Posts Tagged ‘adaptation’
She Deviant || The Lucky One: Review
Lety Gallegos was gracious enough to review and provide her insight on this film for Cinema Deviant:
The Lucky One is based on the book of the same name written by author Nicholas Sparks. This film is directed by Scott Hicks and the screenplay written by Will Fetters. The story centers around a US marine, Logan Thibault (Zac Efron), that finds a picture of a smiling woman amongst the ashes and ruin of Iraq. He is immediately drawn to the woman in the picture and decides to hang on to it and return it to its rightful owner. However, his attempts to locate the owner are futile. During his tours in Iraq, Logan experiences several near-death experiences and starts to believe that maybe the woman in the picture is his guardian angel. When he returns home he is lost and dealing with survivor’s guilt. He can’t seem to make an easy transition into normal civilian life. Logan decides he must find the woman in the photo and thank her for keeping him safe. He leaves town along with his faithful German shepherd, Zeus and embarks on this unexpected journey. When he finally meets this woman, Beth Green (Taylor Schilling), he is at a loss for words and cannot seem to express his gratitude and explain the reason for his visit. There seems to be an immediate spark between them but for Beth it quickly turns into mistrust. Beth happens to be a troubled divorcee and is instantly suspect of what his true intentions might be. Logan ends up landing a job at Beth’s dog boarding business, due mostly in part by Beth’s mother’s meddling . Soon enough we meet Beth’s possessive ex-husband, Keith (Jay R. Ferguson) who instantly dislikes Logan. On the contrary, Beth and Keith’s son Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart) befriends Logan without hesitation. The story begins to unfold and we find out what demons seem to be haunting Beth and what impact Logan’s presence has on Beth and Ben’s life.
Logan’s character is a deeply tormented individual with a calm and collected exterior and a brooding demeanor. He is a ticking time bomb of sorts (pun intended) that Zac Efron seems to embody quite well. I have seen Zac Efron take on this type of role before in Charlie St. Cloud and he does an excellent job portraying this sort of character. The on-screen chemistry between Zac and Taylor was truly electric and made the film that much better. Beth Green is still coping with things from her past that she is trying to come to terms with so it is no surprise that these two tortured souls seem to be drawn to each other. I might also add the Louisiana scenery we get to witness as the story develops is pretty amazing. Though there were some slight differences from the book, the movie stayed true to the main storyline with the exception of the ending. I will not spoil the movie for you so I won’t give you details, but I will say that I was not completely put off by the movie ending.
This is one of several Nicholas Sparks’ books that have been adapted to the big screen. Being a fan of these novels, I have never been disappointed with the movie adaptations and I was not disappointed in this one. Though the initial storyline might appear a bit on the cheesy side (okay super cheesy) it is still nice to dream that maybe things like destiny and fate still exist. I’d recommend this movie to any of my fellow hopeless romantics (I know you’re out there don’t be shy). Happy chick-flicking!
The Lucky One is now available on Bluray and DVD from Warner Home Entertainment
The Amazing Spider-Man: Review
In this reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise directed by Marc Webb (I think they picked him purposely…lol) Andrew Garfield stars as the web-slinger Peter Parker and Emma Stone as his love interest Gwen Stacey. This film retells the origin of Spider-Man starting from Peter Parker being your run of the mill brainy, nerdy high school kid to him getting bit by a spider and gaining superpowers after taking a trip to a research facility. He quickly realizes that having that kind of power does require a certain sense of responsibility.
I have been exposed to Spider-Man’s origin story many times over the years (comics, tv and in film) so I wasnt looking forward to seeing it again but as the movie began and it started to build up into it I was fairly surpirised to see that it wasnt the same thing that I’ve seen constantly. The outline to his origin is still there and intact but they tweaked it in certain spots and made it feel fresh and new. I was happy that they included his parents into the story because there is a great little backstory that happens with them in the comics that looks like it may happen in this series of films. The other thing that I was fairly critical about with the previous Spider-Man films was Peter’s lack of actual mechanical web shooters. This film brings that to the table and I couldn’t be happier to have a big, important part of the comic worked into this version. Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Curt Conners perfectly in this movie. You end up sharing a bit of sympathy with the character and all he has been through. The only thing that bothered me a bit was the way Andrew Garfield played Spider-Man. He played Peter Parker exactly the way he should be played but Spider-Man was a different story. In my opinion he was a bit too lanky and very casual with the way he was Spider-Man. I kept looking for that “superhero moment but it fell a bit short. I thought they did a great job at this reboot and it has tons of potential to tell a really great story. I’ve heard that they plan on making this a trilogy, I just hope that if they decide to make more movies after that they at least keep the same continuity with or with or without the same actors. There are plenty of stories out there that can be told without seeing another origin story again. Go check this out in theaters now!
