Ever After
With all of the buzz around Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent, I decided to watch Ever After again. This is one of my favorite fairy tale movies, and, although it is framed as a ‘historical recounting’, this is a fairy tale, a completely fictional piece of fun.
One of the things I love most about this movie is how the ‘evil’ stepmother is portrayed. She behaves horribly but I understand why she isn’t nice to Danielle (played by Drew Barrymore ). She earns my sympathy.
The Baroness, played wonderfully by Anjelica Huston, is an ambitious, proud lady. She values titles and wealth, and seeks to be close to the French court.
So why does she marry Gustave, a wealthy yet untitled rural landowner?
Because she loves him. She gives up her ambitions, her dreams, everything for him. Then she finds out that she is alone in this all consuming love, that Gustave will always put Danielle first. As he tellingly says to Danielle, “I may be a husband now but I’m a father first and forever.”
When Gustave leaves the manor, Danielle claims that they must wait for him to wave, that this will give them good luck. In a fit of jealousy, the Baroness refuses to wait, entering the building.
Gustave then suffers from a heart attack and falls from his horse. The Baroness runs to him, her guilt and worry painfully obvious. Did she cause this bad luck? Danielle arrives at his side first, adding to the Baroness’ guilt. She should have reached him first. She clutches him, crazed with worry.
Gustave turns away from his new wife, rejecting her, and tells his daughter, Danielle, he loves her. He dies with the Baroness heart wrenchingly wailing “You cannot leave me here.” She has given up everything for love and has been left with nothing.
The Baroness can’t blame the man she loved so she transfers all of her anger to Danielle, the daughter. Does she act like a bitch? Yes. Do I understand why she acts this way? Absolutely.
THAT, in my opinion, is how one crafts a great villain.
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Sinful Rewards 1
Cynthia Sax
Belinda “Bee” Carter is a good girl; at least, that’s what she tells herself. And a good girl deserves a nice guy—just like the gorgeous and moody billionaire Nicolas Rainer. He is everything she wants in a man.
Or so she thinks, until she takes a look through her telescope and sees a naked, tattooed man on the balcony across the courtyard. Hawke is mysterious, the bad boy she knows will bring only heartbreak. He has been watching her, and that makes him all the more enticing.
But when a mysterious and anonymous text message dares her to do something bad, she must decide if she is really the good girl she has always claimed to be, or if she’s willing to risk everything for her secret fantasy of being watched.
Is her mystery man the reclusive billionaire with a wild side or the darkly dangerous bad boy?
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sinful-Rewards-1-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B00I7V89H0
Barnes And Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sinful-rewards-1-cynthia-sax/1119055390
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The Chronicles Of Riddick (Or My Love Of Vin Diesel )
I love beast heroes, SciFi, and villains turned hero so it should come as no surprise that The Chronicles Of Riddick, a flick combining all three of these, is one of my favorite movies.
We were first introduced to the mysterious super sexy Riddick in Pitch Black. Riddick, played by the yummy Vin Diesel, is a bad ass alien warrior with freaky eyes and a seemingly cold approach to his fellow beings.
He’s not the hero in Pitch Black. He isn’t completely bad but he certainly isn’t a good being (or even a good Furyan). I really enjoyed that The Chronicles of Riddick picks up that storyline, showing the characters years later.
There are two scenes in The Chronicles of Riddick that I absolutely adore.
The first is the scene in the prison on Crematoria. Gehenna 5, in Assassin Mine and Unleashed Menage, is a nod to Crematoria. The ‘Who’s the better killer’ game with Kyra is dang sexy (I’ll never look at tea cups the same way). When Riddick tamed the wild inmate-eating beasts, claiming “It’s an animal thing”, I needed a cold shower. Riddick is the perfect beast hero, primitive, yes, but also highly intelligent.
I also loved the scene when they’re escaping from Crematoria. Kyra is climbing the mountain. The sun is rising. We know she won’t make it, not without help.
Riddick claims to be uncaring yet we see his conflict. If he risks his life to save her, he’ll have to admit he cares and open himself to the possibility of being hurt. He’ll also have a weakness enemies can use against him (which, of course, they do).
It is a character defining moment and because Riddick hasn’t always done what is ‘right’, we’re not quite certain what his decision will be.
I recommend The Chronicles of Riddick to beast fans (if you love Laurann Dohner’s New Species series, this is a movie for you) and SciFi fans.
