source: That Was Then... This Is Now

It's a very Hinton-esquire story. Emilio's character has a crappy family life, and spends most of his time with Sheffer and his single mom, who treats Emilio like her own son. They steal cars and get in fights, but Sheffer is clearly the more well-behaved of the two. Morgan Freeman plays the owner of a local bar that the boys frequent, and does a fine job. SPOILER: he gets killed. END SPOILER. The story revolves around the two main characters friendship and the tough S.E. Hinton trademarked teenage obstacles they encounter. This is a very entertaining movie and I have to recommend it. Nothing fantastic as far as sophisticated filminess goes, but if you're a child of the 80s you will definitely enjoy it; there's lots of 80s high school/adolescent nostalgia to be found throughout this film. There are 80s punks with spiked hair who are so hardcore that they hang out at the prom but don't go inside. Kim Delaney is in it too, and she is (was?), of course, Hott. Of note: Delaney's younger brother, who is kinda screwed up in the head, is named "M&M". Could this (the novel or the film) be where Eminem got the idea for his name?

Yikes. This movie was not very good. The book was okay, not great. I still managed to slightly enjoy both. But really, the movie was pretty bad. The acting was pretty bad, except for Emilio Estivez who actually was enduring and cute. And of course, Morgan Freeman was awesome as he always is but his part wasn't major in this movie. The main character, Bryon, was sometimes enjoyable to watch and sometimes hard to watch. He's cute so that helps, but his acting wasn't great and it ruined some of the scenes. Cathy was cute too but her acting was pretty bad. Particularly, when she was driving the car when M&M was hallucinating. It was horrible. She had no emotion just like when she was in the hospital waiting room with her dad. She's not a good actress. And even Angela wasn't a great actress. The book was okay - somewhat enjoyable and besides the ending, the movie was true to the book. But there was so much more going on in the book, so much more detail (as is usually the case). The movie did a horrible job replicating that. I feel sorry for SE Hinton that her story was so poorly portrayed. Yikes.

That was then, this was now was, to my opinion, a pretty good movie, with plenty of action to keep you interested. The characters however, look different from what I imagined in the book. Still, Mark and Bryon made things interesting both in the book and the movie. A lot of the other characters, such as Cathy, M&M, Charlie, Angela, and the shepherd brothers also made the movie and the book interesting, especially near the end.

"That Was Then...This Is Now" followed the book relatively closely up until the last scenes. I thought the acting could have been better, and I think it would have been a better movie if they had left it in the time period the book was in. Despite this, I thought it was pretty good, and I liked it until the last few scenes. The book was so powerful and real in the last chapters- and the movie took all of this out. I thought it would have been a good ending- for a whole different movie, for "That Was Then...", it was wrong, and in my opinion ruined the movie.

I always loved S.E. Hinton's novels as a kid: The Outsiders, Rumble Fish (which in my opinion, is the greatest film adaptation in the series despite everyone's fascination with The Outsiders), Tex, and That Was Then This is Now. 'That Was Then, This is Now' was the last film adaptation (although the TV series for 'The Outsiders' follows five years later after the release of this movie). I would've attribute the mediocrity of the movie, or at least the inability to really put forth all that the novel did, was because it was not directed by Francis Ford Coppola (who directs 'The Outsiders,' and does a fabulous job with 'Rumble Fish'), except 'Tex,' which was a pretty good movie, was likewise not directed by Coppola. I think it is in part the chemistry among the characters. The whole mood looks like something out of a music video, with Craig Scheffer coming off more like a guy who broke off a long relationship with a girlfriend rather than dealing with a rambunctious brother (in addition to other things). Plus, as another viewer already mentioned, they shifted the focus on characters so that superstar Emilio Esteves becomes the center of attention. Most of S.E. Hinton's novel always portrayed a struggle from the brother who is looking out at things that, by his perception, have become (or always were) seriously out of control. (See 'Tex' and 'Rumble Fish'). And yes, they unfortunately acquiesced to the Hollywood happy ending, and in the sappiest way, despite all of the problems that the characters endure. Unlike previous adaptations of Hinton's novels, even those not directed by Coppola, they really fail to portray the struggles that the characters realize in the book. And, lack of developing the story on this point really makes you only half appreciate the characters and their conflicts (and in this case, not even their resolution).

That Was Then... This Is Now is one of the best early performances of Emilo Estvez as a writer and actor. Estevz brings Mark to life they way S.E.Hinton intened by being brutal and cut throat in his performace. All of the actors in the film give equally good performacnes in particular Morgan Freemen and Craig Sheffer. A underlooked gem.

Emilio penned the script and stars as the dangerous and wild Mark. A very young Craig Sheffer plays his best friend Bryan. The two have lived together since they were 9 and are practically brothers. They enjoy getting into brawls, stealing cars, and hanging out at the local bar. But when Bryan falls in love, Mark feels betrayed and lonely. Mark and Bryan's friendship slowly starts to deteriorate. The film is very realistic and the performances are really good. Morgan Freeman is excellent as their bar owning older pal. The scene in which Emilio explains his parents demise is truly memorable and powerful. The description they gives is kinda wrong. Mark doesn't get into drugs, he just sells them. And we don't know this till the end of the film anyway. Sheffer and Emilio are both very good and fun to watch. This is a very underrated and unknown film. It's pretty close to Rumble Fish and The outsiders (both also S.E. Hinton novels). A solid rental.

This movie was really bad. If it would've been directed by Francis Coppola, it might've been better but, this movie was really bad. It didn't even end like the book did. Emilio did a good job acting but, it doesn't make up for the many other mistakes made. They made Emilio the center of the story when, the bond between Mark and Bryon was supposed to be the center. This movie really should've had S.E. Hinton involved and Francis Coppola should've directed. I loved the book, but this movie really depressed me at how much better it could've been. The casting was decent but again, couldn't save the movie. The ending is what really made it bad. If it would've ended like the book, it could've been a little better but not by much. See the movie for yourself. You might come to different conclusion than I did.

Childhood friendship ends when one of the boys discovers girls and leaves his wingman behind. Jilted friend resorts to cockblocking. Bad writing and bad acting served up in equal doses. Awful soundtrack. Unlikeable characters across the board. Terrible cinematography. Someone owes it to the author of "The Outsiders" to remake her book into a better movie.