The show is absolutely phenomenal.
Film Movies and Shows That Completely Missed The Point of the Source Material
- Thread starter Mr Pigeon
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran are here to talk about a frustrating 2 points dropped at Crystal Palace. They then discuss the regeneration of Old Trafford. Finally, Nik is joined by special guest Michael Statham from the Football Oranje podcast - who gives us a more in depth look at our EL opposition FC Twente, and then runs through the (many) Dutch connections currently at United.
The show is absolutely phenomenal.
How so? Other than the replacement of the tentacled Lovecraft monster with a more practical plot device,toning doen of the sexual fetishisation (Alan can't help himself) and the Rorschach shrink not collapsing under the weight of the nihilism it seemed reasonably faithful in general direction to me.
If you knew there was a new Doom movie, you'd appreciate the old one a lot more.
RedCafe: The Movie
Every movie based on a video game ever.
Or Vice versa.
Or Vice versa.
I remember it, and admittedly it's been 30 years, as a commentary in part on the collapse of human morality driven by those damned pesky kids and triumphing militaristic society as a solution to that (specifically that you need to fight physically to maintain values) , but I may misremember. I'll read it again.
TBF though that's very nearly literally like comparing a scholarly paper to a high-schooler/caf-poster who's seen some youtube videos using their dad's money to hire another high-schooler/caf-poster who made a decent highlight video once to make their own youtube video on the subject.
On second thought, you're right it's not fair.
I've heard from a few people who have read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that the film doesn't really capture the message of the book well. When I watched it the first time it was just a funny movie about some two crazy dudes getting fecked up. After hearing the book had a deeper message about how the drugs Hunter took allowed him to see the truth behind the Vegas facade, I watched it again. Whilst I could see that attempts had been made to convey that point, it remained just a funny movie about 2 dudes getting fecked up. Love it though.
Totally agree with this, read the book when it came out and it is basically an almost finished tv script. No idea what they were thinking with the awful film.
Loved the book when it came out but a dog of a film. Truly terrible.
Yes. They fecked the plot up very badly.
Apart from the title and a mention of three three laws it is nothing to do the book.
Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy. It seemed like a film made by committee where each member had only had a single different chapter described to them over dinner.
I don't know if it "missed the point" but it definitely went in a different direction to the book, and it turned out King hated the adaptation... Even though it's actually probably the best film adaptation of his work and elevates the source material, thanks to a genius director and some inspired performances.
Yeah I Robot was just poor, badly written action sci-fi coasting on Will Smith's fame back when he was considered cool (sad times).
I feel the same way - had the adaptation come a decade later, they might have considered to make a TV show out of it, which would have worked much better. The strength of the book was the diversity of point of views, which of course completely disappeared with Pitt as the main protagonist.
Mainly took out all the sociological/religious aspects and criticism, probably to avoid any controversy in the US. Very poor adaptation despite looking good and being well cast. The TV show though is not bad at all, and hasn't avoided the more adult themes of the books.
The book for me is militaristic propaganda, which the film brilliantly makes a satire of. I feel Verhoeven has often been misunderstood (not so much on this forum usually, where I feel people got the subversive approach he went for), and Starship Troopers is one of the best examples of this.
Came here ot post this, completely missed the point Moore was making about vigilantism and other themes.
There is a big political subtext running through the graphic novel, and notably a criticism of fascism, which Zack Snyder just didn't get (I'm pretty sure he didn't even understand it from the book and just thought "wow this is cool"). Rohrschach for example was never meant to be a hero, where the film made him cool and badass - perfect example of the adaptation missing the point. Thankfully, Lindelof's adaptation for HBO hit a lot closer to what Moore was originally saying.
The Firm (starring Tom Cruise). Was terrible compared to the Grisham novel, which was very good imo.
The American Red Dwarf completely missed the point of the characters and humour. I mean even the actor who played Lister in their version said:
"Bierko said he was a big fan of Red Dwarf and described the original British series as "ridiculously brilliant, revered", and that "America crapped on it", in his own words. Bierko also said that he himself was wrongly cast, as Lister should have been a John Belushi type character, and not a rugged Han Solo type. "
The pilots were never officially released but are available online.
"Bierko said he was a big fan of Red Dwarf and described the original British series as "ridiculously brilliant, revered", and that "America crapped on it", in his own words. Bierko also said that he himself was wrongly cast, as Lister should have been a John Belushi type character, and not a rugged Han Solo type. "
The pilots were never officially released but are available online.
Bourne identify. Well the whole trilogy...
To be honest, it starts off the same. Then goes off completely on a tangent and barely has any resemblance to the novels, aside from the odd name thrown in there.
To be honest, it starts off the same. Then goes off completely on a tangent and barely has any resemblance to the novels, aside from the odd name thrown in there.
This is quite surprising to me.
Now, I will admit that I've only seen the film once and a few years ago now but I am very familiar with the comics indeed (although it's not my favourite Moore comic). I recall the political element having surprisingly survived particularly around American interventionist policy, hysteria over crime and the "who watches the Watchmen" anti fascist angle but perhaps I was transferring my book knowledge into the viewing. The Comedian is, if I recall, still very much The Comedian (they kept the Vietnam pregnant girlfriend element didn't they?). Manhattan is still an exploited walking metaphor. The Silk Spectre is still raped. The vigilantes are still, almost to a man, pretty awful people.
