wildyams

Don't forget Michael Vartan is also on Alias, and was in One Hour Photo as well as Never Been Kissed.

I dunno, you can't blame the screenwriter for this one, especially if it's a first time screenwriter. It's not necessarily the first thing they've written, but it's the first thing they've written that's been produced by a major studio. I'd say that's pretty cool. They're just trying to make a living. And as far as the cliches, keep in mind that there are a ton of people they had to please in getting this produced, so it's not entirely on the writer.

I think the real detriment to this one is J.Lo.

Well yeah, J-Lo is the major obstacle to me seeing this, but what I meant was it's not like the writer has prior films I've liked to help persuade me to overlook who is in it. I've never seen Alias before, so that won't help motivate me to go see this. Like I said though, basically at this point, if J-Lo's in it, I don't want to support it. Too bad too, cause earlier in her career, when she was just Jennifer Lopez, I liked her stuff. Selena and Out of Sight were pretty good. But now she's Jenny from the block, and she's annoying.

C'mon internet! Get me that J-Lo documentary! Let's go internet! Let's go internet! Yaaaay internet! Finally something by the ass that I want to see.

Oh, and take it easy on the screenwriter man. You never know what he really wrote or had in mind. He could have intended a black, dark, ugly comedy that would have been great, but instead had his piece diced into the safe family fare that it is. Think what could have been done to Election if it had fallen into the wrong hands. There are also people (I wouldn't know any) who like this kind of flick.

By the way, I couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't be dragged to this either. I would willingly mutilate myself with mildly sharp dinner cutlery first.

Yo, man remember you are pretty much surrounded by first time screenwriters at work... or people hoping to be first time screenwriters.. not to mention your regular reader J-Krue.....

I know you meant you don't know anything about this guy's style... but you might want to be careful how you phrase things.... in the future :roll

For anyone who's confused about the screenwriter thing, scroll up and see my comment where I said "what I meant was it's not like the writer has prior films I've liked to help persuade me to overlook who is in it."

The bottom line is that when you look at a movie like this, with what it's about, who's in it, etc, and then you see that it's a first-time screenwriter, it's not confidence-inspiring. If you see a movie that looks like it's going to be just another cookie-cutter movie, but you that the screenwriter is someone that's written things you've liked in the past, then you can think "maybe it won't be such a cliche." But if I see it's a first time screenwriter, then I make the assumption that the studio either took something that was a decent script and fucked it up to make it what the studio's vision was simply because the first-time screenwriter didn't have the clout (or desire even) to prevent them from doing it, because they probably just wanted it to get made (and I can't blame them, so don't think I look down on them for that); or the script really was a total cliche when they got it, and it was just what they were looking for.

If I see that a movie has a first-time screenwriter and the movie otherwise looks like it's interesting or it's taking some chances, then I get excited because I think it's maybe a chance to hear a totally new voice. That's one reason I was so excited about Saw, because I thought maybe with first-time writers they had written something totally original. Unfortunately in that case, they hadn't, but sometimes, obviously, they do.

So please don't mis-understand me. A first-time screenwriter on a movie is not a negative selling point for me as a fan; unless it is taken together with a whole host of other negative-looking things about the movie. But if a movie looks like shit and they've got an unknown working on it, then I'm not going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Nor should I.

I'm sure even my friends and co-workers who are screenwriters wouldn't say that every first-time screenwriter's first script is fantastic. My guess is that with most first-time scripts that get made into big studio movies they are more often than not pretty mediocre, and I doubt I'm alone in thinking that. I think that's more of an indication of what the studios choose than anything though, cause I'm sure there are great scripts out there that the studios don't want to take a chance on.

You wrote this without having seen the movie or reading the script:

"First time screenwriters don't bug me so much, except when their first screenplay is so obviously cliche. Why would someone get into screenwriting if their first script is going to be basically a rip-off of Meet the Parents? I dunno, just seems like you'd think they had something more to say."

I mean you're probably right, but I think mostly people are just saying "whoa canyoneros"...mostly. We're just busting your balls. :lol

I know you guys are just busting my balls :smile I got the thing about the plot being similar to Meet The Parents from a couple different reviews I read of the movie, however. Did you hear Roeper on Stern this morning saying that he's never walked out of a movie he was reviewing before, but he said he considered walking on out Monster In Law :lol