Thoughts by Chip and Orson Scott Card

I completely agree with what OSC writes about the Ocean’s 12 (Full Article Here):

The big weakness in the 2001 Ocean’s 11 was that the caper was a cheat. We never understood what the plan was in the first place, and when it was over, they actually had to flash back and show us the entire thing again, only this time letting us see what was really happening.

But at least we saw the scenes as experienced by outsiders who didn’t know what the hidden caper was.

In [Ocean’s 12], it’s not even a cheat to tell you that the real caper is already over by the time we see the events that seem to be the caper.

The thing is: In a movie, the audience only knows what you show them or tell them. So there’s nothing clever about “fooling” us by not showing us any of the key events.

What would have been clever is letting us see the real events, only we don’t realize what we’re seeing until the reveal. That way the revelation doesn’t just come out of nowhere. We feel as though we could have known what was really happening. You want to see it again.

This is what I was saying in the parking lot after the movie. It sucked because nothing mattered. There were amusing parts with individual actors but the whole thing was pretty pointless for me.

I have a similar problem with a lot of sitcoms today. It is very easy to make funny jokes when one writes a bunch of dumb characters who do dumb things. Dumb people are funny. That’s easy and it is a cop-out. I feel that any of my friends could write a funny sitcom that compared with most of the crap that is on TV. We’re funny people. But, what impresses me are the shows like Arrested Development and similarly, Seinfeld (although, I don’t like it as much as everyone else does). The enjoyment of these shows for me comes from the elaborate setup for jokes that you never see coming (or do see coming but still think are great). Arrested Development will have funny little things that all lead up (sometimes episodes later even) to really funny big things. All the Blue Man Group stuff. The Rock/Paper/Scissors fight. Dear god, “Afternoon Delight”. So good. So good.

Of course, I’m just babbling while watching Saved By The Bell and laughing so I probably don’t know what the heck I’m talking about. I’m just avoiding starting my day.

ChipUpdate:
Scooley brought over a movie called In July last night. Kate came over. Self-Help Susan and Sara came over afterwards. Susan and I read each other TV trivia questions from this trivia thing my mom gave me. We both have WAY too much TV knowledge in our brains.

In The Heat of the Night just started. Is this what vacation is like? I like it.