WTF Wednesday: Movie Edition

 I usually like movies that are based on books. Sure, I have my own visualization while reading the book and more often than not the movie onscreen is very different from the movie within my head. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. If a filmmaker does his/her job well, (s)he'll be able to make me appreciate his/her version of the story. After all, a movie is always about sharing one's own view of a narrative with an audience. There have been movies based on books which I find disappointing, but that is usually because I find that the story had not been told well. Very rarely because of the visualization. Sometimes, I even find movies boring that are too close to the book and lack originality. So I appreciate it when someone shares their interpretation of the characters and stories of books that I have read.

But! For pity's sake! Please keep it within reason! Sometimes certain traits of the hero or heroine are integral parts of the story. For example Miss Marple! She's old! That's part of her charm! It's part of her story! She has lots of experience of life! That's how she solves her crimes! Whether as a fragile, homebound old lady as in the books or as the energetic, robust spinster with a sidekick as she was immortalized by the grand Margaret Rutherford! Both times her age plays a vital part in the make-up of this beloved amateur sleuth. So, having Jennifer Garner play that role is just incontheivable... in the words of another beloved character from a book turned into a movie... WTF?!?

Another case in point: Tom Cruise will play Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher the 6'5'', 250 pounds ex-MP of Lee Childs bestselling crime series. This is just sad...

Tasteful Tuesday: Golden Globes

I have to admit that I haven't seen most of the movies that were nominated for the Golden Globes. Either because they were too scary for me (yes, this is my deep dark secret: movies like "Black Swan", "Alice in Wonderland" and "Inception" scare the crap out of me, while "Scream" and the like I find mostly amusing...what can I say, I'm eccentric). Or I wasn't interested ("Burlesque", "The Tourist"). Or they haven't come out in Germany yet ("The Fighter" and "The King's Speech"). I did see "A Social Network", though. I thought it was kinda interesting and Jesse Eisenberg did a great job. But being the best movie out of those nominated? Really? That's sad...and somewhat implausible... come on... none of the others was better? Please, fellow movie-goers out there, does anyone concur with that decision? Even without having seen them I would put at least 2 of the nominated movies in that category ahead of this one....

On another note... don't you think the fact that Annette Bening was competing against Julianne Moore in the same category for their parts in the same movie, while if they had been a more gender stereotypical couple they would each have been nominated in another category...well, doesn't that show how stupid this whole business of gendering the categories really is....?