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#1. Adaptation: A Jack Reacher Roundtable and other books that become movies
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Dudes Chatting — Film adaptations (books that become movies): The debut main segment is a wide-ranging conversation on what makes a book-to-film adaptation work, hung on the new release of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. JVL argues the best adaptations take a loose approach — keeping the bones of the book but discarding whatever doesn't play on screen — and holds up Clear and Present Danger (its two most iconic scenes are invented, not in the Clancy novel), The Hunt for Red October (jettisoning the book's "military porn" for an emotional story about Ramius), and Layer Cake as the rare case of a novelist adapting his own work well. Sonny champions Fellowship of the Ring as maybe the greatest major-literary adaptation ever; Vic defends Goodfellas' trims and name-changes from Pileggi's Wiseguy. A running thread: whether Tom Cruise (5'7") is miscast as the 6'5" Reacher — both conclude the character's essence is cleverness and confidence, not size. Opens with the hosts' origin-story introductions and Bill Kristol's reluctant "I apologize ahead of time" disclaimer.
Reviews: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back — Sonny pans it as "generic in every way" and boring, with grating "tween-girl humor" from a kid sidekick; a steep drop from the "truly great," hard-boiled first film (both credit writer-director Christopher McQuarrie).
Box Office: Brief — Jack Reacher 2 was beaten by Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween. Sonny notes the cheap (~$40–50M) production could still earn a third installment on overseas/home-video strength, but only if McQuarrie returns.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00This is Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard. I can't believe I agreed to the following podcast, and I apologize ahead of time for what you're about to hear. But my colleagues prevailed upon me at a very weak moment, late in the evening, after a few drinks, to let them do this podcast, The Weekly Substandard. I said yes. They got me to sign some document. I didn't even know what it was. And now we're committed to it. And as you'll hear, they probably should be committed, too. I am not a hero. I'm a drifter with nothing to lose. You killed that girl to put me in a frame. I mean to beat you to death and drink your blood from a boot. This business will get out of control. It'll get out of control, and we'll be lucky to live through it.
Vic00:00:53Hello and welcome to The Weekly Substandard, a podcast on movies and pop culture hosted by three guys who have spent their lives on the internet. Their lives watching movies over and over and over again. This week's main feature, what we like to call the big block, we are talking about film adaptations, books that become movies for better and for worse, and specifically, Jack Reacher 2, Never Go Back in Theaters Now. But first, let us introduce ourselves, as Admiral Stockdale would say. Who are we and why are we here? My name is Victorino Matus. I'm a senior editor at The Weekly Standard. Each week, I'll be joined by my colleague, senior writer Jonathan V. Last, and former colleague and Washington Free Beacon executive editor Sonny Bunch. As Sonny put it, politics is what we do to live, but talking about movies and nerd stuff is what we love. Jonathan, or JVL as he is popularly known, I'd like to start with you. We begin our classroom with the questionnaire of Bernard Pivot of Apostrophe. What is your favorite word?
JVL00:01:47Are we bleeping this? How blue can we work?
Vic00:01:50We'll move on to the next point.
JVL00:01:51My favorite word is... Okay, I'll be careful.
Vic00:01:54You can actually just use the bleep and they'll think you said something. No, seriously, I started here in 1996. And I think you came here in 1997. Is that right?
JVL00:02:02I started here at the magazine January of 97. I started the Monday after Bill Clinton's second inauguration. And you and I have been basically having lunch together since then. So we're coming up on... I mean, no joke, we're coming up on 20 years working together in the same office, which is the saddest... At the moment, we're combined 39 years at this office. ...pathetic thing I've ever heard. It's horrifying. And Bill, people... I mean, you and I have been together... For so long, we used to go places together. Like, the things that you would get, like... So people don't maybe understand this. When you work in a magazine, you get all sorts of invitations, like book parties and, you know, movie previews and stuff like that. And the grown-ups never want to go because they have lives to go to. And so they filter down to the junior staff. And so Vic and I would go to, like... I remember we showed up at a party, I think, that Ariana Huffington had given. And we showed up together, and it was clear that Ariana thought that we were each other's dates.
Vic00:02:56Well, I remember we were accidentally holding each other's hands. Yeah, no, by accident. It was the buddy system.
JVL00:03:00It was the buddy system. And so now we're old people, and we are, like, have children, and... We don't have as many sleepovers anymore. We don't have as many sleepovers anymore, but we do go to the sauna regularly and try to watch movies together. And so that's why we're here to talk.
