Movie Reviews – “Odd Thomas” and “About Time”

Odd Thomas

I’m a huge Dean Koontz fan so imagine my delight when I saw that they’d made a movie based on the book Odd Thomas (also one of my favorite Koontz characters). Except for Anton Yeltchin and Willem DaFoe, I was unfamiliar with the other cast members and was a little worried I was going to hate it. Let’s be honest, we’ve all gone to see movies based on favorite books and have left the theater pissed as hell, right?

I’m happy to say that not only was the movie true to the book and the story but the casting was perfect. Yeltchin played a very believable and disarming Odd and Addison Timlin was fantastic as Odd’s true love, Stormy Llewellyn. The adapted screenplay was written by the director Stephen Sommers and I’m hoping there are plans for more Odd movies in the future.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Odd Thomas books – the story is about a humble 19 year old fry cook who lives in the tiny California town of Pico Mundo. He has two talents: he is an awesome fry cook and he communes with the dead. He can also see evil forebodings of death and destruction. He is a sort of unwilling psychic detective who reports his findings to the local police chief and together they work to stop crime and evil interlopers. In this movie Odd discovers that there will be a massive blood bath somewhere in town in 24 hours, that will leave hundreds of Pico Mundo-ians dead if he doesn’t figure it out and find a way to stop it.

In short, it’s a winner. Rent it, buy it, watch it on Amazon – but definitely see it.  ♥♥♥♥

About Time

At the age of 21 Tim discovers the men in his family can time travel – but only to the past and only in the past of their own lives. Naturally when his dad breaks the news to him, he doesn’t believe it. However, to humor dad and himself he tries it and by God, it’s true. Tim then decides that he will use his secret super power to find love. That is how he will make the world a better place.

The movie is produced by the same folks who produced Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love, Actually – so it has the same quirky, adorableness about it as the previous films have. It’s a simple story about a somewhat awkward young man who through trial and error (and a little correctional time travel) learns that indeed love does make the world a better place. He finds true love with a lot of bumps along the way, but it’s not perfect, it’s silly, and inconvenient, confusing and sometimes disappointing. But wonderful nonetheless.

This a sweet, feel-good movie that makes you a fan of the simple things in life.

Highly recommend.  ♥♥♥♥