The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

BTW, I loved the Interview with the Vampire movie with Cruise and Pitt (I'm not a particular fan of either of them, but they were exactly right for their roles there), while I found the book pretty meh and depressing (the sequels were better).

I remember Anne Rice leading a small crusade against the movie for casting Cruise. In the end, she ate her words and said she was wrong. Today it would be all over social media. An army of Rice supporters would start a flame war and the movie would likely be cancelled. It's really a shame the way things have changed.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The best Dracula movie ever is Love at First Bite.

What about the Duckula animated series commissioned by UK C4?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I remember Anne Rice leading a small crusade against the movie for casting Cruise. In the end, she ate her words and said she was wrong. Today it would be all over social media. An army of Rice supporters would start a flame war and the movie would likely be cancelled. It's really a shame the way things have changed.

I sorta (very sorta) felt that way about Reacher. I mean...don't get me wrong, as a taller woman, it's impossible (Mission: Impossible) for me to forget that even barefoot, I would be quite a bit taller than Cruise by...3 inches-ish.

It's...I mean, I like a lot of what he did with the role, (both times) I really do, but if you've had an active life, ever fought martial arts or trained in that arena (I served), it's...it's impossible to ignore the fact that the "real" Reacher is like a foot TALLER than Cruise. Good actor, brought a lot of great entertainment to folks' lives over the decades but Reacher? sigh. Nyet.

(For that matter, the new kid--sure, he's big, but he's not remotely what I envisioned for the tall, rawboned, and rangy but huge Reacher, either. Oh, well. At least I believe he's strong.)

Hitch

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Hitch

the "real" Reacher is like a foot TALLER than Cruise. Good actor, brought a lot of great entertainment to folks' lives over the decades but Reacher? sigh. Nyet.

Yes, I agree. How Lee Childs agreed to allow Tom Cruise to play Reacher is a mystery. I guess he was just keen to see his novels turned into movies...

I do like the Reacher TV series, and I think it well done and they stayed true to the novels.
I think Alan Ritchson has the right look and temprament, I don't know why, but I guess my imagination has run wild with Reacher, and I still picture him as being bigger that Alan Ritchson's 6'3".

[Quoth]

Authors mostly have little to no control once a studio gets the film rights. See Ursula Le Guin's opinion of Earthsea!

BTW, reading Theodora Braithwaite Murder mysteries. She's 6′ 1″.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Yes, I agree. How Lee Childs agreed to allow Tom Cruise to play Reacher is a mystery. I guess he was just keen to see his novels turned into movies...

I do like the Reacher TV series, and I think it well done and they stayed true to the novels.
I think Alan Ritchson has the right look and temprament, I don't know why, but I guess my imagination has run wild with Reacher, and I still picture him as being bigger that Alan Ritchson's 6'3".

Well, if memory serves, REacher is meant to be taller than 6'3". said to be 6"5". My dad was 6'3" and while that's tall, it's not...it's not REACHER tall you know?

Now..it's been an age and a day since my first one, (myu first Reacher competence-porn indulgence) but I could have sworn that Raacher didn't look like Arnie-Conan junior, but rangier. More...more Burt Lancaster than bodybuilder. Not skinny; not bony arms or that nonsense. More Karl Malone (the postman) than Larry Bird, ya know?

ETA: or, if we're talking about build, maybe Scottie Pippen or Rodman? Yeah, Rodman, maybe.

Hitch

[DiapDealer]

He DID have pecs thick enough to stop a bullet.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

What about the Duckula animated series commissioned by UK C4?

That's not Count Dracula.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Authors mostly have little to no control once a studio gets the film rights. See Ursula Le Guin's opinion of Earthsea!

A lousy book made into a lousy movie.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, if memory serves, REacher is meant to be taller than 6'3". said to be 6"5". My dad was 6'3" and while that's tall, it's not...it's not REACHER tall you know?

Yep, you are correct 6'5"

Spoiler:

<h2>Jack Reacher: CV</h2>

<dl>
<dt>Name:</dt>
<dd>Jack Reacher (no middle name)</dd>

<dt>Born:</dt>
<dd>29 October 1960</dd>

<dt>Height:</dt>
<dd>1.95 metres</dd>

<dt>Weight:</dt>
<dd>100-113 kg</dd>

<dt>Size:</dt>
<dd>127cm chest, 3XLT coat, 95cm inside leg</dd>

<dt>Eyes:</dt>
<dd>Blue</dd>

<dt>Distinguishing marks:</dt>
<dd>Scar on corner of left eye, scar on upper lip</dd>

<dt>Education:</dt>
<dd>US Army base schools in Europe and the Far East; West Point Military Academy (1979 to 1983)</dd>

<dt>Service:</dt>
<dd>US Military Police, thirteen years; first CO of the 110th Division; demoted from Major to Captain after six years, mustered out April 1997 with rank of Major after seven years</dd>

<dt>Service awards:</dt>
<dd>Top row: Silver Star, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit
<br/>Middle row: Soldier’s Medal, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
<br/>Bottom row: ‘Junk awards’</dd>

