Quote:
Originally Posted by econophile
Most Stephen King movie adaptations are horrible, though. Reiner managed to do two of the best. Stand By Me is even more impressive since he was working with child actors.
Ron Howard is no slouch.
To your broader point, while the movies I've listed may be in someone else's voice, Reiner did an excellent job of executing each of those voices.
Sure, but your original comment was that no one talks about him. My response is, "What is there to talk about?" To me, there doesn't seem to be a particular style or theme or voice to his movies. I can understand people discussing Coppola or Tarantino or Woody Allen or Scorsese because those guys all seem to have a distinctive voice that runs through their films.
That all sounds very negative, and I don't mean to be. He converts good material into good movies, which is not easy. If there were a book I loved and wanted to see it in film, I'd probably be pretty thrilled if he were the director. I mean, in the wrong hands, you could end up with something like
A Prayer for Owen Meany turning into
Simon Birch, which is an abomination above all others.
[I am stunned to just now discover that Roger Ebert gave
Simon Birch a thumbs up.]