I posted this review on AmazonUK, of The Colour Of Magic, a 3-hour TV movie based on Terry Pratchett's first two discworld books.
Rincewind the wizard was never my favorite Terry Pratchett character, but I have to say they did a fine job turning this book into a three-hour film. (Or two TV episodes, whatever.) It had a good cast, including Jeremy Irons and the toothsome newcomer Laura Haddock, who did a fine job in the role as octogenarian Cohen The Barbarian's fair maiden.
Most of all, the dragons, buildings, and space turtles were detailed and beautiful to behold, created on a budget which would have lasted a Hollywood studio through lunch time. We are clearly out of the age where a TV production would have inferior graphics.
I'm hoping they will continue to make films from Pratchett's books, there's a wealth of humor, great stories and outlandish ideas to explore.
The review is based on the just-released Blue-ray version, which didn't hurt the nice visuals.
If you don't know, Cohen the Barbarian is 87 years old, and the maiden who falls for him is a simply beautiful girl in her twenties. Like the actor said, didn't do his reputation no harm. :-)
I think this is an enjoyable film, but I dont' think it is an important film, because I don't think it was Pratchett's best books. I'm not sure why the first two books, and the cowardly Rincewind character, were such huge hits. Many of his later books were much better written and had more interesting characters. (I tend to like characters with powerful minds, like Granny Weatherwax, or Tiffany Aching, both witches.)
5 comments:
I too hope they'll make more Discworld movies. The Hogfather from 2 years ago was also very well done.
Something else to look out for is that many of the books have already been adapted into plays. Obviously, without the big budget special fx, but there's still plenty of pretty girls to be seen. Last year when I wrote that letter to Domai it was the play "Mort" that I was participating in. Since our production company had so many talented young ladies in it and a plethora of Renaissance style dresses they indulged them by including a few lovely dances in some of the scenes.
Thanks for pointing out those movies, of which I hadn't heard before. Managed to get my hands on both The Color of Magic and The Hogfather, and watched them over the weekend.
Must confess that I enjoyed the latter a lot more, with Death as my favorite character. The Applied Magic dept. of the Unseen University was a blast as well (along with so many other details). What a wonderfully twisted plot, and quite well rendered too!
Thanks a lot!
Great, thanks for telling me.
(Did you buy Hogfather from the US and CoM from UK?)
Indeed his writing quickly became a lot more sophisticated. I'm just re-reading Lords And Ladies, and it's very powerful writing. The books with witches are my favorites, I really hope they'll do a good job with those. It won't be easy, because much of the strength comes from the powerful characters, and the odds are very much against finding actors who really get it.
"Did you buy Hogfather from the US and CoM from UK?"
Actually rented both, thru a friend who works near a wonderful rental shop, the kind where the owner is a passionate collector himself. Will buy them, though.
He must be passionate if he had a UK release just days after release.
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