<dt>Last known address:</dt>
<dd>Unknown</dd>

<dt>Family:</dt>
<dd>Mother, Josephine Moutier Reacher, French national; Father, Career US Marine, served in Korea and Vietnam; Brother, Joe, five years in US Military Intelligence, Treasury Dept.</dd>

<dt>Special skills:</dt>
<dd>Small arms expert, outstanding on all man-portable weaponry and hand-to-hand combat</dd>

<dt>Languages:</dt>
<dd>Fluent English and French, passable Spanish</dd>

<dt>What he doesn’t have:</dt>
<dd>Driver’s licence; credit cards; Federal benefits; tax returns; dependents</dd>

</dl>

Originally Posted by Hitch

Now..it's been an age and a day since my first one, (myu first Reacher competence-porn indulgence) but I could have sworn that Raacher didn't look like Arnie-Conan junior, but rangier. More...more Burt Lancaster than bodybuilder. Not skinny; not bony arms or that nonsense. More Karl Malone (the postman) than Larry Bird, ya know?

From Never Go Back, Ch 35...

<p>‘How much do you work out?’</p>

<p>‘I don’t,’ he said. ‘It’s genetic.’ Which it was. Puberty had brought him many things unbidden, including height and weight and an extreme mesomorph physique, with a six-pack like a cobbled city street, and a chest like a suit of NFL armour, and biceps like basketballs, and subcutaneous fat like a Kleenex tissue. He had never messed with any of it. No diets. No weights. No gym time. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, was his attitude.</p>

So I interpret that as more of an Arnold Schwarzanegger look.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Karellen

So I interpret that as more of an Arnold Schwarzanegger look.

Hmm... Does anyone know if it's even possible in real life? To look like Arnie without having done absolutely anything to get that look?

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Hmm... Does anyone know if it's even possible in real life?

Haha, I guess that is why it is called fiction.
If we stop suspending our belief, then Reacher should be serving 20 consecutive life sentences for everything he has done.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Haha, I guess that is why it is called fiction.
If we stop suspending our belief, then Reacher should be serving 20 consecutive life sentences for everything he has done.

Of course. I just wondered if it's really possible to look like a bodybuilder purely because you're some kind of a genetic freak, without working out and eating junk food. I know it's possible to have some muscles genetically, even without really doing anything. But to look like Schwarzenegger, that's a whole other level.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Hmm... Does anyone know if it's even possible in real life? To look like Arnie without having done absolutely anything to get that look?

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Of course. I just wondered if it's really possible to look like a bodybuilder purely because you're some kind of a genetic freak, without working out and eating junk food. I know it's possible to have some muscles genetically, even without really doing anything. But to look like Schwarzenegger, that's a whole other level.

A long long time ago...when I was young and all that, I used to hang at Gold's, one summer, yes, that Gold's. And I lifted--never like the boys or like Cory, but I believed then (and still do) in weightlifting for strength and fitness. Does wonders for any number of things. Anyway...

I can tell you, that while some folks are definitely born to be mesopmorphs (the large economy-size bodybuilders like Lee Haney, Arnie, et al) and some are ectomorphs (like the famous Frank Zane, or yours truly--if I managed to put on eight lbs of muscle, we had a party), NO, nobody on god's green earth looks like Arnie, or Lee, or Reacher (actor playing same), without a crap ton of time at the gym. OR, sure, he could be a full-time, mostly-manual farmer, plowing the fields behind his oxen and ...I mean you get it.

Muscles grow in response to stimulus and stress--work. If you want a larger bicep, you do bicep curls, or you work at the docks, lifting this and that in a motion similar to a bicep curl, all day long. If you want thicker ARMS, you also work the triceps (that saggy thing that hangs down on older ladies, when their arms go to s**t), to build THAT up and add to the mass and the illusion of mass.

If you don't weight lift, train religiously, with those arms, you get arms like...well, Karl Malone or Pippin or Serena Williams--sure, you get some nice-lookin' muscle and strength, but you don't look like the dude playing REACHER. You just don't. Nobody does. It takes work, lots of it--hours in the gym, not weekly be damn near daily, stressing those muscles, tearing down the microfibers, building them back up, FEEDING them with protein and all the rest, to force muscles to respond to it and build up that large.

Could Reacher be big? Sure. Could that be baked into his genetics? Sure. Will he keep that and be like...Ghidora, king of the monsters, without work and maintenance? HELL NO. I'm all for suspending disbelief, but I always have to skim over the "Reacher just looks like this and does nothing to maintain it" horsepucky.

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

[Rellwood]

I had a "come to Jesus" moment earlier this year when cleaning. I packed up my tall bookcase full of beloved books, paperbacks, hardbacks, etc. and took them to the Goodwill. Why? My vision has gotten so bad that even with glasses the text is too small. I have been relying on a Kindle set at font level 6 (which is a lot bigger than "large type").

It's ok for the most part because the books that I would re-read are all available in e-book format, except for one book (that I know of now),

"On Leaving Charleston" by Alexandra Ripley. Still not in ebook format.

I am about to go and buy it and send it to one of those companies that convert books to an ebook format.

I hate this. I have been a serious reader all my life, and now being forced to give up the printed page in favor of the e-reader sucks.