Sherlock Holmes Sequel: SEE IT!

I'm not gonna go in-depth with this review, mostly because the movie was so damn good I forgot I was even watching a movie.

All I can say is: this is a thinking man's action movie. There's no action just for action's sake. There's a good mystery, great rising stakes, some unbelievably great twists and turns, and, most importantly, a killer ending.

You gotta see it!

The Dark Knight Rises -- The Epic Conclusion

Christopher Nolan follows up his smash-hit mind-f*ck of a film, Inception, with the third and final installment of his dark-world batman franchise.

Here's the newly released trailer:

Get your popcorn ready. This is gonna be sick.

Why "Hanna" is Fun, Fiery and... Flawed?

I decided to rent something I knew I'd enjoy this weekend: the film "Hanna" by Joe Wright. Before I say anything, I'll say this: I chose well. It's a fun film with great characters, great acting, and very creative direction.

Hanna is a young teenage girl living with her burly father, Erik. He's a lumberjack that doesn't need an axe. He's so well-skilled in the art of hand-to-hand combat that he's molded his own daughter into a deadly assassin. She's so friggin' deadly that father-daughter combat time results in Hanna always winning.

Oh, and did I mention that they're living in some shack in the wilderness of Northern Finland? For those of us who have never been to Finland, well, they may as well be in Antarctica. It's complete isolation. No contact with the outside world. And Hanna's proof of this. She knows nothing of the world but what she reads in encyclopedias and dictionaries. She can quote word-for-word the definition of music, but she's never heard it. And that's the defining characteristic of Hanna. No matter how deadly or skilled she is, no matter how many gun-wielding assassins she kills, no matter how mature she may seem, she's still a little girl that has yet to find herself.

So, in essence, the film is just a coming-of-age story masquerading as a deadly assassin action flick. And that's why "Hanna" is fun and entertaining. The characters! They're 3 dimensional. They seem like real people in an extraordinary situation. I won't give away what that situation is, but I'll tell you this:

The inciting incident, the moment that propels the characters into that extraordinary situation, makes no sense at all.

The moment works, in some way, because it allows our protagonist, Hanna, to make a choice: Stay here and be safe with your father, or venture into the world where you won't be safe and nothing will ever be the same again.

What's great about that choice is that it speaks to Hanna's character need. She needs to learn more about the world through experience, and, by extension, more about herself. The only way to do that is to make the dangerous choice of facing the enemy that she, and we, do not yet know.

So the moment is great. It's always great to put the story in your protagonist's hands by giving her a choice. But the moment is flawed.

Her father, Erik, unearths a buried box that looks to be a GPS beacon of sorts from a downed airplane. If Hanna wants to let their enemies know where they are, she needs only press the red button.

Oooookay. So she hits the red button and shit hits the fan. Interesting. But answer me this, oh Riddler: is there not a third choice?

1. Stay in bumfuck Finland with only your batshit crazy father for company.

2. Hit the red button and announce your location to your enemies.

or...

3. Don't stay in bumfuck Finland, don't hit the stupid red button, and pack up your shit and hit the road. Without hitting that red button, you'll be able to experience the world without assassins chasing you around every corner.

I don't know about you, but I'm going with choice #3 every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I mean, how is that not an option?!? She doesn't want to stay in Finland's isolated wilderness and she shouldn't want to put herself and her father in harms way. So, logically, she should just re-bury that GPS beacon and go on a vaycay with her batshit crazy papa. Lord knows he needs it too.

And that's my main problem with "Hanna." Sure, movies always have logic holes, especially action thrillers. But it can't, I repeat canNOT, be the incident that sets your story into motion. If that moment doesn't make sense, then the entire story does. not. make. sense!

The film is fun and fiery, sure. But it doesn't matter how fiery the movie is when its very foundation is flawed.

You hear this analogy all the time. Movies compared to buildings. That's because movies are like buildings. The script is the blueprint, the development is the foundation, and the released film in the finished building. If you don't want your building to crumble, you've gotta take care of any problems at the blueprint stage. If not then, at least make sure the logic holes are fixed during development. You can't let those holes make it into the finished film. If you do, your building crumbles. Your story is flawed at its foundation.

That's "Hanna." Fun and fiery until it crumbles under its own weight.

It's too bad. It was a beautiful building, a beautiful story. But it was never going to hold up because of its blueprint.

Fun, fiery, but, ultimately... flawed.

Is "Nicholled" a Verb?

Well, I got that most-anticipated email the other day: the Nicholl email.

I entered this year with the hope of making the semis. I made the Quarters in 2009, optioned that script, and have revised it quite a bit over the past 2 years. I really believe it's miles apart from the version that Quartered in 2009. Even so, I didn't make the Quarters this year. But I did get that little glimmer of hope: the P.S. at the bottom of the email.... 

"Your script was among the top 10% of all entries."

Well, hmmm, I guess, I mean, yeah, maybe that's, you know... good? There were 6,730 entries this year (makes you wonder how they always hit an even number... are they rounding up, rounding down, what?), so that means my script was one of the best 673 entered this year. 

I guess that's pretty good.

