Good movie ideas that were completely screwed up

[pepband99]

It is very rarely done effectively. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) is the only example I can think of off the top of my head. Les Miserables doesn't count, as the movie itself was not the adaptation. There have been decent adaptations of A Christmas Carol. The list of adaptations that failed miserably is long (at least in modern film-making) -- Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Sense and Sensibility, The Man in the Iron Mask . . .

Stephen King says hi.

The number of GREAT movies based on his good/great books alone is staggering.

 

[superjohn]

Heat is a great movie, absolutely one of the best films of the 90's. It's Michael Mann at his absolute peak. He had a stellar run with The Last of the Mohicans, Manhunter, Heat, and The Insider. Nobody has ever been able to capture LA like Mann, he breathes life and cool into what I always have considered a pretty soulless city. Neil McCauley is vintage De Niro. Charming in a sort of detached way, brilliant at his craft and ruthless in his execution. All the performances are great, the cinematography is top notch and there has never been a shootout scene that compares with the bank heist shootout in broad daylight. Hands down the best cops and robbers movie of all-time.

 

[superjohn]

Golly, one of my favorite movies of all time. Michael Mann is at times amazing, and this is his pinnacle. I don't mind when movies take the time to breathe. I will agree with GOUCONN that Pacino really tried to chew the scenery a few times though.

I agree Pacino chewed a little too much scenery and 10-15 minutes probably could have been cut out, other than that it's a flawless film.

 

[Excalibur]

Stephen King says hi.

The number of GREAT movies based on his good/great books alone is staggering.

I'm talking about classic literature, and believe that Deac was a well . . .

 

[Husky25]

I agree Pacino chewed a little too much scenery and 10-15 minutes probably could have been cut out, other than that it's a flawless film.

Do you think Pacino's performance would make a little more sense if some scenes included Vincent chipping a bit of coke every now and again?

 

[Dogdeacon]

I'm talking about classic literature, and believe that Deac was a well . . .

Its funny that he went with Stephen King instead of I dunno, William Shakespeare who boasts at least a couple of decently received movies. On more modern note I thought Last of the Mohicans was pretty good initially and like even more on re-watchability.

 

[IMind]

Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner.

It sucked.

Also hurt by excellent Tombstone that had been released soon before it.

Three other Kevin Costner movies pop into my head: Waterworld, The Postman (great book), and Robin Hood.

 

[Mano]

Heat is a great movie, absolutely one of the best films of the 90's. It's Michael Mann at his absolute peak. He had a stellar run with The Last of the Mohicans, Manhunter, Heat, and The Insider. Nobody has ever been able to capture LA like Mann, he breathes life and cool into what I always have considered a pretty soulless city. Neil McCauley is vintage De Niro. Charming in a sort of detached way, brilliant at his craft and ruthless in his execution. All the performances are great, the cinematography is top notch and there has never been a shootout scene that compares with the bank heist shootout in broad daylight. Hands down the best cops and robbers movie of all-time.

Yea, I often rated it in my top few favorite movies when I was younger (I've since stopped with that practice, there are just too many), but truth be told it'll always be way, way up there. I couldn't agree more with ALL of your post. That shootout is the barometer for which all other such scenes should be judged by. Elsewhere, the tension in the metals heist is just ridiculous. The armored car heist at the beginning is just unreal too, what a way to start! So many incredible scenes emblazoned in my mind. I must've seen it close to 20 times.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Three other Kevin Costner movies pop into my head: Waterworld, The Postman (great book), and Robin Hood.

Costner is kind of on a late career renaissance, or maybe just finally had a few non-terrible movies after a long drought. He's got a lot more quality movies than Cage does, but similarly for a long time Costner being in a movie meant don't bother.
Costner Good - Fandango, No Way Out, Silverado, American Flyers, Untouchables, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Revenge, Tin Cup, Dances with Wolves - where ego overcame everything. Overall wins vs Cage and pretty easily best sports movie career of all-time.
Cage Good - Peggy Sue, Moonstruck, Raising Arizona, Adaptation, Leaving Las Vegas - it came apart a lot quicker and more abundantly I omit a few average or ok mostly action films along the way

 

[Husky25]

Any part that Costner has to speak in an accent other than his own natural voice was miscast. The two that come immediately to mind are:

Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves. The movie was fine for what it was, but he literally gave up half way through (Alan Rictman was tremendous).

Thirteen Days. His accent was nails on a chalkboard. Why is it that the only acceptable New England accents are by those from New England or Great Britain (Robert Shaw nailed the crusty old sailor from (presumably) Maine in Jaws)?.

JFK could have been worse. Only not so because Costner didn't try a true Nawlins drawl (In hindsight, Kevin Spacey would have rocked that part).

 

[Excalibur]

Why is it that the only acceptable New England accents are by those from New England or Great Britain Robert Shaw nailed the crusty old sailor from (presumably) Maine)?.

Only exception to this was DiCaprio in The Departed . . .

 

[HuskyHawk]

Its funny that he went with Stephen King instead of I dunno, William Shakespeare who boasts at least a couple of decently received movies. On more modern note I thought Last of the Mohicans was pretty good initially and like even more on re-watchability.

