Thrash And Respect For The Genre
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Thrash, a fun and quite gory shark movie, and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this shark and natural disaster movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I recently watched Thrash, a shark-as-a-danger movie set during a natural disaster, and we both enjoyed it.
It was clear to us that the people involved in Thrash greatly enjoyed both shark movies and disaster movies also.
There were visual and vocal nods to other movies in those genres. Shark Week was mentioned. The flooding scenes were awesome and were echoes of flooding scenes in other disaster movies.
There was a Great White as the hero scene that had me cheering. It reminded me of the T-Rex as the hero scene in Jurassic Park.
Thrash was a celebration of the two genres of movies and I felt the love. I think other viewers did too. It was a joy to experience.
If you’re writing a romance novel, don’t be afraid to show your love for the genre.
Your readers love the genre also. That’s why we’re reading in it.
(smiles)
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Deep Impact, Bad Parents And Flawed Heroines
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Deep Impact and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this awesome comet disaster movie from the previous century (1998 – grins), you might wish to skip this post.
Deep Impact is my favorite comet disaster movie. I really like that it has a news media/journalism angle to it and that it talks about how a government might cover up a possible world ending disaster.
(It stars Morgan Freeman as one of my favorite movie world leaders which is a huge plus.)
I also like that the characters are fully developed, including some seen-only-in-one-scene characters like the older gentleman reading his paper.
Jenny Lerner and her parents are especially nuanced. Jenny, as a high profile journalist, has a guaranteed spot in the humanity saving ‘arc.’
If she chooses, she can survive the disaster.
You and I suspect she won’t survive it because she’s the heroine, yes, but also because she has character traits that serve as flaws in any disaster situation.
She is soft-hearted and VERY easy to emotionally manipulate.
Her mom knows this.
Jenny’s mom doesn’t have a place in the ‘arc’ and she realizes her daughter won’t allow her to die alone. Jenny will, if given the choice, walk away from her place in the ‘arc’ and sacrifice her life to be with her mom during the comet strike.
So Jenny’s mom makes her own sacrifice and ensures Jenny doesn’t have that choice. She does everything left in her power to increase the odds her beloved daughter will survive.
That’s how much Jenny’s mom loves her.
Jenny’s dad also knows Jenny is easy to emotionally manipulate.
And he, being a selfish bastard, has no qualms about doing that to ensure HE doesn’t die alone. He, without hesitation or any hint of regret, emotionally blackmails his daughter, knowing it will result in her death.
I hated him for doing that.
But I LOVED that the writers built this nuance into the story.
The writers could have given Jenny solely the expected-in-an-action-movie heroic motivation of saving an innocent child and stopped there.
But they gave her a secondary motivation. She is manipulated by someone she loves.
Someone whose last act shows he doesn’t love her enough.
And that is great writing.
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The Movie 2012 And Missing Heroines
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about the movie 2012 and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this challenged disaster movie, you might wish to skip this post.
2012 was playing on the Roku Channel and I was in the mood for a disaster movie.
So I decided to rewatch it.
And I remembered why I didn’t like it.
Sure, there are some great disaster scenes. I love the Yellowstone scene and the West Coast of the US scenes. Those are awesome.
But the movie has SO MANY other problems.
One of the major ones is…
There is no heroine.
The female characters are purely decorative and they are VERY bad stereotypes. They play no part in the decision making. Heck, they aren’t even told what was going on. They are expected to follow the male characters’ commands without thought, like little dolls being moved around the scenes.
It is a reminder that just because a book has female characters doesn’t mean any of those female characters are heroines. Or have agency. Or are relatable at all.
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Twisters And Sequels
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Twisters and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this film, you might wish to skip this post.
I watched Twisters recently and I enjoyed it. I doubt I’d watch it again but it had fun moments, some great (yet very much fictional) tornado scenes.
And it was a fresh take on the original story. It was promoted as a sequel but there has been 28 long years between the first one and this second one and…the writers reused much of story and character arcs.
The story of the young heroine touched tragically by tornados and skilled in that science is familiar. Her reluctance to help is familiar. The experiments she is involved in are familiar.
But that’s okay. Because most of the viewership is new. And I, part of the established viewership, enjoyed the similarities. I liked that I knew what to expect and got exactly that.
Sequels don’t have to be 100% new to be worth publishing/producing.
***
Claiming Cure
A proud cyborg medic meets his human match.
***
Cyra has tasks to complete before she dies.
There are patients to heal, a dangerous mission to undertake, and a world to save. She doesn’t have time to entertain uninvited guests.
Especially one coldhearted cyborg medic who thinks he’s better than her.
The male might be breathtakingly handsome. His sternly set lips might be extremely kissable. And his touch might draw out a passion she didn’t think she was capable of feeling.
But he’s also a distraction, one that might doom millions of innocent beings to a painful, horrible death.
Cure isn’t emotionless. He feels…greatly. Listening to that malfunction has caused other beings pain and suffering in the past.
He refuses to allow his desires to cloud his judgment now.
His resolve is tested when he’s forced to associate with the most provoking, alluring medic in the universe.
Cyra is his genetic match, the one being in the universe he is fated to protect, touch, claim. She’s clever and beautiful, and the need to hold her almost downs his systems.
But now is not the time to indulge his great wanting.
Cure has an assignment to complete.
If he fails to accomplish his goals, everyone he cares for, including his human female, will die.
