Archives

Trivia

Our Award

Box Office Reports

Release Dates

Links

e-mail

HOME

      I wasn't terribly interested in seeing this movie after I viewed the trailers.  It looked like a typical Scott brothers movie.  The idea of that turned me off.  By seeing the blips on the screen I could see that it was probably going to have a lot of action, decent story (but nothing wonderful), mediocre acting, and probably weak acting that relies on big explosions and chase scenes to save the movie.  However, I was convinced to shell out my money to watch the film after I heard how wonderful the novel had been.  This movie is based on Nelson DeMille's, The General's Daughter.  Since I had heard such good things about the book I figured that the movie might be ok.

    Of course, most people know that movies are rarely as good as the books they're based on.  There are some exceptions, such as Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October.  Most stories are cut or twisted severely in some way in their transformation from novel to film.  The movies lack the capability to include the many details that a book can.  Therefore, when the cuts or changes to the story are made it leaves the movie confusing or choppy.  The General's Daughter is not an exception but the occurances are much further and far between than most novel-based movies.  I have not read the book so I can't go through all of the discrepencies but from what I understand the one that seems to stand out the most is the role that the Sherriff and his son play in the story.  Supposedly the role is much larger in the book than in the film.

    However, this movie is fairly clean-cut and pretty easy to understand.  It does jump around a bit and get slow at times, but all in all it does a good job.  Since, I have not read the book, I do not know how the two compare in quality, but if we consider the movie by itself, it is very good.

    I was most impressed by the acting and writing.  John Travolta continues to impress me in his versatility and depth as an actor.  He seemed to have a real grasp on his character and he was a pleasure to watch on screen.  He was aided by some tremendous one-liners and all around good writing.  He also was impressive when he and James Woods were on screen together.  Their tension and play off of each other was classic.  I say that their lines and acting made the movie.

    Something I wasn't too impressed by was the need for Madeleine Stowe.  She plays a fairly dinky role and she seemed to be thrown into the story simply because the Hollywood big wigs think that they have to have a love interest in every movie in order for it to be good.  Well, watch this movie and you'll see that it's not true.  She wasn't needed.

    Another problem is that the bad guy is easy to pick out from the onset.  That makes the movie semi-predictable.  The casting director made the mistake, as do a lot of movies, of casting a too well known person in such a small part i.e. Kiss the Girls.  However, even if you do figure out who I'm talking about you only have part of the story figured out.  So that mistake is tolerable.

    I liked that this suspenseful movie wasn't overloaded with the big action sequences.  It had enough to keep you on the edge of your seat but not enough to overload the audience.  They weren't needed and I was happy to see that they weren't present.

    The acting is good all around and the writing is terrific.   This movie is enjoyable.