Reviewing movies that I've seen lately.

When it comes to watching movies, I've tried my best to keep myself updated on most of the recent releases. I've tried to give them a chance and watch them, even though I'm not always that excited about seeing some of these films.

After all, as a screenwriter, it's always a good thing to be aware of the latest movies that are produced and released. Watching these films gives you a solid idea on how well - or badly - written most of these new movies are.

So below are four different films that I've managed to watch in the last few weeks. I've managed to watch 'Johnny English Strikes Back', a spy film 'Red Sparrow', 'Crazy Rich Asians' and an animated movie called 'Wreck It Ralph'.

In any case, the first movie is 'Johnny English 3', a James Bond parody starring Rowan Atkinson  that I watched with my friends. We watched this film during one of our pizza evenings, since we didn't have anything better to do. 

So when it comes to this movie franchise, I have to say that I haven't been that big of a fan of Johnny English movies. Even though Rowan Atkinson is a wonderful actor and a talented comedian, these Bond parodies just haven't been that exciting.

The biggest reason that Bond parodies in general don't work is that there's not much to 'spoof'. The original Bond movies (especially the ones with Roger Moore) already were kind of comedies, so there isn't much left to parody.

So not surprisingly, considering that this was the third Johnny English film, the writers had run out of ideas. There was no consistency in the story or its characters, and the movie felt like a collection of scenes from other spoof movies.

As a whole, especially when it comes to all those 'Naked Gun' scene thefts, I was pretty pissed. These thefts (like the driving school one) were so blatant and so uncreative, that I can't really recommend the movie for almost anyone.

The second film that I saw is 'Red Sparrow', a cold war thriller about a Russian ballerina-turned-spy. This movie, that stars Jennifer Lawrence is a film that I didn't really expect that much from and wasn't really excited about.

After all, since the reviews weren't that good (43% positive at Rotten Tomatoes), I thought that it wouldn't be any good. I'm not that big of a fan of the genre anyway, so I thought that the movie wouldn't have anything special to offer to me.

Nevertheless, once I saw 'Red Sparrow', it turned out that the film was definitely better than I had expected at first. It had a solid storyline, the pacing was rather relaxed and it was beautifully shot - which is always a good thing.

When it comes to the acting in the movie, especially when it comes to Jennifer Lawrence, it's clear that she's the real deal. She gives everything that she has in her role (including being nude), so you can't blame her for not committing to the movie.

The only real problems that I had with the film had to do with its violence and that its ending didn't make enough sense. There was no real reason to create a flashback montage (unnecessary and convoluted) to explain the final spy exchange.

Still, if you like the genre and liked the classic thrillers (Fred Zinnemann's Day of The Jackal), this might be a movie for you. The film is pretty violent, but if you can stomach the rough parts, you should likely give 'Red Sparrow' a chance.

The third movie that I saw is 'Crazy Rich Asians', a romantic comedy about a wedding. The film has a lot to do with Asian culture and how individuals don't get to make up their own minds when it comes to love and getting married.

When it comes to this movie, I had relatively high expectations for the film. It had gotten really good reviews from the critics and I also don't have that much against romantic comedies either - as long as they're well made.

Nevertheless, having seen the film, I have to say that 'Crazy Rich Asians' is a little bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed many aspects in the movie - especially the Asian culture stuff - but wasn't really sure about some other things in it.

By that I mean that even though the main storyline in the film is pretty interesting, its secondary storylines are pretty weak. They don't have enough story beats and don't get the focus and the attention that they would get in a better screenplay.

Still as whole, the reason that the movie is watchable is because of its premise. The 'ruthless' Asian culture sets up natural obstacles for our protagonists, which makes you root for them and gives this 'tired' genre some of the freshness that it desperately needs.

In that sense, even though the film is pretty stereotypical (it has its usual comic reliefs) you should give it a go and watch it. You should watch 'Crazy Rich Asian's, because despite its clichés, the good aspects in the film outweigh the bad ones.

The fourth and last movie is the animated film 'Wreck it Ralph' that I managed to see a week or so ago. I decided to watch the film, because I hadn't seen it before and because I noticed that they had made a sequel for it too.

So when it comes to the movie, the film (released in 2012) is about a character 'Ralph' who gets tired of being a villain in an arcade game.  In order to become one of the good guys, he goes on a journey to prove himself for others.

