To pick up the discussion in another thread blake said he would recommend "A Walk Among the Tombstones" as a current movie I might enjoy. Here is his review in his own fine blog "The Bit Maelstrom."
As I had mentioned I thought this adaptation of Lawrence Block's novel was horrible but then that's me. I am generally pissed at movie adaptations because they almost always suck. Especially detective or crime novels which always lose their tone or feeling when transcribed to the screen.
Here are the problems with this adaptation. The essence of Matt Scudder in the Block novels is his alcoholism. It is a presence in the books. It really got short shrift here. The keep a lot of the set ups from the book but they are just poorly executed. The only thing they did right was the "origin story" you know where he got bit by the radioactive spider. In this case it was when his errant bullet killed Estrellita Rivera in Washington Heights after a bar shoot out. That part was well done. As Pete mentions in the comments at Blake's joint the character of TJ was really misplayed. He was much more resourceful in the books and helps Scudder with Computer hackers who get him the phone numbers. They really should have made it a period piece instead of trying to update it to the year 2000. All in all it is a misfire.
Not as bad as the last translation of a Scudder book into the movies. That was an abortion called "Eight Million Ways to Die" starring Jeff Bridges made in 1986. In that they move the scene to LA instead of New York. It is just about the worst adaptation I have ever seen from book to movie.
It really pisses me off when they kill a good book like this. I mean I have seen some great adaptations lately. The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones are two examples of exemplary translations from book to screen. An even better example is "Justified" where they really captured Elmore Leonard's sensibility. You don't care about the details when they get the feel right. But if they can't capture the sensibility then you start to nitpick. Or at least I do.
A real misfire. I am just ecstatic that they did not make my favorite Scudder book "When the Sacred Ginmill Closes." At least I have that to hold on too while I watch TV.
1 comment:
See, there's that whole degustibus rolling along.
Lord of the Rings is a bloated abomination, which manages to rape the corpse of middle earth while simultaneously denying all of its charm.
Also, I said MAYBE I'd recommend Walk. If I'd known you'd read the book, I'd have steered you away. It's just bad odds to recommend a movie based on a book.
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