Originally Posted By ctdsnark I just finished watching "Merlin",with Sam Neill on the Sci-Fi Channel,liking it every bit as much as the first time I saw it.In contrast,last week's "Ten Commandments",a new version with Dougray Scott,was every bit as bad as our local TV critic said it would be.{I wasn't expecting another like the DeMille version,just hoping it would be as good as Dreamwork's "Prince Of Egypt"}Both films came from Hallmark Entertainment. Hallmark's been creating TV movies since the 70's,they even have their own channel now,but in the mid-90's,in a collaberation with Jim Henson's production company,they did that amazing "Gulliver's Travels",with Ted Danson,documenting Gulliver's visits to all four lands envisioned by Jonathan Swift,something which,I believe,no other filmmaker has done.I can't remember how long the Hallmark/Henson partnership went on,but many more good films came after that. "Arabian Nights"---my personal favorite.I especially liked their interpretation of the Aladdin story,shifting the setting to Asia,with Jason Scott Lee playing the famous boy-theif.John Leguizamo,as two very different genies,was great. "Animal Farm"---in a deviation from Orwell's novel,Napoleon and his fellow pigtators decide to make propoganda films to keep the other animals in line.The last such film,with imagry straight out of "Triumph Of The Will",ended with a truly unsettling image of a fully-dressed Napoleon,standing up on two legs. And there have been others---"The Odyssey","Jason & The Argonauts","Alice In Wonderland" {Gene Wilder,as the Mock Turtle,sings a memorable version of Carroll's 'turtle soup' song}.These were all well made,but,for whatever reason,Hallmark's last few offerings haven't been that good. There was "Jack And The Beanstalk",which seemed,to me,a bad idea in the first place---how can you possibly turn THAT story into a 2-night,4-hour movie?!I had high hopes for "Dinotopia",being a big fan of James Gurney's book---those hopes were dashed.I still can't believe they tried to turn it into a series,albeit a short-lived one.Their take on "Hercules" was just terrible,and that brings us to last weeks "Ten Commandments". What happened?
Originally Posted By PlainoLJoe I remember that Hallmark did The Secret Garden yeeaaarrsss ago and I loved it. I have not watched anything recent, but its dissapointing to hear they are not as good as they could be.
Originally Posted By BrnardM Ctdsnark, did you actually see "Jack and the Beanstalk"? It was different from what you might expect. I saw it upon its original airing and recall enjoying it quite a bit. I'm with you, I thought Merlin and The Odyssey were fantastic (Bernadette Peters as Circe!) while the recent TV movies have been somewhat subpar. I couldn't stand that dragon king deal on Scifi! If you're interest about Jack and the Beanstalk on page six of the link there's a detailed synopsis. As I said before, it's not what you'd expect. <a href="http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/data/bin/Jack__The_Beanstalk_Guide.pdf#search=" target="_blank">http://www.hallmarkchannel.com /data/bin/Jack__The_Beanstalk_Guide.pdf#search=</a>'jack%20an%20the%20beanstalk%20the%20real%20story'
Originally Posted By BrnardM Maybe try... <a href="http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/data/bin/Jack__The_Beanstalk_Guide.pdf#search=" target="_blank">http://www.hallmarkchannel.com /data/bin/Jack__The_Beanstalk_Guide.pdf#search=</a>'jack%20an%20the%20beanstalk%20the%20real%20story'
Originally Posted By ctdsnark Thanks,BrnardM---although my opinion of "Jack" hasn't changed,your entry did settle a few things.
