It's been so long since I watched a made-for-TV movie that I can't even remember what the last one was. But I decided to watch Stone Cold because I like Tom Selleck, and I liked the book. And what do you know? I wasn't disappointed.
First of all, someone got smart and used John Huston's old Maltese Falcon trick: they actually shot Stone Cold pretty much as Robert B. Parker wrote it. His dialogue works great on the page, and it works just as well on the screen. And Selleck delivered it well, too. In fact, the whole cast is good.
More good news: they didn't try to lighten it up. The Jesse Stone books have a darker edge than the Spenser novels, and they kept the mood appropriately dark.
Maybe it's not surprising when a TV movie gets so many things right. Maybe I should watch more of them. I know for sure I'll watch another Jesse Stone movie if they make one.
6 comments:
Damn, Crider. Are you sure we weren't separated at birth? I had exactly the same response to STONE COLD. Well done.
Then it must have been triplets separated at birth because I thought it was outstanding. Selleck was perfectly cast in this and the mood that was set by the location was perfect. I want more movies with these characters.
A quick trip to IMDB will tel you that it was filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
-- Art Scott
Here's something scary, Bill. I think I remember the last TV movie you watched. It was a little TNT jewel called The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. As I recall, you enjoyed it.
That IS scary, Vince. And what's equally scary is that you're right.
I finally watched Stone Cold and I agree with all the positive comments. But I found the brief previews at the beginning and end of every commercial break to be pretty annoying. Is our collective attention span so short that a newtwork is afraid we will tune out after watching for 90 minutes? I noticed this on many mini-series and network movies over the past few years.
Mark Justice
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