Sunday, September 03, 2006

Three stars! And yet...

In my futile efforts to tie Behind the Camera: the Unauthorized Story of Diff'rent Strokes to the world of children's literature, I would like to focus on something that the finished movie and a finished book can share: reviews.

People
magazine gave the movie three stars (out of four). Not bad, agreed? In fact, it's great. Three stars means they say "watch this!" And yet really the only adjectives they used in the course of the review were "cheap and undistinguished." Now, it's true that I was vastly, vastly underpaid, as all writers are, so I'll agree on "cheap," but the point is that it's kinda a funny counterpoint.

Then again, there have been better ('above-average') and worse ('like I'm gonna put them in here? it's my blog') and more interesting ('cheesetastic') words used in various reviews. But you, of course, will be the final judges.

I know. I know. Some of you read this blog because of Fibs, and you're stuck in a pop-culture timewarp. Don't panic. This too shall pass (after 8PM on Monday, actually).

7 comments:

Lisa Yee said...

Wow, THREE stars! If you get one star from Publishers Weekly, it's a really big deal. Therefore, your film is a really, really, really big deal!!!

SilberBook-Blog said...

First of all: 3 stars in People is like Moses getting 9 out of the ten commandments. Big stuff. Second: I saw the promo for it on Thursday - and got hooked in a heartbeat. Can't wait to watch it - and to poke my 12 year old in the ribs and say, "I know the dude that wrote that."

It's been fun hearing your process on this - no apologies needed!

alan

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Greg...Great script!!

The Buried Editor said...

Well, I should only hope People would give my books 3 stars. For that matter, I think I'd just like People to know about my books . . .

But I digress. The show was excellent, and even though I knew some stuff about the cast members, there was lots I hadn't realized. My review is that it was well-researched, and, of course, well-written.

Congratulations on the good reviews and good show.

Disco Mermaids said...

Yo, Freep-Boy! I have to admit, I was so excited to watch "Behind The Camera"; however, after watching the first five minutes, I realized that it was just too good to watch alone (my visiting family had gone to bed very early...shame on them for choosing a 5am Tuesday morning returning flight!).

So, don't fret...I am planning on having Jay and Robin over for a "Greg-a-Palooza" night this week, where we can watch "Diff Strokes" AND "Little Big League".

Then, I'll give you my review. I know it's great...because I live by People Mag reviews. 3 stars is like Paula, Randy, AND Simon loving you!!

Congrats!

Eve

Greg Pincus said...

Thanks, y'all, for the support. And Eve... if you've seen five minutes, you've seen the credits, so really, you've seen the most important thing!

Don Tate II said...

I agree, it was well researched and written, but I wish they would have spoken to me about those afro wigs, beforehand. Congratz