Last of the Mohicans was excellent really. Incredible score.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Only exception to this was DiCaprio in The Departed . . .

Yes, he was among the best, because he didn't overdo it. Props to Martin Sheen in the Departed as well. I'll also say that Robin Williams pulled it off in Good Will Hunting. Most should not even attempt it.

 

[Husky25]

Only exception to this was DiCaprio in The Departed . . .

True. He didn't over do it.

 

[superjohn]

Do you think Pacino's performance would make a little more sense if some scenes included Vincent chipping a bit of coke every now and again?

Never tried coke but I think it would make sense. He was manic and singularly focused on his job while his personal life was crumbling all around him. Looked totally rundown but at the same time would fly off the handle.

 

[superjohn]

Costner is kind of on a late career renaissance, or maybe just finally had a few non-terrible movies after a long drought. He's got a lot more quality movies than Cage does, but similarly for a long time Costner being in a movie meant don't bother.
Costner Good - Fandango, No Way Out, Silverado, American Flyers, Untouchables, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Revenge, Tin Cup, Dances with Wolves - where ego overcame everything. Overall wins vs Cage and pretty easily best sports movie career of all-time.
Cage Good - Peggy Sue, Moonstruck, Raising Arizona, Adaptation, Leaving Las Vegas - it came apart a lot quicker and more abundantly I omit a few average or ok mostly action films along the way

I would add a few for Costner- A Perfect World, Thirteen Days and Open Range. Some for Cage as well- Joe, Wild At Heart and Racing with The Moon.

 

[Jay-Bone]

Suicide Squad of recent memory for me. Interesting characters but once past the character intros I completely lost interest. May be one of the few movies I turned off half way through.

 

[storrsroars]

Last of the Mohicans was excellent really. Incredible score.

Still the only movie soundtrack I ever bought.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Still the only movie soundtrack I ever bought.

If you were alive in the 70's & didn't own Saturday Night Fever you might be the only one! Similar for 80's and Big Chill but no one will cop to that.

 

[HuskyHawk]

If you were alive in the 70's & didn't own Saturday Night Fever you might be the only one! Similar for 80's and Big Chill but no one will cop to that.

I was a "death to disco" guy, so didn't buy Saturday Night Fever...not that it wasn't on the radio constantly anyway. So was Grease when it came out. I did buy Big Chill on cassette, and American Graffiti. More recently I picked up Guardians of the Galaxy.

But that's different than an album of an original score. Mohicans was superb, especially combined with the cinematography. Obviously John Williams has a bunch of winners of course, my wife owns several of those.

 

[IMind]

Still the only movie soundtrack I ever bought.

Ghostbusters... but I was like 8. The Hackers sound track was absurdly good. I'm not sure Nightmare Before Christmas counts... I've also bought the best of Danny Elfman... It's a bit of a joke that he never won an Oscar. He gets a tough break for doing all the Burton films and the over the top stuff.. but he's got a lot of "serious" work that gets overlooked because of it. That's about it though.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Heat is is pretty much a big budget Hollywood remake of LA Takedown, a made-for-TV movie written and directed by Michael Mann. The "contrived" diner scene was lift from his own movie, almost word for word.

Pacino overacted because his character had a coke habit in early drafts. The storyline was glossed over because it makes the Hanna character less sympathetic.

Did not know that about the Hanna character. That would have made a lot more sense.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

This is probably too literary, but The Great Gatsby should be a simple, easy story about American ambition, aspiration and disillusionment that is easy to tell in very simplistic terms. Legend has it that the 1974 version with Redford had a great script written by Francis Ford Coppolla straight off the Godfather, but the director ignored it and went with a different tact (Gatsby as more crass than aspirational) and it unwound into too much of a love story. The remake with DiCaprio and Maguire got those two cast right, but the rest was total abomination. The wealth, parties, love triangles were all a mechanism for a tale about ambition, longing & disillusionment of American dream. I guess unrealistic to expect Hollywood to downplay glamour and salacious details.

Saw Great Expectations remake with Ethan Hawke for first time recently and that was also unmitigated disaster. Why anyone thinks embellishing a great work of literature is a good idea is beyond vanity.

I guess the story within the story of the two movies is the directors/producers kind of lived/embody the examples from the original stories in a nice twist of irony.

Here's something completely different! Any notion that Batman vs Superman should be good is endlessly amusing to me. I would only see it in double feature with Bambi vs Godzilla.

I don't love Baz Luhrmann, but I think his takes on things are usually at least interesting. I liked Gatsby a lot, and other than casting Tom Edgerton, who I think is painfully mediocre, Luhrmann did a great job.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

It is very rarely done effectively. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) is the only example I can think of off the top of my head. Les Miserables doesn't count, as the movie itself was not the adaptation. There have been decent adaptations of A Christmas Carol. The list of adaptations that failed miserably is long (at least in modern film-making) -- Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Sense and Sensibility, The Man in the Iron Mask . . .

The 2002 Count of Monte Cristo had potential for disaster. It was a remake of a relatively recent movie (within ~20 years give or take), everyone knew the plot, and the Director had everyone use these strange affects to their speech patterns. And it just worked.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Raising Arizona.

You got nothing for that one.

Fair point. The exception proves the rule.