From Book to Movie – True Crime

Title: True Crime

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery

Rating: 4 Star

Book Review

Description/Synopsis:

Can an over-the-hill journalist uncover the evidence that can prove a death row inmate’s innocence just hours before his execution?

Movie Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

In terms of a book to movie adaptations this movie did a very good job at following along with the story that was given to us in the book.Of course a few things change, but they didn’t bother me at all.

For example our main character Steve’s child is a little girl instead of a boy. Im not quite sure why they changed this, perhaps it was to make it more emotional when he kind of lets the child down. Thats just a guess though because the whole movie seemed to be made more emotional than in the book. For example I found our main character much more likeable than in the books. I don’t know if this is because I really like the actor who plays him Clint Eastwood, despite the fact that the character is portrayed as just as much as an dick in the movie as he was in the book. Another slight changed they made that I didn’t mind was they made Ray’s child Grace have her meltdown about the green crayon at the prison and the Warden had his men go out to the car park to look for it. I think this was a good way to go cause you get the more of a feeling that the warden really cares about whats going on and that he is not completely happy about it.

They kept some moments in that I was really glad stayed the same. One of them was the relationship between Steven and his boss and the conversation they have about him sleeping with the editors wife. They were both such dicks in this scene with the things they were saying and the way they act, but you totally get the feeling of them being good friends and the scene was just as funny in the movie as I pictured it in my head while I was reading.

Now because its a movie they altered the ending to make it a bit more dramatic than it was in the book. In the book our guy doesn’t get injected with anything before the call that saves his life because our caring Warden delays giving the go ahead for the execution because he doesn’t feel right about it. But in the movie they made it more dramatic with the Warden giving the go ahead and the injection process is under way when the call comes through. This was to give the audience a moment of “is he going to die because of how much he was injected? Was it too late?” but then we see Steve and Ray’s final visual of each other at the shops at Christmas and we know that everything ended all happy and well. I think this was a good way to end with the movie. I think because of how much more emotional the movie kind of was the audience couldn’t really just have been left with the ending that was in the book. I think it would have been a bit anticlimactic.

So yes, it was a very good adaptation of the book. Really enjoyable to watch and seeing how well its done I don’t feel I would have missed anything or lost any feelings about the story if I had of just watched the movie and didn’t have the book to compare it to. The only reason it was a 4 star and not a 5 was because of my own personal preference for movies. If we are judging purely on how well they turned it into a movie its a 5 star for sure.

Book Review – Risk Factor

Title: Risk Factor

Author: Charles Atkins

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Length: 292

Rating: 3 Star

Description/Synopsis:

Dr. Molly Katz is a resident physician in a psychiatric unit for young adolescents. When a nurse on the unit is knifed to death, and the obvious perpetrator is the heretofore gentle Jonathan, Molly is badly shaken. How could she have missed the symptoms of such behavior? When the boy, now catatonic, is removed to a hospital for the criminally insane, Molly moonlights there in order to keep an eye on her former patient and his treatment.Then another nurse is murdered. Other patients in the unit are suspected. A hair-raising denouement puts Molly and her children near death and bares the crucial question — is the murderer irrevocably evil, born soulless, uncaring about any living thing?

Dr. Atkins is well equipped to dramatize the question that engages so many faced with heinous crime — the existence of pure evil.

Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

I present to you the standard mystery/thriller/crime kind of book. I picked it up from a bargain bin for $3 at Big W (a bin I think last until all the books in it are gone so I would go check your closest one out) because I thought the story sounded good. Its been awhile since I have read a more… adult book I suppose. It was the part that it takes place around psychiatric hospital and patients that hooked me.

Now there wasn’t anything all that wrong so to say with this book that leaves it at a 3 star, its just that it was not as thrilling as I wanted it to be. Picture pretty much any kind of crime book and thats what you get. In a way I liked it for this because it was a god easy yet more adult read to some of the other things I have been reading lately. I got what I expected, thank you book.

In terms of plot and what mystery it actually has it tries to keep you on your toes. It presents you with a patient that cant even feed himself for a good chunk of it as the murder, but luckily our main character Molly is too clever to fall for such a thing and doesn’t buy it and soon as others thinking the same way too. We are then present with another patient who is super violent and not loved by our Doctor at all and most the people are screaming this guy did it! But its just so obviously trying to misdirect you that its no surprise when it turns out to be some random that isn’t mentioned all that much things considered. I don’t know how I would have felt if it had actually been the second one, it would have been a surprise but not a good one.

For the most part the characters are likeable. They are all very simple and straight forward, much like the rest of the book, but I personally liked them and didn’t want this person to die or this person to be found guilty or become more bonkers than they already were.

A romance is kind of thrown into the book, and though it didn’t hurt it it wasn’t really needed either. It was just a little side things thats there.

So there you go. Easy read, you read the description and look at the cover and you kind of know what you are in for. If you like mystery/thriller kind of books I think you will enjoy this one well enough.