***
Claiming Cure is a standalone Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features two skilled medics determined to ignore the toe-curling attraction between them, a perilous impossible mission, and foes seeking to ensure they never heal another being ever again.
Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Amazon Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/claiming-cure/id6499055867
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/claiming-cure
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1553992
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Knock At The Cabin And Timing
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Knock At The Cabin and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this film, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I finally watched M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock At The Cabin and we enjoyed it. I LOVED Dave Bautista’s character. He was not at all who he looked like he’d be and was…lovable. And, being a disaster movie fan, I really liked the third disaster. I also loved the layers in this movie.
If I had access to Knock At The Cabin before the pandemic, I would have watched it MUCH earlier.
But I delayed watching it because the premise (and tagline – this isn’t a spoiler) – Save Your Family Or Save Humanity. Make The Choice. – now felt…weak.
99% of the people around us won’t wear a piece of cloth over their face to save another person’s life. They’re not sacrificing their own lives for humanity.
It is what it is.
But even that harsh reality about human nature was accounted for.
Because the choice truly wasn’t (and THIS is the spoiler) save your family or save humanity. It was save ONE member of your family or save any possibility of happiness in the future for EVERY remaining member of your family, including yourself (if you’re not the person sacrificed).
That is a much different decision.
Because who wants to live in a world where happiness isn’t at all possible and every day is strife and misery? Not many people.
But we also don’t want to sacrifice one of the people we love.
That tweak to the premise makes Knock At The Cabin still watchable and enjoyable today.
***
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Drift Would
A cyborg and a spy fly into danger.
***
Drift is one of the best pilots in existence, and he has been assigned a perilous mission.
The G Model cyborg must fly to a distant planet, locate the sector-destroying superweapon the enemy is projected to be developing there, and obliterate that threat to the universe.
When Drift arrives at his destination and meets with an informant, he’s distracted by a mysterious human female seated in the shadows. She’s Drift’s genetic match, and she is the one being he’s destined to care for, claim, and protect.
She’s also a liar and a thief. And she might be working with the enemy.
Trusting her could kill him and everyone he cares about.
Liar. Thief. Seductress. Saboteur. Roshini has been called all of those things. And she has earned each label. She’s done some terrible things to safeguard the beings she loves.
A gray-eyed cyborg warrior with nimble hands and a shared need for speed won’t stop her high-risk activities.
She’ll sacrifice everything, including her lifespan, to complete her self-appointed top-secret assignment.
***
Drift Would is a standalone, enemies-to-lovers, Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a cyborg who loves to break speed records, a human spy with a talent for changing her appearance, and a foe intent on killing them both.
Buy Today:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Amazon Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/drift-would/id6476230561
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drift-would-cynthia-sax/1144659255
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/drift-would
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1508730
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Leave The World Behind
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about the movie Leave The World Behind and will contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this interesting end-of-the-world SciFi movie, you might wish to skip this post.
I had heard quite a few things about Leave The World Behind before we watched it.
I had heard there was no ‘ending’.
For both myself and the Dear Wonderful Hubby, the ending was solid. It was happy for one specific character. That character had one quest throughout the movie and that quest was completed. We also got a glimpse as to what the future held for the other characters. We were happy for the one character and we were satisfied for the others.
Another thing I had heard was there was no explanation for the incidents.
We thought the explanation given was sufficient (and thought provoking). Did it explain everything? No. But strange things happen during disasters.
The final main thing I had heard was the characters weren’t likable.
Julia Roberts’ character was EXTREMELY unlikable. She was a mean selfish person who verbally attacked other people constantly.
But that presented an interesting premise – what would you do if you were stuck in a disaster situation with a terrible person, if you had to semi-rely on that terrible person to not be terrible to you?
I thought the other characters had enough good in them for me to cheer for them and care what happened to them. I liked Mahershala Ali’s character and I REALLY liked Myha’la’s character. She nailed the young 20 something female. I know and love several people who are very much like her. (grins)
Anyhoo…the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I really enjoyed Leave The World Behind. It was a great spin on a disaster/apocalyptic movie.
***
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Strike Zone
A cyborg devoted to duty…and to her.
***
While attending a party, Kesser, the daughter of her planet’s leader, witnesses the abduction of her best friend and her best friend’s mate.
She’s determined to rescue them. Preferably without fracturing the fragile peace agreement her mom has crafted with the abductors’ planet.
The only issue is…she has never participated in a retrieval mission.
Searching for assistance, she approaches the mate’s guard. The male, with his big broad shoulders and deep growly voice, affects her like no other being ever has.
Kesser wants him. She trusts him. And she requires his stealth combat skills.
Desperately.
Strike is no guard. The D Model cyborg has been sent to the sector to discreetly investigate a potential planet-destroying situation.
When a curvy human female with big brown eyes requests his help with a rescue, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. She’s his genetic match, the one being he was manufactured to protect.
She’s also traveling to the next planet he has to search. He plans to claim his female while he fulfills his responsibilities to his kind.
Neither Strike nor Kesser realizes the dangers facing them are far greater than they imagine. Their enemies are converging, and one failed mission could doom the entire universe.
***
Strike Zone is a standalone, mistaken-identity, Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a cyborg warrior with a finely honed sense of honor, a human support being taking on her first dangerous mission, and an evil that threatens everyone in existence.
Pre-order Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Amazon Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/strike-zone/id6469583228
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strike-zone-cynthia-sax/1144231998
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/strike-zone-13
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1466811
Topics: Movie Reviews | Comments Off on Leave The World Behind