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Darius, a Balazoid assassin, lives a solitary life structured by rigid rules. Nothing is more forbidden than his sexual attraction to Sabria, a sultry human female. Yet she’s all he thinks about. One kiss, one touch, one heart-stopping encounter in a darkened alleyway isn’t enough to satisfy his unnatural obsession. Breaking every rule on both of their planets, Darius captures Sabria and takes her for his breeder.
Sabria takes one look at Darius and she knows she’ll have him…multiple times, in all sorts of positions. She’ll voyage to the end of the known universes to prove she’s the only breeder he’ll ever desire, blazing his notions of how a female should behave.
Because the only force fiercer than a Balazoid assassin is a woman’s lust.
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Friends With Benefits
This weekend I watched Friends With Benefits, the Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake romantic comedy for about the gazillionth time. There are quite a few of f*ckbuddy romantic comedies and hands down, I think Friends With Benefits is the best of the bunch.
Why?
1. The extremely witty dialogue
Every time I watch Friends With Benefits, I pick up on some clever throw away lines. The mom telling Mila’s character that she didn’t want to twat block her. The jokes about liking Harry Potter not making you gay. The LA/New York jokes.
There are one time jokes and then there are jokes that repeat throughout the movie. Every time they get on a plane, there’s a different discussion about planes flying themselves. There are Guess My Daddy jokes with Mila’s mom. They make math jokes, referencing Justin’s character’s issues with math.
Which leads to the next why…
2. The characters are full
They’re not perfect. They, in fact, have very serious issues and they also have a past, a childhood, family, small imperfections like Justin’s character being unable to do math. They feel real yet are larger than life, more witty than any of us can ever aspire to be. Their relationship issues are very consistent, connected (they deal with similar issues in very different ways), and I could see how they are the only people able to help each other.
I believe that their love will last and I feel the chemistry between them. Mila and Justin look and act like a couple, as though they enjoy being with each other, are having fun together.
3. They change
Neither character is the same at the end of the movie. At first, they have a relationship based on sex without emotional support. Then they enjoy a relationship with emotional support and no sex. Finally, they’re able to tackle both at the same time, something they wouldn’t have been able to do at the beginning of the movie.
Have you watched Friends With Benefits? What was your favorite line?
Sinful Rewards 1
Cynthia Sax
Belinda “Bee” Carter is a good girl; at least, that’s what she tells herself. And a good girl deserves a nice guy—just like the gorgeous and moody billionaire Nicolas Rainer. He is everything she wants in a man.
Or so she thinks, until she takes a look through her telescope and sees a naked, tattooed man on the balcony across the courtyard. Hawke is mysterious, the bad boy she knows will bring only heartbreak. He has been watching her, and that makes him all the more enticing.
But when a mysterious and anonymous text message dares her to do something bad, she must decide if she is really the good girl she has always claimed to be, or if she’s willing to risk everything for her secret fantasy of being watched.
Is her mystery man the reclusive billionaire with a wild side or the darkly dangerous bad boy?
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sinful-Rewards-1-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B00I7V89H0
Barnes And Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sinful-rewards-1-cynthia-sax/1119055390
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King Kong (2005)
Being a romance reader, I always look for the hero in every movie, whether or not that movie is a romance. In the 2005 version of King Kong, my favorite character, the man I think is the hero is Captain Englehorn, played by the hunky Thomas Kretschmann . I know, I know this sounds like a bizarre choice but just hear me out.
At first, the sexy Captain doesn’t seem like a hero at all. He’s taking the film crew out to sea for the money, to pay his bills (not just his bills, his crew’s bills). He resists being a hero at every turn. Carl Denham, Jack Black’s character, has to bribe him to leave port quickly. When he hears Carl is wanted by the police, the Captain decides to turn back. He threatens to leave Skull Island without the film crew when they go ashore without his permission.
But he doesn’t leave. He sends his own crew to save Ann Darrow, Naomi Watts’ character. His crew is extremely loyal to him. People aren’t loyal to a leader unless they believe that leader cares about them. The Captain has clearly earned their loyalty in the past. Yet he risks the people he cares about to save a woman he barely knows.
The Captain arms his crew with weapons he owns. He then figures out how to down Kong. Does he profit eventually from the venture? Yes. At least, I hope so (we don’t see this onscreen). He’s also a big game hunter and receives a personal pleasure from bagging this VERY big game.
That’s not why he aids in the rescuing of Miss Darrow though (without the Captain’s crew, Jack Driscoll, Adrien Brody’s character, has no chance at rescuing the heroine). He’s assisting in her rescue because he believes this is the right thing to do and, in my eyes, that’s heroic.
