Case 20. A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (2014) | #filmnoir #retroreview

[Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome back to Mean Streets where each week we investigate the best worst and forgotten movies of Phil Noir I'm Luke Deckard and I'm Matthew booth and today's case is none other than A Walk Among the Tombstones from 2014 starring Liam niss Dan Stevens and David Harbor the title sign for a walk amongst the Tombstones is private investigator Matthew scoter is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife based on a very famous book by a very famous crime writer Lawrence BL have you read it yes Lawrence BL yes I've read several Lawrence blocks but ironically not this one um so we'll have an interesting discussion about this film I think yes so I've I've read the book and I I love this book I I think I think the book A Walk Among tombstones is it was absolutely fantastic um it's it's one of those books that you know sometimes you get one and you sort of take your time with it for whatever reason like it's good but you're not like racing through it this was one of those books I I I didn't want to I didn't want to put it down um it was pacy and action-packed and and scary and really clever at times there's there's stuff in the book that's not in the film that I thought was missing I felt like oh I wish that was in this because that was such a cool scenario and and scene and how they work something out um which I I'll mention a bit later but I this was yeah A Walk Among the Tombstones the book from 1992 is a fantastic fantastic gripping hardboiled novel love it well I mean we could say that about blocks entire run I think of scoter books certainly from the ones I've read and this is something like is it the 10th or something in the series this so I me you know he's showing no signs of of uh losing his grip 10 bucks in if anything he's he's just getting into gear you know and it's uh and and SC is a great character SC has got a lot of interesting facets about himself that we'll we'll perhaps touch on as we discuss the film yes yeah um but a big a question I've got for you to kick off really is is your mental image of Matt SCA Liam NES oo I you know it's we'll get there we'll get there because I I actually have a lot to say about that but I I think there's maybe other things that we should hit on first because I have a lot to talk there's a lot to talk about when it comes to niss and this role and in general his habit of playing similar roles because he's he's also taken on Marlo recently which we've not SE I've not seen that film yet I'm I have dreading the day I'm gonna make I'm gonna make you watch it so we can do an episode on it yes but in short to answer the question in short no yeah I I asked the question because I think it's interesting when um you get an actor cast as a character that you've you've known for a long time in your own head uh I mean a very obvious example for me is Sherlock Holmes um and you know sort of John re and people like Paro and all that when you first see the actors embody them you think that's not what I think so and so looks like you know great example is Jack Reacher and Tom Cruz yes and then so once you've got over that what I've then find interesting is well is this is this in my view miscast actor going to do something interesting with the role um and if they do fair enough if they if they don't then it just brings it home even further that they were the wrong person for the role you know yeah robt Downey J and Sherlock Holmes is a prime example for me but let's not get into that no because I like him in that role but that's that's conversation for another another day another another day another day I the the making of This film is interesting so it had a budget of 28 million which is pretty good and it grossed 62.1 million worldwide which is okay I suppose um I guess if you double the budget for to for marketing purposes which then you know puts it you know closer to the 60s or into the 60s like is it is it really making that much money but I I have no recollection of this movie coming out they released September 19th 2014 I have no memory of it I don't know if it was marketed very well in the UK because I was living here at the time by that time but like this did not register for me anywhere no I have no no knowledge of this film at until I saw it purely by chance uh on a sort of recommendation on Sky we think you might like this right and I thought oh it's it's a mat SCA fair enough I'll have a look at that because I've read I'd read some of the earlier books um and it it came with a free DVD if if you bought it on Sky it came with a free DVD which is oh you know well you know that's interesting that that's that that to me reeks of like we have a bunch of stock that no one is buying nobody wants yeah nobody wants please buy this please yeah absolutely we we've not been able to shift this it's like the sort of Del booy troter version of getting DVDs um but and that was the first time I saw it that must have been I don't know four years ago perhaps three or four years ago and I'd not watched it since until we decided to do it for this episode so it was a bit like coming to it fresh because yeah I didn't remember anything about it yeah and to be quite honest the next day after I watched it for this episode I thought do I need to watch that again yes two hours that it's on it you know it it holds it held my interest for the two hour it was on but two hours after I'd watched it I couldn't remember very much about it at all and that's that's a real problem for me yeah I'll be honest the that two hours that it was on did not hold my interest oh well I I struggled I struggled with this film uh immensely but before we get into that let's let's let's chat about the people who made the movie um because there's this is again a this is a frustrating film in that the writer director is not any he's he's someone who's who's well accomplished in Hollywood as as a writer as a director so Scott Frank directed the movie and as it happened was then able to also well he wrote the screenplay he worked with Lawrence block for many years um apparently he contacted block sometime after the initial publication so back in like 1992 1993 period he contacted block wanted to wanted to basically adapt this book and this book has been in sort of adaptation limbo for it was for for decades and decades and decades yeah um and which was interesting to me because okay well that's interesting because these guys are working together and this you know Scott Frank has intimate knowledge of of who Scutter is going to who who he is as a character and you know intimate knowledge of this book like it so knowing that and then seeing what is produced on screen is a little bit hard to compute um but but but Frank has a lot of good credits because you know he's he's won two Academy Awards for Best adapted screenplay one of them is out of the out of sight from 1998 the other is Logan from 2017 the Logan the the final what was meant to be the final Wolverine movie which is a a Noir is Hell film that to me is a movie that really works it's it's interesting that he is involved with that screenplay but then also is involved with this screenplay and and it just I I don't know what's not working but I mean other other things that he's worked on that are notable he he um directed the Queen's Gambit which is a visually visually fantastic looking show yeah falls apart towards the end but fantastically looking show um and his scripts include dead again malice Heaven's prisoners and Get Shorty so get Shorty Minority Report I think he did as well he also did some work on Minority Report so he he's worked in and on new Neo noir films for decades yeah so he's he's got the he's got the chops to to to to do it so you kind of see why you know yeah okay yeah SC Frank this is his credits he's done a lot of good stuff yeah he seems like he would be a good fit for you know a walk among A Walk Among the Tombstones but I don't know what it is I don't know what it is either there's something not right I don't know if it's we we we talk a lot on this this channel don't about Studio interference I don't know if it's that I don't know if you know there was a lot of pressure to do something that he didn't that didn't Accord with his original Vision I don't know don't know what it is but something isn't it's it's off key you know it's like playing a his career is like where this is in his career is like playing a a Piano Sonata and then getting the wrong you know pressing a flat instead of a natural it's just like it's just a a misstep somehow um yeah which sometimes you can tell you you understand why there's a misstep sometimes you know it's uh Studio interference bad script bad star whatever it is but there's there's nothing that definite in this that explains why it has gone so wrong um in my view um although I don't think it's gone as wrong as much as you do which will come on to but it I'm here to convert