This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

A different way of telling a story

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Mark Jennings (Emilio Estevez) and Bryon Douglas (Craig Sheffer) are best friends and juvenile delinquents. Bryon falls for the new girl in school who turns out to be an old acquaintance, Cathy Carlson (Kim Delaney). His ex Angela Shepard is jealous. He starts to be more responsible which concerns Mark. Mark and Bryon hustle at pool, and get their bar owner friend Charlie Woods (Morgan Freeman) killed. Mark cuts off drunken Angela's hair. Her thuggish brothers come looking for revenge on Bryon's face. Cathy's little brother M&M is hospitalized on drugs from Mark. The friendship cracks under the pressure.I used to read S.E. Hinton religiously once upon a time. It has a melodramatic teen coming-of-age mentality. They work on the page. They have the 50's 'Rebel Without a Cause' sensibility. The modern world can clash with that sensibility. It can seem overwrought and out of place. This one fails that test from time to time. It probably should have stayed in the earlier time period rather than trying to bring it into the modern world. Estevez is a solid delinquent. This is a valiant but flawed effort.

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 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 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.