Off to the Races, I mean movies.

Watching movies with writers suck. They are as bad as movie critics. Well, maybe not AS bad, but they, and by they I mean we, are pretty bad, I dont know any movie critics to compare it too. A while back, I had the desire to go see Cowboys and Aliens. Why, well because it has cowboys and aliens in it. Indian Jones, and James Bond, and aliens. Plus the preview looked pretty awesome.

So I gathered up some of my friends, Bobby McDaniel's from Wildly Urban, Jess Stork from Ink Spot Plot, Michael Sullivan and Robin Sullivan from Write to Publish. Now, Robin isn't a writer, but she is an editor, which makes her equally as bad.

The problem with writers, and editors, is that we have trained our brains to think critically about things like, plot, and tension, and rising action. We can suspend our ability for disbelief but we cannot seem to turn off the part of our brain that goes, hmmm, why did they do that, then.

Cowboys and Aliens was proof, to a large degree, that you can stock pile a tons of cliches on top of one another and still make a movie that's entertaining as all hell. I mean, you had the rouge bad guy, the tough ex military cattle rancher with a wussy kid, the worldly preacher man, the kid trying to prove that he is a man, bandits, and Indians. Who all band together to fight the aliens. It was a very typical cowboy movie, and a very typical alien movie mashed together.

Plus it did a hell of a job sexploiting (I think this is a word) some of the male characters--hello gratuitous ass shots of New James Bond--something Hollywood has been doing to woman for eons (well, for as long as Hollywood has been around) so it was quite an exciting/interesting/different change of pace.

But once the movie was over, and everyone had gone to the bathroom. We met, and started picking apart the plot. When she came out of the fire, it really suspended my sense of disbelief, etc...

The thing is, I think it takes a certain type of person to be interested in writing, and to actually write. I think you have to have a since of taste. You don't have to have good taste, although I think most writers do. You just have to have a since of what is good and what isn't. Then, you have to have an opinion, and perhaps a dash of arrogance.

The opinion and a dash of arrogance comes in with the fact that most writers tend to believe they have written something worth while, or else why would they expect others to read it.

Then we train our brains to think critically about what WE write. And think critically about the things other people write and ask us to critique. Which is all well and good, except, sometimes, you just want to go watch a movie.

What do you think it takes to be a writer? What movie/book etc thing have you read/watched/seen lately and really enjoyed?