you all right okay it is it is I mean like I say it held my interest but only as a as a maybe this is the problem it only held my interest as a sort of cheap action flick or a cheap Thriller yes it didn't hold my interest as anything else there was no depth to it there's no texture to it it's it's Liam niss doing what he's now become famous for doing but doing it in a much more brooding way and some will say with perhaps more character development than he had in taken but not that much more you know when when you've got to to bring scoter to the screen it takes more than just a few AA meetings being shown is what I would say and that's what they they replace character depth with just a couple of AA meetings um and a really cheesy bit of an AA meeting in the CL in the clima it's what it's frustr use the word frustrating and it is frustrating because the people concerned can do better than they do and should have done better than they do than they did you know yes Danny DeVito produced it as well he's one of The Producers on it and you sort of think that he might have a bit more you know sort of umph about him to uh to make this better than it turned out to be I I would like to know how involved Danny Devo was he I don't I get the impression he might not have been that involved because I I don't know if you watched any of the behind the scenes stuff on the DVD no so I decided to give them a crack there's only two things and they're very short but the the uh producers that they have on there all the producers ex except Danny DeVito and and maybe maybe one other I'm pretty sure the other four are on there so I think Michael Samberg is on there I'm pretty sure I know Stacy Sher is definitely there um Brian Oliver I think is there and Tobin armburst is definitely definitely there um so but DeVito is is not there on the special features and the thing that kind of struck me as I was watching them is if you've ever seen any of the post uh Disney Star Wars behind the scenes they speak of the the the the creating of the film in a very like almost religious way it's all very like you know this such a magical spiritual journey of making this movie and I was getting that impression with with these features there was nothing about like well this took a really long time this was really hard to do it was all very much like this was just like the stars were aligned and you know perfect yeah yeah I can't bear that because that's not actually saying anything is it that's not no that's just words that don't have any meaning it's just word salad you know yes but they they do mention things so you mentioned this thing about you know Scutter going to some AA meetings and that's a big part of his life and it's in all of the books you know he's very dedicated to his AA meetings and you know it's him not being an the drama doesn't come from necessarily him being a a recovering alcoholic the you know his his sort of life is wrapped up in in going to these these meetings but you don't really get that sense in the film yet one one of the producers in the behind the scenes says that you know you really get a sense that you know he plans his days around the AA meetings and I'm like you you don't get that sense of film at all no I get I get more of a sense that he plans his days round trips to that Dino where he's having scrumbled eggs yeah yes because he's in there he's in there more often than and and he's he's much more at home there than he is in the Alcoholic Anonymous yes meetings yeah and for such a crucial you know it it's a bit like we said about Rebus Rebus without the music you know or it's homes without the violin scoter without the AA meetings is a large part of his what makes him fascinating is gone you know and this this film really just PS lip service to those to that side of his character it's they can't they can't take it out entirely or they don't feel they can take it out entirely um so they they have it in but it's really just a a you know a perun uh inclusion of a thing that everyone knows is a major part of that character yes so to hear him to to know that they then say that they think his whole character evolves around it is just nonsense yes that's that's just either misguided or total fabrication yeah because one of the other things that they said that again sort of made me made me laugh having watched the film was they uh one producer mentions that regarding Scutter that there's no Hollywood construction to Scutter and literary uh you know book book Scutter sure I can kind of go with that but this version of Scutter I mean the film opens up with the most cliche thing possible like a couple of cops he's him and his buddy cop fighting arguing in a car he you know drunkenly stumbles into a a diner or bar place um has a coffee with two shots there's a big giant action shootout scene where he just violently goes you know goes very taken and uh Sil murder some people while while I you know kind of drunk all on the job in a about wig and oh my God the dag wig and beard what the f and what annoys me about that is that is that is one of the biggest cliches isn't it we'll show we'll show how far he's come by having him shave off a beard yes and have his hair cut come on yes so you know to say there's no Hollywood construction to Scutter I'm sorry but this film begins with hollyw construction well if cleam niss For Heaven's Sake I mean there is also there is also that there is also that um this is as Hollywood as you get this film this is this is Hollywood in a bottle really yes yes this is this is uh cliche Hollywood in a bottle this is this is everything about this movie and this is what this is what frustrates me is there's there's there's often there's there's so much potential with with some of these characters like you know like Marlo or or like Scutter who can if Done Right are going to be able to do tremendous things on the big screen yeah but for many many years the people producing those types of films um just haven't been able to nail it for some reason and I'm not quite sure what that reason is but they just haven't been able to to get it and I think part of it is is is understanding character and understanding character journey I mean one of the other dumb things that they said in behind the scenes there's so many things one of they said that you know they in terms of Scutter they they they they felt that his sort of Journey was that at the at the beginning of the movie he's just surviving but he's not living and along the along the way throughout the film while he's trying to save someone else he saves himself and I'm like what come on come on that's not yeah that yeah that is not what he does at all that's absolute nonsense it's absolute nonsense yeah yeah and that's again that's just that's just sound bites isn't it that's not saying anything yes that's just attempting to give a journey to a Cara and depth to a character that you don't then give him you know yeah I mean that I would apply that to sort of someone like um Harrison Ford in whitness for example oh God yes you know in I'm going to say it Luke in Spades he does that all that that that whole film is his journey from Tough Cop to an understanding of human kindness and and uh pacifism and all the rest of it so yeah for a film like that but this is no witness no you know so this is giving praise to something that clearly doesn't deserve it you know I think that's what's missing in these sorts of adaptations uh that you get over the over the last you know several several years why something like you know Blade Runner 2049 is a very Broody Moody movie but there's a there's a human Journey there's a human Journey going on and like witness there's a human Journey happening and and you're invested in that the the hard boil cliches of the Moody guy that only works for about five minutes and then you need to start digging beneath the surface of that character and they never dig beneath the surface of Scutter movie I think that's one of my biggest problems yeah and just touching on something you said about why these characters could work but so often don't um I I think part of that is that people think taking Philip Marlo as an example as long as he's got a trench coat and a fedora and he's in a dirty office with a bottle of whiskey we've nailed it and that isn't what M those are trappings you know Marlo's deeper than that Marlo is much more complex than that and Scutter is not just as I said earlier a bloke who goes to AA meetings he's there's more to him than that that is that is a part of him but just turning up to those meetings isn't enough just seeing him at those meetings isn't enough you know you've got to understand why he's there you've got to understand and they don't explain why he's there couple of shots in a in a bar and then killing somebody you know the way he's set up in that initial scene there's not enough of he hasn't got enough fiber for that to matter to him it looks as if he does that every day like dirty AR you know it's not it's not go it's not scratching