Today I washed dishes.
Ascending the stairs, having come home from work, Jenni called out, "So have you gone out this week for anything other than food?" My response, grumpy and defensive: "NO."
Here, have a bit of meme: Day 24 - The best page-to-screen film adaptation:
The problem with page-to-screen adaptations that everyone knows is that the book is, in almost all instances, better. The movie has to either abandon faithfulness for pragmatism (Stardust, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), be radically expanded from something very short (Where The Wild Things Are, How To Train Your Dragon), be adapted by the author (The Princess Bride, Bridge to Terabithia), or be adapted from such a generically trashy potboiler that there are few fans diehard enough to cry adaptation decay (Jaws).
My choice breaks all those rules. It's very faithful indeed, except for the ending. The film rights were sold before the original was even published, and the two versions were written simultaneously - one by the author, one by the film's eventual director. And the author is universally beloved by a really particular demographic, you know, the kinds of people who tell dick jokes to feel like a motherfucking adult. It's not necessarily a better movie than any of the ones I've listed - I was powerfully tempted to choose Jaws or Master and Commander, actually - but it is, shall we say, very aptly named:
Yeah, baby. Look, okay, I'll admit it: I kind of loathe and detest Mark Millar. And by kind of I mean really really. He's like Garth Ennis without the frequent moments of genius that let you ignore the worse titles. He's offensive, immature, and nihilistic, but thinks he's hilarious, incisive, and, like, totally sees through the capitalist bullshit. His quotes sound so smug that I'm pretty sure you could write them all down on individual scraps of paper, then put the papers in a press and squeeze out condensed liquid smugness, which you could then bottle and no doubt use in the manufacture of upmarket cologne. And he's responsible for some of the worst writing in one of my favourite comics, so there might be a bit of a grudge going there.* ANYWAY.
Kick Ass the movie is not an earth-shaking piece of cinema, but what it is is INCREDIBLY FUN: the potential of the premise and characters are fully realised, and the cast all seem to love their parts. Its explosive bad taste is come by honestly, and the emotional impact of all this black humour is dealt with and then mined for further black humour. The ending is extremely satisfying, and, as a cherry on the top of this nutritionally empty yet incredibly enjoyable pie, Nicolas Cage does a fantastic Adam West impression. In short: hate the original author, hate the original comic, yet love, love, LOVE the movie that was done with full respect to both.
*Maybe one day, I'll get over what he did to The Authority. Maybe.
Here, have a bit of meme: Day 24 - The best page-to-screen film adaptation:
The problem with page-to-screen adaptations that everyone knows is that the book is, in almost all instances, better. The movie has to either abandon faithfulness for pragmatism (Stardust, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), be radically expanded from something very short (Where The Wild Things Are, How To Train Your Dragon), be adapted by the author (The Princess Bride, Bridge to Terabithia), or be adapted from such a generically trashy potboiler that there are few fans diehard enough to cry adaptation decay (Jaws).
My choice breaks all those rules. It's very faithful indeed, except for the ending. The film rights were sold before the original was even published, and the two versions were written simultaneously - one by the author, one by the film's eventual director. And the author is universally beloved by a really particular demographic, you know, the kinds of people who tell dick jokes to feel like a motherfucking adult. It's not necessarily a better movie than any of the ones I've listed - I was powerfully tempted to choose Jaws or Master and Commander, actually - but it is, shall we say, very aptly named:
Yeah, baby. Look, okay, I'll admit it: I kind of loathe and detest Mark Millar. And by kind of I mean really really. He's like Garth Ennis without the frequent moments of genius that let you ignore the worse titles. He's offensive, immature, and nihilistic, but thinks he's hilarious, incisive, and, like, totally sees through the capitalist bullshit. His quotes sound so smug that I'm pretty sure you could write them all down on individual scraps of paper, then put the papers in a press and squeeze out condensed liquid smugness, which you could then bottle and no doubt use in the manufacture of upmarket cologne. And he's responsible for some of the worst writing in one of my favourite comics, so there might be a bit of a grudge going there.* ANYWAY.
Kick Ass the movie is not an earth-shaking piece of cinema, but what it is is INCREDIBLY FUN: the potential of the premise and characters are fully realised, and the cast all seem to love their parts. Its explosive bad taste is come by honestly, and the emotional impact of all this black humour is dealt with and then mined for further black humour. The ending is extremely satisfying, and, as a cherry on the top of this nutritionally empty yet incredibly enjoyable pie, Nicolas Cage does a fantastic Adam West impression. In short: hate the original author, hate the original comic, yet love, love, LOVE the movie that was done with full respect to both.
*Maybe one day, I'll get over what he did to The Authority. Maybe.