On 21 March 2003, Mark Sullivan wrote:
: However, to clarify my points, it's wasn't so much for me
that Mel
: Gibson was a "nice" bad guy -- you're right, he wasn't --
but that he
: was a likeable bad guy. His wisecracks and constant smiling
added a
: comic caper element to the movie that seemed misplaced to
me. I'm not
: saying I don't love many comic capers, but that I found
Payback's tone
: wildly uneven, swinging from comic caper to dark crime. To
me it seemed
: obvious that the film had been grafted together.
I'm with Mr. Sullivan on this one. I haven't seen Robert
Duvall as Parker, or the other adaptations, but Lee Marvin
always seemed perfect to me, and that's how I imagine Parker
(and he's very close to Stark's description). Mel Gibson just
ain't right for it, and the whole movie pales against the
first one.
Don't miss the book. You may know the plot, but that leaves
everything else, and it's sweet stuff. I bet giving the first
few chapters to a young person, who's worked through all the
mysteries at the library and wants more, would turn them into
a hardboiled fan for life. It would have done it for
me.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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