Tag Archives: movies

August 22, 2014 · 9:46 AM

Short Update, Long Rant

I’ve got a good chunk of signatures going for all who are wondering.  I have not yet put them up in any type of display which is why I don’t have pictures.  But obviously this kind of thing is in the “more the merrier” type category.  Meaning write in!  Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Click here.  Do know what I’m talking about?  You can still write in to WriteRightWithBex@gmail.com.  I’m working on figuring out a way to incorporate an electronic signing system.  I think many people are wary of giving out their addresses despite my incredibly reassuring disclaimer.  Remember, I’m a twenty-something blogger who is interested only in signed business cards.  I’m not going to sell your information, and you’re not going to start getting daily newsletters in the mail from me about the newest sales at Macy’s.

Now that that’s out of the way, we are going to have a little (read: super long) post for those who have missed Ranty Bex.

So the story goes like this.  My fiance and I went to the movies to see the newest Woody Allen flick for lack of anything better to see.  It was alright…not that great.  As we walked out of the movie theater, I caught a glimpse of a poster.  I have Googled it for you (Incognito window…don’t want Google thinking I’m actually interested in this thing).  Here is a picture:

HNNGNGNG

Yup.  That’s what I saw.  And honestly it took me a second to figure out what it was, but something in my brain was desperately shying away from it even as I came to the inevitable, terrifying conclusion.

They made 50 Shades of Grey into a movie.

They actually did it.

Now…some may think they know why I have a problem with this, but I think some are only partly right.

I have written about this before, but I will reiterate: You can read and enjoy trashy novels.  I have.  I still do occasionally.  They’re fun.  This is not what bothers me.  See what bothers me is that 50 Shades was never a novel.  It. Was. A. FANFICTION!!!  For whatever reason, either because E. L. James found a spectacularly good lawyer or because Stephenie Meyer isn’t particularly litigious, a Twilight FanFiction got published and started making money.

THIS IS ILLEGAL!!

The only reason people get away with writing their own stories using other people’s characters, settings, worlds, etc. is that they do not make money from it.  Because when you do make money from it, that means you are making money from plagiarizing!  From stealing!  E. L. James is a thief and everyone is letting her get away with it.  Which brings me to point #2…

This was not a secret!!  Everybody knows this started as a Fan Fiction (No I don’t know why I’m capitalizing it.  Just looks better this way).  Even people who know nothing about this book know that it was a Fan Fic.  Seriously.  Despite E. L. James desperately sweeping the internet, trying to take it down.  Which screams guilt right there.  She or someone who works for her knows exactly what she did.  What she got away with.  With enough Googling you can still find the old story.  I’ve read some of it.  I have seen the exact same words that I first saw on the pages of 50 Shades on some website somewhere.  Only there was one difference.  The names Christian and Anastasia had mysteriously disappeared.  Now there was nothing but “Edward” and “Bella.”  Whoever they are.

Okay, so if you’ve read this far, you get my point.  But there is one more tiny thing I want to bring up.

It's-Porn

Yeah.  There’s no going around that.  This book started as a Fan Fiction written by a woman who wanted to see Edward and Bella get kinky.  And that’s exactly what happened.  Granted it’s a very poor representation of how BDSM actually works.  Can’t say that enough.  But it’s still just pages and pages of build up to, and then the enactment of, sex and kink.  It is a pornographic novel.  It was written to be pornographic.  And it should, as such, be rated NC-17 at the very least.  BUT!!

But….

IT’S COMING OUT ON VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!

They want people to take dates to see this movie!!

“Hey, honey, remember that book I couldn’t stop masturbating to?”

“Yeah…You called me Christian in bed for like a week…”

“Yeah!  They made a movie out of it!  Let’s go see it on Valentine’s Day!”

“……”

Seriously!!  Look at the poster!  This is what they want!

TL;DR:

50 Shades of Grey is a Fan Fiction that got published (illegal) and it’s now being made into a movie (even more illegal) which is (presumably) not a porno (not true to source material) and they want people to see it on Valentine’s Day!

So yeah…I’m royally pissed.  I’m trying to get my original work published, but I can’t.  Because we need to leave room on the shelf for 50 Shades of Grey.

Which leads me back to: Please join the Support Hellbound Initiative!  It is not the most original book in the world but I am 100% confident it is better than 50 Shades of Grey.

The End!

2 Comments

Filed under Animation, books, Humor, Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 8, 2013 · 9:37 AM

The Host

I wrote a little while back about how I was conflicted about seeing the movie The Host, based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer.  The reason I was conflicted is because I actually liked reading The Host, but I don’t particularly want to support Stephenie Meyer.

I ended up seeing the movie anyway.

