Getting it right on screen is a bloody tricky business, whether you’re throwing heavy punches or pulling at the heartstrings. Audiences are sharp as a tack these days, quick to let creators know when things are looking a bit rough around the edges. Interestingly enough, we’re currently seeing two completely different reactions to adapting popular material and meeting those high expectations. On one hand, an action star took audience feedback on the chin to totally revamp his hit series. On the other, a highly anticipated cinematic romance has unfortunately proven that some stories stumble right out of the gate when trying to translate raw emotion to the big screen.
Taking a Beating from the Fans
Prime Video’s “Reacher” has been an absolute smash hit, mostly thanks to Alan Ritchson stepping into the massive shoes of Jack Reacher. Things haven’t always been completely peachy for the production, though. A fair few fans were kicking up a fuss about the action sequences in the show’s second season, and surprisingly, the leading man completely agreed with them. Chatting on “The Movie Podcast” back in 2025, Ritchson was pretty upfront about his own disappointment after sitting down to watch the finished product. He reckoned the fight choreography simply wasn’t up to scratch. The actor was genuinely gutted about how some of those brawls turned out, admitting they didn’t do a great job on the day, used the wrong gear, and suffered from some pretty dodgy editing.
Stepping Up the Stunts
Hearing a lead actor serve up that kind of blunt honesty is rare, but it’s exactly what audiences are looking for right now. Rather than just moaning about it, Ritchson actually did the hard yards to fix the problem for the show’s third outing. He dragged his creative team and the Amazon bigwigs into a meeting and flat-out told them they had to do better. Luckily, the studio was keen to listen to his feedback. They greenlit new filming tools to get the cameras right up close for a more intimate, gritty feel during the fights. By ditching the extra cameras rolling on set, they gave the editors heaps more options to cut the scenes properly, turning the brawls into a brutal kind of ballet between the lens and the actors. It definitely paid off, dropping viewers right into the thick of it and finding a proper visual language for the series. With Season 4 slated to hit our screens sometime in 2026, it’s clear his push for constant improvement has won the viewers over completely.
From Bruises to Broken Hearts
While Ritchson managed to sort out his show’s teething problems and deliver the goods visually, the team behind the latest big-screen tearjerker could have used a bit of that same critical eye. Adapting BookTok sensation Colleen Hoover for the cinema is becoming a massive industry in its own right, reminiscent of the days when Nicholas Sparks adaptations like “The Notebook” were everywhere. Her latest translation to film is “Reminders of Him”, but sadly, it falls incredibly flat where it should soar.
A Bleak Homecoming
The premise is heavy right from the jump. Kenna, played by Maika Monroe, is driving home from a boozy day at the lake with her partner Scotty, played by Rudy Pankow. Coldplay’s “Yellow” is blasting on the radio, with Chris Martin belting out that classic line about bleeding himself dry for love. It’s a cruel bit of irony, because the romance ends before anyone can actually make a sacrifice for the other. Kenna loses control of the car, flipping it and killing Scotty in the process, the Coldplay track distorting into silence with the violent impact. Consumed by guilt, Kenna reckons her life is over anyway and doesn’t even bother fighting for a lighter sentence in court, happily taking a seven-year stretch behind bars. She has no clue at the time that she’s actually pregnant. Fast forward to her release, and we get the classic setup of the ruined protagonist returning to her small hometown. She’s desperate to reconnect with the daughter she gave birth to inside, Diem, played by Zoe Kosovic. The catch is that Diem is being raised by Scotty’s parents, Patrick and Grace. They already had a pretty frosty relationship with Kenna before the crash and now view her purely as the woman who murdered their boy. Throw in Ledger, a charismatic local bar owner who happens to be Scotty’s old best mate and a father figure to Diem, and you’ve got a recipe for absolute heartbreak.
Missing the Emotional Mark
Following the massive, controversy-stirring success of “It Ends With Us” in 2024, and the recent release of “Regretting You” less than six months ago, you’d think the studios would have this formula completely sorted out. It’s brilliant to see unapologetic, emotional cinema getting a fair go in modern Hollywood again. Yet, “Reminders of Him” is a genuine letdown. Hoover’s writing style is famously straightforward and driven purely by feeling, which translated decently enough into the glossy drama of “It Ends With Us” or the messy but entertaining web of “Regretting You”. Here, however, that simple language translates terribly to the screen. The film relies heavily on Kenna’s internal monologues, framed as letters to her dead boyfriend, but they add absolutely nothing to the visuals. When she rocks up to a rundown, dingy apartment complex called “Paradise,” her voiceover literally points out the bleeding obvious: her new home is called Paradise, but it certainly isn’t one. It’s exactly this sort of clunky execution that stops the film from ever packing the emotional punch it desperately wants to deliver, proving that sometimes, simply sticking to the script isn’t enough to capture the magic.
