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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
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Location: minneapolis
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 Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Claire wrote: | lot .
I'm also surprised at the casting choices either Lifetime or NR makes with these movies. Do they think any actress will do as long as she is famous? It doesn't seem like they put enough thought into it. I don't mind Heather Locklear, Claire Forlani or Leanne Rhimes but they just seem odd choices for their parts. I wouldn't mind an unkown if they are good actresses. Really! And some of the guys like the carpenter guy in Carolina Moon. He just didn't have enough charisma for me. I did like all the women in Montana Sky. They just seemed to fit perfectly. That has to be my favorite of all the NR movies. |
My experience with Lifetime movies is that the actors are not A list or even B list actors. I don't know if it's budget...well, it probably is, but most Lifetime movies are on the level of soap operas. Now, soap operas aren't awful ( I watched Another Word for more years than I'd like to admit) but they aren't movie material. They are, what they are. Does Nora Roberts write the screen play too? Some of the lines were horrible. They may work on paper, but speaking them is another thing.
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maggie b.
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 2263
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| Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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Nora Roberts does not write the screenplays. I can't help but think they might be a bit better if she did.
And I agree with everyone about the actors. In "Carolina Moon" I thought the actors quite good but Melissa Gilbert in "Sanctuary" was awful. She couldn't even cry when the scene called for it. I quite liked the actor in "Northern Lights" but Leann Rimes was awful.
Overall, I like them though and will continue to watch them.
maggie b. |
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Lynn
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 82
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| Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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I've listened to a lot of these on audiobooks and I just don't think you can get the character and story development in a 2 hour movie to compare to the books. I'm only watching the movies where I've already read the book, and knowing "who done it" doesn't help.
About Heather Locklear in Angels Fall....at one point one of the characters mentioned how young she is..I was laughing out loud! The woman's face just barely moves.
I'll have to decide whether to watch the other movies.
Lynn |
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bijoux
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 379
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:28 am Post subject: |
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I didn't have high expectations going in and I didn't want to be critical, but I'll have to side with those who disliked it. The writing was very soap operatic, the acting overwrought and the scenes choppy.
| Tinabelle wrote: |
I thought the character development was very poor in NL; the movie included a lot of characters from the book because they provided the suspect pool. But we never really learned much about anybody. To me, NL (the book) was a murder mystery but also the story of a man who is severely depressed and how he struggled to overcome that and rejoin the living. That just didn't come thru here at all. I'll probably give the other movies a try but don't have high expectations. |
I don't think Nate was depressed at all. Just as weird - man eater Charlene with no bite. Her relationship with Meg, or anyone really, was nothing like the book. Not a very good job. |
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Niftybergin
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 1068
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:22 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm about 20 minutes into Midnight Bayou (sp?) and I'm already enjoying it MUCH more than Northern Lights. |
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4062
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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I'm about 30 minutes in and the jury is still out! I keep thinking if I didn't know this was an adaptation of a Roberts' book, I'm not sure I would continue on with it. We'll see.
Added note-- After 40 minutes, I'm out. It's just not working for me. |
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
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Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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Jerry O'Connell...I am a big fan, but...I don't even know what to say. Very stilted. Faye Dunaway...how the mighty have fallen, and what happened to her lovely face? Her hands do not match her face. And the accent on the heroine? wow.
I actually liked the book, but this is awful.
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Niftybergin
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:09 am Post subject: |
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| I enjoyed it. |
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
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Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:01 am Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: | | Faye Dunaway...how the mighty have fallen, and what happened to her lovely face? Her hands do not match her face. And the accent on the heroine? |
Those were some of my first negative reactions, xina. The Southern accent did not seem effortless, but forced. Faye Dunaway, in trying to look younger, has actually achieved the exact opposite. None of her features moved on her face--way too many lifts, I'm sure.
Actually, it was just the way the entire movie was done up to the point until I turned it off. As I said, if I didn't know it was a story written by Nora Roberts, I wouldn't have even lasted that long. The special effects were not doing it for me and the backstory was not being presented well.
High Noon is coming up next week, which happens to be one of my favorites of hers. I want to see it, but I don't. I'm a bit torn on that one.
Niftybergin, I think it was probably better casted than Northern Lights, but there's still something missing when Roberts' books are being adapted to movies. And I say that sadly, because I feel she is an excellent author who writes good stories--not all of them to my liking, but written well just the same. I'm glad you enjoyed it, though. |
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Tinabelle
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 853
Location: SE Wisconsin
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:53 am Post subject: |
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I, too, am a big NR fan; she is an autobuy for me, and I always enjoy her stories. Her characters are multi-layered, well-developed, and usually have interesting backgrounds. Her writing is consistently good which is an accomplishment for such a prolific author.
