Hitchcock pairs with writer Frederick Knott to bring his stage play, Dial M for Murder to the big screen in this captivating and thrilling adaptation. The film features a top-tier cast, the luminous Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings and John Williams. Everyone has secrets in this engaging film. Kelly is Margot Wendice, a wealthy…
Tag: adaptation
Never Cry Wolf (1983) – Carroll Ballard
Charles Martin Smith plays Farley Mowat, in Carroll Ballard’s adaptation of Mowat’s classic novel, Never Cry Wolf. A book that actually changed the way we viewed wolves. Mowat is a government researcher, and he’s got his assignment. Head north, like way north, and dig into the ahem menace that wolves pose to the environment, particularly…
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) – Robert Mulligan
The moment I finished Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, I knew it was tome to check out the cinematic version, another hole in my viewing category. Gregory Peck headlines as Atticus, a role that garnered him an Academy Award. The film garnered two more wins, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Set/Art Dec. It received…
Monday Musings – A Marvel Comics Super Special
Having recently talked about my love of the movie tie-in novelization, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t dive into the equally enjoyable Marvel Super Specials that often adapted those same movies, and brought them to life panel by panel – sometimes with stellar art, sometimes not, but always worth collecting. I remember…
Monday Musings – The Movie Tie-In Saga
I’ve always been an avid reader. I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t have at least one book on the go. And, I loved my movies. When I was a kid all the way up through the end of high school I was a devout fan of the movie tie-in book….
Timeline (2003) – Richard Donner
I love Richard Donner films, I love Michael Crichton books, seems like a solid match, but the big-screen adaptation of Crichton’s Timeline feels a little lackluster. It boasts a solid cast, Paul Walker, Gerard Butler, Frances O’Connor, Billy Connolly, Anna Friel, Neal McDonough, and Michael Sheen. There’s an archaeology study and dig going on at…
The Girl with All the Gifts (2016) – Colm McCarthy
I don’t know if there’s a horror sub-genre more flexible and adaptable than the zombie story. It can do straight horror, gore, comedy, romance, tragedy, and can give us social commentary, or just give us a white-knuckle thrill ride. This time out, it’s a pontificiation on humanity, our treatment of others, growth, and nurturing. Mike…
Salem’s Lot (2024) – Gary Dauberman
Maybe it’s all the Universal Monster movies I’ve been watching lately, but I found that, for the most part, Dauberman’s adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel (the first one I ever read), Salem’s Lot, works. I don’t like how he changed the climax of the film. He moves it out of the Marsten House…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981) – Episodes 4, 5, and 6
Douglas Adams iconic story The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy continues with Arthur Dent’s (Simon Jones) comedic and intergalactic travels . The fourth episode aired on 26 January, 1981. The gang are still on Magrathea and the reveal that mice were the ones who financed the planet Earth, and were conducting experiments there. Arthur confers…
TIFF24: The Wild Robot dir. Chris Sanders
I closed out my TIFF run this year, with the latest animated effort from Dreamworks. Based on the children’s book by Peter Brown, Sanders not only directed the film, but adapted the story as well, and it’s going to be a family classic to be sure. When a robot, Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) awakes from her…
The Mind Reels 