Books Made Into Movies- One for the Money

    Last night I watched One for the Money, starring Katherine Heigl. The movie is based on the series of books by author, Janet Evanovich.  If you've never read One for the Money, please close this post and go to your local library.

    There are millions of mystery novels but the reason why Evanvich is so successful is her style of using irreverence and humor, while threading together a love triangle that is pieced tantalizingly slow throughout the series of (currently published) eighteen books. Stephanie Plum is a lovable, crazy, down to earth sort of character that women can relate to and the public can root for. Evanovich writes the love interests for Plum's character with a dash of Prince Charming, a pinch of Rascal, and heaping tablespoons of Handsome. You just can't help but to cheer for the Jersey Girl during every novel.

    The first thing that struck me about this movie was that it.wasn't.funny. I counted the number of times people laughed in the theater. Not one guffaw until we were halfway through. Total laugh count=5 and only twice was it really funny. This is the hallmark of the series! The major part of the book's success was humor and the script writer totally missed it. Devastating.

    When I saw Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum, I'll admit to already being skeptical about casting. Stephanie Plum wears spandex and scrunchies. She has this traditional Jersey Girl look, maybe slightly downplayed but she's definitely not hip. Plum's pretty in that every girl sort of way but with an inherited amount of Jersey flash. In the movie, we see no spandex or anything resembling Jersey. Heigl got the brown curly hair right but she looks a bit like she just stepped out of a Tomb Raider game. Wardrobe just took it down a notch by using banana clip and jeans. Heigl's acting isn't bad but the writers didn't give her any of Stephanie Plum's trademark bitchiness or straight on humor.

    Morelli was a bad casting choice, too. He looked too old for the part. Jason O'Mara isn't unattractive by any means but he and Heigl just didn't match up well. He has that rugged look of a 40 year old and she's got that bum college look going on. It all looks a little jail-baitey to me, when you consider that she sold him her cannoli in high school. This could have been overlooked, though, had the writing been better.

    Ranger was decently cast, but not enough attention was paid to him. Grandma wasn't nearly as kooky and fun as I remembered her being in the books and the major scene involving her and Stephanie's gun just didn't play out as well on the Big Screen as I felt it should. Again, the writing sucked. The character of Lulu was really the only shining casting choice.

    The books are funny but One for the Money also has a dark side. They had potential in this movie to display a well rounded story line. Instead, we were shorted. The major scene with Lulu was written off in about two seconds. Ramirez was scary in only one scene and we were left confused as to why he was such a threat. The ending of the movie just appeared. There wasn't this major build up of detail, no big climactic scene. It just kind of happened to you which is the worst kind of ending.

    If another Stephanie Plum movie is made, I'll probably go see it. If the writing is improved, the casting deviations become minor. However, you have to maintain the spirit and style that the book was written in order to make a successful movie based on the book. If I had watched this movie before reading the book, I never would have been tempted to pick it up. As a matter of fact, I probably wouldn't have bothered reading any of the books, which is a real shame and discredit to a wonderfully talented author.

    In short, if you'd like to see another Stephanie Plum movie then you should purchase a ticket. That's literally the only reason I can find to bother yourself to get to the theater. Otherwise, stick to the books. Your imagination will tell a better story.

Books Made Into Movies

Over the course of time, many books have made it to the Big Screen. Some have been amazing and others have been dismal failures.

It's difficult to squash all the intricacies of a 300+ page book into a two hour movie. I'm never envious of the poor soul who has to capture all of that in a script. You can't please everyone and rarely is the movie ever as good as the book.

 Let's take a look at two of my favorite and recent successes:

1. Lord Of The Rings Trilogy- Peter Jackson did the impossible. He took a bazillion page Science Fiction Masterpiece and made it into a brilliant work of art. The characters were memorable, the story line was kept very true to the books, and Jackson fought the battle of traditional movie length...and won. This was the first movie I ever went to a midnight showing for and didn't regret staying up. I was mesmerized by the cinematography. I think Jackson broke through a lot of new territory in making this movie (the same can be said of James Cameron's Titanic) This is a guy who didn't sell out and thank goodness he didn't. If you mess up LOTR, the multitude of Tolkien fans will never forget or forgive you.