Vic00:03:16And then a few years later, if you remember JVL, a young, very shy, very quiet intern from the University of Virginia came to the Weekly Standard, and his name was Sonny Bunch. I didn't believe that was his name, by the way.
JVL00:03:31I totally agree. Actually, I thought that it was a nickname. And I remember saying to you, so what's the kid's real name? And you were like, no, it's Sonny.
Sonny00:03:40Well, I mean, whatever. It's close enough. Sonny's my name-ish. Yeah, it was very... Now I understand why I feel so uncomfortable when I'm with the two of you, and it's just me, and I'm the third wheel. That little sauna monologue. Yeah, that's right. I was an intern here in 2002. Right after 9-11, right before the Iraq War. It was a real interesting time. And then I went back to school, graduated, and got a job at Roll Call newspaper before getting back into the crazy right-wing media. Coming back to the Weekly Standard for a bit. Film critic at the Washington Times, Washington Free Beacon, where I am the executive editor, and movie reviewer, really. I don't feel like a film critic. I'm more of a movie reviewer.
Vic00:04:26You don't want to call it a film. You think it's pretentious, because I know. I think that's what... John Pudhoritz, he doesn't want to call it a film either. He prefers movies in the same way.
Sonny00:04:33There are film critics, and there are movie reviewers, and I feel usually that I'm more towards the movie reviewer side of things. Speaking of which, this week, new in theaters was Jack Reacher, Never Go Back, which just is a terrible subtitle for a film. It really lends to all sorts of terrible puns about, you know, never go back to see a Jack Reacher movie. Am I right? Am I right?
Vic00:04:57Sorry to refresh my memory about... About Jack Reacher, because it's like, it's the book, and then there was the first Jack Reacher, and now we're at the sequel.
Sonny00:05:05So, the first Jack Reacher was a... It was just called Jack Reacher, and I really actually enjoyed this movie a lot. The first one, 2012, starring Tom Cruise as the eponymous Jack Reacher, who was a former military policeman. He's an MP who got out of the service because he didn't like the rules he needs to work outside of the confines of, you know, the man. And he was... Trying to clear a guy from his platoon who he didn't like, who had committed another crime and gotten away with it. But he was trying to clear this guy of a... Basically a spree shooting, you know, a Columbine kind of style mass murder. And it's a very cleverly done film. It was directed and written by Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for The Usual Suspects. And also directed Way of the Gun and the most recent Mission Impossible film. And it was just... It was very funny in kind of clever, unexpected ways. It was not boring. It was put together in an interesting manner. It had a great villain, played by the great Werner Herzog. He has this Teutonic, awful, you know, scary voice. It just sounds terrifying to be around. But an amazing director. Amazing director. Amazing director. So, anyway, the first one was surprisingly good. I think people were pleasantly surprised. It was kind of a new franchise-type movie for Tom Cruise, who doesn't do a lot of franchise movies. Mission Impossible, that's it. And what did you think about the film? What did you think about the second one? Not great. Not great, Bob. It was... It was... It was... It is just generic in every way. It's boring. And it's... So, Jack Reacher is back. And he is trying to track down the people who are killing the employees of the woman who now runs his MP unit. And she is played by Cobie Smulders. And she is a delightfully attractive young lady. Who is really upset that, you know, Tom Cruise... Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher does things like make her babysit Tom Cruise's maybe daughter who was in this movie. And a lot of... So, in the first Jack Reacher, you get a lot of humor out of, like, kind of natural silly fights and stuff. In this movie, you get a lot of, like, teen tween girl humor.
Vic00:07:19So, there's a sidekick element.
Sonny00:07:20Oh, there's a kid sidekick. You remember Short Round?
Vic00:07:23Of course. I love the Temple of Doom.
Sonny00:07:24This is like the... I wanted to be Short Round. This is like the 16-year-old blonde... The blonde female Short Round. It's just awful.
Vic00:07:31Is Never Go Back also a book by Lee Child? Or is it just their own creation?
Sonny00:07:38Yes. Never Go Back is one of the books in the Jack Reacher series.
Vic00:07:41But, Jonathan, you were a big fan of the first movie.
JVL00:07:43I actually think Sonny is underselling the first movie. I think it's a truly great movie, actually. It's sort of a fabulous, hard-boiled noir. The first thing that should have... People should not have been surprised because it was written by Chris McQuarrie. And the guy is fantastic. Everything he does... He touches is great. Falkyrie is great. This is great. Rogue Nation is probably the best of the Mission Impossible movies. My favorite genre is actually adult action movies, which there are very, very few of.
