Thursday Movie Picks - Book Adaptations

-

 

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is book adaptations. I'm back on the correct list this week, hopefully. This is another reoccurring theme so I decided that this week I'm going to talk about book adaptions that came out this year that I didn't care for.


1) Where The Crawdads Sing - Everyone and them mom was raving about this book at one point, and I never read it. After watching the movie, I can see where this might have been a compelling mystery to read, but I don't think the film did a very good job of laying the groundwork for the big reveal. 


2) Luckiest Girl Alive - This book I did read and strongly disliked. The author really wants to be Gillian Flynn and she just can't hack it. This is one of those rare cases where the movie works better, but I still didn't love it. 


3) My Policeman - I reviewed this yesterday, an I already forgot what I wrote. This movie is incredibly forgettable. 

Comments

  1. BirgitNovember 17, 2022 at 2:04 PM

    Yikes ...sounds like 3 yawns. I probably will not see these.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thevoid99November 17, 2022 at 2:58 PM

    I haven't seen any of these films and I don't have any interest in seeing any of them. In fact, why do they insist on making adaptations of books that were recommended by Oprah and Reese Witherspoon that weren't any good to begin with?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 18, 2022 at 4:42 PM

      I have no idea. Some things just work so much better in book form (like Girl on a Train) the movie medium ain't it.

      Delete
  3. joel65913November 18, 2022 at 8:16 AM

    I haven't seen the first two though I've heard of the first book. I was just contemplating watching My Policeman the other day but the reviews were so lukewarm it put me off. Looks like that was the right decision.

    I lean more towards adaptations of classic literature and these three are some of the best of those works. The 1935 version of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman ideal in the lead. One of my favorite books is Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel which has had two excellent adaptations. My favorite is the 1982 take with Jane Seymour and Anthony Andrews but that was made for TV so I'd pick the 1934 English version with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. One of the intriguing aspects of the book vs. movie versions is that the book is told from the major female character's perspective but by necessity the film is from the Pimpernel's. Normally that would bother me but cinematically it makes sense. My last would be the 2002 version of The Count of Monte Cristo with Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce and a near baby Henry Cavill. There are many versions of the novel and several decent ones but this one is the most action packed and lavish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 18, 2022 at 4:41 PM

      I haven't seen any of those! I never had to read tale of Two Cities in school. I know a lot of people did.

      Delete
  4. Wandering Through The ShelvesNovember 19, 2022 at 8:52 AM

    The only one I’ve seen and read is The Luckiest Girl Alive, I remember it being super popular when it came out but I didn’t love it too though I can understand why it got a lot of attention. Mila Kunis well…her accent still sometimes sound like Jackie in The 70s Show, which is not how the younger version of the character played by another actress sound like.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 22, 2022 at 8:28 AM

      That's a good point. I did appreciate that the two were different though. That was my main problem with the book. Older Ani sounded exactly like teenage Ani and realistically enough traumatic stuff happened to her where she should change slightly, but it was just like reading an angry teenager girl's diary. I wonder if she was mindful of that criticism because I assume it's one a lot of people would have.

      Delete
  5. ThePunkTheoryDecember 23, 2022 at 2:24 AM

    I was considering checking out Luckiest Girl Alive but I had my issues with this type of stories before, sooo I might give it a pass 😅

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Batman

-
Image
Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has quietly been trying to make a difference as The Batman in Gotham. He can't be everywhere. He works closely with Lt Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and they face a puzzling crime by a masked murderer going by The Riddler. (Paul Dano) As the stakes get higher, they realize just how deep corruption runs in Gotham.  The Batman is first and foremost a detective story. Director Matt Reeves obviously took inspiration from films like Se7en and Zodiac when he crafted this story. S e7en is one of my all time favorite films, so that worked well for me. I loved seeing Batman and Gordon work as a team. Same with Batman and Selina. (Zoe Kravitz) They ooze chemistry. As much as I love the Nolan trilogy, Christian Bale only really had good chemistry with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Here, Pattinson and Kravitz click together instantly.  I'll admit I was worried about Pattinson as Batman. His Bruce is VERY mopey, which fits with the story. My main issue with the movie,
Read more

Thursday Movie Picks: Wedding Movies

-
Image
How fitting that Wandering Through The Shelves has us start the month of June with movies about weddings. June brides are a thing, right? At least that's what people kept telling me when I got married in June. I just picked it because it was warm. To be honest, I don't like many wedding movies, so this was kind of tough, but here's a few I can tolerate. 1) Wedding Crashers This is one of my favorite comedies until the last 20 minutes or so when it falls flat on its face. But it's so hilarious and quotable before all of that, I can forgive it. Lock it up. 2) Rachel Getting Married I used this one for a pick last year but it's easily my favorite movie involving a wedding. The acting is fantastic. I 3) Corpse Bride Truth be told, I wasn't crazy about Corpse Bride, but like I said. Slim pickings in the wedding movie world for me. I'd watch this over a "classic" like My Best Friend's Wedding or Runaway Bride any day.  click th
Read more

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more