the surface enough it's it's barely scratching the surface yeah of why these literary characters uh endure when film versions of them disappear after a couple of years or as we said before you don't know they've even been made yes you know I mean I with with Scutter like every every Scutter book there is always something happening with him and the AA meetings there always someone that he connects with and is not not even necessarily in involved with the with the overall case or story um but there's always something happening with him and the AA meetings always always whether he's trying to help someone in that meeting that's you know that becomes like a bit of a side quest while he's also doing his his main adventure and there's and there's none of that now you know one of the things that they tried to do where so you have Dan Stevens who plays Kenny Christo who is the one of the drug who's the drug kingpen and then he's got a Brother played by Boyd Holbrook um whose name is Peter Christo uh Peter Christo is a he's a drugie he's an alcoholic and he also goes to these AA meetings what I I'm almost I'm I'm like 90% certain that that isn't in the book uh they mentioned somewhere along the way in the behind the scenes that they connected Kenny to the AA stuff uh to give Marlo parlo to give Scutter more of a connection to it all which I thought he doesn't need to have a connection to it all like that you don't need to do that because ultimately there's so much going on in the book that like Peter chriso isn't that important anyway and and trying to shoehorn him in to make him a bit more connected to to Scutter just I don't think that was they didn't accomplish what I think they wanted to accomplish because all it needs is it's a plot device isn't it to get him in front of Kenny yeah so that Kenny can hire him that's all it is so you know Kenny's going to be a man who knows people Ken is going to be a man who uh has connections throughout the city so he's going to be able to find Matt SCA yeah at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting pretty easily so that connection for with Peter being there as well makes no sense he could have just sent Peter to that meeting to to bring SC which is all I'm pretty sure that's what happens happens in the books I'm pretty sure that's what happens in the books well I will into bet it does because that's that's a simpler way of telling the story otherwise you're hinting it you're hinting at a a connection that then has no payoff and doesn't mean anything then it becomes like just sheer coincidence yes and it's pointless so in addition so there's there's other things I want to talk about character-wise but I want to mention this as as well we talked about this with with many of our other episodes but you know hard boil fiction into film Noir into neon Noir has has like the the good movies of the and books of that genre all have one thing in common and that is style yeah right so you look at a Philip CH Philip Marlo book you look at a u Robert you look at a Robie Parker book you look at a Sarah peretzki book you look at something like the film The Big Sleep you look at the big heat you look at you know all that all of those films are you know they have similar uh recurring tropes but the they always stand out because they all have a unique style yeah and that to me was one of the big big big big things that was missing in A Walk Among the Tombstones it was entirely without Style no style um the I don't know what what you felt but like just the general cinematography every shot was flat yeah and dull yeah and and in terms of Direction the same yeah the same there were no camera angles in this that that or there were no interesting uh shots that made you stand up they were it was all it was like watching in Parts it's like watching a stage play you know it's it's two people sitting in a room now that can be captivating I don't want anyone to think that that I find that sort of thing boring that can be captivating you look at a film like 12 Angry Men which is 12 men in a room talking that is one of the most tense films of all time but it's got to be well written this there the point under discussion's got to be uh fascinating in itself and a hook in itself and the acting's got to be great you know for it to come alive this was just like watching two they not bad actors but just a dull situation you know and it shouldn't have been because they were talking about violence and murder yes you know and things but there's no that I'm I'm thinking particularly about the scene where he he first meets Kenny and they're sitting opposite each other opposite a coffee table on two set and it was just you know a shot on Dan Stevens cut to a shot on niss and vice versa and it the camera just switched between the two there was nothing else going on and that that starts to then become very stale and even in the action scenes there was nothing going on apart from the apart from the cemetery climax which is then cut with an AA meeting that was Dreadful that's why I found it I I agree I found it it's very flat is the word because it is two people on a flat screen that screen is not coming alive you you look at Classic Noir like they they you know there's a reason why they play with light and Shadow there's a reason why it makes things look more Dynamic there's a reason why they they have Dutch angles and weird up views or down views or side views like there's a reason for that and that is to make this this scene feel more dynamic because two people sitting having a conversation isn't necessarily that interesting you know it can be and the dialogue the dialogue should be cracking enough that that it is interesting and you know that's what happens when you read a book you don't have these kind of shots when you're reading a book but that dialogue is still interesting you know here you have the the added effect of being able to do something Dynamic visually and they do nothing with it I mean like the opening credits let's talk about the opening credits those cheesy horrific lifetime original movie opening credits what the f was that about but I mean so for those of you who haven't seen this film and are listening to this review a spoilers obviously but it's it's a very it's it's a scene of the attack the the M The Killers uh stroke uh abductors rubbing their hands all over a woman's body who has been kidnapped and you know I one you know we see her eye she's got duct tape on her mouth that kind of stuff but it's in like an almost it's shot almost Angelic like and that everything is very white the background is totally white and and it's shot very it's shot to make you think that you know she's having sex yes and then you realize that she's not ande she's not and it's very slow and creepy and it's meant it's meant to be slow and creepy but it just came across as the vibe I got from it because how how this the opening credits end you have all this white all this white white bright white stuff and then at the end it smash cuts to a black screen and says directed by Scott Frank yeah it rre of first year Film School student stuff yeah it does it does like oh I got an idea it's all going to be really bright and white but then like you're going to find out there's actually like you know she's actually being like murdered and then we like Smash It the black screen it' be like it'll be like really you know visually like people get it it's like it just felt cheesy to me yeah cheesy and sley yeah to me it it doesn't um it doesn't have any depth to it really it it's purely the the shock the shock it intends to give you never arrives because it's done so slowly you know and and it's I'm sure that they will have said we'll have the camera caressing her that's what we'll do because that's the feeling that you get and as it caresses down her face it it reveals the the duct tape across her lips and then that's meant I think that is meant to make you go you know but it doesn't it makes you go yes you know it makes this is this is bit dull and lame yes uh and I'm not I'm not too sure that it comes across as artistic as they think because like I said I think it comes across far more sleazy yeah than it does anything else you know that that she's meant to you you can you can shoot the abduction and torture and murder of a woman and make it look as if she's in the throws of ecstasy is a grim message to start your film with I think I think the other thing that the opening credits set up is that because you mentioned as well like everything looks stag like a stage play which I I actually wrote that in in my notes that every every room looks every room looks staged every scene looks staged and like the opening credits that are bright white and super clean all of New York City every room every street everywhere we go in this film the the the the look on it's just the general like look of the SC the camera everything looks so clean even when even when Scutter goes to a couple of dirty Apartments they don't look dirty they look