Today I’m looking at a pair of crime movies adapted from books by two of my favorite authors. I almost said ârecent crime moviesâ because you know how time is, but it turns out one is more than five years old and the other is more than ten. It’s just that I put them off forever because I was afraid I was going to hate them. It turns out theyâre both pretty well made movies, but yeah, I donât think they have the spark Iâm looking for.
LIFE OF CRIME (2013) is the adaptation of Elmore Leonardâs The Switch, about the time Ordell Robbie (Yasiin Bey, 16 BLOCKS) and Louis Gara (John Hawkes, NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW) kidnapped a rich guyâs wife. These are of course the characters he later returned to in Rum Punch, which was turned into JACKIE BROWN, so this has the novelty/pressure of being a sort-of prequel to a crime movie classic from a modern master, which I think most of us agree is either the best or second best Leonard adaptation ever. Good luck, writer/director Daniel Schechter (SUPPORTING CHARACTERS) living up to that.
Obviously he didn’t knock it out of the park, or you would’ve heard about it. Though Iâd say itâs more on point tonally and â70s-period-wise than the movie of FREAKY DEAKY, itâs overall less fun. But I guess I just like this kinda stuff enough that I found it somewhat interesting. (read the rest of this shit…)
July 15, 2005
If we had followed through on that bet I’m sure I wouldâve lost. Its popularity lasted at least five years, which I can clock by realizing in hindsight that this movie is the reason my wifeâs younger cousins asked us to play âShoutâ by The Isley Brothers at our wedding. But by then THE HANGOVER had come out and I think it quickly replaced WEDDING CRASHERS as the bro comedy of record (no judgment for that – I’d say itâs a funnier movie). 
THE POOL is from 2001 and is one of these slick studio style slasher movies that came out because of SCREAM. I guess Australia got 
SPOILER ALERT !!
