Jaws by Peter Benchley – 1974
If you haven’t read Jaws I would urge you to do so. If you have no inclination to read it because you think it’s probably just a pulpy and poorly written airport novels, the only value of which was to spawn Hollywood’s annual summer blockbuster tradition… think again. Not only is Jaws none of those things, but it’s one of the very best novels I’ve ever read.
I’ll be honest: the quality of Jaws really surprised me too. When I picked it up I had no idea how good it was going to be, because like most people I saw the movie first, and it’s sometimes difficult to get that Hollywood taste out of your mouth. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a very good movie, but the book goes in to a lot more detail and does almost everything better.
Yes, Jaws is essentially a book about a killer shark, but it also explores plot threads that the movie doesn’t even touch upon, including the marital problems between Brody and his wife, and the tension between Brody and Quint. The book even includes a bunch of f-bombs which are (for obvious reasons) conspicuously absent from the movie. All of these things and more make the novel feel like a more adult-oriented experience, and a more worthy and realistic one as a result.
There are very few television cartoons that appeal equally to children and adults, but Rugrats is one of those exceptions. Of course, this didn’t even begin production until I was at the latter ends of my teens so perhaps I’m not the best judge of straddling demographics, but I’ve watched Rugrats with my five-year old nephew and laughed right along with him.
Dude, Where’s My Car? was the absolute favourite movie of one of my ex-girlfriend’s. Oh, how she would laugh when she watched it. The problem however is that Dude, Where’s My Car? is an absolutely terrible movie – the kind of terrible that makes a guy re-evaluate his relationship choices. In fact, this movie may very well be the reason she is my ex-girlfriend*. It’s that bad.
I could probably be rightfully accused of having a predilection for those authors whose books I am already familiar with, so it’s infrequent that I read a novel by someone that not only have I never read before, but someone that I have not even heard of before. Mister X is one of those novels, by one of those authors. As it turns out, Lutz is a pretty popular writer as well – who knew?
Medical dramas are almost as much of a television staple as their legal counterparts. Chicago Hope had the dubious pleasure of debuting on the same day as that other medical juggernaut of the nineties, which was probably at least part of the reason that this one was cancelled after six seasons and the other one went on for a few more.
Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat: Keanu Reeves is probably not even his mother’s favourite actor, and if he ever wins an Academy Award for acting it will be a very poor year in cinema indeed. However, in The Gift, as an asshole wife beater who the audience is not supposed to like anyway, he is actually a very good and believable choice. If this isn’t his best performance, it’s certainly top three.
I could easily lie and say that I remember all about this novel, but the truth is the only thing I know about The Mystery of the Crimson Ghost is that I read it as a child.
Shark was only given two seasons and fewer than forty episodes, and is another in the lengthy line of television shows that was cancelled far too early. I’m not saying that every new programme should be given half a dozen years on our screens before viewers decide whether they want to continue watching it – that is ridiculous – but some shows need a bit of a longer run up than others.
-- Purveyor of Imagination -- 