staged dirty yeah that yeah carefully careless is the phrase that sprung to my mind which is an old uh Robert Smith lyric because it's it it's meant to be dirty so we'll make it look dirty but when flats are dirty and disorganized it's organic and it's not just a few clothes tossed over chairs and all the rest of it you know it looks real when it's meant when it's done properly because some thought has gone into it but this there's a general attitude of that'll do in this film for me you know that oh look well we'll we'll throw some clothes around and we'll we'll have some dirty pots in a sink or whatever it might be and that'll do gives the impression of what we one instead of really getting into down and no put intended but down and dirty you know and making it look as if it's a flat that is meant to be seedy you know because the the groundsman in the park is a seedy character but even he looks clean he does yeah he does he looks he looks fake dirty it's it was very frustrating to me the whole time I just thought oh my gosh like you have this gritty dramatic novel that you're adapting and you're in New York City where it's that's a visually dynamic city and everything just looks like you could lick every floor and not ever get sick yeah yeah and and there's no sense of scoter being in danger at any point you know when you watch when you watch a proper proper Inver Comm film what they walk they walk down those streets and you think at any given time in the best of them any given time somebody could come out of an Alleyway and and kick seven Shades out of him but here he looks like just a tourist there's that there's that awful bit where he's followed he's being followed and he knows he's being followed and I did laugh when he put He punches his his hand through a the glass panel of a door into a bloke's face you know but there's no threat there there's no threat in that following sequence because you know exactly who it is that's following him because he yes you can guess because it's all done in a very cliched way it's all done in a very obvious way yeah you know spoil it's it's it's the it's the cops in it that are following or the you know but you meant to think it's the killers and you think oh come on come on The Killers don't even know about him at this stage so why would it be the killers exactly it makes no sense makes no sense but also like that other scene where he he is followed into a building he goes to a little uh Corner Shop and is asking about a woman who was you know taken and killed and then they're like oh well she lives in she lived in that place go over there and then he goes and gets attacked by the the same two guys who were in The Who were in the corner shop and you know you think they're really going to beat him up but they just do a throw a couple of punches and then suddenly they become friends yeah yeah and then it becomes play for Laughs because one of them is in love with the woman that SC is looking for yeah you he hits him he sort gives him a play for Laurel andard slap and says thought he was going to marrier and then they end up having a laugh together it's just yeah nuts it's nuts you compare that to to boart's Marlo getting beaten up in the alleyway where he's they leave him there on the floor that's a that is tension that is violence that is uh uh danger in in the dark streets of Noir you know this is just the 18 by comparison yes yes yeah which which Le niss was in the remake of 18 that wasn't intended but speaking a little bit more on on on niss and Diving a bit more into your question of is he is he right for this role I mean I ABS absolutely not I think what annoys me as I was watching this and in my notes I'm I'm writing things like he is dull he is lifeless I am not interested in him he has no charm there is no Charisma and frankly I feel like it's a phoned in performance yeah I don't think that he is he's not acting he's just sort of you know it's interesting because he in in interviews niss was like oh I'm really interested in these sorts of these loner characters blah blah you know Scutter is exactly the kind of person that I'm really into because of I'm into these scandy you know scandy Bleak crime Thrillers and this was really up my streets I'm like really because you look bored yeah yeah none of that comes across none of that comes across he does look and and he's I it's it's seems that he's since taken he's just done the same thing over and over and over again in different circumstances yes and there's no and and I I couldn't people I've read reviews in this film where they say oh it's a much deeper performance than he gives in Taken is it no is it really I don't think it is I don't think it necessarily is no he's better in Taken because taken taken knows what it is and does that unapologetically yeah yeah it doesn't try and be anything more than it is I agree with that this taken to me says this is 80 minutes or 85 minutes whatever it is of absolute nonsense and but but you will know it's nonsense we're not going to try and convince you otherwise but you'll have a great time while you're watching it yes and I i' I am fully on board with films that do that definitely I am fully on board of films that just say we are going to entertain you for 85 90 minutes if you if you like life and that's all we're going to do I'd like to see more of those you know the Fall Guy was one of those to me fil like this I need I want because because Noir is a such a complex thing because Noir Thrillers are complex things I expect more from this film than I get that's my problem that's my problem this is almost like um there's an old Peter cushion quote about Sherlock Holmes and says if you don't do the Sherlock Homes Stories the way they are they are written you might as well call him Joe Brown and have him as something else you might as well have called this bloke Joe Brown you know and then we wouldn't be offended by the fact that it's Matt SC was meant to be Matt SCA because my sort of summary of this film if you can do it now is I think this is a fairly average but watchable action flick but as a scoter adaptation it's it's pitiful yes well one of the producers of the show of the movie you know they were saying you know obviously you know in terms of casting niss you know a there was all this he was just like the perfect bit of casting we were so glad we got him one was like no one else can be Scutter he is Li niss is Scutter and and there you know all that all that kind of rhetoric going on you're like shut up um but but they also try they go a bit further with that and they they say things about how they're like oh you know you know this you know there's we definitely want you know there's there's that sort of Liam n action that you know you kind of come to expect from a Liam niss movie but it also goes it also goes deeper than that it goes deeper than that one of them one of The Producers went on went on to say that this film was called this film Smart in the way that Silence of the Lambs is smart oh come on I I was like hold on sir you are in Far different League there far different League thing is this film's got all the action you expect from a Liam NES film well a it shouldn't have because it's not a it shouldn't be a Liam n film it should be a Matt SCA film and B it hasn't anyway there's nowhere near as much action in this as there is in taken or un no or anything like that no you know no it just isn't but that's why they did that opening in my opinion that's why they did the opening of the movie the way they did it cuz the opening of this movie is Big Liam needs an action of here's AE here's here's some bral Liam shoting stuff he doesn't do that in the rest of the film no no well and they will say because he's learned from that mistake so he doesn't do it anymore but that is so cheap that is such a cheap character Arc you know that that I don't buy into it at all I just think why is this why is this a completely different man yes from from the credits what's happened you know so in the early 2000 Harrison Ford was initially attached to a version of this film uh that would have been directed by uh someone else IO I I can see that I think Ford would have played it like an older version of his charactering witness he would have brought some of that same vulnerability and integrity to it because one thing Ford is good at when he's when he's in a good film is vulnerability he's one of those tough guys guys who is uh capable of being hurt that's why he was so good as Indiana Jones yeah um in the in the original Three I'll just add that caveat um you know because he's got like Gary Cooper quality Harry Harrison for he's got that Gary Cooper quality of I'm the hero but you know I'm I'm not certain of what I'm doing you know I I am not guaranteed that this I'm not guaranteed this will work and I'm not guaranteed to survive it but I think this is the right to do and I will do it yeah and I think that's what you need to have not just for scoa but for a lot of private eye Noir uh characters