Showing posts with label Movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movie. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Man I Loved When I was Twelve

So, I was channel surfing last weekend, and came across the movie Rocky IV. Having not seen it for a long time (and by long time I mean since I was a kid and they were released) I had to watch.

Yes, I admit it. At twelve, I was totally in love with Rocky Balboa. Or, well, you know, crushing on him, at least. (Ladies, don’t tell me you weren’t in love with him, too. I know better.)

As I watched the movie as an adult, and as an author, I saw things in this show that I never noticed as a kid. For instance, as a young girl, I couldn’t have told you why I loved Rocky, except that he was good-looking and had rock-hard abs, and he was tough. And even when he was a jerk to the people who loved him, I cheered for him because, well, he was Rocky Balboa.

But the truth (as now recognized) is that the reason the Rocky movies did so well is because Rocky Balboa is a character with which everyone could identify. He was the underdog. The uneducated. The poor boy from the wrong side of town who had the determination of a Pitbull and the heart of a lion. And we loved him because by the end of the story, not only had he grown and progressed exponentially, but he—the consummate David—fought his giant Goliath and won. He won.

It didn’t matter who he fought. Apollo. Mister T. Ivan Drago (that scary Russian guy). Rocky Balboa always worked his tail off, running, training, conditioning, and then he defied the odds and won.

Looking back at my own fascination for the Rocky movies, I had a light bulb moment. I loved them because of what the story was about. It’s about a guy who worked and worked and worked and worked, and never gave up, no matter what happened, and eventually, he succeeded.

And as an adult, I still believe that’s possible.

What about you? Do you believe working hard is the surest path to success?

Friday, March 30, 2012

What The Hunger Games is Teaching My Children

Since the release of The Hunger Games movie, I’ve seen a lot of controversial conversations happening online. People love it. People hate it. People are disturbed by the very idea of having children see such a movie, or adults for that matter. Children forced to kill each other? No way.

Except I WANT my kids to read the books AND see the movie. I WANT them to think about the effects of war. I want them to realize that not every adult who tries to force them to do something has their best interests in mind. I want them to learn to think for themselves, believe for themselves, hope for themselves. I want my kids to figure out how to survive in the wilds of the real world—whatever that world is like when they get there.

Three of my four kids read the book before we saw the movie. And they GOT IT. Even my youngest (11) understands that it is truly not a story about kids killing kids, but of kids learning how their actions can change things. They can change themselves, their families, their communities, society, and yes, they can change the world.

What’s more, I think that as the series progresses, as they find out what happens next, they’ll see what hatred and war can do, how it can destroy people, and also how hope can give them the power to rebuild.

Granted, this is not a story for little people (as mentioned above, my youngest is almost 12). And it’s not something anyone should read or watch hoping for any kind of lightheartedness. It’s a heavy subject. It’s a heartbreaking subject. This story stabs us in the heart and twists until the very end. But it’s a beautiful story of hope, determination, and love.

In case you haven’t read my blog header, those things are important themes in my life. Themes I want my children to really get. So yes, I took them to the midnight premier. Yes, we discussed all these things, and yes, I’m quite certain they understand why this movie (and the book series) is so big and so important to me.

Because some stories are more than mere stories. They’re lessons we should all learn, even the young.

So what about you? Did you go? Would you take your tween?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Good Movies vs. Bad Movies

I like movies as much as anyone, but I don’t often take the time to see them. Although, I’ve seen several lately. Some were extremely well written, and some were very poorly written (no, I’m not telling titles—you’ll have to figure that out on your own).

The well written movies had high tension levels, strong suspension of disbelief, identifiable characters, and plots with unexpected twists and turns.

On the other hand, the poorly written ones moved slowly, weren’t believable for one reason or another, had characters that were difficult to connect with, and a plot that didn’t fulfill the viewers’ expectations.

What’s the difference? Well, in the case of two of my recently viewed movies, several million dollars in ticket sales. But even more than that, fans that walked away either stimulated and satisfied, or feeling like they wasted their ticket money.

Notice I didn’t bring up the big-budget/small-budget comparison. It’s because I believe small budget movies can be well written as often as big-budget movies are poorly written. It’s a mixed bag.

One thing we can do to assure we don’t end up on the bottom end of the spectrum is to fact check and research. Especially real life scenarios. If law enforcement plays a big role in your storyline, talk to a law enforcement official. If your story draws on medical science, talk a doctor to or research the relevant subjects. If there is a strong historical side to your story, make sure your story is set in the right time and that you have given your characters the right tools.

I’m not saying you have to get everything exactly right. Just make it believable to the reader or viewer.

What other things can we do to assure that our stories are the best they can be?

Friday, June 24, 2011

The First Time I Saw...

Okay, I mentioned songs already. Still feeling a bit nostalgic, apparently, because now I’ve moved on to movies.

Picture this: I’m flipping through the TV channels on a Sunday afternoon, and come across a movie I haven’t seen for a long time. A movie that brings back all kinds of memories of friends and boys, old schools and other places, and feelings, lots and lots of feelings. The past. The present. The future.

Happens almost every weekend. Most often, lately, I find either The Notebook, or Titanic. But sometimes I’m lucky enough to find an older one like, Pretty in Pink or…Pretty Woman.

