Hollywood has done it again; another Nicholas Sparks novel, another Nicholas Sparks movie. With such successes as A Walk to Remember, The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe, why not? However, Dear John, the latest Sparks novel-turned-tearjerker, does not seem to step up completely. A love story that follows a young soldier on leave who falls for an ambitious college student and their relationship as they communicate via letters over the years. With the knowledge that it is a Sparks novel, there is bound to be some miscommunication along the way, leading to horrible heartbreak and then eventual reconciliation. Unfortunately for Dear John there seems to be something missing in this formula to place it in the same category of his other works.
What lacks in script development is made up for in actors. The soldier John Tyree is played pretty perfectly by Channing Tatum who has honed his army-guy character in such films as Stop-Loss and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Women in the audience will appreciate beach scenes that highlight the physique he has become known for. Tatum also does a good job of portraying the uncomfortable relationship between Tyree and his father, at which those same women in the audience will start to pull out the tissues. The other main character, Savannah Curtis, is played by refreshing Amanda Seyfried. In this role, Seyfried transitions from the ditzy Karen in Mean Girls and the carefree songbird Sophie in Mamma Mia! to a serious, yet idyllic Southern Belle that just wants love and to make the world a better place, in the most non-cliché way.
Starting in the spring of 2001, this picture perfect relationship begins. However, the writing love letters to each other over the months hits a snag when 9/11 happens and Tyree has to decide between his duties to his woman or his country. Whichever will he choose?
As much as I wanted this movie to move me to tears as The Notebook and A Walk to Remember did, no such luck. I was left in a theatre of girls crying fifteen minutes in, when the credits were barely finished and the characters had just met. Unfortunately, it seems as though the hype of it being a sappy Nicholas Sparks movie did more to get emotions going than the script itself.
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This is a great review.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I wouldn't say that Dear John by Nicholas Sparks is lacking anything. I would say that the move replicating Nicholas Sparks book is lacking something. The book (like usual) is better and different than the movie. This book competes with his other books, but the movie made by whomever (not by Sparks) is not on the same level as the other movies made around Sparks books.
Other than that, I really liked it. Just distinguish that the movie lacked something not necessarily the book.
My favorite part about your Dear John review is your conclusion. This has good opinion in it and you let the audience know what you were expecting and how this movie met (or didn’t meet) that expectation. By doing this you really let the reader know what they will get out of this movie and if it will be worth it to them to see it.
ReplyDeleteYou also include all of the proper elements for a short review. You introduce the topic and give some background and go into describing the plot and what you thought about the acting (which I’m glad you did because it gives to a chance to give your opinion). However, the order in which you put these elements was a little bit off. I would have liked to see the synopsis as the 2nd paragraph so I know the basic concept, and then I would like to know about the acting as a follow up to the information about the movie’s characters. Also, you do have a sentence in the intro about the plot, but it sort of cuts in between the point you are trying to make about Nicholas Sparks so again I would move this to a separate paragraph just about the plot. You have all the right parts but I think you just need to reorganize them a bit. Nice job on both reviews!!
Hi Spike,
ReplyDeleteI like how much opinion you put into this piece. There is a lot more in this review than in your review of Valentine's Day. I really like your descriptions of the actors as well. You intertwines the actors, actresses, and your opinions of them in perfectly with the plot.
I think one improvement that could be made would be moving your plot synopsis before where you have it. Right now, it seems a little out of place, but I think with some suggestions tomorrow in class, you'll be able to find the perfect spot for it :-)
Spike,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your review, I liked how you included a bit of sarcasm within the review. It was a nice touch to include Nicolas Spark’s most famous works in the movie world. It was also great how you described Tatum’s previous movies that relate to his character in this movie; this technique is really effective and more detailed then just stating the last movie he was in. Some of your sentences could be reworked to make them less awkward.
I also would have enjoyed a more detailed plot of the movie. The first to last paragraph seemed very vague and wasn’t enough for me as summary since I have not actually seen the movie. I also think you could take out some of tear-jerker and tissues within the review, it is almost overstated by the end of the review. I liked the review and I liked how you clearly stated your opinion. Great job.