Vic00:08:11So, mine is adult action movies minus the action. Anyway, go ahead.
Sonny00:08:15Or what about the action adult movies? Action adult movies. Jenna Jameson's...
JVL00:08:19There's a different Mission...
Sonny00:08:20No, stop.
JVL00:08:21So, anyway, as you were saying, Jonathan, sorry. No, so I think the first Jack Reacher, everything about it is great. The score is great. It's by Joe Kramer, who also did the amazing score for Way of the Gun. I don't know if you guys remember that. They're amazed with the castanets and the... Actually, I think Way of the Gun is probably one of my top ten favorite film scores of all time. I put it up there with, like, the Dark Knight Rises score. It's just amazing. And so, everything about it is great. And they captured the essence of the Jack Reacher character, which is that he is this guy who is supremely confident in every room he walks into. He's never concerned. He's never worried about the situation he's getting into. And in the books, one of the things I love is they're actually really funny because Reacher is so smart that he's constantly amusing himself. And so, he makes little jokes that nobody else understands. And this happens all throughout the first Jack Reacher movie. You get that scene where he's with Rosamund Pike, who's playing the defense attorney, whose father's the district attorney. And he says, look, you're just doing this because your daddy didn't. And she says, no, not my daddy. It's the district attorney's office. And he goes, you're just doing this because the district attorney's office. Didn't buy you a pony. And so, he does little stuff like that. It's great. But what was interesting about it as an adaptation is they just started mid-series. Like, they didn't use the first Reacher book. And that's because the Reacher books are a little bit like Law & Order episodes. You can watch them totally out of sequence. There is no seriality to them. I would say Lee Child is not even especially concerned with continuity. He does a little bit of continuity work. But otherwise, they're very standalone. They're almost like Sherlock Holmes. And they are, at least the first one, you were the only person in the room who has seen Never Go Back. But the first one takes a very sort of loose, very loose approach to the adaptation, which I think is always crucial to good adaptations. Adaptations which are too slavish often wind up being boring or compromised. And good ones almost always have the writers who are really happy to go in and take what works for the screen and discard everything else.
Vic00:10:26Well, that's what I was going to ask. Both of you guys about film adaptations, because it's kind of hit or miss. I mean, we've seen some really good ones and we've seen some really bad ones. So what are the ones that first sort of come to your mind when you think of a great film adaptation for a movie, a book that has become a movie, how it was well done? Which doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be exactly everything for the book, right?
Sonny00:10:46You know, I think the first Lord of the Rings film was actually a very good adaptation. It dropped a lot of stuff that wasn't necessary. It actually concluded on a slightly different note than the original book. And it had like an actual arc, which is hard to do with the first part of a trilogy. Like it had an actual, you know, kind of rising action, denouement, like it had the structure of an actual film. You know, it can be hard to do. You know, Hitchcock in his interviews with Francois Truffaut said, you know, like a novelist should not adapt his own work for the screen because he has, generally speaking, no idea what can be lost and what can't be because he's spent so much time. Living with this, this, this work. And I think that is like, I think JBL is right that you need, you need a dramatist. You need somebody who can actually get in there and be like, okay, this works visually. This doesn't work visually. This is good. This is bad. You know, Vic, I know that you are a big fan of Goodfellas. Yeah, absolutely. And what you've seen Goodfellas, what, like 30 times? 30,000 times. 40, 50, 50.
Vic00:11:51There was a time where, I mean, every other thing that came coming out of my mouth was a Goodfellas line. Still. That was at lunch. We got it back.
Sonny00:11:57That time, that time was two hours ago. But, you know, like that, that's a very interesting adaptation because it uses a lot of voiceover. It's kind of unusual, but it's very similar to the book.
