Wednesday, October 07, 2009

"Belt" mean, no need rope hold up pants.

SamuraiFrog has a wonderful post about The Karate Kid. A brief quote:

I've always maintained that this is a great film, and seeing it for the first time in over a decade, I have to contend that this is still a great film. Seeing it as an adult, maybe I like it for different reasons than I did when I was a kid, but it's still as involving and enjoyable at 33 as it was when I was 8.


I still feel that Karate Kid is a great movie, despite some of the 80s kitsch sentiment that has unfortunately accrued around it.

Mr. Frog also, as long as I'm linking him, finally reached the scene in Twilight that compelled me to conclude that the book is, in fact, a giant literary turd:

Edward is so abusive, and Bella is so needy to be abused, it makes it impossible to feel sympathy or even like for either of these two self-absorbed assholes. What all of the little girls and unfulfilled women in their 40s creaming their pants over vampire boy don't seem to get is that living with Edward is like living with an alcoholic--only worse, because it's an alcoholic who keeps reminding you constantly that he could kill you at any moment, and in fact wants to, but is trying really hard to control himself. He belittles you so that your heart melts at the smallest compliment, he makes your decisions for you, and tells you it's dangerous for you to be near him while making sure never to leave you alone for even a moment. As my wife said this morning: "This is like what a date rapist does so that, when he rapes you, you blame yourself instead of him."


Amen, brother. The whole "fake-sex in the woods" was, for me, the straw that broke the book in two.

3 comments:

wordnerd (Rebecca Carey Rohan) said...

I couldn't get past maybe Chapter 3 or 4 in Twilight. I was forcing myself to read it, because I have a tween girl, and she was asking if she could, and I wanted to know what she was getting into. It was SO badly written, I just couldn't do it. And I'm really pissed that I'll never get those hours back.

Luckily, my daughter couldn't stand it, either, and didn't finish. Although she kinda wants to see New Moon, after seeing the preview where Jacob turns into a werewolf -- she thinks that's pretty cool. :-D

Roger Owen Green said...

Between you and SF, I'll NEVER have to read Twilight. Even if the child wants me to.

Thee Earl of Obvious said...

I find it interesting that crap T.V. can be talked about with such venerable tones as it is on this forum but this book and seemingly this book alone is held out as the supreme bane of modern fiction.

Makes me think there is something deeper going on with regard to this book. Whats up, has the story somehow worked affirmative action into the plot as an evil scheme or something?