Tagged: Book2Movie Challenge
The (four) Musketeers
From the first I was shocked. You’ve heard me bitch about how movies are always ‘adapted’ beyond control and that the original plot was tampered with unnecessarily. Well, this may not always be the case… I may have been blown away by the simultaneously “true to the book” and “artistic licence and adaptations”.
Flying war ships? Okay! I don’t mind because they have a near chronological story line to the book, and some dialogue almost seems quoted from the original Dumas. Lady Dewinter is basically a version of Alice from Resident Evil only she wears a bigger dress with more lace; but hey she’s still totally evil and you can see why Athos loves her. The whole “you looked at me funny en guard!” thing is still intact. I LOVED IT.
TF didn’t, he said “At first I thought it was written for teenagers, and then I realized, it must have been written by teenagers.” I don’t know if he is aware the books is basically the same thing. Written for teenaged boys about teenaged boys.
Highly entertaining. Lots of cool effects. Beautiful people. And finally, Orlando Bloom is a prissy evil character.
Go watch it.
Moi
PS Also, true to book, the Musketeers only said “All for one, one for all” once in the whole film… awesome.
I’m Sorry, Bela Lugosi.
It’s Book 2 Movie Challenge time! And since I just finished Dracula, and it’s the winter months and suitably creepy, I watched Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stokers Dracula“. It sucked. (ha!)
Okay, okay, it wasn’t bad it was…slutty? Like seriously a vampire party in everyone’s pants, only 90′s style. I just finished this great read about chaste and pure women who were strong and shining in the loveliness of innocence and then BAM! Super into all types of naughtiness.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude when it comes to movies with boobs in it… I watched both seasons of Spartacus thank you very much. It’s just, these characters were so not who they were supposed to be.
Well done Garry Oldman, cool perspective, Carey Ewles! Awesome!, and the dude who plays Quincy was pretty good himself. It was Lucy, and Mina that really pissed me off. (And I’m a Winona fan.) Ooo Tom Waits as Renfield! That was great.
Sigh, I feel like I should have watched the 1930′s one with Bela. I feel like I went to the prom with the jock and not my lab partner, only to find out the jock’s a total d-bag and I miss my lab partner.
Well, this is my sixth one. We’ll see how many more I can bang off. Oh ya, and I really didn’t remember THIS part of the book, I feel it would have stuck in my brain 
Gary Oldman and Sadi Frost
le sigh…
So I carried on in my conquest of book to movie challenge. I watched The Woman in White, and A Tale of Two Cities. While A Tale of Two Cities was actually pretty darn great, The Woman in White was highly disappointing.
Masterpiece Theatre is wonderful, and I love hearing the host give the forward and afterwards. I do understand why some things were left out, I even agree. I totally disagree with some major plot changes, and character amalgamation. Ah well. I will say that the choice of Simon Callow as Fosco was a thumbs up; and if you’re trying to figure out where you’ve seen Hartwright before – he’s the star of last years screaming hit The Walking Dead… which TBF made me watch. *shudder.
A Tale of Two Cities was awesome. For the year it was made, 1980, they did a bang up job. Sydney Carton/Charles Darnay was none other than good old Price Humperdink a la The Princess Bride. I love Sydney Carton, always did, and he was well represented. (In contrast/comparison to how much I loved Marion Halcombe, and didn’t love the representation in the film.)
All in all I find I am quite cynical while watching a film that has been adapted from a book I have loved. It’s unfortunate for the film. I’m fast aproaching Oliver! as I’m nearly done the audio book.
Stay Classy
Moi xoxo
Challenge Accepted!
Last night I watched two movies from the Book to Movie challenge hosted over at Two Biblomaniacs. I am reading a set NYR list and therefore the films I can watch are limited to those books, but oh what fun! Yesterday while cleaning the kitchen I watched Brave New World, and The Count Of Monte Cristo.
Brave New World: 1998 – Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy.
The book was intense, sad, and then some what a jarring rip off at the end. It had a balanced feel of innocence in a time of debauchery, freedom in the midst of oppression, and a quasi happiness floating like a soap-bubble through hell. The movie seemed to have taken the set, props, and character names from the novel and hosted a totally different play. While I understand editing and screen cuts are needed, this simply wasn’t the same story. The actors did a fine job, they committed to the strange and odd people and managed to have an ok movie… if I hadn’t read the haunting beauty of the book, I wouldn’t have known the soul had been taken out of the story.
The Count of Monte Cristo: 2002 – James Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris.
Ah – again. Okay so the movie was fun, fast paced, and visually stunning. I loved Jim Caviezel and Richard Harris in their roles, and seeing Luigi Vampa on-screen was excellent – however. Okay wait before I go all “they changed the story line, they messed with characters, they left two-thirds of the novel out”, I want you to understand that yes, I am more than aware the book to movie version that I would approve of would be roughly 24 hours long. Honestly I belive if I had been saddled with the task of placing that tome of Dumas’ onto film I couldn’t have done a better job….(with the exception of the ‘best friends’ who never really were even acquaintances in the book part). I think they boiled things down and took the parts they wanted and it worked. I should leave it there. I will.
Two more down and guess what I’m watching tonight? The Woman in White! I am actually kind of scared that Fosco isn’t going to be as compelling as I want him to be, that I won’t love this version of Marian Halcombe. Also I have A Tale of Two Cities, guess who plays Darnay/Carton?! Prince Humperdink 
ha!
Ciao
Moi xoxo
Not Like I Had Enough Going On Eh?
So recently, like on Friday, I stumbled upon this super awesome blog called Two Bibliomaniacs. I found them via the Follow Friday blog hop (hint hint it works!).
These two are pretty sweet.
They have lists – I love lists!
They appreciate good literature – I love really good literature!
They have a witty sense of humour – I have a witty sense of humour!
They host a Book To Movie Challenge – I joined!
Wait what? oh ya, look over here. So not only are these two bloggers cool but they vlog too. Or they used to? I haven’t really perused their whole awesomeness yet but I will. I did watch this vlog that talked about how they weren’t going to do this thing anymore but now they were going to do a new thing… anyway. The new thing is a Read the Book – Watch the Movie challenge from June 2011 to Dec 31 2012? I’m pretty sure, and I think I could win some steak knives, or some cookies.
Whatever the reason, I got sucked in. Maybe because I just watched The Color Purple and I’m all excited about it. Maybe because I’ve been keeping notes on the movies I must see: The Count of Monte Cristo, A Tale of Two Cities, who knows! Maybe it’s cause now I get to make a new tag. All I know is I’m at least one down! SO why not? Join me if you dare!
Moi xoxo
