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Reviews
Marple: The Secret of Chimneys (2010)
Little in common with book, but fine if you ignore that.
As it is it is fine, the plot is pretty good, however if you expect it to have any similarity with Agatha Christie's story then you will be disappointed and confused. Miss Marples does not appear in the book, and the story line is completely different. However the plot is quite decent, so watch it for what it is, and disregard it as having any connection to the book.
The Birds (1963)
The Birds vs The birds as written by author.
Nothing like the book. Yet Hitchcock was suppose to be a fan.The book does not need altering for dramatic effect, true is is written by an English Lady and set in England, but it could be set in the USA as still keep true.Both end with no conclusion, but in the book it is a wide spread attack, possibly the whole world, making the danger far greater than the film, where most attacks are only at that bay. Of course there is no glamorous blonde in the book, but instead centers around a married man trying to keep his wife and children safe. The film is set in summer, where as the book in winter, Hitchcock also added an attractive school teacher and townsfolk, all not in the book.So you lose the isolation of the farm where the family live. The film is fine if you don't know the story, and I admit I quite enjoyed it, but please don't see it as a work by Daphne Du Maurier as it is not her story.
Partners in Crime (1983)
Hammy
I have to agree with Gerry, the acting was very hammy. So much so it spoilt the whole thing. Francesca Annis and James Warwick were not acting novices, so why they were so poor I cannot fathom, but the two of them seemed to be having fun doing a spot of spoofing of the am-dram form of over acting. I have read some of the books with Tommy and Tuppence in, and they seemed far fuller and more down to earth than portrayal here suggests. The potential, as always with any Agatha Christie book, was there, but unlike other productions, let down badly. This lead to the feeling that the hero and heroin were not even a real couple.I am running out of things to say to fill 10 lines of text on this production. By all means form your own opinion on this series, but don't expect to much, or to find that you vie for the couple to win over the baddies, none of them seemed real enough to warrant that to me.
The Day of the Triffids: Part 2 (2009)
part two, as with part one very different from book.
Bill goes to a commune run by a mother superior, in the book she is misguided but means well, in this she is a very different kettle of fish. Despite all the rotting bodies littered every where, people seem to take scant notice of the ensuing stench.The book has an lethal epidemic run riot throughout Britain, but here there is no epidemic, instead we see a lot of Torrence, and Jo is with him, believing him to be genuinely trying to help people.In fact Torrence is hell bent on killing Bill Masen.The Triffids in this version come in both male and female forms, and Bills father is trying to find away to use genetic cloning to destroy them.The special effects are pretty good,in part one, the sky in London during the solar activity is very pretty, and looks real. Towards the end I did feel some tension, but the story line is not as good as the book.I can still not see why the changes were made.Little regards has been given to how people are trying to rebuild a sustainable future, with clean water and food after stocks have run out.If you have not read the book, you may well enjoy it, if you do not feel to dragged down by it's negative view. I feel it has been made in a more action genre vein.
The Day of the Triffids (2009)
Episode one, so far.
Nothing like the book.It is not just that it has been set in the future,although why anyone would think that would be better than setting it, as in the book, just after W.W.2 baffles me; but it has also been totally reworked, in doing so lost the feel of the characters.Rather like the 1962 film, this and the book have little in common.Yes there is Bill & Jo, but Bills father has now become an triffid expert. Any one who has read the book knows that Bills father would never do such a thing, and was very against his son working in such a field. His father measured a mans worth by his income, and how secure it was.The first scene has Bills mother killed by a triffid, when Bill was young, in fact in the book it was Bill that was stung, and from this he developed some immunity to the sting.He was one of the first in Britain to be stung in fact.Torrence has become to organised with his own army, far to quickly, that it makes no sense.It sadly does not allow you to be drawn in by any of the characters.