Stallone, WTF?

I was just about to enter puberty when the sequel to First Blood came out. Rambo 2. I cannot remember ever wanting to see a movie more. I would watch through television commercial breaks hopeful of the opportunity to see a trailer. I remember staring at the screen rapt and frozen as they played the clip from the movie.I read reviews in magazines, and newspapers, delighted in anything good said about the movie. Watched any behind the scenes specials that came on and anything to do with Sylvester Stallone or his life. Indeed, to be young is to be stupid.

Rambo II, when I finally did get to see it a couple of years after it came out, was the first unedited grown up movie I had ever seen. I had nothing to compare it to except the musicals my mother made me watch with her (I remember more of My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music than any grown heterosexual man should), therefore I enjoyed it greatly.

I saw Rambo III a few days ago, or parts of it, anyway. Now I wonder how Sylvester Stallone ever became a successful actor let alone male icon of the 1980s. The best I can say for him is that he is a slightly better actor than Jean-Claude Van Damme. He, also, is quite odd-looking, nothing like what I would consider leading-man material. He does act, unlike the Van Dammes and the Seagals and the Norrises, he doesn't act well, but he does try. I am not sure if this effort is a good or a bad thing. When honest effort results in failure it is pathetic and laughable.

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Book-to-Movie

The very best book-to-screen adaptation is, and I suspect, always will be Lonesome Dove.Perfect casting through and through, holding exactly to the book. I would put To Kill a Mockingbird a little way behind this.

It's virtually impossible to compress a novel into a 120 minute screenplay without losing a lot, even when the book's writer does it himself. If you do it the wrong way you end up with a Cliff's Notes version, an idiot's highlight reel that is of no value to anyone who actually read the story.

The very best way is to cut the interior monologue and stick to scenes at actually take place in present of the story. You ask your readers for casting choices, who do they see playing this character?

What authors don't realize is that once a story is published, the don't own it anymore, the people who have read it and love it do.

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