Apt Pupil (DVD)

Apt Pupil is another Stephen King story based movie but this one is quite good. It is a thrilling drama with a chilling edge throughout with a kind of weird and bleak ending to it all. Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) is a student at school who favourite subject is history, he is busy researching material about the Nazi Holocaust during the second world war, when he comes across a picture. The man in the picture is former concentration camp commander Kurt Dussander, but Todd recognises the man, infatc he seen him on the bus a couple of days ago. Todd finds out that with a new identity Dussander had escaped to the US after the war and was living under the name of Arthur Denker ...  Read the complete review

Imagine as a child that you lived next door to a curious-looking old man. Occasionally you would see him sweeping his porch or travelling home on the bus with his walking stick and a bag of shopping. Imagine the feeling of shock that you would feel when one day, whilst studying texts and pictures for your history project you realise that the old man bears more than a passing resemblance to a notorious Nazi war criminal. Fixated with the idea that there is more to the old man than meets the eye, you set about gathering evidence, in order to back up your suspicions. As time grows you realise conclusively that the old man you live next door to is wanted for war crimes, and ...  Read the complete review

Oddly, given that I have seen some pretty wretched movies over the last couple of years, this film has to have had the biggest walk-out rate of any movie I've been in since 'Naked Lunch'. I mean, by the time the film was over, half the audience was gone. I suppose part of the problem (for the audience) is that 'Apt Pupil' doesn't have an easy audience identification figure. The only really decent character in the movie is the teacher played by David Schwimmer, who is alarmingly ineffectual. Todd, the kid, at the centre isn't hateable at first, just a bit offbeat, dangerously curious about the old man on the bus, the old man who turns ...  Read the complete review

Now that he has shown a disappointing willingness compromise by directing an admittedly entertaining but wholly empty-headed blockbuster ('X-Men'), Bryan Singer can at least put the box office flop that was 'Apt Pupil' out his mind. But the comic strip success of last summer certainly doesn't fit with the three films he made previously - the dark and delirious 'Public Access', the bold, playful 'Usual Suspects' and this, a bleak little parable about the seductiveness of evil, drawn from one of the four stories in Stephen King's 'Different Seasons'. The story is actually quite simple, as teenager Todd (Brad Renfro) ...  Read the complete review

Stephen King's collection of four short tales Different Seasons is very impressive, as it has spawned The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me and now Apt Pupil, which is a delicate little movie that deals with a heavy subject - Nazis. A boy discovers the old man next door is a Nazi war criminal in hiding, and promises not to turn him in if the old man (played wonderfully by Ian McKellen) reveals all of the gorey details of the holocaust. Apt Pupil is fascinating viewing as brilliantly directed by the gifted Bryan Singer. David Schwimmer even has a role as a cameo. A perfect night's viewing on video. ...  Read the complete review