you know it's the old Philip Maro thing of I needed a vacation I needed life insurance and all whatever else he says but I had a hat a gun and a coat and I and I put them on and went out you know because that's all that's all the Noir Hero has got himself and he's got to go and do what he's got to do whether he comes back alive or not and I think Ford would have would have done a a better job of that of getting that side of the character across I think that's a that would have been a much more interesting film to discourse I I think so too I it's it's a shame that we didn't get that that film let's let's talk about the character of TJ because my God this film suffers from the cliche old man kid relationship we saw it nvi with sari and it sucked there and my godness it suck here too like yeah I'm I'm not a lover of this I am not a lover of this because I think to myself if a middle-aged man struck up a conversation with a teenage lad in a library well let's let's let's set the scene let's set the scene for those who don't know the scene because I found the whole scene just insulting because I agree I agree with where you're going with this yeah okay Scutter is in the public library and he's he's old man so he's he can't use the computer so he's got toter so he's he's on a microfish yes micro you're like God God God and so behind him is the cool young kid who's on the computer on the internet and the kid drops a page a piece of paper that has uh illustrations on there and he's an artist kid's an artist and the kid is in the book by the way and the kid is fine in the book like he's he's fine in the book but this what the the librarian comes over and she's like TJ TJ the janitor said that you left the bathroom in quite a state like you're like what the hell and you need to go a library it's just like God and then and then you know scutters like turns around he's like the kids with me he'll clean it up later I'm just and then and then they just become friends yeah with with absolutely no questions asked yes nothing what the f he buys him some food he buys him some pancakes in the next scene I think and after that TJ is following him around New York City badly yes you know and there's no sort of there's no question in that at all there's no what on Earth are you doing you know there's no explanations to why I don't know how old TJ's meant to be but you know 15 16 or whatever why he would even care about a middle-aged man he's living on the streets why is he not thinking about robbing him yeah you know now it maybe the book explains all that and I'm sure it does but the film doesn't and the film should and that's my problem you can't rely you cannot rely on the audience having read the book so you're gonna have to feed some things in to make these scenes make sense and this this whole relationship to me just does not make any sense at all no I completely agree and I I was baffled by the thing was weird is like the kid the kid is a homeless he's homeless but he's like a vegan yeah and he's like I don't put nothing bad in me and then he goes and eats pancakes I'm like but you just said like surely pancakes are loaded with sugar and stuff you're not going to eat a pancake right you're gonna eat something healthy because you just said you just made a big deal about how soda companies put stuff in the soda to like make kids like sperm count go dead yeah sperm killing soda what what are you talking about oh my God I honestly I think one of the biggest mistakes that this movie makes there are many but one of the biggest mistakes is is changing the time because the book was published in 1992 it should have been set in 1992 because I don't think it marries the story in in its and its contemporary setting very well and I think this the TJ relationship is is a big is a big part of where that's being very clunkily handled and I don't understand the setting I have to say the time say because I I knew the book was from the early 90s M um I know why this this is set in 1999 isn't it uhuh I know why I know why produc mention all right well I'll tell you what my thought on that and then you can explain you know why they did it yeah because it seemed to me that they've got the guts to set it in the 90s but they haven't quite got the guts to set it in the early 90s like the really early '90s so we can go back in time but not too far was my overright because what difference does it make and and then I thought is it just to have all these awful jokes about the millennium bug that aren't funny you you're gonna tell me that's what it is aren't you oh you finished you finished and I'll tell you well it's just that I thought it there's either no reason for it at all and it's just we don't do it we don't go any further back in time than this or it purely is to make jokes about the millennium bug and perhaps also to be generous to explain why Liam n can't use a computer because you know a man of that age at that time might not have been because he wouldn't he wouldn't have been brought up on but it didn't make any sense to me but you you can you can fill me in now you can tell me exactly why it does make perfect sense so so their one of their decisions to to change it and they picked the reason they picked 1999 uh part of it is part of it is the the Millennia coming up um and but one of the big reasons is that they were saying they they is saying uh I'm paraphrasing their their quote but they're saying something along the lines of this is you know Rudy giuliani's New York City you know it's it's it's you know in the process of like finally being cleaned up after you know all these years of being down and dirty blah blah blah blah blah blah blah um and and so at and then at the end of the movie you you know you have this pan up shot and you see the Twin Towers in the skyline and you know that bad things are coming again and that's the that's the that's their explanation wow well people won't know this but I've got my head in me hands is that really is that really what their explanation was in one of the uh one of their explanations they they they are talking about how 1999 New York was was you know it's pre- 911 it was a hopeful New York it was it was a clean New York you know so it's it's it's it's a promising new world for New York City but at the end you see the Twin Towers and you know that it's gonna get bad again that is that is so that is I don't know if I don't know what I find is it it's either more it's it's offensive or it's cheap both but let's let's go with moronic yeah yes yes and on the topic of moronic the other thing that annoyed me about the TJ Scutter relationship is how many times does this movie need to hang a lantern on spade and Marlo oh so like TJ mentions it multiple times within a span of like five minutes like the Spade Marlo comparison to Scutter and it's like well I've read all these books because I just sleep in the library all the time I've read all the spade and Marlo books have you yeah well you don't sound as if you have right yeah it's just again it's just cheap and it's lazy and it's we it's saying to the audience we know what camp we're in here you know we know where we've come from what our roots are and I I want to say no you don't because just just name dropping spade and Marlo isn't enough no gentlemen it's not enough you need to do more than that you need to have a character that comes leaps off the screen that will make me think about those earlier characters without you name dropping them yes absolutely yes as as as you get in Chinatown you know where Jake gs's fictional Roots lie H but but he never once mentions them no and the reason you know he says there's great he says lines like uh I like my nose I like breathing through it you know and things like that which are very Chandler esque he and the way he dresses the way he acts it's all harking back to that earlier time but never once does he have to name them because you shouldn't have to name them you shouldn't have to name them no it's it's it's quite it's quite ridiculous it's the the way they the how how forceful they push those names is is quite embarrassing I I found it I found it embarrassing but that's not the only embarrassing scene with TJ though later in the movie he finds a gun somewhere and uh and Scutter is walking down the street hears someone coughing assumes it's him I guess and goes down the street and sees it as TJ coughing and you know talks to him a little bit and sees sees a gun in in TJ's bag and then there is by far the creepiest like weirdly erotic scene in the movie more erotic than the than the ladies being uh you know murdered and viciously brutally tortured in sexual ways Scutter tells the kid tells TJ to take the gun out and he I quote he's like caress it rub it feels good yeah now [ __ ] it weird and you're like I'm like I'm holding my head while I'm watching this I'm like who why are you why is this a scene that is happening in this movie why is this dialogue happening why why especially when the film has already made a point of