Entertainment Binge

By Isaac White.

Believe it or not, I think long and hard about my weekly installment. Of course, the show or movie I will write about is always on my mind. My reviews and conversations with the readers are my favorite of all the things I write. Because of that, I do my best to consider what will engage everyone looking at the paper during the week.

Basically, I’m telling you that because 1. I’m ramping up my brain (It’s like starting your car on a sub-zero day this morning), and 2. I need to get off my chest why I’m not writing about the Michael Jordan movie from Amazon this week.

I wrote about the remake/reboot of White Men Can’t Jump last week, and I didn’t think covering two basketball movies, one right after the other, would be as appealing for all. Not to mention that I haven’t watched ‘Air’ yet. Not having viewed Air so far has nothing to do with my desire to see it. I think you all need to know that. It’s just that I couldn’t get to Air before WMCJ. (See my brilliance in using an acronym?)

That’s why, and yes, I will be rolling out a review on Air quite soon. I want to break up the genres, so you’ll have to hang out until I get to Michael Jordan. Who, by the way, is the greatest basketball player of all time. Lebron James fans need to get on board with that.

I got feedback from a reader who left me a message about No Country For Old Men. In this reader’s view, the book is much better than the movie. From experience, I can say with confidence that well over half the time, the book is better than the movie. This person is someone I know, so I’ll take their word for it, despite NCFO (Did it Again) being an excellent film.

The truth is I never read the book. However, I just remembered that Cormac McCarthy

originated the story in novel form when this person mentioned it to me. So, I will be reading that soon. This is needed because I haven’t read an actual book in a few months, which is sad.

Reading was always fundamental for me; honestly, when I don’t read books, I feel like I’m not doing my homework or something. Like when I listen to 49ers content on YouTube instead news podcasts.

I love the Niners and all, but if I go two or three days without updating my knowledge of what is happening in the world, I end up feeling behind. That is a feeling I’m not particularly eager to set in because it’s a good thing to be informed about the world.

But back to the book vs. movie issue. There are rare cases when the movie outperforms the book.

When a discussion presents itself on this subject, I’ve noticed that Stephen King usually makes his way into the conversation. For a good reason, he writes beautiful books, and some excellent movies have been adapted from his novels. Even when one of his books converted to film is good, the book is better nearly every time. And not just “better” but much, much better. I guess I couldn’t find a better word. Yes, I did that last one on purpose.

So, book vs. movie plus Stephen King. One of my favorite films of all time is The Green Mile. If you haven’t watched the movie, the story covers a black man wrongly accused and sentenced to death row for murdering and violating a young girl. Michael Clarke Duncan plays John Coffey,

the man wrongly imprisoned, and Tom Hanks plays Paul Edgcomb, the head man for the death row section of the prison.

As the movie progresses, we find that John Coffey (Same as the drink, just not spelled the same) miraculously has extraordinary powers and abilities to heal anything (mice included). He also can transmit images, things that happened, through touching another and sending the information telepathically (kind of, I guess) between two people.

As a writer, I must explain the plot lightly, even though most of you have seen the film. Why

not? It’s an all-time great. I also read the book. I read the book when it was released as a serial in the 90s. Oh, the 90s, there you are again. Jokes aside, the movie, great as it is, does not outpace the book in terms of its greatness.

I love both, but the book is something special, just a bit above the film, which is kind of crazy when you think about it because of the outstanding product that is the movie. The movie featured incredible performances all around. Hanks, Duncan, and for me, the most memorable, Sam Rockwell as Wild Bill. If you’ve watched the movie, you know that Rockwell’s character hates being called Wild Bill because he’s a law dog. I’m using terms from Tombstone, but you get the point. Those of you who can tell me who says Lawdog in Tombstone is Ok in my book.

But this is an example of the book being better. I’ll flip the script (ha ha ha) and go the other way with this book vs. movie thing. With another Stephen King example. I’m sure that you’ve all watched The Shawshank Redemption, another King adaptation, and one also directed by Frank Darabont, who, if you don’t know his larger body of work, you should go track down his other films. He’s a brilliant director and has made some really fine films.

Book vs. movie. Don’t get distracted, big guy. Shawshank is based on a short story by King. I knew that it was based on a short story; it tells you that in the movie, but I never read it. My wife urged me to check it out, and eventually, I did. I’m not saying the story is bad, but I have to say that because I adore the movie so much and because it’s also an all-time great, the book led me to disappointment.

Not because the story isn’t good. Just because the movie is so great. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman play one of the best duos in film history, and it simply beats the written form. So yes, dear reader, I will read NCFOM, and once I do, I will include my conclusion in that week’s Entertainment Binge. I’m looking forward to it as McCarthy is a very good writer and has had some good movies adapted from his books. I mean, we’ve been talking about NCFOM more than once, right?

I watched the fairly new film Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as Renfield. The movie is directed by Chris McKay, who has directed other big-name movies that I have not watched. So, I can’t give a full picture of his work. I will say that this movie didn’t impress me, though; it’s important to let you know that early. Not that the movie is terrible. Just nothing all that good either.

Hoult plays Renfield, the familiar of Dracula. If you aren’t familiar (did it again) with vampire familiars, they are simply humans who do the bidding of their vampire master. So Renfield is stuck with a more modern version of Dracula, played by Cage. He gave up his family and all to serve Dracula; you’ve heard the story before.

In this version, Dracula is a real jerk. Hold on, a tick. Isn’t Dracula always a jerk? I need to revisit my perceptions of Dracula and vampires in general now. Anyway, I’m not going into an existential vampire dilemma. Basically, the plot is that Renfield gets tired of doing the bidding of Dracula, and is finally appalled at the things he does for him and the things that the vampire king does himself.

Renfield begins to stake out (I’m getting a lot of good sort of puns this week) his own life while Dracula recovers from catastrophic injuries incurred during a battle with vampire hunters.

Dracula finds out what Renfield is doing, gets angry, then decides to hire an unfamiliar familiar (Keep them coming) who had run afoul of Renfield earlier.

I won’t give away the end. Quite frankly, I think a good job was done this week of not giving spoilers. For Renfield, anyway. If you haven’t watched Shawshank and The Green Mile and are upset because I shared too much information, I don’t know what to tell you. Those movies are quite old now.

Holy moly, Shawshank will be 30 years old next year. I’m getting old. I’ll lament that later; it’s not for you to worry about. And Green Mile is almost 25 years old. It’s not my fault if you’ve never watched two all-time great movies in the last three decades. If that seemed harsh, I apologize. Kind of. It’s all fun; you, as readers, know how much I adore all of you.

If I started to end my articles with “In conclusion,” would that seem weird? Back on topic.

Books are frequently better than movie adaptations. I’m going to read No Country For Old Men.

I’m going to watch Air and report on that.

I almost forgot. Renfield is…..Ok. There are some humorous things in there, but mostly, the gags are over the top and don’t hit the mark. For me, anyway. I think they meant to go over the top, but it’s not fun such as it is in, say, The Evil Dead series. Not the remake; that thing is horrible.

So, if you are looking for something to watch, I won’t tell you to stay away from it like Dracula does sunlight. I’m just full of it this week. Just be prepared to be underwhelmed. So that’s it for this edition.

As always, thank you, and until next week…