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Better Movies Than Novels


Curt McGirt

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25 minutes ago, Death From Above said:

The Godfather is a genuinely mediocre novel that also spends way, way too much time on a kind of weird and gross Johnny Fontaine/Hollywood sex ring side story that Coppola had the wisdom to jettison into the sun, resulting in a far more focused narrative.

This was my first thought. 

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47 minutes ago, The Natural said:

I prefer The Crow (1994) to the original material. The movie is amazing for the performances, story, the visuals and the music. So sad that Brandon Lee lost his life on set while making it.

and was getting married not long after

When he and Shelly re-unite in the cemetery at the end...OMG, I lose it everytime. As much as I like the movie, I don't watch it that much for that reason.

Oh yeah, and that Jane Sibbery song in the closing credits, "It Can't Rain All the Time" makes me lose it as well.

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6 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

and was getting married not long after

When he and Shelly re-unite in the cemetery at the end...OMG, I lose it everytime. As much as I like the movie, I don't watch it that much for that reason.

Understandable. I love The Crow. Impressive how it was completed under the sad circumstances as Brandon Lee still had scenes to do.

Three quotes I remember since seeing the film as a 15 year old:

"Victims, aren't we all?"

"It can't rain all the time."

"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever."

The last one gets me. I'm teary eyed now.

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Just now, The Natural said:

Understandable. I love The Crow. Impressive how it was completed under the sad circumstances as Brandon Lee still had scenes to do.

Three quotes I remember since seeing the film as a 15 year old:

Victims, aren't we all? 

It can't rain all the time. 

If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.

The last one gets me. I'm teary eyed now.

I like to think of the "Fire it up" scene to cheer me up. 

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6 hours ago, Death From Above said:

The Godfather is a genuinely mediocre novel that also spends way, way too much time on a kind of weird and gross Johnny Fontaine/Hollywood sex ring side story that Coppola had the wisdom to jettison into the sun, resulting in a far more focused narrative.

 

6 hours ago, odessasteps said:

This was my first thought. 

They stole my answer.

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

and was getting married not long after

When he and Shelly re-unite in the cemetery at the end...OMG, I lose it everytime. As much as I like the movie, I don't watch it that much for that reason.

Oh yeah, and that Jane Sibbery song in the closing credits, "It Can't Rain All the Time" makes me lose it as well.

Do you guys know the backstory to James O'Barr creating the comic? The whole thing becomes a horribly depressing tragedy circle. It was his way of dealing with his fiancee being killed by a drunk driver shortly before they would've been married. He basically stewed on it his entire time in the Marines, fantasising about revenge. Then he read a story about a couple being murdered in Detroit over a $20 dollar engagement ring.

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23 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Do you guys know the backstory to James O'Barr creating the comic? The whole thing becomes a horribly depressing tragedy circle. It was his way of dealing with his fiancee being killed by a drunk driver shortly before they would've been married. He basically stewed on it his entire time in the Marines, fantasising about revenge. Then he read a story about a couple being murdered in Detroit over a $20 dollar engagement ring.

I did, @Brian Fowler. Good to be reminded of it.  Thank you. I know from an interview with James O'Barr as an extra on the two disc Special Edition of The Crow I own.

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12 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Hot take: Watchman.

Not really. But the movie is unfairly maligned. And the climax of the movie might be better than the comic.

Agree with you on both points. I hope it gets critically reassessed at some point.

The first few that spring to mind for me: Blade Runner (though I read Androids about 20 years ago and don't remember much, the film is a seminal experience).

Fight Club, The Prestige and Drive immediately spring to mind. They're all books that were heightened by visuals and pacing

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7 hours ago, The Natural said:

I prefer The Crow (1994) to the original material. The movie is amazing for the performances, story, the visuals and the music. So sad that Brandon Lee lost his life on set while making it.

I absolutely love the graphic novel and the overall message of There Is Life After Loss has helped me cope with some of the rougher times I've had in my tenure on Planet Earth, but Eric in the comics is a bit of a whining emo that constantly rails against his undead condition and that gets annoying after a while. 

It takes him a while to figure out that it was thirst for vengeance, not his love for Shelly alone, that brought him back.   He's not even grieving for Shelly while he is lamenting his fate; he is wallowing in self pity..

Once Eric makes his peace with what he is and what he needs to do, shit gets real interesting real fast.  

