This one dropped a couple days ago, so pardon the tardiness. Anyway, I know nothing about the Stephanie Plum character or the Janet Evanovich novels that this film is adapted from. All I can say is that it's a big clearer why Lionsgate moved this film from its original mid-summer 2011 slot to January 27th, 2011. It's no secret that I'd be all smiles about a female-centric action franchise. But this looks quite terrible, feeling like a rehash of The Bounty Hunter (of course the novel in question was published in 1994) and, most crucially, refusing to take its premise remotely seriously. Again, I can't say if this is faithful to the novels, but why must this female-driven action film be burdened by camp and in fact sell the idea that women cannot be convincing action stars? Before she became a star on Grey's Anatomy, Heigl dabbled in action (macing Everett McGill in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory) and sci-fi tinged adventure (she had a supporting role on Roswell). The basic source of the comedy seems to be "ha ha, look at how incompetent that chick is with traditional action tropes!"). I'm surely giving more thought to this trailer than it deserves, but it really was eye-poppingly bad.
Scott Mendelson
Scott Mendelson
3 comments:
I've read quite a few of the books and it really looks faithful to the books. In the books Plum isn't a bad-ass bounty hunter. She falls into the profession by accident and screws up (comically) more often than not but at the end generally manages to collar the fugitive. The books are more comic/romance than action. I actually think the trailer looks better than I thought it would - I was rolling my eyes when they announced they were making a film out of the book but I think it looks better than I thought it would be.
oh and in the books Plum is very scatter brained which I think they are trying to show/achieve in the trailer.
There's a lot more character to this trailer than something like The Bounty Hunter, which felt like assembly-line crap. I've never read the Stephanie Plum series but this does seem to nail the characters and goofball humor that's been described to me. Maybe it's just not your brand of movie, but I think it'll play just fine. And really, a mid-summer release for a cult book adaptation really wasn't a good idea to begin with. I'd say Lionsgate is going for the early year date (like Erin Brokovich which hit in March) and directly appealing to that demographic, which is the film's best bet regardless of whether it's good or bad.
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