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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 47942
Released: October 14, 2003 |
| Our Price: $36.99 |
| Used Price: $24.94 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In THAT WAS THEN…THIS IS NOW, Emilio Estevez stars as Mark Jennings, a delinquent teenager who becomes overly jealous when his brother-like figure and best friend, Byron (Sheffer), gets a girlfriend (Delaney) and tries to abandon his old, bad boy ways. Already feeling alienated after being orphaned when his father killed his mother during a violently heated argument, Mark becomes jealous of Brian’s new relationship and gets himself involved with drugs as a result. When Mark and Brian’s mentor, Charlie Woods (Freeman), is killed, and when Byron’s girlfriend’s little brother is reported missing with Mark seeming to have more clues to his whereabouts than anyone else, their world changes even more as the boys’ friendship is put to the ultimate test.
That Was Then... This Is Now Reviews:
Excellent Hard to Find Film 
2009-09-14 - I bought this DVD a few weeks back for an inflated price so I could see and own one of my favorite movies from when I was growing up. The movie is excellent and I had not seen it in 15+ yrs so i could not remember much about it when I seen it. I did realize a couple of things about the film vs book when I watched it though. WARNING Potential Spoilers
The ending had an exceptionally strong "War on Drugs in the 80's" ending, as Bryon exiled his lifelong friend over one incident with drugs. Rather than trying to reach out to him, he wrote him off like he never existed and had his butt thrown in jail. WTF? Like anyone would do that to someone they cared so much about. Also, finally, for the people who complained that Ponyboy Curtis did not make an appearance in the That Was Then, This Is Now movie like he did with the book need to open thier eyes. He is the blond haired kid at the dance hanging out with Mark. Although he has no lines, he is plain as day in the scene at the dance inside the school and out in the parking lot before, during, and after the fight Angela Shepards friend. He is wearing the bright yellow jacket...you cannot miss him.
Anyhow, this is an excellent film and any fan of SE Hinton, the Outsiders, or 1980's movies should appeciate it, if you can find a copy you are willing to pay the price for.
Don't expect the book. A decent coming-of-age film. 
2009-08-27 - This film was inspired and is partly based on the S.E. Hinton novel of the same title. However, a modicum of research will tell you that Emilio Estevez wrote the screenplay, not Hinton. Ergo, do NOT expect it to be exactly like the book. Film is one medium, literature is another. To compare them is odious and unfair to both.
Estevez and Sheffer both do a decent job in this emotional story of two young men who go from inseparable to at odds with one another as they begin to drift apart. Estevez wants everything to stay the same: hanging out, slacking off and committing petty crime. The bad boy image and ways will take them nowhere good, and the film's tension comes from Brian (Sheffer)learning this with help from his new girlfriend (Kim Delaney) and trying to leave it behind while Mark fights the idea only to end up a drug-damaged reprobate with a dismal future.
the movie
2009-04-10 - I love this movie, I bought this movie on vhs yrs ago(not on the net tho).I also own the book, which I've read more than 1k times. I would love to own this movie on dvd, which I'm finding is very difficult to find, on the net, as all I'm seeing is its not available anywhere. To my great disappointment.
Emilio Estevez
2008-04-01 - Emilio Estevez is one of my favorite actors and he did a great job in that was then this is now!
Terrible, Just Terrible 
2008-03-06 - I purchased this DVD to show to my ninth grade students who just finished reading the book, which they loved. Not only did I think the movie was a terrible adaptation of the book, so did my students. The movie doesn't follow the plot of the book, the acting is pretty bad, the soundtrack is even worse, and the language is reprehensible - completely unacceptable for a school setting. This type of language wasn't even used in the novel. Why add it to the movie?
Save your money. Don't buy this.
