WHAT WENT WRONG?
When you’d read the book, or just heard they were making the movie, you were excited. You couldn’t wait to see this story brought to the silver screen. Then it was. And it was terribly disappointing. What went wrong?
Cormac McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses (2000) was a wonderful book, winning popular and critical acclaim. It was incredibly cinematic. But the film, with Matt Damon and Henry Thomas (of ET fame) just never gels. First time director Billy Bob Thornton’s tracks are painfully obvious- bad editing, uneven pace. It’s not that it is a bad movie- it just could have been so much better. 
On the other hand, there is Beloved (1998). Toni Morrison’s densely ethereal novel would be a stretch for anyone to put on the screen. And the film is a total mess. It singlehandedly sidetracked the career of Thandie Newton (who isn’t that bad), and proved that even Oprah Winfrey can be very wrong. Full of pseudo spiritualism and hocus pocus, it requires a leap of faith not worth making. 
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (1997) is a quirky but quite entertaining book about Savannah, murder, voodoo and the best stripping male impersonator ever. Clint Eastwood directed. Kevin Spacey is always good, as is John Cusak. But the movie doesn’t get it. Perhaps Eastwood tried to include too much of the book, but it is wandering and very disappointing. 
In Tom Wolfe’s wickedly funny book there are really no heroes. And that is just one of the problems in Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), one of the worst movies of the 90's. There is talent to burn (and it is burned in this movie). It was directed by Brian DePalma and featured Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Melanie Griffith. But the characters are turned to pasteboard and the story jumps the tracks and we are left not with satire but mean-spirited hatefulness. 
Chaplin (1992) wastes a sterling performance by Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and an incredible career story by never deciding what it wants to be about. Chaplin’s life is interesting, but his films are the thing, and the writers and director just don’t seem to get it. 
Some other near and far misses include Ali (2001), a strangely emotionless film about the heavyweight champ, and two Broadway musicals with all the stage magic drained out- A Chorus Line (1985) and Annie (1982) and (2014).
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups. 
I was asked recently why I stopped saying movies were available for streaming. That’s because I don’t know if they are or not, and there are so many streaming outlets I can’t keep up. For a while, I was blithely saying films were available for streaming just because the DVD was out. But one doesn’t necessarily follow the other.