E.R. Torre's Blog, page 75

Need advice on becoming a writer…?

Or perhaps a better writer?

There are a plethora of “how to” books out there regarding this topic and I know what you’re thinking: Which ones are worth spending my vast riches on?

Over at Slate.com we have the following article which may help you separate the wheat from the chaff…

8 best books on writing, according to Novelists, Poets, and Writing Professors

Now, it’s damn tempting to think that reading a few books like these mentioned above will help your writing.  I suspect that if you study them, you will likely help yourself to some degree.

As someone who has considered doing an “On Writing”-type book (I’ve given my advice here and there on this blog), let me be the first to say this: There is no one advice book that will suddenly make you a superb writer.

Yeah, big reveal there, I’m sure.

The fact of the matter is that each author or potential author has their “style” of writing.  Shadow author Walter Gibson was able to produce a mind-boggling amount of words on a daily basis.  I recall he noted how his very last Shadow novel (these novels tended to be between 50-60,000 words so they could be considered novellas) was written in a single long sitting and sent out to the publishers of the pulp magazine the next day.

Stephen King, at least according to what he wrote in his On Writing book, stated he writes a book in roughly three months or so, puts it in a drawer to “let it cool down”, then comes back to revise it and its out.  I suspect that since releasing that book, he’s streamlined his writing habits even more.  I wonder if he revises his books much at all, or leaves it to editors.

Then there are authors who take up to ten years plus to create their work.  Clearly and unlike Walter Gibson and Stephen King, they sweat all the details.  Perhaps a little too much!

Me?  At first I was able to release roughly a book a year but of late I’ve found myself taking two years to write a book.  Though I wish I could release material more quickly -oh how I wish I could!- it takes a while to get all the details of a story together, much less present it in a way that I feel is exciting and interesting to a potential reader.

The thing about writing is that you have to have something of a vault of information in your head regarding stories.  Not only the ones you admire for their success, but also those you look back on and learn from their failures.

Mind you, I’d be the last person to say all my books are magnificent, earth-shattering triumphs (though over at Goodreads.com my books have earned a cumulative average of 4.10 out of 5, something I can’t even begin to say how much I’m humbled by and appreciate).

However, I’ve tried to be a sponge with regard to stories.  I’ve been that way since I was old enough to read.  Whatever it may be, comic books, novels, stories, TV shows, movies, etc. etc. I’ve taken in, enjoyed, then mentally taken apart.  I’ve examined what worked and what didn’t, where the author/actor/director really got me as a viewer/reader and where they didn’t.

Again: What worked and what did not.

And this sort of examination helps me, I feel, as a guide when I’m writing my own works.

Why does it take me 2 years to write a novel?  Because on average I go through 12 drafts of a novel before I feel it is good enough to release.

12 drafts, ladies and gentlemen.

12 times I go through a book, the first 5 or 6 drafts usually being a gradual build up in the story, to the point where I feel I’ve gotten all the elements needed in their proper place.  The next 5-6 drafts tend to be about the storytelling itself, to make sure the book is lean and mean and doesn’t feature any repetition or awkward phraseology.

In other words, work, work, work!

Sketchin’ 75

Finishing off my run of Serial adaptations it struck me who better to end with but Kirk Alyn (1910-1999) who was the first screen Superman in the 1948 Serial!

[image error]So, if I’m done with the Serial pieces -at least for now- where to go next?

Hmmmmm….

The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) a (mildly) belated review

Sometimes, you just sit back, put your brain in neutral, and enjoy whatever you can about a goofball comedy you’re watching and, afterwards, decide its best not to think too hard about what you’re seeing.

Such is the case with the / film The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

I mean… where to start?

The plot, in a nutshell, is this: Ryan Reynolds is Michael Bryce, a very good “bodyguard” who, in the movie’s opening minutes, loses a charge.  Two years later he’s considerably lower rent and dealing with some clearly whacko clients.

Meanwhile, villainous ex-Dictator Ladislav Duckhovich ( in what amounts to an extended cameo role) is under trial at the Hauge for his brutal reign in Belarus (or some such country) and it turns out the case isn’t very strong and prosecutors need to get the testimony of Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson).  Kincaid is imprisoned in England but offered a deal for his testimony.  He agrees to testify.

