First Blog of February - WHOO!

Now that I have seen "Stripped to Kill," I thought I would do a quick review of the movie.

I'm sure that many of you who, like me, like to watch horrible movies so you can laugh & make fun of them, wanted to watch the movie simply b/c of the title.

Well, if you love horribly campy '80s movies, this flick is definitely suited to your tastes. If, on the other hand, you're more into current pop culture or movies that are actually good & might withstand the test of time, avoid this movie at all costs.

First of all, there are a lot of long stripper sequences. My comment, while watching, was that "They're not dancing - they're doing gymnastics" - which is great for a strip club, but still. I felt like I was watching girls whose former dreams of Olympic gymnastic competition were quashed, and the logic of this film dictated that their only course of action was to subsequently hump a stripper pole.

Then, there's the hard-ass female protagonist cop, who's convinced to try out for amateur night as an undercover & get all the information the strippers don't want to tell the cops by her partner (as a joke). B/c strippers don't trust cops, you guys. Not even when they're being killed off, one by one.

The best part of the movie, in my opinion, is the amateur night scene wherein female protagonist cop (fpc) "dances" for the first time... That scene, to be fair, is not gymnastic, either. It's just terrible. I didn't even know it was possible to lack the amount of rhythm that is portrayed in the movie. It's almost painful to watch it... & definitely funny.

There's also this awesome dialogue, such as:

mpc: I can't handle all this emotional stuff.

fpc: Then make me stop.

mpc: How do I do that?

fpc: You're a cop; figure it out.

(leads to make-out scene)

The end of the movie wrapped up extremely quickly, and I was left with the same sort of abrupt feeling by the very ending that I received upon first reading the Iliad & the Aeneid. Due to the campiness of the movie, I doubt that this was done with any attempt at literary pretension. It was probably done b/c a popular TV ending to shows in the '70s & '80s was to end on a freeze frame very shortly after the suspense was lifted.

To any interested parties, there is a sequel.

Have you seen the movie? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments! Or about any campy movies you've seen - particularly if they're hilarious!

The Power of a Great Title

I was innocently perusing the aisles of Family Video with the fiance, when he noticed that Shaft in Africa is on sale: $2.95 for the movie by itself, or 2 for $4 if we found another movie that doesn't rent well from the 2 for $1 section. Because I was feeling indulgent, like Mildred Pierce, I decided to get my fiance what he wanted & hope that he wouldn't kill someone & blame it on me later.

Obviously, we HAD to look for another movie. I mean, why pay an extra 95 cents when you can pay an additional $2? That's right - we're saving the American economy, people.

As we continued searching, I came across this:

I showed it to the fiance, who was all: "We have to get that!" & since I agreed, we did.

Now, I haven't SEEN Stripped to Kill yet, but with a title like that, it's obviously pretty freakin' hilarious. & so it got me thinking about titles.

I literally bought this movie b/c the title promises so much enjoyment being added to my life. Unfortunately, I pretty much suck at titling my stories - I am way too unoriginal to come up with a gem such as Stripped to Kill. Often, however, unless an author has an arresting cover (which, let's face it, authors basically have no control over. & by basically, I mean definitely), the title of a work is one of the first things the public sees.

So if I have a crazy-fun romp of a tale wherein the protagonist caves in to any & all road rage before having her car taken away by parents who finally decided to parent & is then subjected to the whims of being chauffeured by someone with even worse road rage... but just title it ROAD RAGE... it probably won't reach the audience intended, or as vast an audience as it could receive.

Does anyone have any suggestions with regards to titling projects?

Maybe next time, I should write down adjectives describing my project on slips of paper and randomly draw a predetermined number from a hat, then smush them together into a title. Or insert the word "ninja" into all my titles, especially when there are no ninjas in the story at all. Yeah. I should probably totally do that.