now three variations of this story. It’s a provocative, sometimes nasty thriller about revenge, guilt and the justice system.
But it’s not “Pride and Prejudice” or “Wuthering Heights” — the kind of timeless traditional where it is smart to put out a new one every decade.
Robert De Niro in 1991’s “Cape Fear.” ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection
Martin Scorsese on the set of “Cape Fear” in 1991. ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection
It also works best as a two-hour movie.
The collection tries to pump out enough materials for 10 episodes. It largely succeeds — give or take feeling drawn out, at occasions — though you could query if you need to really feel so tense for 10 hours reasonably than two.
De Niro’s model of Cady raped a teenage woman. Bardem’s model of Cady killed his pregnant spouse, and his guilt is called into query.
Amy Adams in “Cape Fear.” APPLE TV
Javier Bardem in “Cape Fear.” APPLE TV
The show removes the rape component and ages up his sufferer, but Cady is hardly softened into a kitten. Bardem hasn’t been this menacing since “No Country For Old Men.”
The “Cape Fear” collection also has more changes for the fashionable period.
The lawyer wasn’t a girl in earlier variations of the story. The show also consists of more about the media’s function in all this, and it weaves in the true crime ecosystem, including podcasters who are keen to cowl the saga.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2026 story if AI wasn’t concerned, too. There’s a scene in which the Bowdens’ teenage son watches a creepy AI video of a teenage boy telling the digicam, “My name is Adam Cady and I never got to be born. This is how I might look today if my dad didn’t butcher my mom when she was pregnant with me…”
Patrick Wilson in “Cape Fear.” APPLE TV
Martin Scorsese directing “Cape Fear” in 1991. ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection
So, the show does take pains to add new parts and pepper it with references that couldn’t have existed in the ‘60s or ‘90s.
All the while, the music and cinematography make it really feel retro and timeless.
Viewers might query whether or not we needed this. We didn’t.
Looking past that “why is it here?” issue, it’s price a watch if you need a well-made Southern gothic suspense.
“Cape Fear” premieres Friday, June 5, on AppleTV+.
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