Bryce’s ex-girlfriend Amelia Roussel (, who is OK in a pretty blandly written role) is in charge of moving Kincaid to Amsterdam but, of course, things go sideways and after a bloody encounter with the ex-Dictator’s thugs winds up having Roussel and Kincaid in the wind.

Roussel calls in her ex-boyfriend Bryce to protect and take Kincaid to the Hauge and hilarity ensues as the two are familiar with each other and, of course, don’t like each other much at all.

(It is not terribly clear why Roussel brought her ex-boyfriend in to do this.  You would figure in another movie she would have moved Kincaid on her own.)

Anyway, what follows are some good laughs and plenty of -at times- bloody action.  Of course in The Hitman’s Bodyguard world, stray bullets or out of control vehicles or explosions don’t hurt any innocents and Kincaid, who is shot in the leg early in the film and is so weak from bleeding out, nonetheless recovers remarkably well minutes later and moves around with a light limp which doesn’t affect the action all that much.

Look, its a silly film and I’m starting to do what I shouldn’t: Think too hard about it.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard aspires to be nothing more than an entertaining work which gives people a few chills and thrills, laughs and romance and it accomplishes this, though the plot itself lurches around and could have been streamlined—

Again, don’t think too hard about it!

I recommend the film.  It is at times quite fun.

Just don’t expect much more than that.

Ash vs Evil Dead (2015-18) Third Season review

I’ve noted before I’m a fan of the original three Evil Dead films.  The first one, released in 1981, was a low budget horror film that, for its time, was eerie and quite scary.  The character of “Ash” Williams, played by the irrepressible , first appeared in the original Evil Dead.  His character, as presented in this film, is very different from what it would become…

As presented in this film, Ash was just a nondescript “other” guy in the group of doomed youth who headed out to a cabin and stumbled upon the Evil that was there.  Unlike the others in his party, Ash manages to survive to the end of the film but those closing minutes strongly imply he’s toast, too.

A few years later and in 1987 Evil Dead 2, the remake cum sequel to that original film -and in my opinion the best of the Evil Dead works- came out…

In its opening minutes Evil Dead 2 essentially “remade” the original film, then went off on its glorious own, having Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams go mano-a-mano against the supernatural forces haunting the cabin he was trapped in.  The thing that made this movie work so gloriously was that the makers/stars realized there’s a thin line between humor and horror and they pushed both to their limits, making the character of Ash Williams a weird goofball who acted at times like one of the lost Stooge brothers… only with a lot more blood and gore.

In 1992 came the third Evil Dead film, this one titled Army of Darkness, and it further evolved the character of Ash Williams, this time making him more of a smart ass/know-it-all and the biggest joke, of course, was that he was a total idiot… though one with an affinity to battle evil…

This film is my second favorite Evil Dead work, though it does lose a little steam in its second half (curiously, in the commentaries provided on the BluRay, director Sam Raimi noted the same, saying at one point that he lamented the fact that the film became a -like film and lost, to a degree, Ash Williams).  Despite this, the opening and closing acts are an absolute hoot.

The movie, alas, was a flop.  It didn’t do well at all in theaters and the property appeared all but dead (pun intended?!).  However, the Evil Dead films did extremely well in the home video market and, many years later and in 2013 (yup, twenty years later), a new theatrical remake of Evil Dead was released to theaters and, though Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams didn’t show up but for a few seconds at the very tail end of the film and after the credits, it did reasonably well and seeing Ash Williams once again seemed to kick start an interest in bringing more of him.

Which led to Starz! taking up a new series, titled Ash vs Evil Dead, to premiere in 2015.

Now, I liked the first two seasons of the series though I didn’t like either season’s endings.  The first one was too damn open ended for my taste while the second season, it was revealed later on, was hastily assembled at the very last minute because of friction between one of the series’ producers and head writer/showrunner.  The later would leave the show after the second season and I worried as to how the third season would turn out without him.

Welp, I’ve just finished seeing the rest of the episodes in the third season and… its OK.  Not the best, but there are enough really good things to make it worth pursuing.