Vic00:12:07It does. And Pelleggi was very good about that. And you couldn't include everything. I mean, there are a lot of details in Wiseguy, which was Nick Pelleggi's book, about, for example, the Lufthansa heist. And I love that. And I couldn't get enough of it. But I'm one of these people who, I mean, at the time, you know, you're watching enough Goodfellas that, you know, I'd be more than happy to. I'd be more than happy to watch a six hour version of Goodfellas versus the two or three hour version. I'd just like to have them, you know, hanging around and and eating Manigault all day. I'd love that, you know. But I mean, obviously, there's only so much you could do. But what they kept for the movie, I thought was pretty accurate and including the other interesting things, though, is they changed some of the names. I'm not sure why they did that. Maybe they were afraid of getting sued because obviously in the book, Wiseguy, I mean, it's there's, you know, he's not going to take. Creative license about, you know, Jimmy Burke and and what happened to him or or Tommy DeSimone. And in the movie, Jimmy Burke becomes Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeSimone becomes Tommy DeVito. And I imagine that's because that gives Scorsese and Pelleggi a little bit more leeway into what they can allow. For example, in it's understood this is really interesting, actually. You should really read the book is the death of Tommy, which is very vivid in Goodfellas. As you remember, it's a setup. He's going to be. He's going to be a made man. And and then he gets shot by his own people because he had to. It was revenge for Billy Bats. Billy Bats. That's right. Played by, you know, the great Frank Minson. That's right. Phil Leotardo from The Sopranos. And what you learn in the movies is Tommy just disappeared. He was just gone from the book in the book. Yeah. And and what the what they surmised was that he was killed, but he was killed by the John Gotti crew, which is also very interesting in the greater scheme of things. But because, of course, Gotti was part of the Gambino family. And that part is true in the movie as well with with with Frank Vincent's character. But, of course, it's hard. It's hard. It's less dramatic that way. And that's I'm fine with it. And obviously everybody else seemed to be fine with it.
JVL00:14:12But, yeah, you know, it's funny. I totally agree. You almost all the time you should not have the novelist adapting their stuff. But there is the exception that proves the rule, which is to me is one of the most spectacular adaptations ever, which is Layer Cake, which is a small movie, the movie that made Daniel Craig a star and made. Matthew Vaughn, a topless director, which if you haven't seen it, like do me and yourself in America a favor, run out and watch Layer Cake tonight. It's fantastic. And that was based on a really great small novel by a writer named J.J. Connolly. And he wrote the screenplay, too. And they're very different. It's so different, in fact, that as I read the novel and then watched the book, I thought to myself that he must have had a screen adaptation in mind for it while writing the novel. I think he was actually already thinking about what it would look like on screen.
Vic00:14:56Not to. Give anything away. Maybe I should just say spoiler alert here. But my question to you, Jonathan, is in the book, is it anywhere explicit about the person who dies at the end of the movie? And is there any chance that that person lives?
JVL00:15:11And so in the in the book, this is actually fascinating. He totally lives. Oh, and what happens is he is shot in the head. And so he becomes sort of like he just isn't right in the head anymore. And he winds up as a sort of layabout bartender in the Caribbean. So he moves. He goes to an island in the Caribbean. He's not rich or anything like nothing works. He's one of these guys who just, you know, has a traumatic brain injury and isn't. And then he comes back to work for the British Secret Service. And then he comes back for the British Secret Service.
Vic00:15:38But you also I assume, Jonathan, you agree with Sonny about Lord of the Rings, the trilogy, the box, Gerald Tolkien and the whole thing.
JVL00:15:44The first. Yeah, I totally agree about Fellowship of the Ring, which I think pound for pound is probably the greatest, the greatest film adaptation from a major literary work ever. I mean, just as a matter of juggling pages and everything.
Vic00:15:56Yeah, Jonathan. I. I. I know you're a big fan of it. So feel free to break into Elvish if you like. If you're more comfortable that way talking about it.
JVL00:16:02Yabba, presto, yabba.
Vic00:16:05I mean, now I'll do Klingon. Did we.
Sonny00:16:06Are we going to bleep that? No, no, that's totally in there. That was really inappropriate.
Vic00:16:10We're talking about Harry Potter and you could start speaking to snakes.
JVL00:16:12So, Liz, I would like to say just one one quick other plug for great adaptations, though, because this happens to be a a book which I have just recently reread and then watched the movie immediately thereafter, which is Clear and Present Danger, which is based on a Tom Clancy novel. Actually, a very good book. A good Tom Clancy novel. And to my mind, this this is like a masterclass of how to do a good adaptation. So think about I assume relatively few people have read the book compared to have seen the movie.
Sonny00:16:39I have not. I have not read the book. I've read.
JVL00:16:41So think about the movie. The two most iconic scenes of the movie are the ambush of the FBI director's entourage and Jack Ryan in Bogota and the the fantastic, creepy murder where Joaquin de Alameda kills the FBI secretary. And there's that. The machinist, the lawnmower, the machinist. Oh, you mean in the in the log cabin? Right in the log cabin. And neither of those scenes exist in the book. In the book, Moira does not die. She actually lives and becomes a witness against them. And but it was important, actually, for the movie to kill her. It was it moved the plot along very well. And the the big set piece where they kill the FBI director, which, you know, like if you don't cry when you're watching that, when you see it on TNT on a Saturday afternoon or something like there's something wrong with you.