TJ saying something about how you know white because TJ's a little black kid he's already made the point of saying how white men like to you know touch him basically he's implying that he's been you know molested by by by white men and then you have this weird scene from Scutter who's being like weirdly sexual about a gun that the kid is holding and you're like what the f is going on yeah yeah and and SC who's meant to have turned his back on it all because of the chaos he caused and the Carnage that he was responsible for in the first scene you know so why like you say why do it I I know why to you know because the punch line is you you got to be ready to be shot if you're going to carry one of those but yes the way the message might work but the way of delivering the message is absolutely horrendous yes because it doesn't make sense to either character because TJ is sold as a StreetWise kid so if again if a middle-aged man started talking to him like that he would say what are you no chance I'm right out of there you know there'd be a knee to the groin and he'd leg it and never see him again yes it's it's movie it's people talking in movie talk for the for the sake of a movie plot device yeah and it it's cheap it's nasty and it and it's fake the whole thing is fake I don't believe in any of this you know no despite the fact that I I watched it and you know all the way through and thought well you know it's it's is what it is what it is is fake yes you yeah the other thing that also you know there was many so many things about this movie that annoys me but I also get the impression that that this version of Scutter he's not intelligent I don't find him smart and the perfect scene is when he he meets the guy he meets uh lugan is it lugan or it's lugan I think it's lugan in the graveyard who is connected to the connected to the the murderers he he was a he was the the driver for one of their one of their abductions and he he fled and wanted nothing to do with it but he's you know he's too afraid to come forward anyway Scutter finds him connects the dot blah blah blah blah and he finds lugan little he doesn't live in he lives on the at the on the roof of a of a of a block of flats in I don't know some sort of like janitor office thing and he finds some dirty photos anyway there's some back and forth and lugan eventually admits all of his you know connections to these to these killers and uh scut's like well I'm gonna take you into the police now and he's like okay but can I feed my birds first and you're just like okay he's gonna jump off the roof yeah and he does he does he feeds the birds gives him the name of one of the guys and then then jumps on but what annoyed me the most about it is scut's like yeah sure go feed your birds I'm just going to turn my back on you and not look and see what you're doing yeah and I'm like what are you effing doing what are you doing yeah absolutely this is a lead this man's a detective yeah and this is a lead right yeah this man has Vital Information which having made the decision he's going to jump off the roof he just gives scoter you know he doesn't he doesn't sort of say it's you know I'm not telling you anything and then jumps off the roof he has to give SCA the important information to get him onto the next the next step of the investigation which is to give him the name of one of the killers he does pose the question without that BL if that BL could just said I'm not telling you anything and jumps off the roof what would SCA do where would he go no you know that and end of movie really yeah yeah you know so that scene that scene is again stupid and dumb yeah so you can have that scene and that scene can work but the way that scene plays out just feels like negligence yeah it does yeah it does and again the shock that the shock of him jumping off the roof doesn't come no because the minute you see him standing on ostensibly look feeding the pigeons in his in his cage yes but why is he doing it from the side that overlooks the street why is he not doing it from the safety of the roof yes put the cage between him and he's put the cage between him and Scutter and he's over there by the by The Edge it's like you know what's coming you yeah you know what's coming sloppy that's this movie is so sloppy speaking of sloppy it's all bouncing to the next Point there's there is a moment in this movie where it it it I think kind of sums up the the the the lack of a the lack of attention that this movie I think has H and and it's sort of awareness of of the audience and there's a there's a scene where uh Marlo there's a scene where Scutter goes to an AA meeting and Peter is there Peter Christo the the brother of the drug kingpen yeah and they have a little bit of a conversation and then they're walking down the street and as they're walking down the street Scutter is just very distracted by everything else he's distracted because he's seeing a van he's distracted because he's thinking and in the background Peter is just babbling on he's babbling babbling babbling babbling babbling and I not taking in as a viewer I'm taking in nothing that Peter is saying and then Scutter stops picks up a telephone public telephone goes to make a call and then sort of looks at Peter and Peter's like okay yeah right see you later yeah and you're like what was the point of any of that yeah you're walking down the street you're utterly ignoring him he's not offering anything of use clearly other than just to be a gnat in your ear in this scene and I'm like this is where the this is the the film's problem overall is it's it's so unfocused that there's so much there's so it's a clean looking film but it's so noisy like there's just there's a lot of stuff happening and you're just you're you don't know where to focus because the film doesn't have it has a massive Focus problem yeah it has and I agree about that scene that again it's it's in terms of story the scene is fine in that he sees the van realizes there's something not right about the phone number or the company or whatever it is yeah and phones the operator therefore learns that it's that it's bogus that's that's a clue that's a good clue and it's a good way of finding out that information but the window dressing around it is Dreadful because you can take Peter out that scene and I think the point of that the point of the the Babbling in the background and all that is to show that SC is now focused on something you know and he's uh he's alert to this potential clue and that's what he's focusing on now because and what Peter saying is unimportant well you can do that just by having him look at the look at the number Double Take it a few times you know and have a few have a few reactions to it without Peter in the background you don't need Peter in the background yeah but he you don't need Peter AA anyway you don't need yeah but that's the thing he actually goes to the AA meeting to find Peter yeah yeah so it's like I thought you went to find him and now you're ignoring him and I don't understand why you're ignoring him yeah godamn it movie yeah absolutely yeah yeah and it's all to get the fact that this phone number and Company are bogus and so he's he then deduces that they're using the van with different company names and phone numbers and that's why no one sees the same van twice sort of thing but so to see going to the a meeting to find Peter and having Peter in that scene is meaningless yes meaningless make any sense isn't the isn't the van the FBI is yeah the van yeah the van is the FBI it's not it's not he doesn't even work out the van situation which irritates me because he does the book is it the F you say I did say at the beginning that I didn't remember much after the not long after that it's it's right around that that he gets followed in punch the guy and it's and it's the FBI oh that's right yeah yeah that's right so he doesn't even deduce that that's what doing and and to to piggy back onto that with the van problem I was flabbergasted when the movie gave away the the van gag at the very beginning so at the at the very beginning the basically what's happening with the bad guys they are going around abducting women off the streets and then murdering them and cutting them into pieces and leaving them leaving their body parts in places and what they're doing is they're always in a van but every time they go out they've repainted the van and put a new like business name on it all that all that all that that sort of stuff which is why the gag when he's talking to Kenny is meant to be like oh it could be the killers but it's the FBI and at no point disc Scutter ever realize that that's kind of what they were doing or I don't remember the movie making a clear point of himing them doing that because somebody says somebody is one of the witnesses is describing the van if I remember rightly yeah um they all say was a different van every time and you're like okay so he's got to work it out but the film is showing you the bad guys changing the van time like