Ashley Rawlings
I have yet to see the movie but I think that you did a good job reviewing it. In your review you did not give too much away which leaves me wanting to see Dear John.
ReplyDeleteYour choice of words and the way you phrase things is done very well. When you talk about the characters you use words such as "refreshing" and "idyllic" which are not so common.
One of the things I would change would be where you placed your synopsis of the story. I think that if that went first and then a detailed description of the character then it would be stronger.
Also, you mention how this does not relate to "A Walk to Remember" or "The Notebook" but do you know why? Are all the directors for these three movies different? Or do the actors not mesh as well as they did in the other two movies? Maybe let us know a little bit more why this just was not up to par as previous Nicholas Sparks movies.
Overall though I really enjoyed your review.
Good job!
Natalie Davis
I like that your tone really supports how you feel about the movie. You tell your audience that the story line is lacking, but give your approval for the actors in the movie. I also like how you list what other movies the actors/actresses have been in.
ReplyDeleteI think you should add more of a summary, but other then that you did a great job!
Some of your sentence structure is a little confusing at times, but this can be accredited to the fact that it is merely a draft, not the finished product. Including other movies based off of Nicholas Sparks's novels is a great idea, because it helps the reader imagine how the movie might go if they have yet to see it themselves. However, I do agree that you should make more of a distinction between Sparks's novel, and the choices the director and writer of the film made. Everyone knows that movies based on books usually tend to very loosely mirror the plot of the book, and the two can often be extremely different (people tell me this about the Harry Potter and I Am Legend books/movies).
ReplyDeleteI also found myself wanting to know more about what actually happened in the movie, more of a review. Not necessarily a detailed play-by-play, but more of what actually went down in the film and plot. You do a nice job of making your opinion clear to the reader. Nice work.
I like the first paragraph but I think it's a little long. A couple of the sentences could be cut and made into a second paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI definitely got a feel for what the main characters are like. I enjoyed the way you connected them with the other movies they had been in. That gives a chance for the reader who has not seen the movie to somehow connect with the characters.
The last paragraph does a nice job of showcasing your opinion of the movie. It wraps up the article nicely.
Once again, I'm writing a review on this too haha but I noticed you were more focused on the script, which i thought was interesting because I'm writing about the actors roles in making the movie what it was.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you included all the other Sparks novels and how you felt they were successful compared to this one and why it wasn't successful.
You may want to put the paragraph about when the relationship starts higher up when you talk about the plot. I think it would fit better into the article there.
You also may want to add in a little more about how exactly the script may have failed, since that's your main argument, but overall everything was written well.
This is very well written. There were few, if any, places that really tripped me up.
ReplyDeleteThe comparisons to Spark's other works are accurate and add a lot to the piece. I agree that the intro is a little long and there are some run-on sentences.
I also don't think you need to put yourself into the piece at the conclusion. I suppose it depends on the publication, but normally, it shouldn't have that. It wouldn't be hard to say what you felt without actually saying "me" and "I."
I liked this review. Again, it is good writing and it's easy to read. It's very conversational.
Channing Tatum is a horrible actor, but I won't hold that against you.
Spike!
ReplyDeleteHaha Don't worry, I actually really enjoyed your review! Seeing as how Dear John might not be on the top of my list of movies to watch, even though I loved the Notebook, I appreciated the fact that your review did not get caught up in the hype surrounding this movie.
I think that you did a really good job at showing the strengths and weaknesses of the movie without casting too much judgement either way until the end where you expressed your disappointment that it did not live up to your high expectations from the Notebook.
I'm sure that there are a few spots that could be tightened up, but overall I rather enjoyed reading this review.
Spike,
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your honesty. It seems that too often girls just want to see hot guys fall in love and don't really evaluate the movie.
I agree with what everyone's saying about the plot summary being too late. I've read the book, but for those unfamiliar with the story its nice to provide that up front so they can understand your criticisms easier.