Vic00:17:26I think so. It's like the deputy, actually. I'm not sure if he's a director, but I believe the director is. And he has a cameo in the beginning when they do this briefing. He's played by Dean Jones. It's one of the reasons why I always thought it was nice. That's right. And Dean Jones, of course, was Jim Douglas from the Herbie movie. And so I hadn't hadn't seen him in maybe 30 years and suddenly appears in Clear and Present Danger. That was very exciting for me. Sometimes when you have favorite actors or people you like as a kid, you're like, oh, I'm so I'm so glad he's still around or she's still around.
Sonny00:17:53I remember after seeing that movie once. It's when I was living in D.C. and kind of like walking in between two like kind of tall buildings, like looking up at the at the at the at the tops of the buildings like this would be a terrible ambush spot.
JVL00:18:09I would be I would be gunned down in a minute.
Sonny00:18:11No, I mean, it's really powerful. It's like a really well done scene. And it is. I'm shocked that's not in the book.
JVL00:18:16Yeah. So in the book, this happens almost entirely off camera. It's it's you know, it's given like a page and a half and it happens off to the side. You're just sort of told about it almost in the aftermath. This is a total creation by the screen. I'm not told. Almost a total creation by the screenwriter. It shows how it's still very faithful to the book in the sense of it's telling the same story of the book. But they really knew what to do to sort of take use the bones of the book, but then understand what works and how you need to move from one place to another more quickly. And so that was Philip Noyce. Philip Noyce directed both of those.
Vic00:18:45I have to tell you, I canceled my plans to go to Bogota after I saw that. Yeah, that was so terrifying. I don't want to be in that road situation. But speaking of Tom Clancy, what about, for example, The Hunt for Red October? Jonathan, you were talking about The Hunt for Red October. That's another Tom Clancy movie. Well, Patriot Games and then some of all fears is the other ones that were turned. I think those are all the movies that were turned, books that were turned.
Sonny00:19:09Some of all fears is actually an interesting one talking about adaptations because some of all fears is... It's garbage.
JVL00:19:13It is hot garbage.
Sonny00:19:15It is not good. It's not great. What's wrong with it? What's good with it, son?
JVL00:19:19We have to circle back to The Hunt for Red October. Don't let us not.
Sonny00:19:25I dare you. I dare you. I dare you to defend some of all fears. Finish Hunt for Red October.
JVL00:19:30All right, so Hunt for Red October, if you read it, I read it as a kid and then reread it a couple years ago. And it is, for a certain type of guy, just straight pornography. There is, like, the scene where the reactor fails in the Russian Akula submarine, it's like 20 pages of, like, description of, like, how the reactor, how the one ball bearing moves. And then how the chain reactor starts in the reactor. And it's just, like, you read it, and if you're the type of boy who's into, like, military hardware and science and stuff, you read that and you're like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Vic00:20:06That was lovely. Thank you. We might have to bleep that. Go ahead.
JVL00:20:09No, but what's genius about the movie, though, is the movie really jettisons all of that. I mean, all of the military porn from the book is gone in the service of a really, really interesting emotional story about Captain Ramius, the Sean Connery character. And this is another one of those movies that if you just look at the film credits, you shouldn't be surprised. It was great because it's John McTiernan. And this is John McTiernan at the height of his McTiernanness when this guy was just an amazing filmmaker.
Vic00:20:35What were your other favorites from that time, John McTiernan?
JVL00:20:37Die Hard, right? I mean, Die Hard is, again, a total classic. And the best Christmas movie ever, as I like to say.
Vic00:20:44No, but think about it. It is the best. And I'll tell you what else I liked. The Thomas Crown Affair remake.
JVL00:20:48That's also great. Yeah, slick. So think about that. The moment in Hunt for October where you know you're getting a great movie is where you're on. You're on the Russian sub, the October in the beginning, and they make the transition from Russian to English in the dialogue. And the way that is handled is done so artfully and so carefully. You just think to yourself, this is going to be awesome and buckle in.
Vic00:21:11You actually do forget at some point that some of the characters in the sub are speaking English and other characters are speaking Russian, you know, because there's some. And then they go back and forth. For example, they think that the Russian submarine is going to take on the Americans at the end and all the. The crewmen, right? The officers speak English. And then they're cheering. The crew is cheering and everything because he's going to take him on into the big explosion. And that was in Russian. And yet, but it's not a distraction. Sometimes these things are, or sometimes when they struggle to, what sort of accent should we have for this movie? Yeah.
