Posted by Haiqal Sari
Online Content Manager
Online Content Manager
Okay, before I start, let me just get one thing straight. I do NOT abhor romance flicks. In fact, I love them. Love them to the point that I proudly place (500) Days of Summer in the top five of my “all-time favourite films” list. I’ve watched everything from Titanic (overrated, but yeah, it fits the description) to 2011 Taiwanese hit “You Are the Apple of my Eye”. In short, romance films are very much in my system.
Alright, big-screen adaptations of books are fine. Harry Potter, Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings are just some of the many not-so-original works that have graced cinema screens and squeezed out my lunch money over the years. Yeah, you’re all pretty much verbally abusing me with the same old “humans are visual people, these movies have given life to my favourite characters” and all that fluff. But if there’s one thing that I can’t stand, it’s movie studios producing the same old “man-meets-woman” love story.
Alright, big-screen adaptations of books are fine. Harry Potter, Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings are just some of the many not-so-original works that have graced cinema screens and squeezed out my lunch money over the years. Yeah, you’re all pretty much verbally abusing me with the same old “humans are visual people, these movies have given life to my favourite characters” and all that fluff. But if there’s one thing that I can’t stand, it’s movie studios producing the same old “man-meets-woman” love story.
Doesn’t it piss you off? I don’t know about you, but I REFUSE to let a 90-minute money-grabber teach me how to love… ok I digress. You people are probably muttering “what an idiot, doesn’t he realize that all love stories are similar?” But excuse me, I’m talking about the CONCEPT behind it! 500 days of Summer makes it on my list simply because of its unorthodox and non-linear storyline that would’ve made Quentin Tarantino proud. Did you predict Summer Finn leaving Tom Hansen?
NO.
Did you predict the “Hi-my-name-is-Autumn” ending?
NO.
NO.
Did you predict the “Hi-my-name-is-Autumn” ending?
NO.
The basic storyline of a Nicholas Sparks movie
Set in a town in the American South (The Last Song), a really hot second kiss (The Notebook), a love triangle (Nights in Rodanthe), a war veteran (Dear John) and a character’s death (Message in a Bottle) are all par for the course in films based on his books. Doesn’t this man have better ideas? But more importantly, has the movie industry run out of adept scriptwriters to write their own romantic dramas?!
See what I’m talking about? As much as I’d like to blame Mr Sparks for his apparent lack of creativity and his insistence on giving women out there too many reasons to hope for too much, I can’t. This is a movie blog, not Oprah’s book club. The problem here is Hollywood, the ones producing this factory-line of redundant summer tear-jerkers.
What do you think?
Set in a town in the American South (The Last Song), a really hot second kiss (The Notebook), a love triangle (Nights in Rodanthe), a war veteran (Dear John) and a character’s death (Message in a Bottle) are all par for the course in films based on his books. Doesn’t this man have better ideas? But more importantly, has the movie industry run out of adept scriptwriters to write their own romantic dramas?!
See what I’m talking about? As much as I’d like to blame Mr Sparks for his apparent lack of creativity and his insistence on giving women out there too many reasons to hope for too much, I can’t. This is a movie blog, not Oprah’s book club. The problem here is Hollywood, the ones producing this factory-line of redundant summer tear-jerkers.
What do you think?