This season, unlike the two others, to me lacked much of the near constant wicked humor that made the first two seasons so damn good.  Further, there is a helter-skelter quality to the story presented, a sense of throwing things in but not resolving them or resolving them lamely, storywise.  It almost felt like the writers were more killing time with little bits and pieces here and there before getting to the end and those bits and pieces wind up not mattering all that much.

For example (mild spoilers) toward the very end of the third season we get an extended sequence involving Ash’s daughter Brandy () that plays out like a remake of one of the better sequences in Evil Dead 2 (I’ll not give everything away, but that sequence has an Ernest Hemingway Farewell to Arms punchline).. yet 1) its not as good as the original and 2) when its over the story moves forward and what Brandy went through is all but forgotten.

Characters such as Ruby Knowby are reduced to a somewhat ordinary “bad guy” status and is scheming and looking eeeevvvvvilll at the camera but otherwise isn’t given much of a chance to strut her stuff, especially against Ash directly.  Given how important she was supposed to be as the main antagonist in this season, it was weird how she was ultimately dispatched (SPOILER AGAIN!) without Ash doing much of anything to get rid of her.  We also have a situation where for the first half of the season the main characters are curiously on their own, Ash over here, Pablo over there, Kelly doing her thing, and Brandy (a new character) taking up a lot of time with little result.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Arielle Carver-O’Neill.  For a young woman she’s already got a good resume and I assume she’s a good actress but as presented here, she never seemed to work well in the Evil Dead mileu.  It might have been better to have Kelly turn out to be Ash’s daughter -as was originally intended- and not have to introduce a new character so late in the game.

But perhaps the biggest disappointment of the season is the fact that the wicked humor which was so prevalent in all Evil Dead works since the second film, the general tone of season three of the show feels more focused on gore and horror which, I suppose, was one of the reasons there was friction between the producer and ex-showrunner.

I like horror, but Evil Dead worked as well as it did because it balanced horror with humor.

Still, there are moments here and there where the show works, including the welcome return of as Brock Williams, Ash’s father and a climax and conclusion that, frankly, was pretty damn cool… though given the fact that the show wasn’t renewed -and the fact that Bruce Campbell has announced in no uncertain terms he would not return to the role of Ash Williams again- we’ll never see what happens after those closing minutes.

Ah well.

Look, if you’re a fan of the series, seeing the third season is a no-brainer.  If you’re not a fan or if you’ve never seen Evil Dead before, you may want to check out Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness first before checking out Seasons 1 and 2 of the series before going to Season 3.

Otherwise, if the idea of mixing gory horror and humor isn’t your cup of tea, you may want to stay away.

If this is indeed the last we’ll ever see of Ash Williams, let me say here and now: Thanks Bruce Campbell and company.  You created a unique character in Ash Williams, one that evolved and changed but was almost always fun to watch.

You’ll be missed.

Whose property is it anyway…?

I love the internet.  It allows me fast access to near unlimited information, be they technical information, opinions, reviews, analysis, articles, etc. etc. etc.

I’ve learned much, almost every day, and while at times reading people’s opinions (and trolls) can be frustrating, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad and sort things out on your own.

One thing that I’m noticing, however, is that this opening in allowing people to opine on things like movies, books, and TV shows leads to a sense of ownership on the part of fans.

I’ve long pondered why there was an almost literal lynch mob around the release of Batman v. Superman, a movie I liked quite a bit -moreso in its Ultimate Cut- and its director Zack Snyder.  Whatever your opinion of the film is, to many it was as if Mr. Snyder had committed some kind of unforgivable sin with what he did with the characters.

After the film left theaters, the anger turned toward the Ghostbusters remake, though to a somewhat lesser degree, yet for many this too was some kind of unforgivable sin against a beloved property and the people behind it should be… I don’t know, what exactly?

More recently, there appears to have been something of a repeat in the release and the fan reaction with Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  To many fans, the movie was a betrayal of the original Star Wars films (I don’t know… I have the film but as of yet haven’t seen it).

