Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
kmayes-80640
I will preface this by saying I am an avid reader of these books, but I also recognize that production companies have liberties to change some of the content when they buy the film rights for any type of book series. HOWEVER, we all know that there are production companies and writing teams out there that have done a much better, much more respectful job at translating a story from book to screen. One that comes to mind is Outlander. This movie was a mess. I didn't mind Heigl as Stephanie, I didn't mind that they clearly used Pittsburgh instead of Jersey, what I did mind was the major deviations they took with the script and with character casting. Some of the casting they got spot on, some it was so bad it makes me shake my head and wonder if the casting agents ever spoke with Evanovich (the author) or read any of the books, all of which gave very, very descriptive pictures of the characters. Heigl, eh, she was OK, her accent sucked, but I can handle it. One thing that irked me was the clothes they put her in in several scenes. Those who have read the books know they were out of character for Stephanie and distract from what was going on in the scene. Vinnie, Connie, and Lula? Spot on, great job. Grandma Mazur? As much as I love Debbie Reynolds, she is not at all Grandma Mazur, she is regular described in the book as not aging well with a body like a soup chicken. She's feisty, over the top, and really old. Now, in spite of all of those not so flattering characteristics, I think Cloris Leachman would have been much better. Another not so great casting choice was Daniel Sunjata. He wasn't the worst guy who could have been picked for Ranger, but there were much better choices. Ranger is a former Army Special Forces Cuban American in his early to mid thirties. He's shorter than Morrelli and some times has long hair pulled back in a pony tail. He barely says anything except Babe, exudes sexiness, he's mysterious and dangerous, and is the best bond enforcement agent. Stephanie secretly thinks he's Batman. Where was ANY of that in the movie? He talked away too much and Sunjata didn't use an accent. The Jersey/Cuban accent was part of the sexiness about him. Adam Rodriguez would have been better. The casting choice that partly ruined the movie was the guy they cast for Morrelli. They chose Jason O'Mara a born and raised Irishman to play the Italian of all Italian Stallions (book reference) Joseph Morrelli. Morrelli is a Trenton cop, mostly reformed bad boy/womanizer. He's not allowed to wear a uniform on the job because he would look like a casino pit boss. He's over 6 feet tall, has dark eyes, classic Italian good looks, and dark wavy hair. Nothing about O'Mara remotely resembled or was able to translate to be Morrelli. Although they did remember a slightly obscure detail: Morrelli's tattoo from his Navy days. A much better choice, Joe Manganiello. He actually is Italian American. We all know he's drop dead sexy and can act as seen in multiple films/TV shows. The other part that made it so terrible is that they took out a lot of the more violent parts of the plot and added in other elements that were supposed to be funny and weren't. I watched an interview with Janet Evanovich and she said they did this to appeal to a greater audience. That was a bad decision. The dialogue sucked. Many of the lines sounded like they were wrote by middle school students. The movie plot focused a lot on one aspect of the relationships that is not so heavily used in the book. I realize that with films there is a great deal that has to be compacted to fit in about 90 minutes, but these changes were again disrespectful to the source material and the characters. Outlander is another adapted book to screen series that has has a huge following for the books and now the show. It has deviations from the books, but they do not stray so far from the source material that you are left scratching your heads. It all works beautifully. It is VERY popular. However, it's on Starz which gives it the space and the rating room that it needs to be properly adapted from the books. Furthermore, one of the key scenes was severely watered down to where the impact of the violence is not as devastating as it needed to be. I assume this was watered down to get the PG-13 rating and again appeal to a wider audience under the umbrella of light, popcorn romantic comedies. Evanovich's books are funny, they don't go too deep, but they were raunchier, more violent, and smarter than what this disaster of a film was. I gladly have paid money to watch a rated r Stephanie Plum movie and I'm sure that a lot of other Plum fans would too. The movie bombed and no surprise. Hopefully, Netflix or HBO/Starz/Showtime kind of channels will pick it up and give it the room and the time that it needs to be as awesome as the books are.
wdllofzepia
I just watched it on TV. I expected it to be a rom-com with some good jokes. I did no get that. It's actually more like a very light film noir, without most of atmosphere or the interesting story. I don't remember if there was a joke I enjoyed enough to laugh. The action sequences were few, but not bad. The music was solid. The acting was OK. The real problem with it was, for me, the story. I am not even sure wtf was the story. It was uninteresting. On the plus side, Katherine Heigl was very pleasant to the eyes.So, why do I give it a 7? Because somehow it managed to make me stay and watch it till the end, without getting bored. Which is remarkable since I found the story so boring.It's not a bad movie. It's average, but still very watchable and strangely...fun?
kbarnette1981
I can only say that this movie is a travesty. I had high hopes for this movie as I have been a Stephanie Plum fan for years. The acting in this movie is sub par and the actors chosen do not fit the parts. Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum is ridiculous and she makes a mockery of the character. Jason Mara as Joe Morelli is equally terrible. Ranger makes a brief appearance in the film and the actor cast does not do the character justice either. Where the books are laugh out loud funny the movie is just plain painful. This movie makes sure that it is the last we will see of Stephanie Plum on screen. I do not recommend wasting your time with this movie unless you have ample time to kill and would like to watch something that will likely make your eyes and ears bleed. I would really like to have something good to say about this movie but there really is nothing I can say. If I were Janet Evanovich I would be furious that Hollywood turned a memorable character into such a forgettable movie. Again, I would watch anything else before I would watch this movie. I made the mistake of seeing it in the theater and wasting my hard earned money on it.
ronalbury
I have enjoyed reading the Stephanie Plum series and was looking forward to the movie. Boy, was I disappointed.I think my biggest issue was with the casting. Katherine Heigl does not come even close to my vision of Stephanie. Katherine just can not pull off the sloppy, sweatpants, messy hair type of person needed for the part.The rest of the movie was tolerable, although it really seemed more like a "Made for TV" movie than something intended for theaters. Generic lighting, generic composition, generic direction, yawn.I can't suggest taking the time to watch the movie unless it is on free TV - and even then, only if there is nothing else on besides the shopping channel.