JVL00:21:39But I thought it worked fine. Yeah, and the choirs, the background, the choirs singing, all in danger on the sea and all that.
Vic00:21:45Plus you have two other great actors in that movie. Well, there are many. Sam Neill. Sam Neill and Tim Curry. Tim Curry is the doctor and Sam Neill.
Sonny00:21:53That's right. So go ahead, defend Ben Affleck's piece of garbage. I'm not going to defend some of them. The one thing I will defend about some of all fears is Liev Schreiber is great in it. It's like one of the, it's one of the true like great Liev Schreiber being a kind of remorseless killing machine with a smile all the time. You don't like Liev Schreiber?
JVL00:22:10You know what? He's just a thing that never happened for me.
Sonny00:22:12I just want you to know that you're terrible. That's garbage, garbage, garbage. But I was going to say as an adaptation, it's very interesting because it ran into like a real kind of political firestorm. Remember this came out right after this came out a year ago. A year after 9-11. And they, the, the original villains of the film were. Careful. Islamic radicals. Extremists. Extremists. Who, who set off a small nuke. And they changed that to like, I don't know, like. They're white national South Africans. Yeah, like white, white nationalists or white. South Africans. Were they South Africans? I thought they were like fascists in Russia or something. Are you thinking of Lethal Weapon 2? Lethal Weapon 2. Those were the South Africans. It was Krugerrands.
Vic00:22:59Krugerrands. And it was during the height of apartheid. Yeah. Anyway.
Sonny00:23:01And that was not based on a novel as far as I know. But I mean, see, that's, that's an example of a change that kind of makes no sense and is done for purely political nonsense reasons. There's no narrative. There's no narrative reason to make that change. Which is, which is, you know, that's an example of a bit. But there are sometimes changes don't really matter. If we can bring it back to Jack Reacher, you know, one of the things that fans of the book series often have a real problem with is the fact that Tom Cruise plays Jack Reacher. Now, I love Tom Cruise. I'm a total. I'm a total Tom Cruise apologist. I don't care what sort of creepy cult he's into. He's, he's just dynamite on screen. He's, he's a pure movie star.
JVL00:23:35Greatest movie star of our time.
Sonny00:23:36I think that's, I think that's totally true. Totally. From, from like 1980 to about 2009 or 10 or so.
Vic00:23:42He's also a consummate professional. He takes these things seriously. I'm not done. Yeah, I noticed that.
Sonny00:23:47Because you're looking at me like, no, don't talk now. Go ahead. But, but, but what's interesting is he's, he's also a very small person. He's, he's like 5'6". He's 5'6 or 5'7". I'm 5'7". I'm not sure. You think I'm short? You're a small person. Oh, great. In more ways than one. And the, and, and, you know, in the character in the book is described as like a 6'5", 6'10", man, mountain type monster who just goes around wrecking stuff and beating people up. And, and it changes the way, especially in the Chris McCrory version of Jack Reacher, it kind of changes the way the fights play out, which are more clever, more tactical, more kind of. Like the scene in the bathroom, for instance. The, the fight scene in the bathroom. The Raising Arizona. The Raising Arizona Redex. Which is so great. And funny. Again, it's really funny. And funny. It's very different than how it might play in the books where he's just kind of punching and smashing through things. That is an example of a change that I like, but a lot of people can't get around. You know, do you think that's weird?
JVL00:24:48You know, I, I, I know people, I work with people who have complained to me vociferously about this, Mark Hemingway. And I have to say, I don't, again, for me, the essence of the Reacher character isn't the size. The size is just the window dressing of this. The essence is the cleverness and the, the total confidence and the funniness. And that, Cruise brings all of that. So I don't, I don't actually care watching the movie. I don't think it affects the property at all. It's just different.
Vic00:25:14Well, as I always like to say, size does not matter, you know?
JVL00:25:17So, but more to. As I said, small person.
Vic00:25:19More about Tom Cruise. Again, and no matter what the role is, and he really, you know, he really brings his A game. I was thinking about Collateral. Another, you know, the great Michael Mann movie. And he trained with Blackwater. And you watch him in that alley scene where he takes on the two or the three guys who, who rob Jamie Foxx as the cab driver. You actually have to slow it down in order to appreciate, you know, the work that he put in, in taking those guys down. It happens in the blink of an eye.
JVL00:25:45Yeah.
