The Good, the Bad, The Weird: a Blipview

Keeping with the meandering nature of this blogadoo. Today, I offer a nano movie review (a blipview).  Anyone who remembers Max Headroom should get the reference.
I am one who avoids reviews with synopses, so no worries, if you haven't seen the film, but plan to, I doubt my blipview will give anything away. I have been impressed by the risks taken lately by Asian cinema...

If you liked Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, then The Good, the Bad, The Weird by Kim Ji-woon is for you.

Three plates of double chocolate cinematic fudge.

Big screen and 5.1 surround: HIGHLY recommended.

Note: probably not a film for horse lovers or people who don’t enjoy watching other people in painfully painful--pain.

Bang, you’re dead.

This week's opening line...
I was twenty-three before I discovered the French were dead wrong about kissing.
Munk's "Opening Line" is yours to keep, use it. Munk

Rules, Rules, Rules

Cut words to make more sense. Drop adverbs for purity. Stop telling, start showing. Put an inciting incident in the first chapter. Know each of the character’s agendas. Use dialogue to drive the story. Find a unique voice. Write an outline. Don’t repeat words. Remove small talk. Stay tight (one of my favorites by the way). Use similes. Watch your tents (this one confuses me). Pace, find balance. Don’t change your POV mid-paragraph. Eye before EEE. Don’t fragment. Use a legible 12-pt font, headers on each page and DOUBLE SPACE… know your rules dammit...........and then break a few.

Who has a rule they would like to share?

This week's opening line...

From what Jurgen could tell, the barn dance was going well.

Munk's "Opening Line" is yours to keep, use it. Munk

Sensory Underload

Have you ever looked over the edge, just to give yourself a thrill? Have you ever thought what it might be like to freefall without a parachute? Terminal velocity must feel a lot like the weightlessness of outer space—but a whole lot louder. I think the wind would sort of mess up the experience for me. I don’t enjoy traveling, at speed, in the backseat of convertibles. The thought of it, the notion of skimming along at 70mph with the top down is engaging enough, but the reality is shaken by the wind. Pushing aside the atmosphere at that velocity generates a great deal of turmoil. Nitrogen, oxygen and argon molecules racing against my eyes, slamming my hair against my scalp and coursing through my ears is fatiguing. The only relief is to stop. And even then, a sort of sensory underload persists, like a hangover buzzing in my ears and dulling my existence…  Hmmmm… coming full circle, I’ve just realized that I began this notion with a terminal velocity freefall. What would the stop at the end of that trip feel like?

Munk’s opening lime,

It was said that everything in Citruscine smelled of pine and tasted of pepper—Lyman just had to visit.

Munk

Munk's "Opening Line" is yours to keep, use it. Munk

Munk Manners

Last week I was bequeathed a blog award by the lovely Doctor Kang. As such, I am compelled to bestow a bequeathing of thine own.  It is called the “Backatcha” and it is just like it sounds; a wimpy response to a truly pay-it-forward effort. It is also one of the riskier awards in the blogashpere, because it involves my entering the recipient’s name in my “Opening Line”.  So, if you do not want to see your name show up in my opening line, best not be bequeathing Munk for any awards.  Keep in mind I like to keep the opening line interesting, and I therefore take expansive liberties. After all, what is an opening line if not provocative? 

Without further ado… Munk’s Backatcha award for June… Backatcha Lydia.

The discovery of the cadaver’s additional orifice came as no surprise to Coroner Kang, but what was that parked inside – a key?

Munk's "Opening Line" is yours to keep, use it. Munk

Booker Obtuse

Travel far enough away from the Earth’s surface and the truth about its rugged terrain is revealed. Our planet is a near perfect sphere and is as smooth as polished stone. At odds with the endless vacuum of space we humans cling tenuously to the Earth's fragile crust; spinning away our days sandwiched between a sea of molten rock and an impossibly thin film of atmospheric perfection. 

For us to survive, it all has to work. The ice, the rain, the steam, omnivores, herbivores, carnivores, hosts, parasites, predators and prey – symbiosis is real – and all living things adapt. We adapt, or evolve, to survive. It has been said that evolution, based on chance, is too slow.  These voices claim that our mere presence on Earth proves the existence of a guiding force which compels living things toward higher and higher levels of physical order. Were this force to be concentrated in any single life form, even a simple one, we might all be doomed.

It is comforting to know that as living things evolve, so do heroes.

Munk's opening line:
With the stationary bike peloton raging, Guthrie decided to make his move.

Munk's "Opening Line" is yours to keep, use it. Munk

Trashy Souls and Talking Roses

When I was 6 or 93,

I met a rose that said to me,

Don’t turn around lest you shall see,

A monster that will never be.

I took that flower’s dreadful dare,

And spun to lock the beast in stare,

But the rose’s honor had been fair,

When I swung to look, found nothing there.

Munk's opening line:

For the third time in a week, careless Freddie found the shiny part of her soul in the trash bin. 

Munk's "Opening Line" is yours to keep, use it. Munk

Monkeys Can’t Fly

Monkey’s can’t fly and neither can you (at least with your arms using feathers and glue)

But don’ t be down trodden, don’t sink into blue, so much that you are, and so much that you do,

is bounded by precept and not really true.