One More Good Book Ruined by Hollywood

Rating: 3/10 (24 August 2001)

First, let me say that my experience was tainted. We went to a United Artists theatre in Denver to see this film. The sound was so low it was almost inaudible from the very beginning of the movie. I went out after the first five minutes and told one of the ushers about the problem, and he said he would tell one of the managers. 90 minutes later, they final got the volume turned up, so we could hear the last 30 minutes of the movie. I tracked down the managers on duty after the movie to complain. They couldn't have cared less, and were more interested in talking to each other. Luckily, UA has a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. When I went to the ticket booth to get my money back, the clerk didn't care why I wanted it back, but told me to just sign the request, and then she gave me the refund. With people like this working for UA, it's no wonder they went bankrupt. Unbelievable.
Now to the movie. Let's face it. This movie stunk. It was slow to develop, miscast, the characters were one dimensional, and they missed the whole point about the mistakes we make in life that was so eloquently delivered in Louis de Bernières powerful story. I think the only ones you can blame for this are the producers and the screenwriter, Shawn Slovo. What did she do, read the Cliff's Notes? How disappointing. It's just like what Hollywood did to Bryce Courtenay's wonderful "Power of One". Don't these people read the books before they write the screeplay? Pray that Hollywood doesn't try to make a movie out of de Bernières's first three hilarious books.
I've decided that I just won't go to movies where I've already read the story. I'm so tired of being disappointed. And United Artist, get some management!