Time Lost

It's been a long time since I watched a movie that made me think, “Wow, I just lost two hours of my life.” Usually I can find one, two or a whole handful of redeeming bits and piece of a movie—at least enough to justify watching it.

Not tonight.

The movie looked funny/cute on the trailers. Maybe you remember it? The Other Guys? Yeah, that's what we watched tonight.

Now I'll be the first to admit that crude humor doesn't amuse me. I roll my eyes and wait for it to be over. Just me, yes, I am aware that I am strange.

I expected more guy humor out of this show. Guy humor (aside from the over used sex jokes) cracks me up. What can I say? Guys make me laugh. I didn't get it.

I expected the movie to make me laugh out loud at least five times. It got two. And one was pretty weak.

I expected to at least like one of the characters. Nope. They all fell on the far side of either the “too stupid to be believable” or “when will this guy stop talking” line.

I expected to want to watch the whole movie. Again, nope. About a quarter of the way through I wanted to stop it and go read my book. But I'm no quitter. No sir. Does that make me dumb? Yes, I believe it does.

I find in stories, even stories that I don't like, that if there is one character that I can either empathize with, connect to or believe in I, as a reader/watcher, can and will forgive a multitude of plot, acting, pacing, writing and/or story telling sins.

This movie didn't make the cut.

And now I'm thinking about my own work and hoping that there is a character in there that most people can like. Someone who they'll read the story for. Because it's certainly not about me as the author. No, no. The story belongs to the characters. It's their world.

And let's face it. Authors aren't always very nice to their characters.