2. Harry Potter- If you've never taken the time to read a Harry Potter book, please climb out from under whatever rock you've been under and give it a go. J.K.Rowling is probably the most prolific and creative writer of current time. Her contribution to literature will live forever and that's something most writers never get to say. She's the female equivalent to Tolkien and, like him, her writing is universally appealing to all genders and ages. The Harry Potter movies were visually spectacular. It's unbelievably difficult to capture the essence of a House Elf or Hippogriff, but somehow they managed to do it in these movies. This entire, original, and magical world was played out and perfectly paced through 8 movies.

Here are two of  my more disappointing movie experiences:

1. The Time Traveler's Wife was a major reading experience for me. I was surprised by how emotional I was after reading this book. For a week, I wandered aimlessly around. I looked for fanfic, I dreamed about it. I didn't want the story to end. I was captivated by the complex relationship between Clare and Henry.

When the movie came out, I was excited. There were definitely bonus points for staring Eric Bana, who was shirtless many times in The Other Boleyn Girl. Rachel McAdams was fine with  me,too. When the big day came, I hopped over to the movie theater with some friends and ordered a Big Blue Alcoholic Drink, got out my tissue stash, and prepared to be swept off my feet and for poor Henry to tragically lose his own.

At first I thought,"What's in this drink?" because nothing was making sense. Major plot lines were missing and so were characters. Most importantly, they f'ed up the end! I took out my tissues and grieved over the butchering of a great book.

This movie was almost as bad as Niffeneger's follow up book, Her Fearful Symmetry.

 This might be offensive to some of you.

I wasn't a super fan of Breaking Dawn. I felt like Stephenie Meyer jumped the shark, fell into a Mormon Baptismal Pool, and tried to give everyone a happy ending while the rest of us just wanted someone to die. We wanted a big fang fight, a stake through Aro's heart, and Rose should have sacrificed herself for the kid leaving readers fighting the irresistible urge to bombard a brooding, grieving Emmett with cookies and casserole dishes.

Despite my misgivings, I was determined to see this thing through. All the previous Twilight movies had a great soundtrack so the first thing that struck me was the utter campy-ness of the music. It gave the whole thing a B-movie feel, right from the beginning.

I felt sorry for Kristen Stewart, who's character already lacked depth, and was reduced even more in the wailing, writhing CGI Zombie Birth Scene. Edward's character just seemed inept. I kept expecting him to scurry off to a corner somewhere and numbly nibble at his steel fingernails with his diamond vampire teeth.

The one shining moment in this fiasco was the character of Charlie, Bella's father. He always adds those moments of comic relief. The relationship between Jacob and Rose was fun to watch and the wedding night scene wasn't terrible. You know, because having your partner break the headboard and leaving you black and blue whilst claiming your virginity is such an amazing experience. "Don't worry, Edward. I'm totally into the whole S&M thing! Let's do it again!" 


Sadly, I have one more movie to sit through before I can officially put a fork in my Twilight movie experience.

What's Your District?

On March 23, 2012, we will be catapulted into the world of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins. When I originally read this book, I immediately wanted to see a visual representation of it in movie form. The pacing is fabulous and really represents a shift in literature that we've been seeing since the tremendous success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. A tremendous amount of detail has been paid to the setting in these books and Collins really allows you to mentally visualize what's happening to Everdeen and the other characters in this book.

The Hunger Games leaves you a little breathless, waiting to see if Everdeen survives her ordeal as one of the 24  teenagers selected in a yearly life or death battle against the odds, environment, and other contestants. It's cruel, unusual, and leaves you with the uncomfortable feeling that our own society could easily spiral into the same divided and conquered country as Collins post-apocalyptic version, which she names "Panem".

The Hunger Games Trilogy is exciting and probably the best Young Adult novel I've read in years. I'll admit, I have high expectations for the movie. I can't wait to see Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. I think they really nailed that one. And while I was hoping for Hugh Laurie to play the crotchety Haymitch, I read an interview on Woody Harrelson's approach to playing the character and was impressed.  The special effects are going to be a very necessary component to the movie's success but the portrayal of human relationships in the face of such harsh and unforgiving circumstances will be the determining factor in whether or not we want to see more.

May the odds be ever in your favor.