John-Evan “Retroguy” Bear

I love the novella of Apt. Pupil. It is a about a teen named Todd Bowden who finds out that a former Nazi war criminal lives in his neighborhood. He black mails the Nazi by telling him he would turn him to the authorities if he doesn't tell him about the stories. Todd eventually becomes more corrupt as his friendship with the Nazi grows. It is a very compelling character study about how evil can corrupt the most outstanding citizen. I was looking forward to seeing how Bryan Singer adapted this story to the big screen. (Before continuing reading the review, I might go into SPOILERS for the book and the film, so read at your own risk). After watching the movie, I have to say I was very disappointed with it. The movie didn't push the envelope far enough, What we get is a watered down version of the story. It seemed that Bryan Singer was scared to adapt the novella faithfully, for example Todd starts killing hobos at train yards to relieve the nightmares he has. In the movie he doesn't do anything like that, he is forced instead to kill a bum in the Nazi's basement (which I don't remember if the kid carried out the deed, which tells you how memorable this movie is). Another thing I don't like about the movie is the ending is changed. Instead of Todd committing a mass murder by shooting at a freeway and eventually getting killed by the police, we get him black mailing his principal by telling him that he will tell everybody that the principal sexually molested Todd, which the principal didn't (By the way, there are a few uncomfortable shots of Todd in the shower which is made even worse since the allegations made about Singer recently). Another sin that this movie commits is that it is boring. On a positive side, there are some good performances from Ian McKellen, Brad Renfrew, and David Schwimmer surprisingly since he is playing the Principal very straight. Overall I can't really recommend this movie to anyone, not even die hard Stephen King fans. This movie had so much potential to be provocative and compelling and Bryan Singer could've done something with it, instead he decided to play it safe which ultimately gave us a boring movie. Stay away from this movie and read the novella instead.