40Cent @ the movies

[mirth]

They need to leave that franchise alone. First Ben Affleck in Sum of All Fears, now this.

If they're going to do a film based on a Clancy book it should be Red Storm Rising.

[GDS_Starfury]

the character of Ryan needed a consistent actor from the beginning.  at the beginning they should have stuck with Baldwin for at least 3 movies.

[BanzaiCat]

Loved reading most of Clancy's stuff. The Sum Of All Fears was particularly good, especially the build up - tracing the bomb from the Arab-Israeli War in the desert to the nuke that [SPOILERS] took out the Super Bowl.

The movie - what a crap-fest. Affleck was totally unconvincing to me as Jack Ryan. Changing the bad guys from Arab extremists to neo-Nazis was fugging dumb. I admit the only good part of that movie was seeing the bomb go off in Baltimore.

[GDS_Starfury]

that part got super dumbed down due to 9/11.

[BanzaiCat]

I know, but it's highly insulting to the intelligence of those that actually read.

[undercovergeek]

i liked harrison ford for Ryan, but my first thoughts on seeing the trailer was that Costner was the new ryan and they were sticking with the age thing - and i didnt think that was too bad

as mentioned, leave Tom and Jack to rest in peace

[BanzaiCat]

I agree, they should both be put to rest.

I don't know if you guys heard of Clive Cussler, but he had some amazing novels back in the day. He got a little too prolific with the world-ending threats and his hero, Dirk Pitt, aged steadily through each of the books. Eventually Clive brought Dirk's kids into the stories and they eventually took over. Which might have been cool, but they were a little too perfect, and Cussler went a little nutso and started including himself in each of his novels.

But Dirk Pitt, you gotta love a guy that lived in a hangar off of Washington National (or was it Dulles?) and had it full of classic cars, and even a Me-262. ;)

[OJsDad]

If they're going to do a film based on a Clancy book it should be Red Storm Rising.

1.  It would have to be done as a TV mini-series.
2.  I'm guessing the current wave of political correctness in the media corporate offices would never allow it to be made true to the book.

[Staggerwing]

I agree, they should both be put to rest.

I don't know if you guys heard of Clive Cussler, but he had some amazing novels back in the day. He got a little too prolific with the world-ending threats and his hero, Dirk Pitt, aged steadily through each of the books. Eventually Clive brought Dirk's kids into the stories and they eventually took over. Which might have been cool, but they were a little too perfect, and Cussler went a little nutso and started including himself in each of his novels.

But Dirk Pitt, you gotta love a guy that lived in a hangar off of Washington National (or was it Dulles?) and had it full of classic cars, and even a Me-262. ;)

Cussler has been sneaking himself into his own books for almost a quarter century. I almost stopped reading his stuff after 'Dragon' because of that but decided to stick with his books a while longer. For the most part they are harmless fun and he does have a way of dredging up bits of forgotten history so they can become integral to the plot, often from an oblique angle. Also, you can't beat the gee-wizz factor whenever some neat classic car, plane, or ship gets sprung on the reader and often used in a getaway or for bringing the fight to the Baddies.  Ford Tri-Motor, anyone?:D

[BanzaiCat]

I didn't read Dragon until later. The first time he did it (for me, anyway) was reading Sahara. I thought it was pretty awful for him to do it, but then realized, hey, I'm the one reading his book. And I kept reading them, too, until the kids took over and other parts of NUMA took on spin-off roles. I wasn't interested in any of that.

My first Cussler book was Raise The Titanic. A friend of mine whom was huge into Cussler let me borrow it. This was 1984, 85 or so, before they even found the wreck. So it seemed legit.

The movie for Raise The Titanic was absolutely terrible, but it was cool when they did the scene with the Titanic being towed into New York harbor.

And Sahara sucked balls, too. The movie, that is. The book was pretty way out there, but he had a way of making totally implausible things realistic. Matthew was about as Dirk Pitt as Fabio is Hitler.

[GDS_Starfury]

I saw it without realizing who it was supposed to be at first.  on that level it was fine.  like I said with the Hobbit/LotR books, if ya aint read em you'll enjoy the movie lots more.

[BanzaiCat]

I had way too many expectations going into Sahara. Big mistake.

[Staggerwing]

Yeah, Sahara (the Movie) was lame. Though it did have Penelope Cruz...  :)

IRRC, Raise the Titanic was not his first Dirk Pitt book. Mediterranean Caper (and possibly and Iceberg) were slightly earlier but either didn't make a splash or were somewhere on a publisher's back burner when RtT went big so they got fast-tracked/reissued quickly.

Gotta love the opening scene to Mediterranean Caper: An Albatross DV is used by the baddies to start their modern day crime operation...

[BanzaiCat]

Yeah, I think Mediterranean Caper was his first. Not sure about Iceberg. Once I read Titanic, though, I went through everything - Night Probe, Pacific Vortex, Vixen 03, Deep Six, Cyclops...you name it, I devoured it.

Funny fact: Clive named his son Dirk. Dirk Cussler.

Also, I found this blog earlier...it's pretty funny if you've read Mediterranean Caper:

http://neverfeltbetter.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/dirk-pitt-is-a-dick-the-mediterranean-caper/

[Staggerwing]

LOL @ the Blog! Some interesting entries there...



BTW, Most likely Dirk Pitt was named after Cussler's son, not the other way around.