Rorschach is a horrendous, disturbing and traumatised character but there are scenes with him in the comics that are "badass". He fecks up the crimelord and his goons singlehandedly when he comes to take revenge, he utterly screws up the convict who tried to chiv him by melting his face, etc, etc. I don't remember the film deviating from this much other than the toning down of the meetings with Dr. Long and particularly the descent into the depths of Rorschach's nightmare psyche. I don't remember it as being as deep a psychological investigation but I remember all the key beats being there.
Zack Snyder has unleashed some abominations into the cinema but I really don't recall Watchmen being one of those. I fancied rewatching it actually and will do so and see if I still feel the same but at the time, if anything, I thought the adaptation was a little lifeless because it so slavishly followed the original.
Nah. Sonic was ok. Mortal Kombat was ridiculous but entertaining. Prince of Persia was decent if I remember correctly...
But generally you are right.
Ah Mortal Kombat was awesome true. Actually, I also liked Street Fighter the movie when I was a kid. Havent seen sonic, but I imagine it's animated and that's not my cup of tea.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? and Blade Runner.
Oh yeah how can I forget Street Fighter! So bad that is good!
Sonic isn't animated. It's CGI mixed with live action and has Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnic!
Yep. I think we often forget how excellent both were.
The tv show: I ended up watching it mostly for Gillian Anderson's astonishing performance as Bedelia; a 'vampire' of the greatest elegance and cold, frightening passions.
EDIT: A neat little thread highlighting some of the small but good things in SotL ~
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Wtf? That sounds way better! Hate Hollywood endings, they're all the feckin same.
Isn't that basically what stranger things is? Just one big game of D&D and the kids imaginations running wild?
Geez! Literally would not have seen that coming - especially considering how the monsters are portrayed in the movie!
The movie is unwillingly deceptive, because the visuals don't match the content at all.
I don't think it's undemocratic and fascist in any way. Suffrage is based on service, kind of like a Roman republicanism. But they state specifically in the book that it's completely voluntary, and that anyone can serve no matter their physical abilities, because it's about personal sacrifice and service, which someone in a wheelchair can do as well as anyone else, because the service will always match the person's abilities.
The whole point of the new regime is that it has a built in safety mechanism against some of the flaws of democracy - populism and tyranny of the masses. Anyone can get to vote and be in government, but it requires a personal investment which gives everyone who serve an incentive to protect the system. This is contrasted with the failure of the previous regime, liberal democracy, which failed because it became a sort of intellectualized technocracy.
And it's certainly not militaristic propaganda. If anything it's comically transparent, look at how they show the horrors of battle and war live on TV. Would be the worst propaganda campaign of all time. The teacher lecturing on the theory of violence and political power is missing and arm, and the essense of what he's saying is just a stripped down version of the theory of monopoly of violence, which is essensial in every democracy.
Whether it in reality would have worked without becoming instantly corrupted though...
The Sum of al Fears: One of my favorite Clancy novels. But they change the villains to be politically correct and it screws up the story. Then they cast Ben Affleck who is over a decade younger than Jack Ryan in the books. Missed opportunity...
The movie only really borrows names and minor details from the book. It's based on an entirely different script that (after the studio secured the rights to Starship Troopers) got a quick makeover. I can also assure you no one thought the book was meant to be satire. The satirizing of the ideas put forth by the book was entirely intentional, even if the movie wasn't a direct adaption.
There are also far more portrayals of fascism than simply uniforms. There's also the general imagery, iconography and architecture. The opening scene is a shot-for-shot copy of a scene from Triumph of the Will, a Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl. The human society in the movie is a heavily militaristic one-party state, where only veterans are considered citizens and allowed to vote. Media is state-controlled, and send out propagandistic newscasts that glorify and emphasizes the necessity of war. All of this is accepted by the characters in the movie, who frequently regurgitate that same propaganda. There's a lot more, but hopefully you get the point.
Agree.
The genius of Verhoeven is that he didn't just make a satirical movie about fascism but produced a film that would be made in a fascist society. He is almost making fascist propaganda in order to really question the audience. Verhoeven - "I tried to seduce the audience into joining (Starship Troopers)society but then ask, what are we really joining up for."
Brilliant director.
I was about to say this. King hated the film, thought it completley misrepresented the book
I did like the film but you can't help feeling jarred by the differences after reading the book. Happens in just about all his films to be fair - even in Misery the difference in causing him the injury didn't sit well with me just because it shocked me so much in the book.
Game of Thrones.
V For Vendetta but the movie is better than Moore's comics.
I disagree most heartily.
Edit: Which is not to say I dislike the film.
Seriously?
That is a very good writing. Love to see that. The actual film is good, but that will make it triple better! But then mixing both doesn't seem to make sense... so maybe another alternate movie?
The trouble with an excellent twist like that is me being unable to forget the 'Are we the baddies?' thing. 
They filmed a similar ending to the book originally but when they tested it on people they weren't that keen apparently so they changed it.
Hollywood doesn't deserve him
Know if it's possible to watch that ending anywhere ?