Today and over at Slate.com, I found this article by Willa Paskin which focuses on fan theories regarding the Benedict Cumberbatch starring Sherlock series, specifically that many fans of the show feel the character of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were/are lovers…

The case of the fractured fandom

I find that speculation, which isn’t terribly new regarding Holmes/Watson (the idea that they might secretly be homosexual lovers has been around since at least the 1940’s and likely before!), nonetheless in this era of the internet allowed groups of people, including someone mentioned within the article itself, to really go to town with developing this theory and offering examples of how the creators, in their opinion, were pointing towards this alleged relationship.

Which brings me to this point: Speculation and/or scorn toward the way characters are handled by fans is perfectly fine, but bear in mind: These characters are the property of others and they will do with them what they choose.

Sure, Sherlock Holmes is now in public domain, but the Sherlock TV show is being made by the BBC under the control of several individuals who make the decisions of how the show will progress.  They can, if they want to, read the many fans’ opinions on how the show should progress and whatnot, but ultimately they decide the direction of the show.

(A digression: I suspect the show is done and will not return for a fourth season.  I could be wrong, but that’s just my opinion).

Similarly, whether you liked them or not -and its certainly your right to love or hate them!- the people behind Batman v. Superman and the Ghostbusters remake were granted authority to use these characters and create these properties by the people/companies that control them.

The films themselves may have been great or horrid, but them’s the breaks… not everything works out and with properties such as Batman and Superman, just because one version comes out not to your liking doesn’t mean the ceiling’s about to fall in on any future incarnations of said characters.  Superman survived the release of the not very good Superman III and the outright terrible Superman IV and Batman certain survived the release and ridicule which came after Batman and Robin.

I guess my point is this: Sometimes fandom needs to back off, at least a little, take a breath, and understand that your pleasure/disgust and speculations regarding property X are just that: YOUR opinions on it.

Do you hate Batman v. Superman?  Do you feel the characters in Sherlock are lovers?  Do you feel The Last Jedi was a betrayal of the original Star Wars films?

That’s perfectly legitimate… for you.

And you have every right to either hate these works or love them or speculate about their meaning or anything else you desire.

My worry -and the great danger- is that when fandom becomes powerful enough to dictate the release of new creative endeavors, then we’re treading into dangerous waters.

I feel fandom did affect what DC has done since the release of both Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad.  One has but see the Justice League film to see that end result.

Will the pressure of fans lead, if it should happen, to have Sherlock season 4 reveal that Holmes and Watson are lovers?  Will we have a Last Jedi redo where Luke Skywalker is treated “better”?

I worry when fans become such a powerful force.

But I suppose I also worry too that certain properties have become as big as they are and brings out these emotions in people.

The other day I looked up the top films of 1979 (don’t ask) and it surprised me that the #1 box office film of that year was… wait for it… Kramer vs. Kramer.  The other nine films, in order, were:

The Amityville Horror, Rocky II, Apocalypse Now, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, 10 (the Bo Derek film), The Jerk, Moonraker, The Muppet Movie.

Interesting list, no?  Only two of the movies were sequels and/or part of a series (Rocky II and the James Bond film Moonraker) while a few others became series and/or had sequels but at this point were original works.

Compare that list with the top box office films of last year, 2017:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, The Fate of the Furious, Despicable Me 3, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Wolf Warrior 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder Woman.

Of these ten films, a whopping EIGHT of them are part of a series and/or are sequels to other films and one of them, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, is a somewhat-sequel/remake of an original work.  The only “original work” is actually a live action version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast animated film!

So, essentially, NONE of the top 10 highest grossing films of 2017 were “original” works from start to end.

None.

In conclusion, perhaps it’s no wonder, given how many sequels and cultural blanketing these works have created, that fans become so enmeshed in these works.

Not creepy at all…

Sometimes you go around this newfangled interweb and discover stuff you never heard of and… well… sometimes that stuff is downright weird.

Or, as I point out in the headline, creepy.

Here then is a link to an article by Priscilla Frank and found over at that durn liberal website Huffingtonpost.com concerning…

The creepy tale of an artist who ordered, then decapitated, a doll made to look like his ex

This is the tale of one Oskar Kokoschka (as I said, I’d never heard of him or his story before) and his ex-lover/muse -and prolific composer- Alma Mahler.