The film does me the courtesy of keeping the WOE IS ME~! and wrist-cutter bullshit to the bare minimum.  

The dialogue in the movie is also just as good as the graphic novel.  There is some infinitely quotable and badass lines in both pieces of work.

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7 hours ago, The Natural said:

Three quotes I remember since seeing the film as a 15 year old:

"Victims, aren't we all?"

"It can't rain all the time."

"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.".

"I see you have made your decision...  Now let's see you enforce it..."

And from the graphic novel:

"It's not death if you refuse it. It is if you accept it" - Eric

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. I've allies in Heaven, Jack.  I've commrades in Hell...  Say 'Hello' for me..." Eric.

"All he wants is pain.  Pain and hate.  Yes, hate.  But never fear.  Fear is for the enemy.  Fear and bullets" - Skeleton Cowboy as the narrator.

 

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Oh man, OoP is, by far, my favorite of the Potter books.

7 hours ago, happjack said:

While the Sonny's girlfriend, Johnny Fontane and Hollywood Doctor stuff is sleazy and not good the rest of the book is the movie, it's one of the truest adaptations of a novel ever. 

That's basically why the movie is better. It tells the story without all the sleazy, worthless subplot about how big certain organs might be. 

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17 hours ago, J.T. said:

"I see you have made your decision...  Now let's see you enforce it..."

And from the graphic novel:

"It's not death if you refuse it. It is if you accept it" - Eric

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. I've allies in Heaven, Jack.  I've commrades in Hell...  Say 'Hello' for me..." Eric.

"All he wants is pain.  Pain and hate.  Yes, hate.  But never fear.  Fear is for the enemy.  Fear and bullets" - Skeleton Cowboy as the narrator.

 

"Move and you're dead!"

"I say I'm dead and I move"

"Mother is the word for God in the hearts and minds of all children"

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13 minutes ago, Phil4126 said:

"Move and you're dead!"

"I say I'm dead and I move"

"Mother is the word for God in the hearts and minds of all children"

"Little things used to mean so much to Shelly - I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial."

Can't believe I forgot the following as it's the best scene in the movie:

"I know you. I know you."

"I knew I knew you, I knew I knew you. But you ain't you. You can't be you. We put you through the window. There ain't no coming back. This is the really real world, there ain't no coming back. We killed you dead, there ain't no coming back! There ain't no coming back! There ain't no coming back!"

2jlkfi.gif

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My favorite thing in either version of The Crow is the conversation with Fun Boy in the comic before he kills him. Fun Boy openly admitting he deserves to die and them casually talking about being ready for judgment. 

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It's really hard for me to watch The Crow, and I've actually never read the graphic novel. Being that the great Dave Schow wrote the screenplay for the film and had to deal with that death really puts a nail in it for me. Him dealing publicly with it in his Fangoria column was just heartbreaking. 

It also sucks how much of a fall-off the sequel was...

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On ‎1‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 2:49 AM, The Natural said:

"Little things used to mean so much to Shelly - I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial."

Can't believe I forgot the following as it's the best scene in the movie:

"I know you. I know you."

"I knew I knew you, I knew I knew you. But you ain't you. You can't be you. We put you through the window. There ain't no coming back. This is the really real world, there ain't no coming back. We killed you dead, there ain't no coming back! There ain't no coming back! There ain't no coming back!"

2jlkfi.gif

T-Bird and Top Dollar had some of the best gallows humor dialogue.

""I got trouble.  One of my men got himself perished."

"Yeah, and who might that be"

"Tin Tin.  Somebody stuck his blades in all his major organs in alphabetical order."

"Gentlemen.  By all means I think we ought to have an introspective moment of silence for poor ol' Tin Tin..."

"It can't rain all the time," and "Mother is the word for God in the hearts and minds of all children," are both pulled directly from the graphic novel.

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14 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

It's really hard for me to watch The Crow, and I've actually never read the graphic novel. Being that the great Dave Schow wrote the screenplay for the film and had to deal with that death really puts a nail in it for me. Him dealing publicly with it in his Fangoria column was just heartbreaking. 

Yeah, it was also sad to see Michael Massee's interview in 2005 on the television show, Extra, where he said that he took time off from acting to deal with the trauma of the prop gun incident. 

I was sad when he passed away in 2016 from Cancer.  Massee battled those demons until the day he died.

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