Theo James and Christian Convery pull double duty as the older and younger versions of twin brothers Hal and Bill in Osgood Perkins horror comedy, The Monkey. Using the original Stephen King short story as a launching point Perkins delivers a gory tense ride, that releases with every gruesome kill and then ratchets the tension…
Tag: short story
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) – George Nolfi
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt headline The Adjustment Bureau, which uses the short story The Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick as it’s launching point. Nolfi not only directed but he wrote the screenplay as well, delivering an entertaining sci-romance. Damon is David Norris, a politician on track to be the next representative from New…
TIFF24: The Life of Chuck dir. Mike Flanagan
Tears. Happy tears. When things just feel right, when something is translated so well from page to screen that it looks the way it did in your mind’s eye. The Life of Chuck moved me to happy tears. Mike Flanagan is at the top of his game. He has proven that he excels at adapting…
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) – Blu-ray
I’ve been with the Ghostbusters since before the first movie came out, forty years ago. I remember seeing the advertising for it on the back of my comic books, I also tried writing my own version of the story before I even knew what it was or what it was about. I had a little…
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece (2023) – Tom Hanks
Somehow this one got by me, but I was delighted to dig into it, as I quite enjoyed Hanks short story collection, Uncommon Type. For his first novel, Hanks delivers a tale that takes us behind the scenes of a big superhero movie and walks us through all the steps of its production, exploring the…
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) – Robert Longo
William Gibson wrote the screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic based on one of his short stories, but you get the impression it changed a lot from what he had written to what ended up on the screen. A lot of the tech seems to be glossed over, and with an hour-and-a-half runtime, this film feels like…
Live at Five (1999) – Raymond Benson
007 is back. Raymond Benson wrote a short story, just in time for the premiere of The World is Not Enough. It was published in TV Guide and gives a brief glimpse of a Cold War defection that James Bond was involved in. Set in the United States following a botched attempt in London, Bond…
The Boogeyman (2023) – Rob Savage
Sometimes Stephen King adaptations work, sometimes they take the core of the idea and do something completely different with it, and sometimes it comes off better than the original story. Not this time. But sometimes. This time around they took Stephen King’s short story, The Boogeyman as featured in the Night Shift collection and used…
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022) – John Lee Hancock
John Lee Hancock adapts the Stephen King short story to the screen and gives us a thoughtful rumination on technology, life, forgiveness, and letting go. Jaeden Martell returns to the King-verse this time as young Craig, a student, a young man who is dealing with the death of his mother, navigating the world of high…
Midsummer Night’s Doom (1999) – Raymond Benson
Jame Bond has had a long history with Playboy and for the magazine’s 45th anniversary, novelist Raymond Benson penned a short story to be featured in the celebratory issue. In fact, this time around 007 interacts not only with some Playmates from the previous years but also with Hugh Hefner himself. It seems there’s going…
The Mind Reels 