I mean, top 351 would be better, but hey, if you're in the Top 10% in any competition, you're doing something right. And I'm okay with that. Cause I know I'm not there yet, but with little indications like this one, I know I'm well on my way.

Did you enter this year? If so, how'd you do? If not, why? Do you like the Nicholl Competition or do you prefer another?

Whistle While You Work

I've just completed a major move to Columbus, OH (of all places). So if you thought I gave up on this blog, there's your answer. Just needed to focus on getting settled in. And now that I have, here's a little update.

I've just begun what I intend to be my first completed novel. I'm about 15 pages in and I'm shooting for around 200. It has great sequel potential, but I'm not gonna get ahead of myself.

I've calculated that if I write 5 pages a day for 5 days a week, then I'll have 200 pages in 2 months. Of course, that's just the beginning of the writing process but it'll feel fantastic to actually hold those 200 pages in my hands and know that all I have left to do is edit and rewrite.

And on top of that, I recently spoke to a major screenwriter who read one of my scripts (the one that took the Grand Prize in a smaller screenplay competition) and he gave me plenty of advice on how to improve the weaker points of the story and even offered to send it to someone (I'm assuming an agent or manager) if and when I've tweaked it a bit.

So all in all, it's been a productive 4 weeks and I'm off to the races to try and complete at least one of my New Year's resolutions: to complete my first novel.

What kind of strides have any of you made recently in your writing careers or even just on your recent project??

"The Killing" is killer!

The first season of AMC's new original series The Killing is nearly over. The season finale is this Sunday at 10pm. If you haven't hear of it, haven't gotten around to watching it, or assumed it wasn't worth watching, then stop reading this now, head over to AMCtv.com and catch up. Give it one episode, just one, and I promise you'll be hooked.

I honestly can't remember the last show I've followed that had so many baffling twists and turns. Not bad twists though. They're great. Every few episodes, the writers have you convinced that someone is guilty, there's just no possible way they're not, and then BAM, they slap you in the face and show you how innocent they are. And you're not like, "Ohhh come on! You expect me to believe that?!?!" No. You're like "Holy f*ck, how'd you do that?! Really, seriously, how'd you do that?"

It's the best show on TV right now. Really, it is. I'm amazed at the quality stories that AMC has year round. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Walking Dead (which admittedly needs to step up its game next season), and now The Killing.

It's probably the best network in the game today.

So again, if you haven't checked out The Killing yet, then get off your ass and cram in some episodes, cause the season finale is headed this way and you don't wanna miss it. I know I won't.

The Hangover Part II... See It!

I don't know one person that didn't thoroughly enjoy The (original) Hangover. I'm sure there are some individuals that didn't, but I don't know them.

I do know people that didn't enjoy The Hangover Part II.

And to them, I say... Wtf?!

Let's be honest. The Hangover was never meant to have a sequel. It was a stand-alone R-rated comedy. It wasn't Back To The Future. It wasn't set up for a continuation. But neither was Meet The Parents or Ghostbusters or even Toy Story, for that matter.

It's arguable that pretty much every-fucking-single comedy sequel is not as great as its original. It's almost a given. Unless the original was just terrible. In which case, there would be no sequel.

So if we're talking about whether or not The Hangover Part II is as great as The Hangover, then you probably already knew the answer when they announced they were going to make a sequel.

No, Part II is not as great as its predecessor. But it's still worth seeing. Why? Because nothing else is coming close to the comedic value inherent in The Hangover's premise. And by association, in The Hangover Part II's premise.

We knew going in that the premise is the same. The characters are the same. We've gone from Vegas to Bangkok and from Doug's impending wedding to Stu's impending wedding. There's not a lot that's different about this sequel. But it doesn't need to be different. They've taken the template that worked so well for the original and planted new jokes, new situations, and new laugh-your-fat-fucking-ass-off jokes into the mix.

And ya know what?

It works.

Is it the best R-rated comedy of the decade?

No. Of course not. How could it be? The Hangover is. It set the bar for R-rated comedies. Its sequel was never going to push that bar higher. But it comes closer than other comedies in recent memory.

The only comedy that came close was Bridesmaids. And honestly? The Hangover Part II is better than Bridesmaids. Many will disagree with me, but from my perspective, it's simple.

Bridesmaids has no momentum. It's a row boat paddling around in circles.

The Hangover Part II is a speed boat barreling full-speed toward the shores of Thailand.

Bridesmaids has no goal to keep us involved in the story. It's unfocused. There are great characters, yes. But there's nothing for them to do. They're just running around in circles complaining about their lives.

Hangover II gives us 3 characters we already love, puts them in a similar-but-different situation, and makes those characters fight their desperate, tired, overwhelmed asses off to get out of it.

Sure, there are some moments in Hangover II when you're thinking "been there, done that" but there are more moments that surprise you, delight you, and laugh-till-you-cry entertain you.

If you wanna see both Bridesmaids and Hangover II, go ahead. They're both worth seeing.

But if you're only spending your money on one comedy this summer, invest in The Hangover Part II. It'll repay you with the laughs that got you weak the first time around. Because if a great joke is truly great, it can be reused. Hangover Part II proves that.