why are you doing that movie yeah those witness testimonies are voice over to the this to the visual image of them spro painting the van yes yeah and that does give away a trick very early on yes that really scoa should work out you're absolutely right about that he's a detective for God's sake he should be working this stuff out he should have a moment of I mean it would have been again this is off the top of your head but when he realizes that the van of the FBI is in uh has a fake name on it that be something that would then to a a fictional detective should have the moment of inspiration where he thinks well if the FBI can do it why can't The Killers do it maybe that's why the Vans are all different and if it been if it been sh and then we see them spray pain in the van if it been shot in that sequence scoter would have had a bit more agency yes and there would have been more mystery in the film but as it is this plays out like an episode of Columbo because we know everything straight away yes unfortunately yes it it's um um the other thing is like was there's a really cool bit in the book in which Scutter is trying to pinpoint the location of these killers and trying to like do and back this in the 90s so he's basically he he has to do it via the payones and he has to get some people who can get information from you know where where payones are and how they work and how to how to track and how to locate and how to all that kind of stuff and so he go the the book goes out of his way to do a really cool subplot with him trying to locate The Killers via VIA the pain via the payones that they've been using and again that was something to me that like you know all of those mystery bits the the under the disguised van the using the payones to locate the people like all of that stuff is just gone from this movie all the things that I found really interesting and fun in the book are not here because they're not which is why this is a thriller rather than a detective story yeah there's no Det well was very little detection in this I do I do quite like the bits where we see him putting the uh the shoe work you know the shoe leather working and we see him traing around New York City interviewing the witnesses yeah I like that but that only that only takes you so far you know you've got to have a moment where the fictional detective has a Eureka moment that's got to come it doesn't always have to be a Hercule Piro one of ah now I you know the fact that you know the door wasn't open at half 9 at night is vital or whatever it might be you know the dog that did nothing in the nighttime to to use a homes on it doesn't have to be one of those cuz Marlo doesn't often have those Spade doesn't have those but there's got to be something where the kill where the detective realizes what's going on in a detective story and if you take all that away then you're left with just a thriller yes yeah and these are detective stories these are crime novels uh with detection elements in because he's a pi yes so we're all the time we're losing strands and uh foundations from The Originals and moving further and further into just stock Hollywood territory that's that's that's my view of this yes whole analysis in this film so the producers of this film so that the two bad guys their names are Ray and Albert one of The Producers Stacy sh said that they are they were the most terrifying screen villains that she had read in a long time now the booked version of the villains are terrifying yeah and they the the in the documentary they kind of talk about how like oh you know they're the they're the killer Among Us you know they're the killer among us and this is where one of the other producers um mentions the to Tobin armur mentions that mentions that that A Walk Among the Tombstones is smart like silence and Lambs is Smarts and goes on to say that you know the way Scott shot it was you know getting into the Killer heads you know because we're looking at them checking their stocks we're watching them eat breakfast together we're watching them kill together and I'm like at no point in this film do I ever feel like I am remotely in their heads you are pausing the movie to show us scenes of them in the way that Manhunter pauses the movie to let us hang out with the with the killer in that yeah and I'm like your version of how the way you are portraying what you think this film is portraying is is nuts to me because this is a thing everything is like you have to be in the no to know what you're talking about yeah like none of that is conveyed on screen no none of it is and you compare I mean what how many years before this was Silence of the Lambs 22 years years so you know we' we've we've come a long way but gone backwards yeah in those 22 years because you for someone to say getting inside the killers heads in this is is madness because you're not you are not you see you are seeing them eat breakfast yeah but that's not taking me that's not telling me anything about them and it if you take the scenes that they're obviously uh patting The Backs their own backs about in terms of what you see from the Killer's point of view and you compare them to what you see from Buffalo Bill's point of view including the kidnapping of Katherine Martin including the famous or infam scene where he's got his legs together you know and the makeup scene and all that and even the scene where she's in that pit that's getting inside his head all that is getting inside his head and doing it extremely well that is a far cry from eating breakfast together oh God yeah there is absolutely no comparison these people are deluded if they think this film is anywhere near the Silence of the Lambs these fil these films are these people are deluded it's some interesting hot takes from from the producers of the movie I mean you know I get you want you're not going to trash your film I get that but I do think you know maybe maybe hold maybe hold off saying certain things until the movie is like out I think you can yeah they're not going to trust the movie no but they should praise the movie for what it does and that is give you a almost brainless action flick yes yeah don't try and make it into something it isn't like we were saying before nothing wrong with taken and the way taken was marketed and sold nothing wrong at all with that and this has got more in common with taken than it has with uh Silence of the Lambs in terms of what they're talking about oh absolutely you know but this isn't as good as taken because it's it's striving to be something better but is failing badly because it's not being dealt with properly that's yeah you know and that's taken too much away from Block in my view it takes too much away from block I've not read this particular book but I've read enough of blocks all work to know what a block adaptation should be or what I think it should be and isn't this you know it isn't this yeah I the other thing that really baffled me about the the the killers of this movie is there's there's a scene where I mean I I I literally found them both very very boring uh very dull everyone everyone in this movie is boring and dull Andor overacting um it just irritates me anyway the bad the bad guys there's this there's this moment in the movie where the bad guys are looking for their next prey and they pick the daughter of some Russian crime boss and the scene that plays out is it's such a bizarre scene that does not fit the tone of this movie so they're looking at this house they're thinking they're going to you know knock off one of the girls who lives and they think oh they've realized it's a nurse they're not going to do that while they're waiting or about to drive away they then see a young girl like like 12 13 14 something like that come walking out of the house with her dad and then everything happens in slow motion then this like this pop song starts to play yeah while while the two bad guys are are oogling her as if she's like the you know like in in a in a s of like lustful lustful way um and it it's a scene that feels like you would have seen in something like a David Fincher film like in like fight club or something but doesn't in any way shape or form fit the tone of this movie no at all like again it's a bit like maybe it's a bit like Manhunter again we like you know the the what's what's the bad what's the killer's name in Manhunter I can't remember to fairy tooth fairy it's a bit like when the Tooth Fairy is having these sort of weird visions of what he's seeing that aren't really there or you know like the gloess of something it's almost like the killers are having that kind of moment and that's why this comedic song is playing but it feels comedic I'm like these guys this shouldn't feel comedic because they're going to abduct that girl and potentially murder her yeah what are you doing movie like also it's a very uncomfortable scene though it's a very uncomfortable scene it it could be terrifying but it is shock like it reminded me of um you know the Friends episode where