Seems that Ms. Mahler tired of Mr. Kokoschka and she ran off with another guy and the boy didn’t like that (sounds like the lyrics to a Paul McCartney/Beatles song).

Instead of rushing into the local saloon and confronting the man who would wed his ex and/or trying to somehow profess his love and win back the love of his life, our Mr. Kokoschka instead commissioned a doll in Ms. Mahler’s likeness and… well… how freaking strange is that?

Strange enough that he grew tired of the doll, decapitated it, and placed it on his front lawn which eventually got the attention of people and the police, who naturally were worried this was a real person on his lawn.

Oh, and this all happened back in 1919.

I can’t imagine what he would have done had this happened in the age of the internet.

Probably like many men, I’ve had my share of heartbreak.  There have been women I’ve fallen for who either never returned the affection or dropped me for whatever reasons they had to do so (most likely because I was an idiot, but that’s neither here nor there!).

But this… well, I could never imagine myself going this far to… I don’t know… self-flagellate?  Torture yourself?

Just… weird.

Roseanne…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few days, you’ve heard the sordid saga of Roseanne.  She starred in a rebooted version of her old Roseanne show and it was a big hit, landing on the top three of TV shows being seen, according to Nielsen ratings.

And then she threw it all away by tweeting a racist statement regarding ex-Obama official Valerie Jarrett.  (You can read some of the shenanigans here).

Tom Arnold, Roseanne’s ex-husband, appeared on CNN and offered his opinion about this situation, which you can read about here.  In so many words he states that he isn’t surprised by what happened and implies it is his opinion Roseanne is self-destructive person who was bound to blow up the good that was created.

My 0.02 cents?

I feel for Roseanne.

I think there’s something broken within her.  Further, I worry she suffers from either mental problems and/or medication (self or prescribed) problems.  Mind you, I’ve got little more than suspicions regarding this (though her pointing out that she was taking Ambien as an “excuse” -a lame one at that- for her racist tweet indicates she is indeed taking at least one medication).

If she isn’t already, Roseanne needs to see someone, whether it be a psychiatrist or psychologist, and look into what is going on within her.

I’m not a fan of Roseanne’s show.  Indeed, I’ve never seen one full episode of the original or new series and therefore will not miss it now that its gone.

However, as destructive as Roseanne has been to her career, one has to feel sympathy for those who worked on the show, both in front of and behind the cameras, only to suddenly find themselves without work despite being in an incredibly successful show.

A great shame.

Sketchin’ 74

I’d already made a picture based on the 1941 Tom Tyler starring Captain Marvel serial but, given I’m currently doing some serial favorites, figured I’d give it another go.

If there’s one serial modern audiences may want to see it’s this one, which features a hero that is more in line with Dirty Harry than the more quippy/humorous heroes so popular today.  Hard to believe this serial debuted only three years following the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1 (1938) and a mere year after Captain Marvel’s first appearance in Whiz Comics #2 (1940).

Even more incredible are the serial’s special effects which, though not all that great by today’s standards, are remarkably good given the year it was released.  Recommended… though I wouldn’t encourage anyone to sit through the whole thing at one go!

[image error]

What is wrong with these people…?

Over at HuffingtonPost.com there’s a report by Mary Papenfuss regarding…

Florida Cop in trouble after wishing car accident on gun violence protest

Essentially, a Florida policeman decided it would be clever to slam school shooting survivor David Hogg, who was behind a “die in” event at the Publix groceries due to the fact that the company was giving money to a pro-gun candidate (they have since stopped) and posted the following:

I hope some old lady loses control of her car in that lot. Jus sayin …

First: David Hogg has become something of a boogeyman to the NRA.  Why?  Because he has them scared.  He -and a few others- are the face of a movement that may be hard to slow, that of young people who are fed up with the many school shootings and idiotic (at best) “responses” from the politician regarding these tragedies.  They demand legislation to rein in the too-many and too-powerful weapons out there and the noise they’ve made is being heard.

