More movies ... and a failing

Thanks, Cindy M, for the Demi Moore suggestion -- you know Paranormal well, so I know I'll love Half Light. I'll just have to close my eyes until I get past the demise of the five-year-old ...

Which brings me to a failing I have. Before Kate, I could watch almost anything and it didn't bother me (well, except for slasher/horror flicks, which I've never liked.) But since I've had Kate in my life (nearly five years, can you believe how time FLIES?), I cannot watch movies where children get hurt -- or worse. I can't even watch small-screen stuff where that happens.

I know they're trying to tap into emotion and get a visceral response ... but it just throws my over-load switch and fries my circuitry. It's the same way when an animal gets hurt -- a dog or a cat or any family pet in a movie. I just cannot bear to watch it.

I don't suppose I'm very different from other moms, so I'm assuming this isn't odd.

Speaking of kidlets, Ricky made another trip to the video store ... came back with that Disney movie In The Wild or Out of the wild or something like that.

I have to share my reactions to this, because I got a flash of what agents/editors think when they see a project. At first I was thinking, "Haven't I seen this before?"

And I had ... the opening was not very different from Madagascar.

But then it took a different turn and had some hugely comic elements, and the animals were negotiating the wilds of New York. I was thinking, huh, maybe this has some merit after all -- especially when the lion was attacked by a poodle that strongly resembled how I see Miss Snark's beloved Killer Yapp.

So I'm enjoying their travels through NYC, and I'm thinking, "yeah!"

Ennnnh. Wrong Answer buzzer going off. The movie dissolves into the requisite trip to the requisite jungle isle so that the zoo animals can make their requisite faux pas as they try to find their inner requisite jungle wildness. Hugely reminiscent of Madagascar ... and I don't think as well-done from that point.

But Kate enjoyed it ... and I think Ricky got the movie free (our video rental store is shaking in their boots at NetFlix, so they give away loads of free movie rentals.) He also rented Eight Below and a movie I'd never heard of called The Weatherman. But it's got Nicholas Cage -- I think it's got Nicholas Cage in it. Could be wrong. Anyway, one of the actors I like usually, so I don't think it will be a hardship.

To go back to the toon flick I saw tonight, and how I channeled agents/editors while watching it:

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, there was no such thing as a synopis.

That being the case, at the query stage, if the writing was phenom, I would have probably asked for a partial. Then I would have got the partial, and it would have ended at the part where the zoo escapees are navigating NYC, and I would be thinking, "Pretty darn funny -- send me the full."

But then, I would have gotten the full, and the MS would have completely fallen apart for me.

So, not to dis Disney, but I would have sent them a nice (probably personal to some extent) R, saying, "story has promise, but a bit too predictable."

Has writing completely screwed up the way you watch movies or read books? It very nearly has for me ... tomorrow (or Sunday, whenever I get a chance to blog again), I'll blog about two vastly different books that completely shut off my inner line-editor.