Denise Richard is always taking a hair down yes you and that music comes in it's like that oh my gosh yes it is exactly like it's exactly like that but it shouldn't be because you know the girls age for for one thing it should be you should think these people are sick you shouldn't be laughing at them you shouldn't be laughing at them and I and I I just want to talk very very quickly about and I I can't remember which one it is I think it's it's Rey it's Rey who is let's say the leader of David David Harbor play by David Harbor all those phone calls he makes so boring um that that are meant to imply that he has no conscience I think and are meant to imply that he's you know he said well he cut the price so we cut her and all that business it comes across as just leaden and really dull and ridiculous and they're not frightening these two they're not frightening they do frightening things but they are not frightening you know and they are not and I I wonder if that again go back to the Silence of the lands if those phone calls are meant to be like the ones that lecta has um where he's having an old friend for dinner and all that you know and he's phoning Clarice all the time if they are it fails it fails because there nothing like it and he I know what sort of character he is meant to be on what they're trying to achieve with his dialogue and his performance but it doesn't come off at all it comes off like an amateur Dramatics production and it and pant mine it yeah they're not scary they're not scary the the phone call between Ray and SCA uh where SC is not backing down and you know he's saying no no no no you don't get your money un unless we know they're alive and yeah what's the name of the dog and the dog before it and all that business that should be tense yes that should be your antagonist and your protagonist but in heads for essentially the first time and it should be setting up the fact that SC is going to take no no rubbish from these people and that they they need to be as frightened of him as they think he is of them and it doesn't do any of that no no you know and again to heartb to taken it's nowhere near powerful is the phone the famous phone calling taken oh my God absolutely you don't not chance and you can kind of almost see the producer's head thinking oh my God Liam niss does that phone call and taken we can kind of do that here as well like that's why he's perfect for this role he has to talk meanly to a pierc person over the phone yeah he's perfect for his world because he can talk on a phone yeah yeah but also I mean I don't know about you but like by the time we get to I mean in the book I'm loving all this stuff by the time we get to the Russian girl being kidnapped and I I want the movie to be over I'm like how is there another abduction how we got to go through all this again like just end like I don't care about the Russians in this in this I I don't care about them they're boring lifeless characters that just sort of are there to serve well they're all cliched as well AR they he's there in his sliders and socks and like gymwear cuz that's what Russian Russian mafia dress like you know and but but you've seen that in some 80s comedies so that's what people think they dressed like you know it's that sort of feel I didn't feel like that this stage but I did want the movie to be over in the cemetery I wanted that to be the end oh yes that too I didn't need to showdown in the house I didn't need I didn't need scoter B of all the people he could have possi phoned he phones TJ to go and get his his gun and stuff from his flat and then says give it Peter and stay where you are as if TJ's gonna do that nonsense yeah the the whole ending felt of that like oh we have this kid we got to get the kid into trouble which again there's elements of this that happen in the book and that's fine but because TJ's not a real character in this movie I'm just yeah everything is so exhausting and and it's it's it's a boring exhausting movie and a in my opinion a horrible horrible adaptation of what I think is one of the best Noir books ever written uh I I have such high praise for A Walk Among the Tombstones the book that I and it is it is it's almost it's it's like it's like if we never got Humphrey Bogart's the big sleep and the first Big Sleep adaptation we got was the Robert Mitchum adaptation set in London that just screws the book over and that's that's how I feel of this with this I'm like this has taken a terrific book and has taken it from behind and ruined it Robert Mitchum's Big Sleep is a low that really is a low Point um it is and I feel like this is I think this is a modern equivalent of that what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna go and buy the book and read the book and then you know do do a followup uh because I feel if I'd read the book I would feel as you do M and I've seen enough adaptations of crime novels I've loved and admired uh absolutely eviscerated by Hollywood Studios you know and not just not just crime novels I've seen a lot of a lot of adaptations of various of course various books that have been absolutely ripped pieces yeah uh by by Studios and scripts and filmmakers um and I guess that this would be one of them if I you know had read it certain I asked I asked a question of you and I'll I'll I'll answer it now of me this is this is not my this is not what Matt good looks like and acts like to me in the books I've read he's he's million miles apart from it um you know so far removed from the from the scoter that I knew uh in the books I'd read and and I read them quite a long quite a long time ago now I have to say I should revisit them really but Liam n is not him any more than Liam Nome is Philip Marlo this is not the the Scutter of my memory uh of my knowledge of the books and and it's a shame because of all he's one of those fictional detectives who deserves a good screen treatment yes I I I totally agree there's a lot to be said for Matt scoter there's a lot of intrigue in those books and a lot of characters of death I I it's a shame because I feel like I feel like when it comes to Lawrence block adaptations he's he's he's not really had the best of adaptations and one one film I'm very much looking forward to covering one day is one of one of blocks other famous characters is the uh Bernie Roden bar stories he's a he's a he's a he's a criminal uh book he he owns a bookstore but he also is like a he's a thief he's a you know kind of like a To Catch a Thief guy you know yeah great great great great books they they did an adaptation of Bernie uh in 1987 where Bernie was played by whoopy Goldberg our our good our good friend Ian Ranken suggested we watch this at some point so we will we will we will watch I do remember we will talk about this it is a shame in terms of being a fan of of these books that this is what happens to Walk Among the Tombstones I think on that note we should do the ratings we'll do the ratings okay we rate every film out of five Falcons one being the worst five being the best my my rating for A Walk Among the Tombstones I I'm giving it to two Falcons and that's being generous I I was I was expecting far worse I did I did wonder if we were going to get any Falcons at all from you on this particular film but I I'm being generous it's it I will I'll give it to I'll give it to because I'll give it I'll just be nice and give it to yeah well I'm I'm G to be slightly more generous um because I I didn't hate it as much as you but I I stress that that is because it's not a book I've I've read I stopped reading the sco novels before um um I got to this one uh which I will Rectify but I'm going to I'm going to give it a three but it certainly deserves no more than that there's no there's no possibility of this getting higher than that it held my interest more than a two and a half film did but only just at one point in the film I had to um there there's there's a there's a a function on my 4K player where I can fast forward it and it plays at like 1.5 speed so it speeds up but you can hear people everyone's still you know you hear all the talk you you everything it doesn't like and so I was I was by about an hour in I was like I got to get through this faster I'm I'm so bored and I I finished the last half at 1.5 speed because I yeah I didn't feel like that I have to say I didn't feel like that but yeah there there's a lot wrong with this film and clearly as an adaptation it fails would I watch it again not for a long time I don't think if ever I don't think I'll ever watch it again I think this is one of those movies and I'm not saying to be like hyperbolic I I mean like this is one of those films that is not important it's in my in my opinion it's not worth your time I I can't say we like to recommend movies I can't recommend this one well that wraps up our investigation thanks for listening we'll be back next week with another case in the meantime please like And subscribe and be sure to take care walking down those Mean Streets [Applause] [Music]