Possible spoilers
I'd give this film 7/10 although I can fully understand why below it has been labelled as the worst adaptation ever. The story is so magnificent that it should get 10/10 regardless of how many remakes there are. What I know about film production you could write on the back of a postage stamp, but even I could make a pretty impressive attempt of putting Ten Little Indians to film.
So, that it only scores 7/10 is more of a criticism than you would first think. It's not all bad, I didn't mind Stallone as Lombard as much as others, Pleasance is terrific at the end, the use of the lions was well thought out & the character Vera is again well converted. Most of my criticisms have been mentioned here already.
Both this version (1989) and the 1945 version were roughly the same length ie 100 near minutes yet bizarrely & I'm not sure exactly how, the superb 1945 version seems to fit twice as much into it, and a lot more from the novel. Almost every character is fully developed there, whereas in this version, I didn't find one single character who we got to know & understand to the level we should have done. Some of there reasons for being there were tedious.
Main problems were right from the start, all the extras, African tribesman & naked women lost the isolation factor. The good thing about the book & 1945 version was the quietness & lack of life in the surroundings. Nor could I understand the exact reasoning behind the lift being cut. The surrounding was impressive but even allowing for the lions you would still have expected at least one person to have done a runner from the area. I wasn't sure why a couple of characters had their names altered, why the doctor was foreign nor did the Doctor seem to build up a good enough relationship with the judge to forge the plan.
Not enough attention was paid to the rhyme, Noel Cowards' song seemed out of place, and the Marion Marshall character had no substance whatsoever. The Rogers relationship seemed unconvincing & most of all, while not every murder warranted a flashback to see how it was committed, the Elmo Rogers death was crying out for one. He claimed to be off to the hill to keep watch & a frail old judge axes a 20 stone man. How? Was he asleep? Well then show us.
The whole film just seemed very cheap & looked like a draft version, but with a story as good as this, it will always carry it.
A low 7/10
I'd give this film 7/10 although I can fully understand why below it has been labelled as the worst adaptation ever. The story is so magnificent that it should get 10/10 regardless of how many remakes there are. What I know about film production you could write on the back of a postage stamp, but even I could make a pretty impressive attempt of putting Ten Little Indians to film.
So, that it only scores 7/10 is more of a criticism than you would first think. It's not all bad, I didn't mind Stallone as Lombard as much as others, Pleasance is terrific at the end, the use of the lions was well thought out & the character Vera is again well converted. Most of my criticisms have been mentioned here already.
Both this version (1989) and the 1945 version were roughly the same length ie 100 near minutes yet bizarrely & I'm not sure exactly how, the superb 1945 version seems to fit twice as much into it, and a lot more from the novel. Almost every character is fully developed there, whereas in this version, I didn't find one single character who we got to know & understand to the level we should have done. Some of there reasons for being there were tedious.
Main problems were right from the start, all the extras, African tribesman & naked women lost the isolation factor. The good thing about the book & 1945 version was the quietness & lack of life in the surroundings. Nor could I understand the exact reasoning behind the lift being cut. The surrounding was impressive but even allowing for the lions you would still have expected at least one person to have done a runner from the area. I wasn't sure why a couple of characters had their names altered, why the doctor was foreign nor did the Doctor seem to build up a good enough relationship with the judge to forge the plan.
Not enough attention was paid to the rhyme, Noel Cowards' song seemed out of place, and the Marion Marshall character had no substance whatsoever. The Rogers relationship seemed unconvincing & most of all, while not every murder warranted a flashback to see how it was committed, the Elmo Rogers death was crying out for one. He claimed to be off to the hill to keep watch & a frail old judge axes a 20 stone man. How? Was he asleep? Well then show us.
The whole film just seemed very cheap & looked like a draft version, but with a story as good as this, it will always carry it.
A low 7/10