FrankenScript :: Lee Gabel's Screenwriting Journal/Blog

Here’s a film with Kevin James and Vince Vaughn. Therefore, it’s a comedy. Wait. It’s not a comedy? We have to market it as a comedy or no one will ever go see it. Call it a pet peeve of mine, but marketing a serious drama as a comedy just because it stars comedians is [...]

The first Hoodwinked film performed very well compared to its budget. The sequel’s budget was doubled and the only thing that benefits is the look. Unfortunately the story just falls flat. The first film had an inventiveness to it. For a children’s film, and I am assuming the filmmakers were targeting children, there is a [...]

If my son wasn’t a fan of Star Wars, I would have never gone to see this in 3D. But he is a fan, due of course to me sharing parts 4, 5 and 6 (the only good Star Wars films) with him. I, of course, was one of the millions who saw Phantom Menace [...]

I like Kristen Bell. She’s talented, looks great and has great comedic timing. Much of the cast does as well. However the script they were given was just weak and rife with cliche. First of all, you know going in that it’s going to be a happy ending. That’s no spoiler. How about something different [...]

Damn. As a fan of Stephen King, I wanted to like this film/mini series. A lot. But when I lost count of the number of horror clichés used in the first 15 minutes, I resigned with a heavy heart that this was going to be a long, hard haul. In fact, I only stuck through [...]

Everything that made the first two chapters of this trilogy are missing from this weak, paint-by-numbers effort. Every attempt to destroy the Damien Thorne is thwarted effortlessly… but the movie has to end, right? That means the last attempt will succeed. But it’s not so much that he’s so powerful, it’s that I didn’t believe [...]