The biggest reason that the movie works so well is that the film and its characters are so likable. It's fun to watch Ralph's and Vanella's journey in the land of arcade games trying to reach their goals and defeating the bad guys.

The only clear flaw in the film has to do with its first act and its 'inciting incident'. The catalyst in the movie (Ralph hunting for the gold coin in order to join the club) feels pretty manufactured and isn't as strong as the writers perhaps thought it was.

Other than that, there are so many good things about this animated film. It's fast paced, its characters are likable, the humour in it is creative and especially the film's third act has quality story beats in it that I didn't expect to see.

In that sense, if you haven't seen 'Wreck it Ralph' yet, you should give it a go and watch it. You should watch the film, because even though the movie isn't perfect, as a whole, it's still better than most of the films that are out there. 

Update on my book project: getting feedback.

When it comes to my book writing project, it has to be said that it has taken a lot of work to make the story work. It hasn't been easy to make the story good enough so that I could feel comfortable about sharing it with others.

After all, if your draft isn't good enough, it becomes so difficult to let others check the quality of your writings. It's not easy to give them a chance to read the script and give feedback when there are too many problems with the story and how it's told.

Nevertheless, once I felt that my draft for the book was decent enough, I gave my reader a chance to take a look at it. I gave her (my manager) a chance to read the story, so that she could give me feedback on how to make it better.

So when it comes to the feedback that I got from her, I have to say that her feedback was really well thought out. She managed to find out different problems and noted whether these issues were really important or just minor issues that should likely be fixed.

In any case, when it comes to those 'less than critical issues', she noted that I needed to fix stuff like making sure that the characters sounded their age. I hadn't managed to polish the script so that the characters would always sound as believable as possible. 

The reason for this is that when you have a nine year old female protagonist in your story, you have to be careful with the language and the descriptions that you use. Kids don't understand all the things that we adults are able grasp when it comes to life.

In her 'token' feedback, there was also some other fairly minor, mostly language stuff that I needed to fix. These issues had to do with finding better words or sayings for situations that I had somewhat overlooked earlier in the process.

The good thing about all these 'less than critical' problems is that they aren't really that difficult to fix. Once you become aware of them, you can correct these mistakes pretty quickly without having to worry or stress about them that much.

However, the most important feedback that she gave me had to do with a thing that wasn't really that easy to fix. I hadn't thought about the plausibility of one of the scenes that was really crucial in the way the story was constructed.

By that I mean that there was a scene in the script - as it stood - that wasn't plausible (social service legal stuff). I needed to create a workaround for the problem, so that the scene would be plausible enough in real life too.

Not surprisingly, at first I wasn't feeling that confident about the situation that I found myself in. I wasn't that confident that I would be able to find a solution for the problem easily, since I felt that I would have to rewrite the scene almost completely.

After all, had I needed to scrub the scene entirely, I would have been in really big trouble. Since the scene in question happened to be a setup for another storyline, without the existing scene, I would have to come up with tons of new stuff for the story.

Fortunately, when it comes to fixing the problem and the plausibility issues, it didn't turn out to be that difficult to come up with a solution than I had thought at first. It wasn't impossible, even though I did have my doubts and even though I did have to work hard.

After all, as long as I managed to address all the points that my reader had brought up in her notes, I was okay. I just needed to come up with a solid workaround that made the scene plausible and that wasn't too out of character for my protagonist.

In that sense, now that I've gotten reader feedback and have written a new draft, it cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to go through this part of the writing process. It's crucial that you let others read your script and get that feedback at some point.

After all, even though it isn't necessarily easy to let others read your script, giving them an opportunity to evaluate your writings pays off. It will make it so much easier to see the problems in the story (character, language, structure, plausibility etc.).

In the end, that is what being a solid, professional writer really is about. It's about taking that chance and giving your readers the opportunity to take a look at what you've managed to do with your project and not chicken out.

After all, even though they might not be professional readers, that's not a reason to ignore them. You shouldn't be thinking that they're not good enough and that you need to have some kind of a 'guru' to review your script instead.

On the contrary, even though they might not know everything about writing, they still very likely know whether your story works. They know enough to tell whether you're on the right track and what are the things that you still need to improve.

In that sense, not giving them a chance will only lead to you hurting yourself in the process. Not giving them a chance to read will only hurt you and will make it much less likely that you'll create a story that has value and that is eventually going to be worth publishing.