*eyes glaze over*

The first time I saw Pretty Woman, I was fifteen, and had met a boy at the show house one afternoon. Since we had the entire theater to ourselves, we were adventurous and sat in the aisle. The whole place smelled like spilled pop and that fake butter stuff they put on popcorn, and the air conditioner was cranked—raised goose bumps on my arms. Outside, it was like a hundred degrees (Phoenix weather), so I’m thinking it must have been either late spring or early summer.

And I remember that I really, really liked the boy. And yes, we went out again. Several times.

Ahh, memories. What movies take you back? To where? And with whom?

Friday, February 11, 2011

Oh the Tragedy!

Sadly, I don’t go to movies all that often. Not that I don’t love them—I do. But I’m a busy mom, who has lots of schedules to keep up with, and it’s difficult to get out and see the newest films that interest me while they’re still in theaters. (Oh, the beauty of DVD’s.)

When I do go to movies, I hope they’re done well enough to take me out of my own life for the moment and hopefully make me laugh and/or leave me with a warm sensation in my chest left from the experience of numerous emotions. Suspense is good, and action, too.

But I have certain expectations. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s walking out of a theater completely disappointed in the outcome of a show. It happens from time to time.

Consider the movie The Perfect Storm. (Spoiler alert!) Everyone dies! And I’m sorry, but that show felt like a huge waste of time for me. Because how could it possibly be based on a true story when no one survived to tell about it?

Maybe I just hate tragedies. No, because I love the story of Romeo and Juliet—sad as it is. Seems like there was a lesson in that though. And also, Shakespeare wrote that like, a gazillion years ago, and he was pretty well brilliant, so he’s kind of excused. A little.

So, here’s a question. What movie’s have you seen that had a tragic ending you felt was excusable, and which ones just left you feeling angry? I’m curious.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Eclipse Trailer is Out!

Here it is! Yahoo. I'm so excited. Enjoy.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

"Twilight" Hit's the Big Screen



By Nichole Giles

We’ll, it’s finally here. The movie event we’ve all been waiting for. Tickets for some of the midnight showings were sold out months in advance, and theaters ran the movie continually for a full twenty-four hours after that. Or so I’ve heard.

Personally, I got in on a lucky deal. Some neighbors of mine bought out the 10:00 am showing of Twilight at a small local theater, and my sister-in-law called to invite me. We had to pay for our tickets, but we paid at the door and got great seats. And I have to be honest, since I’m getting old, 10:00 am was much more appealing to me than midnight. It meant I had to check my oldest two kids out of school—because I couldn’t go see it without them. But honestly, I’ve been dying to see this movie since before the release of Stephenie Meyer’s final book in the series, Breaking Dawn.

Did it live up to expectations? I think it depends on who you ask. According to my fifteen-year old neighbor, Alison, “It was the best movie in the whole entire world and I’m going to see it again as soon as I can.”

But then, if you ask my fifteen-year old son—who LOVED the books—“It was so boring! What did they do with all the action?” My twelve-year old daughter—who hasn’t read the books because they’re so long and look too intimidating to a girl who isn’t big on reading—thought it was a great movie. But then, she didn’t have huge expectations going into the theater.

Personally, I fall somewhere between the starry-eyed-Edward-loving teen girl and the cynical disappointment of the action-expecting boy. Here’s my take:

Like all books turned movies, the Twilight storyline suffered. For some reason, the screenwriters chose to change the sequence of events a bit. They introduced Jacob before Edward, which shook things up for me. The fact that she met Edward first and already had questions about him when she met Jacob was symbolic in the book—at least in my mind. But the way they did it worked out okay, except that they also chose to change the story Jacob tells Bella at the beach in La Push. It felt like Jacob had a bigger role in this portion of the saga than he was meant for. Still, given what’s coming in the next movie, it works out. Now, I don’t want to spoil the movie for those who haven’t seen it yet, but there are two things bothering me. First and most importantly, I’d like to know who was in charge of hair? What is up with the vampire men all having big hair? The women looked great. Bella, Rosalie, Alice and Esme all looked very much the way I’d pictured them in my head (which says a lot considering that’s hard for a movie director to do!) But the hair on the guys seemed like some kind of enormous nest of…backcombed-hair-sprayed helmets. Whose idea was that anyway? And second, it felt like a lot of the tension was cut out of the movie. I understand that they had to make the story fit into a two hour time slot, but I think that by cutting out so many of the important scenes between Edward and Bella—and for that matter, Bella and Charlie—the movie audience misses out on important tense emotions that help move the story toward the climax. Then, when the climax did come, for some reason the special effects were glossed over and the torture / fight scene was over in about two blinks. (Which is why my son was so grossly disappointed.) And all we could say was, “Come on, Hollywood. You can do better than that!”

But here’s the thing. Even after all that—the bad hair, cutting and rearranging of scenes, and the far too short fight—the movie was so awesome that by that evening, I was already dying to see it again.
Really, people. How could you think I didn’t love it? I did. Of course I did! But being an adult, and a writer at that, I have to take an objective look. If I don’t look objectively at other books being made into movies, how will I know what mistakes to avoid when I get a movie deal for one of mine?

The bottom line is, if you’re wondering if it’s worth your eight dollars and two hours to go see the Hollywood version of Twilight, my opinion is, yes. Absolutely. It isn’t as good as the book—that really isn’t possible, as we should all know by now—know that going in, and you’ll love it.

Twilight the movie gets four diamonds on my rating scale. Woo hoo. And when the fuss dies down, I’m grabbing a girlfriend and going to see it again.