War Machine (2017)
When was the last time Brad Pitt (By the Sea, Fury) gave a performance that didn’t resemble an alien trying to control a human host? That’s the question I posed on Twitter shortly after screening War...
Tagged: based on a book
War Dogs (2016)
Loosely based on a true story chronicled in a 2011 “Rolling Stone” article and subsequent 2015 book (“Arms and the Dudes”) by Guy Lawson, War Dogs follows two lifelong friends, struggling massage therapist and bedsheet salesman...
The BFG (2016)
Set in London, a clever but unhappy, insomnia-afflicted orphan named Sophie (Barnhill, “4 O’Clock Club”) wakes up in the middle of the evening and sees something outside the orphanage window. Investigating, she discovers a...
Hello, My Name is Doris (2015)
Sally Field (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Lincoln) reminds us why she’s earned two Oscars (other than because we really, really like her) with her sublime performance in Hello My Name is Doris, a comedy with surprising emotional...
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Seth Grahame-Smith’s tongue-in-cheek reimagining of Jane Austen’s 19th Century classic romance novel finally hits theater screens, perhaps a bit too late to catch either the zombie craze or the fervor for Jane Austen adaptations...
Paddington (2014)
From the appearance of the terrible pratfall-filled trailer, Paddington would appear like one of those anthropomorphic misfires in the vein of Kangaroo Jack or Yogi Bear. The film had some dubious press in the late days of its production...
The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
Based on the first of the Elleston Trevor (written as Adam Hall) series of Quiller spy novels, The Quiller Memorandum (the book was called “The Berlin Memorandum” outside of the United States) mixes the heroics, romance...
Yes Man (2008)
A fictional adaptation based on the autobiographical book by Danny Wallace, Yes Man hermistars Jim Carrey (Horton Hears a Who, The Number 23) as Carl Allen, a bank loan officer who becomes a bit of a...
Die Hard (1988)
In 1968, Roderick Thorp’s 1966 novel, “The Detective”, was adapted to the screen by 20th Century Fox. The film version starred Frank Sinatra as middle-aged ex-cop Joe Leland and performed well enough at the...
Quick Change (1990)
Bill Murray stars as Grimm, a man who dresses like a clown in order to fool the police when he and his two cohorts commit a bank robbery which sees them taking away a...