Jonathan Melville: Jump from TV to cinema can be leap of faith

Published on Wednesday 28 July 2010 12:30

Evening News film critic Jonathan Melville finds that what works on the small screen doesn't necessarily work on the big screen

This week's release of a movie version of cult TV show The A-Team, 24 years after the final episode aired, is proof that nothing is sacred in Hollywood.

The crack commando unit, who wowed audiences on the small screen back in the early 1980s has aged well: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley and Rampage Jackson have now taken on the mantle of John "Hannibal" Smith, Faceman, Howlin' Mad Murdock and BA Baracus.

As a new generation of fans experiences the antics of America's most wanted, we take a look at some of the other TV-to-film adaptations which have graced our multiplexes over the years.

THE SUCCESSES

Mission Impossible (1996 - ?): With each episode beginning with the immortal lines, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it," and "this message will self-destruct in five seconds", 1960s spy series Mission Impossible always seemed a natural for transfer to the silver screen. Tom Cruise took on the role of Ethan Hunt (a character not in the series) in Brian De Palma's 1996 thriller. Cruise returned for two further sequels with new teams surrounding him, each one more CGI-laden than the last, but each also deserving of praise for sheer entertainment value. M:I 4 is now in development.

Maverick (1994): Mel Gibson's Hollywood star may not currently be in the ascendant thanks to his off-screen antics, but back in the mid-90s he could do no wrong. Maverick originated in the 1950s as a star vehicle for future Great Escape actor James Garner and revolved around the weekly adventures of gambler Brett Maverick in the Old West. Gibson and Garner teamed up with Jodie Foster for a light-hearted romp.

Starsky and Hutch (2004): Unlike Maverick, in which humour had been a key element of the original show, the decision to turn US cop show Starsky and Hutch into an out-and-out comedy split fans. Whatever your stance, the film just about worked, Ben Stiller replacing Paul Michael Glaser as David Starsky and Owen Wilson taking over from David Soul as Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson as the two undercover cops. Thanks to likeable performances from the pair, a script which had its share of belly laughs and a decision to gently mock the cheesier elements of the series rather than deride them, this was far more successful than that other Wilson-starring TV remake, I,Spy in 2002.

THE FAILURES

Sex and the City (2008/2010): With an in-built audience Sex and the City was always going to be a likely proposition for a large budget movie makeover. Throw in the opportunity for plenty of product placement deals and all you need is a little thing called a script to hold it all together. With the old mantra of style over substance in their minds, the producers of 2008's Sex and the City went all out to make the fans happy, and it seemed to work. Sadly, 2010's sequel was a hollow, shallow caricature of the original.

The Avengers (1998): It seemed like a no-brainer: team up one of England's finest young actors with one of America's hottest actresses and pit them against the force of nature that is Sir Sean Connery in an adaptation of one of the finest British TV series ever made. What could possibly go wrong? The Avengers is what. With Ralph Fiennes as John Steed and Uma Thurman as Emma Peel working to a script which attempted to distil everything about the original programme that made it so unique, the makers instead ended up with a Frankenstein's monster of a movie with a bloated budget and an OTT Connery.

The Dukes of Hazzard (2005): The merits of the 1980s TV series may be debatable in themselves, with the adventures of Beau and Luke Duke, their shorts-wearing cousin, Daisy, Uncle Jessie and incompetent local police Boss Hogg and Roscoe P Coltrane never exactly Bafta-winning material. But, compared to the tragic attempt to move the series across to cinemas, the original is Oscar-worthy. Removing anything resembling the good humour and down-home charm of the Warner Bros programme, the film instead became an insipid mess, full of double entendres and smut which would never have graced the original. The only success here was the car, the General Lee, which still looked and moved as good as in the old days.

What does this tell us about TV to movie adaptations? Simply that if you stick to whatever it was that made the original a success you'll almost certainly do as well, if not better, than your small screen brethren.

Jonathan Melville is film critic for the Edinburgh Evening News, writing each Friday in The Guide about all aspects of cinema. He's also the editor of Scottish film website www.reelscotland.com which covers the best in film and cinema in Edinburgh and around Scotland.