FrankenScript :: Lee Gabel's Screenwriting Journal/Blog

The thing that my son loved about this film was that it was a big mystery getting solved piece by piece. The story draws you in, and you want to see it through to the end to see the mystery solved. We don’t really understand why this story begins, but that’s not really important, as [...]

This is a nice, simple family film with a good message. The story is one you’ve seen before; the coach that needs to redeem him/herself, the (insert sport here) team that needs to accept, forgive and work together to transform themselves from losers to winners. Cut and dried, stock film structure. So what’s to recommend? [...]

This is a great film that will appeal to young and old alike. Tom Hanks captures how a kid acts and talks perfectly. It makes no judgements against kids or adults, and it confident in its ability to make the audience smile and laugh. There’s real stakes here, and that helps make the story even [...]

There are a few problems with this film, the biggest being the two separate stories competing against each other. Other problems are characters that are only there to serve a scene or two and are not woven into the story as well as they could. Everything feels superficial, yet it looks fantastic, as all super [...]

I was surprised when I realized that this film was directed by Cary Fukunaga, the same director as Sin Nombre, which is a completely different genre. The film is well directed and shot, the performances are strong, but I just could not get into this version. Everything felt cold. Even when things were sunny it [...]

This film is a marvel of story, live action and animation long before CG became commonplace. There is so much happening in this film, you’ll probably still be finding new things to see after the third or more viewing. The way the filmmakers have captured cartoons interacting with real actors is almost magical, and represents [...]