Free Republic

‘The Giver’ to ‘The Great Gatsby’: How the movie adaptations stack up to the books that inspired themDuring a panel moderated by The Washington Post’s film critic Anne Hornaday — Great Books to Great Movies on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. during the National Book Festival — authors E.L. Doctorow, Alice McDermott, Paul Auster and Lisa See, whose books were made into movies, will discuss and present in a multimedia exhibit clips from films based on their writing. But what happens when really good books fail to live up to people’s expectations in really bad movie adaptations? Or, the...

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“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be,” as Yogi Berra once said. If you want to understand what this means, go see The Giver. The Giver is in the great dystopian tradition of Animal Farm and 1984, Brave New World, Atlas Shrugged, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and so many more. (It also evoked for me memories of the Ring cycle and Lord of the Rings.) It takes place in a “perfect” society that has eliminated war, pain, suffering, differences and choice. They have created a society where everyone is equal (except those who are “more equal,” of...

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Editor's note: This article is cross-posted at JohnHanlonReviews.com The first amendment to the Constitution prevents the federal government from infringing on five fundamental freedoms. The amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Those are basic freedoms we all enjoy as Americans and ones that are often still under assault (the incidents this week in Ferguson, Missouri prove that). They...

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Did anyone see the ad for this film?God,how pathetic!"It's Deliciously Funny",according to some far left critics."Can't Wait To Taste The Movie"!Well,more or less,something like that.The movie promo is making it sound like it's going to be the next Forrest Gump or Titanic.We can only hope that "The Hundred Foot Journey" debuts at number 10.America gave up on Oprah way back in 2007/08 when she had declared that Obama was our modern day Jesus and was going to bring World Peace!&Will Keep Putin In Check!

Mrs. Pharmboy and I saw Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" a few hours ago. It was brilliant.It took him 12 years to do this movie, following the principles through time with the focus on Mason Jr., who starts out as a 7 year old and finishes with his first day of college. The only actors you would know are Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, and both are great. But the reason I am writing this is to let you Freepers know that this movie has a huge surprise: at Mason's small birthday party celebrated at stepmother's parent's house, his step grandma gives...

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Editor's Note: This column contains spoilers and plot details for the upcoming movie The Giver. With his approval numbers sinking to 39 percent a week ago, according to the Gallup tracking poll, President Obama isn't alone in having a bad summer. So is Hollywood. Entertainment Weekly calls gross receipts for what should have been a blockbuster July 4-6 weekend "downright terrifying." Writes EW, "Not only were grosses down 45 percent from last year's holiday, according to Boxofficemojo.com, but it was Hollywood's worst July 4 weekend since 1999. (And that's not taking into account inflation. In fact, this was the worst...

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Its friends in the media would have us think that Dinesh D’ Souza’s latest cinematic work, America: Imagine a World Without Her, is worth seeing because of the effectiveness with which D’ Souza demolishes the standard leftist charges leveled against the United States. I come away from this film with a dramatically different response. While D’ Souza is to be commended for establishing, by way of quite a few tidbits that promise to be news to most viewers, America hardly has a monopoly on “oppression,” what he gives with one hand D’ Souza takes with the other: D’ Souza not...

The film begins in formulaic fashion, introducing us slowly to the ensemble cast that is about to flee for their lives for the rest of the movie, while also giving us the backstory on how a government group called “The New Founding Fathers” have instituted “the Purge,” while Internet preachers rail against it as a form of false, secular religion. Then the sirens go off, the population huddles behind closed doors and “commencement” of the purge begins with ticking clock, an excellent suspense element.

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Lest we forget, it was 55 years ago ( July 18, 1969 ) that Ted Kennedy crawled and slimed his way to land and Armstrong landed on the moon ( July 20th). Progressives should not be allowed to forget the anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and the real war on women. A blogger named Brian Cates on Twitchy has given a riveting accounting of the hour by hour actions of the infamous and duplicitous Ted Kennedy. At the end of the blog a poster calling himself the DivingPetrel imagined how an Oliver Stone Hollywood would re-enact the...

According to Nikki Finke the weekend box office is not only refusing to recover, it has slipped even further behind with a stunning 29% drop over last year. Despite all the industry happy talk around "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," the sequel opened well below where other under-performers have this summer and has no dropped 53% from last weekend. "Dawn" will do fine, no question, but within the context of what this summer needs, it is nothing close to a savior, nor were this weekend's three wide releases. "Planes: Fire & Rescue," "Sex Tape," and "Purge: Anarchy" offered...

Former FBI informant in the Weather Underground, Larry Grathwohl, is one of the stars of Joel Gilbert’s new film, “There’s No Place Like Utopia,” which is premiering in Denver on Friday and then goes nationwide. Friday, July 18, also happens to be “Blog About Larry Day,” to remember his service to the nation and his untimely death last year. His friend Tina Trent says, “we are asking that bloggers, radio folks, podcasters, and others in the media use July 18th to tell the truth about violent leftist radicals like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and their ilk.” She adds, “Their...

We round up our 25 favorite films set in Texas. If you’ve seen them, maybe it's time to see them again. If you haven’t seen them, what are you waiting for?

My take on the movie "AMERICA"