My favorite line from the movie is…
Carl Denham: I’ve risked everything I had on this film.
Captain Englehorn: No Denham, you risked everything I have.
Who do you think is the hero in King Kong?
Nathan Lawford, Blaine Technologies’ chief financial officer, is known as the Iceman. He conducts his personal and business affairs without emotion, never allowing himself to become involved with anyone. When Nate sees something or someone he wants, he negotiates, paying a simple, set monetary price.
Now he wants Camille, the company’s green-haired intern.
Camille Joplin Trent never expected to be paid to pleasure the man of her dreams. She can’t quite figure out why this is a bad thing. Nate is intelligent, handsome, sophisticated, everything she’s ever wanted in a lover and never thought she could have. Their contract is for a month, thirty lust-filled days of making every sexual fantasy they’ve ever had come true. At the end of this month, the rules state their relationship will end.
Of course, Camille has never been good at following rules.
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The Wedding Planner
I re-watched The Wedding Planner on Saturday. This 2001 Romantic Comedy starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey is one of my favorite movies for a number of reasons.
1. There Are No Bad People
Both Steve, Matthew McConaughey’s character, and Mary, Jennifer Lopez’s character, are involved with other people yet these other people aren’t nasty or mean or undeserving of love. Mary genuinely likes Fran, Steve’s fiancée. She doesn’t fight with her, doesn’t say anything negative about her. There’s a mutual admiration and respect.
As reading and writing buddies know, I truly believe in women supporting other women. Many of my heroines have close female friends (Anna, Kat, and Camille, the heroines of He Watches Me, Flashes Of Me, and Breaking All The Rules, become best friends). Yes, there are some bad women in my stories but there are some bad men also. It takes skill to create a tension-filled story cast with nice people.
2. Both The Hero And The Heroine Are Imperfect
Mary doesn’t win the guy because she’s perfect. She wins the guy because they were meant to be together, her imperfections making her perfect for him. She’s a control freak and a bit obsessive. He’s a bit too casual about everything. She gives him structure. He teaches her to unwind.
I don’t write about perfect people. Perfect people are boring. My characters are rebels (Camille from Breaking All The Rules), rigid rule-setters (Nate from Breaking All The Rules), reality avoiders (Kat from Flashes Of Me), and obsessive cleaners (Bee from Sinful Rewards, releasing in July). These faults make them interesting.
3. There Are Some Great Quiet Moments
Romance, for me, isn’t the grand gestures or the roses or the poetic lines. It is when Steve gently, casually brushes the hair away from Mary’s face, when he kneels beside her as she’s lying on the couch, putting them both on the same level, when he sits beside her as they watch the movies in the park, neither of them needing to speak. I could picture him doing these things fifty years from now.
I like showing readers a slice of what the future might hold for couples. Years from now, Nate and Camille will be making dinner, dancing to music as their curry cooks. Kat will be sitting in Henley’s lap, watching surveillance footage with him. Blaine will be touching Anna under the tabletop at an important business dinner.
4. Not Everyone Is Paired Up At The End Of The Movie
The Wedding Planner has a happy romantic ending but it isn’t a happy romantic ending for everyone, only for Steve and Mary. It would have been so easy for the Director to pair everyone up, to force a happy ending for everyone, but that would have been, IMHO, cheesy and unrealistic.
I love to see everyone happy also so it is very challenging for me NOT to pair all of my characters up at the end of stories. It kills me that Yen, Camille’s boss, is alone. She deserves happiness also. But it would take an entire book dedicated to her to make that happy ending happen.
Have you watched The Wedding Planner? What did you enjoy about this movie?
Nathan Lawford, Blaine Technologies’ chief financial officer, is known as the Iceman. He conducts his personal and business affairs without emotion, never allowing himself to become involved with anyone. When Nate sees something or someone he wants, he negotiates, paying a simple, set monetary price.
Now he wants Camille, the company’s green-haired intern.
Camille Joplin Trent never expected to be paid to pleasure the man of her dreams. She can’t quite figure out why this is a bad thing. Nate is intelligent, handsome, sophisticated, everything she’s ever wanted in a lover and never thought she could have. Their contract is for a month, thirty lust-filled days of making every sexual fantasy they’ve ever had come true. At the end of this month, the rules state their relationship will end.
Of course, Camille has never been good at following rules.
Buy Now At Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-All-Rules-Erotic-Novella-ebook/dp/B00F2I2GXY
Buy Now At ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-breakingalltherules-1453084-149.html
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