I think it's mostly due to some of the most...questionable casting I have ever seen that makes this movie not work. I mean, they make this big to-do about Rosie being Spanish in this one. I think that's because Chia Rivera had the role in the play, but Chia Rivera is (assumingly) Spanish. Why wasn't a Spanish lady cast in this one instead of Vanessa Williams? It's down-right ridiculous and they keep emphasising that she's Spanish to make it even worse. At least in the 1963 one, when Janet Leigh played Rosie they were smart enough to change the last name and not try to pass her off as something she wasn't.
The casting of Chynna Phillips as Kim was every bit as...well, wrong. She was obviously pushing 30 and quite looked it to, as did every other "teen" in this film. As for Jason Alexander as a romantic lead? Uh..no comment. Plus, I hate when Albert wants to become an English teacher instead of a scientist. I'm aware that it is in the play and such, but it's boring, especially that song that keeps getting reprised where Rosie sings about him wanting to be one. And Alexander is just not right for that part. But nobody really is in this film, sorry to say. Even the usually good Tyne Daly cannot is quite grating and hammy as Albert's mother, and some part where she emerges from a bay of water to give somebody advice and then swims away was horrificly ridiculous.
And what about the climactic ending? I'm not sure about the play, but the 1963 film was able to get to its big climactic scene of Conrad Birdie finally being able to perform at the Ed Sullivan show, after they got rid of the Russians who almost pre-empted him. The people behind this film said in an interview that they got rid of all of the Cold War humor, but why? Maybe the Cold War had ended in 1995, but this is a film set in the 60s when it was still going strong. Did they think Russians watching would be offended? They understand history and can comprehend that those aren't our feelings toward them now. I hate when films try to be all PC like that. It just makes them look bad.
But being PC wasn't the only thing that made this look bad. It was gone way before the ending.