It was not as bad as you might think.  It followed the book really, really closely, which amazed me.  Especially since one of the previews before the movie was for the sequel to Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.  Did anyone else see that movie?  I mean, it sucked by anyone’s standards, but it was even worse if you read and enjoyed the books.  That movie was nothing like the books.  It was a rip-off of the books written by someone who had read the back cover.  Or maybe just the title.  Who asked for a sequel to that incredibly bad movie?

Anyway.

The Host was a good book.  It had strong, female characters, it had a pretty interesting plot that was only marginally stolen from Animorphs.  It had two love interests, one for the female protagonist, and another for the alien inhabiting the female protagonist.  I found this to be pretty cool, and really well done.

The biggest problem I found I had with the movie was that the girl who plays Melanie (female protagonist who gets inhabited by peaceful, mind-controlling, probably communist alien) was only good at playing one half of her dual personality.  See, in the story, Melanie is this strong woman who refuses to give her mind over to the little alien slug in her brain.  As a result, the alien and Melanie end up sharing a brain and a body.  Melanie is not in control of her actions, but she’s still there in her head, yelling at the alien.  The alien, meanwhile, is more soft spoken and gentle.  So while the actress – Saoirse Ronan – was really good at playing the gentle alien bit, her portrayal of Melanie was unconvincing.  She didn’t sound strong or confident at all, and all her lines as Melanie felt forced.

A lot of lines were delivered poorly by the younger actors, in my opinion.  The older, more experienced actors were fine.  And, randomly, so was the kid who played Jamie – Melanie’s younger brother.  He was pretty decent.

Would I recommend seeing The Host in theaters?  No.  It only made 11 million dollars at the box office on its opening weekend for a reason.  It just wasn’t executed very well, despite staying true to the book.  Would I recommend seeing it at all?  Sure.  If you read and liked the book, you’d probably get a kick out of this movie.  It just doesn’t seem extremely necessary to go see it in theaters like I did.

That was a lot of words with very few pictures.  Have a hula hooping Mini Bex:

Hula-Hooping

And a comic:

Writer's-Block-Strip-22

And a Word of the Day:

Word of the Day: Bastion (n) –  1. A fortified place.  2. Anything seen as preserving or protection some quality or condition.

2 Comments

Filed under books, Comic, Humor, writing

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 13, 2012 · 2:26 AM

This is my brain on movies

Sometimes I wonder about my own brain and why I’m creative and why I want to write.

I just finished watching a movie you may have heard of called Stranger than Fiction.  I like it a lot because it’s about writing and the creative process.  It also happens to be the only one of Will Ferrell’s movies that I can actually stand.  I like him in this movie because he proves he can act, and not just as some ridiculous caricature of a person, but as a realistic, believable human being.

There are some movies out there that just set the creative part of my brain to whirring the moment they begin.  Stranger than Fiction is one of them.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because, as I said, it’s actually about writing.  But I really think that it’s just that type of movie.  It’s supposed to be thought-provoking, which for me means that I end up wanting to write really badly.  Unfortunately, it’s 1:52 AM right now, so writing is not something I can really do, at least not well, because sometime after 1:00 AM, my brain does this:

Despite that fact, my brain also feels the desperate need to write, and it’s very hard to convince it that maybe writing isn’t the best idea when it gets like this.  I’ve already forgotten what I was saying….OH right, okay, so what do I do when I want to write but my brain has shut down?  That’s right, I turn to blogging.  At least here I can be a little more informal, but I can also be writing and stuff, so maybe that’ll satisfy my creative urges.  (No I don’t know why I capitalized “bunny,” but maybe if you look at the picture of what my brain is doing right now, you’ll be able to forgive me for that small slip-up)

Here’s another thing about Stranger than Fiction: It’s all about an author whose main character is alive, and that character seeks out the author and they have a nice chat.  Now, not all authors want to meet their characters, (I’m sure Stephen King sleeps better at night knowing that his creations are going to stay firmly embedded in the paper) but I think I would love to see some of mine come to life.  It’s something I’ve often thought about.  What would I say to them?  What would they want to ask me?  How would we get along?  One of the requirements would be that they understand that they are fictional and that I am the author and that’s just how things go.  Otherwise there could be thoughts of rebellion, and I’m pretty sure most of my main characters could kill me quite easily.  There’s also the fact that I’ve killed some of their loved ones, so they might feel a little sore about that.  And then there’s Serrafiel.  I feel like he might be a little miffed that I knowingly brought him into a world of torment and servitude…

It’s a scary thought.  But also so cool!  Anyway, I think I’ve got the writing bug out of me, so I can finally go to sleep.

 

 

Shut up, brain.

Word of the Day: Trebuchet (n) – a medieval engine of war with a sling for hurling missiles.

2 Comments

Filed under books, Humor, writing

Tagged as , , , , , , ,