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Name a "Mainstream BlockBuster" you actually like!

don't try to talk your way out of this, misterrrr-freakishly-obsessed-with-dan-brown. ow, I mean: you, martin. me, friend. friieeeeeeeend.
 
I was fortunate to have read the book (The Da Vinci Code) without having heard much about it. My sister had bought it. She read it. Said it was a fast, fun, easy read. Just what I needed at the time. An escape from some of the reality I was having to deal with at that time in my life.

My sister was right. It was fast, fun, and easy.

I guess my brain is brocolli, but I'd prefer it to be green beans....it's the magical fruit ya know... :D

I wonder how many people that read it, and liked it, read it well over a year ago before all the mass hype and hysteria?

And how many of the people that really hate it, read it after having heard all the hype? How much did the hype added to your opinon?
 
i read da vinci code in a day. i would not file it under "good literature" but under "compelling genre book (with religion/history/art thrown in)". i often devour mystery/police procedurals: they're 'brainless' yet i can't put them down until i finish them. luckily, i read pretty quickly. ;)

call me Broccoli Brain.

i second that post, martin.
 
harry potter is my blockbuster fav. i love them. love them. can't even wait for the half blood prince.
 
jenngorham said:
harry potter is my blockbuster fav. i love them. love them. can't even wait for the half blood prince.
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If you can't wait what do you do then? Write it yourself?
 
hay82 said:
If you can't wait what do you do then? Write it yourself?
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yes i am secretly writing a the 6th harry potter. it will be out days before rowlings. i'm gonna be rich!! rich i tell you!! rich!!
 
I can't remember what novella said about Jaws? I haven't read it, though unless the film left out a lot of literary high-jinks I presume it's a fairly straightforward thriller. Perhaps its success was due to it being the first to do the whole ravenous-beast-threatening-people-like-you thing? I looked out a couple of Amazon reviews of the book.

It's an old adage among screenwriters that good books often make bad movies, while bad ones often make great movies. And here's the proof. JAWS is a horrendous novel written in cheap and artificial prose, filled with boring stereotype characters, loaded with dopey descriptions of gore, and miserably structured. And just look what Spielberg did with it! Read the book only as a lesson about how to adapt bestsellers to the screen.
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Peter Benchley is a pretty good author, and the subject for this book is spine-tingling and horrific; however, the storyline doesn't echo the subject or the plot. The characters are two-dimensional, there is an affair that is entirely unnecessary (probably added in to make the book longer), and--oh, I hate to say it!--without the movie, this book would've been shoved to the back of dusty library shelves decades ago. The writing is pretty bland (honestly, I think that was done on purpose). The story itself moves along rather briskly, but is full of holes.
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Obviously, I'm being selective (overall the book gets 41 five-star reviews, 31 four-stars, 19 three-stars, 9 two-stars and 14 one-star), but just wanted to show that the book doesn't have universal acclaim. Of course all Amazon reviews are post-1999 so we will never know what people thought at the time. Perhaps that doesn't matter, as a book should stand the test of time anyway.

Interesting too to look at Benchley's other literary output: Shark Trouble, Shark Life, White Shark, The Island, The Deep, Beast... The question I suppose is: were sea-faring adventures all he could do, or did he feel restricted into repeating his previous successes over and over for the readership?
 
Novella just mentioned Jaws as a blockbuster she liked.

She did not however, make any comments on the style of writing or anything along the lines Benchley's abilities as a writer.
 
Jaws

I read Jaws when I was a kid on the beach and it scared the bejezzus out of me. I couldn't stop reading it. Also, it had some titillating sex scenes, which were really racy from my point of view. It was just different and memorable for me to be reading this gore-filled suspense book (Benchley does the suspense really well) instead of Beverly Cleary or Gone With the Wind. Remember, I was a kid, but every kid I knew read Jaws the same summer. And their parents did, too. It was the equivalent of a rollercoaster ride--something I probably would not enjoy now, but at the time it was scary and thrilling and "grown-up."
 
you know, it's funny..i see all these posts about how awful the da vinci code was and blah, blah..and i have to say..no, it wasn't a literary genius, by any means....but it was a good, quick read, made me think, i didn't believe what was written was factual by any means, but again, did get the ol' wheels in my head turning. i think for some, once it became such a huge controversy and everyone started to read it, that because it was so mainstream and because so many people did read it, i think that's in part why so many hated it. who knows, i liked it, so burn me at the stake for it. :D
 
so if you like dan brown, ok... then you have the brain of a piece of broccoli. but if you like dan brown and then say something like, "uuw I don't care if my brain is made of broccoli", then you have the brain of a piece of broccoli, and you're an assface.

that said... dan brown sucks ballz.
 
"so if you like dan brown, ok... then you have the brain of a piece of broccoli. but if you like dan brown and then say something like, "uuw I don't care if my brain is made of broccoli", then you have the brain of a piece of broccoli, and you're an assface.

that said... dan brown sucks ballz."


Well, now I need some clarification....I don't give a rats ass about Dan Brown. I have no desire to seek out and read any of his other books. All I've ever stated was that I read TdVC, and for me it was a light, fun, quick read that happened almost two years ago. I was not swept up in some great wave of emotion. I don't believe the book is anything but fiction. I did not even pay money to read the book. Dan Brown has not recieved one red cent from motokid. If I see the movie it will more than likely be a rented dvd when they come out as paying $7.50 to see it in the theater probably won't happen. I'm not calling for Dan Brown's elevation to saint, but I'm also not out to crucify the guy just for writting a book (if in fact he did actually write the book).


So does that elevate me to corn brain, or maybe spinach?
 
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