Vic00:25:45And it really is sort of, and that, that shouldn't go underappreciated. And of course, Tom Cruise in the other great Chris McQuarrie film, Valkyrie. I know you're all fans of it. And, and he took that. He took that very seriously. And just a little, not to name drop, but I used to be friends with the German defense minister. And before he got. I'm not sure where this is going. We're talking about Nazis in World War II. But he got taken down by, before he got taken down by a plagiarism scandal. In any event, Carl Theogutenberg's family, back in the day, they were also involved in the conspiracy to take down Hitler. And so while they were filming this, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes visited him and his wife in Germany. And they had a little night. They had a little night at their house. And this is told to me from a mutual friend. And they said that Tom Cruise was very serious. He had all the, he just wanted to get into the head of Klaus von Stauffenberg, understand what it meant to be his family's, the sort of royalist aspect of the German, the Prussian German army, you know, that dates back centuries. And, and how to, in order to fully embody him. And in fact, you do, you know, when you think, oh, you know, Tom Cruise is going to be in this movie about the plot to kill Hitler. It's going to be distracting because it's Tom Cruise. You actually kind of, you know, forget about that. And you just enjoy the movie for what it is. And I said, how was Katie Holmes? And my friend said, she didn't ask many questions. But anyway, go ahead.
JVL00:27:05You know, this is, this is a great point. He, he always respects both his audience and the material. And one of the things, so he's, I mean, let's be honest, he's not the greatest actor in the world. He's actually a very good and very competent actor, I think. But he has ambitions. He has actual ambitions, but he also understands his own limitations. And so what he does is he, this is like always a sign of a great. star who's a generous actor. He surrounds himself with great talent. And so you look at the rest of the cast for Valkyrie, you look at the cast for all of his movies. Bill Nighy. Bill Nighy, I mean, he surrounds himself, he is totally confident enough that he can hold the screen with great actors and brings them on to make the projects he's in better. And he appears in a range of movies. This is a guy who doesn't only do $200 million tentpole movies. He does big movies, medium-sized movies, and small movies.
Sonny00:27:51There was a, there was a great book that came out a couple of years back that I actually reviewed for the Weekly Standard, written. By Amy Nicholson. It's just kind of a big book about Tom Cruise. It's a big coffee table book that has a bunch of essays about the work he does. And, you know, what you, what you, what you find when you actually look at his filmography, he's got, you know, Bored on the Fourth of July, which is a very kind of weird, arty movie for a guy who was literally the biggest movie star in the world at the time. Fresh off Top Gun to, to, to make, you know, in, in, even in like kind of the other big movies he's been in, like, for instance, Interview with the Vampire is another movie where he's playing. Not quite against type, but almost a hyper version of that type of the kind of flamboyant, super intense, well, the dead-eyed psycho that, that, you know, you, you really do have to kind of appreciate what he brings to a certain type of role. You're right. He's not a Daniel Day-Lewis. He's not going to go out there and embody, you know, historical figures to, to a 0.1% degree of accuracy, but he's, he's very, very good. And very underrated as an actor, I think.
Vic00:29:00I wanted to quickly, since we're talking about film adaptations, bring up the other one last one, which was The Godfather, which is a terrific novel. That was a book? That was, it was a book, not Godfather 3, the first Godfather. George Hamilton was in, in the book. Godfather 3, also underrated. Yeah, we'll talk about that next time. What? I'm sorry, say that louder. I didn't hear that, Sonny. That's another, that's an entirely other episode, but I'd just like to say, the book was, the movie is amazing, and again, the decision to keep certain things and to take certain things out, I mean, it just takes a lot of skill, and there are things in the book that were completely unnecessary. There's a whole aside in the novel about a plastic surgeon who takes, you know, one of the girls and takes care of her, and it gets, and Mario Puzo, for whatever reason, thinks it's worth going into detail about the reconstructive surgery of her genitalia. I mean, this is really something that you don't want to read about, you don't want to see it, and nobody knows why Puzo did it, nobody knows why Puzo wrote the script for Superman, but, you know, these things happen. I just left you speechless, sorry.
Sonny00:30:04I assumed that was the whole reason you had a very thumb-eared, dog-eared copy of the paperback of The Godfather in your office. The kind when you drop it on the floor, it automatically opens to that page. Just pages, you know, flying out of it everywhere. It's that and the Tropic of Cancer.
Vic00:30:20This makes me very uncomfortable. I did have a question, okay, so my other last question is about the Jack Reacher 2. It's a pretty good situation because I think it was even beaten out by Madea or WG2 or the new Tyler Perry movie.
Sonny00:30:33Yeah, yeah, Madea does Halloween or whatever.
