MovieChat Forums > 1st to Die (2003) Discussion > (NO spoilers) It actually did the book j...

(NO spoilers) It actually did the book justice

posted 15 years ago by joe2002
1 reply | jump to latest

Any time a very good and/or very successful book is made into a movie, the assumption is instantly "There's no way it'll be as good as the book". The Lord of the Rings movies weren't, the Harry Potter movies weren't, and this movie wasn't.

BUT

Some movies do a better job of doing the book justice than others.

And I thought THIS movie, while nowhere near as good as the book, did the book justice. First, up until the end it did NOT change the story in any way - stayed totally true to the book. And the change at hte end wasn't an enormous plot-bending change, more of a creative liberty.

Robert Patrick (the liquid terminator from Terminator II) was brilliant as Nicholas Jenks. Pollan did a good job as Boxer. Other somewhat familiar faces included Sean Young (Lt. Einhorn from Ace Ventura), Mitch Pileggi (Shocker, the Magic Secrets specials), and Pam Grier.

What I feel that you just don't get - what you just CAN'T get - from the movie that you get from the book is the intense view into EXACTLY what the characters are thinking and feeling. The scenes between Boxer and Raleigh were much more intimate in the book for example.

But they did a good job of going through all the murders, bring in new evidence piece by piece, playing off the chemistry between the 4 ladies, and just pulling you into their world each time they thought they knew who the killer was.

I would seriously recommend this movie - all 168 minutes of it - to ANY fan of mystery thrillers whether or not they've read the book. The movie was REALLY good.

[–] voyagerandsouthpark 14 years ago

I agree, but your wrong about one thing, the ending wasn't the only thing changed, one thing was chris's death, he was shot before lindsay arrived in the book but in the movie it was after and it to protect lindsay, in the book it was lindsay who shot chessy, chessy also never shot jenks in the book. Also there was 3 couples murdered in the book and chessy never killed the fourth because doing so would prove jenks innocent, it was slightly different in that way. I noticed tho how it was made to look like a hair from jenks beard was found on the second brides head, but anyone who has read the book would know where the hair was rarely found on the bride. Also the fact that he/she did something to the brides to dehumanize them after they were killed was left out, the way the third bride and groom were found, in the book she was placed between the grooms legs, that is all

"sir, sir, i gotta check and see if you've soiled yourself, I'll get to you in a moment, sir!"