You also mentioned that something was missing in the formula and I'd like to know what that something was.
I liked this review though and appreciated you being up front about how you felt. Just move stuff around and elaborate a little more and you should be fine!
I also enjoyed reading this review. I have not seen the movie yet and have heard many different sides to how people thought the movie was but it was good to hear another perspective. I really liked how you supported your points and were very truthful about how you felt... especially in relations to the other works of Nicolas Sparks.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katie when she said that something was missing and I would like to know what you think that was.
Overall this was a really good review with a few grammatical problems but other than that!! good job!
Dear Spike,
ReplyDeleteSo this was pretty good review, your introduction was engaging, informative without giving it all away, and critical. The length was short enough that I don’t feel trapped by too much text, yet long enough to cover the movies main weaknesses and its strengths.
Things that you should consider: I understand that this movie didn’t do it for you, it obviously did not live up to all the other Nicholas Sparks novels turned into movies and I think at the end you do a great job of giving it a thumbs down without slamming it, but throughout the review you use sarcasm and sometimes it’s just too much. You want to make sure you don’t turn your audience off. Lastly, you said something was missing, but you never really specify what it is that made the movie bad.
Overall though, a good review, I think you touched on some good points.
-Joanmarie
Again, you do a great job of describing the movie without giving too much away. I really like how you discuss the actors in the second paragraph and mention the previous movies that they have appeared in. When you describe the transition that Amana Seyfried has made from previous movie roles, it’s clear that she is a young, talented actress.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who reads Nicholas Sparks novels, I definitely found your review to be useful. I like how you mentioned previous movies based on Spark’s novels. In doing so, I was able to get an idea of how the movie Dear John would measure up to the novel. Your concluding sentence is also very effective in conveying that the novel is much better than the movie.
Spike,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a great job with this review. I liked how you credited Nicholas Sparks for his genius in writing books that translate so well into movies. Also, you did well to mention actors and their careers thus far. That's something very important and prominent in reviews.
A suggestion would be to summarize less and review more. What worked? Did it meet/ exceed expectations?
Just something to think about, but overall great review!
Sincerely,
Carly
Spike,
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Alex that this is very well written. I love the length as I feel that a good movie review is concise and tells me what I need to know.
But I don't particularly like the middle. I really like the first and last paragraphs because they tell me how you feel and what the review is about.
It's important to offer concession but the middle just talks about how well the actors did. If they did so well than the movie wouldn't have fallen so short for you, I feel.
Great first paragraph.
Spike,
ReplyDeleteI liked that right away you demonstrated good knowledge of other Nicholas Sparks' movies and related them to the reader. Personally I am only familiar with a few of them, and it made me feel like I better understood what was going on and what to expect when you mentioned them. I also loved that you mentioned how the actors did specifically, because I haven't seen this movie yet and I was honestly wondering how Amanda Seyfried would handle the role.
The only thing I wasn't exactly sure of was the conclusion of the review. I couldn't tell if you were trying to say that the script of the movie was better than the book, or if you were not happy with either of them. Otherwise, though, great review!
Emma L.
Glad you built the characters from past films, through now. The conclusion really cleared up some of the vague opinion that it seemed to be lacking in the middle. Overall I still would have liked to see more, but still felt like everything meshed fluidly. With that in mind, some expansion would have been nice when pushing the "formula", but i still felt like this piece did a pretty good job summarizing.
ReplyDeleteJoey Stelfox
Spike,
ReplyDeleteI loved how you started the review stating your opinion on how Dear John did not live up to a Walk to Remember or The Notebook. Which, as we all know because everyone can admit they have shed some tears watching these love stories, have set the standards for the tear-jerking genre.
You provided a nice summary of the movie, but kept your tone throughout the piece. Nice job balancing the two by stating what happened but not loosing the almost "disappointed" tone that you started with. Great conclusion as well. Nice way to say that Nicholas Sparks was the source of the emotions throughout the movie rather than the movie itself!