Much Ado About Nothing And Things We Now Know

By Cynthia Sax on August 15, 2025

Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Much Ado About Nothing (the 1993 Kenneth Branagh movie) and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this movie based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare, you might wish to skip this post.

I’ve been rewatching favorite movies as a way to deal with this often stressful world.

When I first watched Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, I enjoyed it.

Stars. How could I not? It is a classic story and it stars some of the best actors and actresses of our times – Denzel Washington, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, Kate Beckinsale.

Much Ado About Nothing is fun and light and should have been a great rewatch.

I couldn’t finish it.

Because we now know that Kenneth Branagh, the male lead, didn’t respect Emma Thompson, the female lead, AT ALL. His jabs at her as his character were too dang close to real life.

I didn’t find them amusing.

And since their real life relationship was destroyed, hurting Emma Thompson, I no longer believe the love between their characters will last.

All I see when I look at them together is…sadness and pain.

Combine that with the disbelief I hold that Keanu Reeves could ever be a truly evil character and the movie now falls apart for me.

And that’s okay. Some movies and stories don’t last.

They give us happiness when we first experience them and that’s enough.

Stars. That’s more than enough. That is AMAZING and a gift.

It is privilege to make people smile once with our art.

Making them smile years later with the same art is a rarity.

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The Matrix Resurrections And Reviving A Series

By Cynthia Sax on July 1, 2022

Note: I will talk about The Matrix Resurrections in this post and there WILL be spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this movie, you may wish to skip this post.

The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I recently watched The Matrix Resurrections. I had mixed feelings about watching this film. I felt the series was done.

But I was SO glad I watched it because…

This was all about the romance between Neo and Trinity.

AND

They get their solid happy ever after, which greatly pleased this romance reader. (smiles)

The creators also did some brilliant, brilliant things to tie this movie into the others. There were images taken from the other movies. Characters returned or were ‘reborn.’ One favorite baddie got his vengeance.

Yet there was freshness to the story. There were fascinating new characters. The question of whether you and I are truly living in the Matrix resurfaces.

Best of all, there was character growth, especially with Neo and Trinity. They aren’t the same beings they were in the first Matrix movie. They are dealing with different choices. The power dynamic between them changes.

It is a study on how to resurrect a series, how to add to it after time has passed.

I highly recommend it to series writers.

***

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Provoking Odium

A Beautiful Cyborg

While accompanying his leader on a mission, Odium, an E Model cyborg, hears a distress call over the communication lines. The voice on that message makes his circuits surge with energy and all his systems light up. He has to respond to the mysterious female, would risk his lifespan and the lifespans of everyone on board their ship to protect her.

A Human Female Others Call Beast

Briella gained her nickname due to her flying abilities, her fearlessness, and her scarred countenance. Her verbal-only relationship with the sexy cyborg who answers her distress call is a steamy yet short-lived fantasy. His kind is physically perfect, and she is…not. He will uncover that truth when…if they survive the attack upon her freighter.

Provoking Odium is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.

It features a human female intent on remaining mysterious, a cyborg warrior determined to uncover her identity, and an enemy seeking to destroy them both before they have the opportunity to meet.

Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NRXGLFW

Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09NRXGLFW

Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B09NRXGLFW

Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/provoking-odium/id1605490349

B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/provoking-odium-cynthia-sax/1140894003

Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/provoking-odium

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1127119

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