Second: Even if you are a rabid 2nd Amendment type, this is the essence of free speech and, yes, democracy: You protest peacefully and you make yourself heard.  You do this because you strive for change.  In the case of Mr. Hogg and others like him, you do this because you don’t want to see any more young people like him die senselessly in another school shooting tragedy.

Let me repeat this: He doesn’t want there to be more school shootings.  He doesn’t want there to be more senseless deaths.  And what he’s doing, whether you like it or not, is not resulting in anyone getting hurt.  Indeed, the only thing that seems to be hurt are some people’s egos.

Such as, I suppose the policeman who posted that tweet.

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story’s (2018) release

Frank Pallota over at CNN.com notes that the Memorial Day release of Solo: A Star Wars Story hasn’t exactly been a box office juggernaut:

Solo: A Star Wars Story disappoints at the box office

According to the article, the movie drew in approximately $101 million, a decent amount but far lower than the hoped for $150+ million that was originally estimated.  Interestingly, over at Box Office Mojo they list the movie’s three day weekend take at a lower $83 million, but I’m not certain if their estimate does not take into account today’s date (it is Memorial Day, after all) and thus is a lower amount.

Regardless, the movie hasn’t done all that well, especially given its a Star Wars movie and, equally oddly, the reviews for it were generally positive.

Count me, though, among those who isn’t terribly surprised.

No, I’m not some kind of movie release guru or have psychic powers (how I wish!), it just seemed there were many factors working against the movie almost from the get-go.

To begin, the movie’s troubled production -it was originally being directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, 22 Jump Street) but they clashed with the powers that be at Disney and were essentially fired from the production and replaced, hastily, with Ron Howard.  Rumor had it that the movie was nearly done with its principle photography by that point.  There was also word that actor Alden Ehrenreich wasn’t doing all that well stepping into Harrison Ford’s shoes and was given acting lessons while the movie was filming (I don’t know if I believe this… seems a particularly nasty rumor and smells a bit like someone who has a real beef with the actor trying to hit him where it hurts).

In some ways, that element reminded me of what happened with the Justice League film.  Initiated under the direction of Zack Snyder, he left the production (or was fired, yet more rumors) after his adopted daughter committed suicide and the movie was taken over by Josh Whedon, who went on to remake much of the film and released what was a decent, if obviously very different work from what Mr. Snyder would have likely given us.

Justice League underperformed as well, and my feeling is that those early news of a troubled production had to weigh on potential filmgoers’ minds as they did with Solo.

But there’s more.

Solo also has the misfortune of being released at the tail end of two very big hero/effects films: Avengers Infinity Wars and Deadpool 2.

In fact, it seems in retrospect rather silly to release so many films like these one on top of the other.  I’m noticing, for instance, that Avengers Infinity Wars, after a red hot initial release, has cooled down considerably at the box office and drew in “only” $16 million in its fourth week of release.  It appears almost spent at this point.  Similarly, Deadpool 2 came out of the gate hot but not quite as hot as was hoped, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe being released so soon after the Avengers film that too didn’t suck up the oxygen in the box office as well.

You see, there are only so many dollars out there to be made in films and if we have three very big films targeted to the same audience released at roughly the same time, the audience might have to pick and choose which one they will see, and the end result might be a sense of box office “failure” that might not be the case had more care been made toward finding an appropriate release date.

Finally, and as mentioned in the original CNN article I linked to, there is a worry that people might have a “fatigue” toward Star Wars properties.  It’s a logical concern: Too much of a “good” think might prove, in the long run, not so good.

You can certainly oversaturate a fan base and it is possible this is what may be happening.  On the other hand, the film comes very shortly after the release of The Last Jedi which, to many fans, left them with a source taste in their mouth and this too could have dissuaded some people who otherwise might have given the movie a look to skip it.  At least for now.

(Apropos of nothing, I have a copy of Last Jedi and plan to see it soon enough.  The back and forth -those that are well thought out and not just trolling- among fans of the film and detractors certainly has me curious)

Regardless, I’ll probably skip Solo for now and catch it later on when it reaches home video.  Which is, coincidentally, what I’ll likely do with Infinity Wars.