Vic00:30:36So the bad reviews have gotten around, yours has gotten around. Does this mean that's the end of the Jack Reacher novels turned into movies?
Sonny00:30:42Well, I mean, the movie was made pretty cheaply. It's a $40 or $50 million movie, or at least the first one was. I think this is probably not much more expensive. So, you know, there's a decent chance it'll recoup overseas where Tom Cruise still has a pretty good draw. And, you know, I mean, this... The first movie opened to $15 million and did $80 million total. It did really good home video. Maybe that's enough to get us a third installment. But, you know, if he's going to make another one, he needs to have Chris McQuarrie do it. And Chris McQuarrie is basically his muse at this point. Chris McQuarrie is working on the new Mission Impossible movie right now. They're filming it, I believe. Yes, MI6.
JVL00:31:22And they're going to do, I believe, at some point, they want to do a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow. Edge of Tomorrow, which is another highly underrated movie that everybody should see.
Sonny00:31:29Chris McQuarrie wrote Edge of Tomorrow, now rebranded as... Which is also an adaptation. Right, right. Which is an adaptation. And it's... I would say it's actually better than the source material. I read the book after seeing the movie. I was like, well, this is not very... This is very...
Vic00:31:42I think it got unfairly compared to Groundhog's Day, which I love both movies, but there's apples and oranges.
Sonny00:31:48Yeah, well, I...
JVL00:31:48It's Star Wars Troopers meets Groundhog Day. I bet that's how the pitch meeting was. It's a video... It's Star Wars Troopers meets Groundhog Day.
Sonny00:31:53It's a video game. I mean, it's... The movie plays... It plays like a video game that you're watching somebody else play, which is kind of amusing for about the first... Which, I love the first two acts. I think the third act kind of falls apart. I'm not totally sold on the... I like the third act a lot. ...love conquers all.
JVL00:32:09Of course you're not, because you're a dark-hearted garbage person.
Vic00:32:13I'm dead inside. Okay, on that note, I see our glasses are just about empty, which means that is all the time we have for this week's episode. Speaking of which, today's episode was literally made possible by Patty's Iris Whiskey. From the moment you waked to your Irish wake, make it Patty's today.
Sonny00:32:31Is that actually their tagline?
Vic00:32:32No, I created that myself, and I ought to get paid for that. I'm afraid that's all the time we have, so I'd like to thank everyone for listening. And no, we do not have the power to give you back the time you just wasted listening to this podcast. But if you have comments or questions, please send us your emails at substandard at weeklystandard.com. Until next time, courage. That was a Dan Rather joke, by the way. I like that.
JVL00:33:02Should we end with courage, or should you end with, please don't fire us, Bill? I also thought that had to get this way, buddy.
Vic00:33:07And please drink responsibly. Too much patties, and you're liable to get Irish Alzheimer's.
Sonny00:33:13What's Irish Alzheimer's?
Vic00:33:14That's when you forget everything, Sonny, except the grudges.
JVL00:33:18Should we do some outtakes? These were the outtakes, by the way.
Vic00:33:21I think the actual show ended 15 minutes ago. Do you want to do more outtakes?
Sonny00:33:24No, no, we started like five minutes in. 14, I saw 14, 15, so that's pretty good.
JVL00:33:30Let's do some outtakes. Little singers, put on the end.
Vic00:33:35I think I went through everything. We got through a lot. I thought it was good, and I think we just, right?
Sonny00:33:44It didn't do it for you? I'm sure it's fine. That should actually be in the tagline. I'm sure it's fine. The weekly substandard. I'm sure it's fine.
Vic00:33:55I like that. That's actually pretty good. I think you probably trademarked meh for your other stuff.
Sonny00:33:59I'm sure it's fine.
JVL00:34:01No outtakes. All right, no outtakes. I thought we were going to have funny. I got nothing for you.
Vic00:34:04Next time.
JVL00:34:05I have something funny. You know who else is a little person?
Sonny00:34:07Who else? No, I'm just, this would be a funny. Oh, I don't, I don't. I thought this was a call and response. No. Is it Vic?
JVL00:34:15Grumble, grumble.
Sonny00:34:16Is it Vic? No. Is it Vic the little person? No. I was thinking of something else. I'm 5'9".
JVL00:34:22You are not 5'9".
Vic00:34:24Vic says, I'm 5'7". You are 5'7". We're the same height, so you're clearly wrong. She's clearly wrong on her.
Sonny00:34:29Oh, my goodness. I got to wear, like Tom Cruise, I'm going to be wearing boots. Oh, my goodness. Unplug this. Okay.
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