That said, I agree with Tee that the film adaptations of her novels have mostly been a miss for me. I almost always prefer the book but can look at a film as a totally separate entity. I don't expect it to be the same because I don't feel it ever can be. Something that reads well is not always able to be translated to the screen successfully. And then there is the time constraint. I take the words "adapted from..." seriously.
I thought Midnight Bayou was better than Northern Lights, but that is not saying much. The characters just didn't come across very well, and the acting wasn't especially good. I am not a big Jerry O'Connell fan; he is not an especially good actor IMHO and it showed here. I thought the woman who played Lena wasn't bad but her character wasn't very well developed either. But that is the screenwriter's problem, not hers. And Faye Dunaway - what can I say?
I am a glutton for punishment so will probably tune in next week for High Noon, but I am not expecting much. I really liked the book, but there again the characters and relationships were complex, especially the mother/daughter relationship which is central to the story. I am just not confident they'll pull that off based on what I have seen.
What saddens me is that NR is a much better writer than these movies portray. If someone had never read her before or these particular books, I don't think this would encourage them to do so.
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
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Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:06 am Post subject: |
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[quote="Tee"] | xina wrote: | | Faye Dunaway...how the mighty have fallen, and what happened to her lovely face? Her hands do not match her face. And the accent on the heroine? |
Those were some of my first negative reactions, xina. The Southern accent did not seem effortless, but forced. Faye Dunaway, in trying to look younger, has actually achieved the exact opposite. None of her features moved on her face--way too many lifts, I'm sure.
Well, I think what the problem is for me is the look of the characters. They look like soap opera actors where they all where the same shade of lipstick. The grandmother is chopping wood, yet she's wearing a lovely coral shade of lipstick..or whatever it was. All the women look put together by the same stylist. And the acting is frankly...wooden.
And poor Jerry O'Connell....what the heck. He is better with a sharper script. He must be hurtin' for certain to have taken that role. 
I probably shouldn't watch...but I've been home these last 2 saturdays to Skype with my daughter. Maybe we'll have dinner plans next Sat. and I won't be able to watch...and complain.
On the upside..I did watch part of Castles.
And Faye Dunaway should have just left her face alone. I began to wonder why she would choose to look like that. Her naturally aged face would have looked so much better. Her face looked so mask-like. sad.
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4062
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Tinabelle wrote: | | I am a glutton for punishment so will probably tune in next week for High Noon, but I am not expecting much. I really liked the book, but there again the characters and relationships were complex, especially the mother/daughter relationship which is central to the story. I am just not confident they'll pull that off based on what I have seen. |
I could not agree with you more, Tinabelle. The mother/daughter relationship is integral to High Noon. It's how the daughter has primarily made her decisions to this point and in the future. I absolutely loved that book, its complex relationships and all the secondary characters in it. Nora Roberts at her best in that one.
| Quote: | | What saddens me is that NR is a much better writer than these movies portray. If someone had never read her before or these particular books, I don't think this would encourage them to do so. |
And that's exactly how I felt. The movies do not do her books justice. If anyone never having read a book by her felt they could get a clue by viewing the movies, they would be totally off-base. |
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Marcella
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 223
Location: Denmark
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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O boy. I had hoped Midnight Bayou would be the best of the four, because this screenwriter also did Carolina Moon, which I liked best of last year's movies - or should I say: which I found the least awful? This doesn't sound good.
I must be sick - I'm a big NR fan and simply have to watch the movies, even knowing they'll be awful, and even when they are dubbed in German, if that is (again) the first station in Europe to buy the rights...
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6630
Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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I think...some books shouldn't be made into film. What is fine on paper doesn't always come across the same on film...no matter who the screen writer is. I think made for TV is fine, but this author would never be on the Big Screen. There just isn't that much to go on...rather basic. I think there are plenty of romance authors who could though and it's too bad they don't get the chance.
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4062
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: | | What is fine on paper doesn't always come across the same on film...no matter who the screen writer is. |
Unfortunately, I think you're right. Although I have to say that Hallmark appears to know how to pick the stories and then the producers who match them. Most of their productions are successful. It's probably all in the numbers--meaning the budgets they have to work with. |
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