A Working Man, Black Bag and Friends Buying The Mustard Prince
My wife and I saw a few movies this week. We first watched “A Working Man” starring Jason Statham, and it was actually a bit below my expectations. I was hoping for something more like Jason Statham’s previous movie, “The Beekeeper,” where it was just ridiculous, mindless fun and lots of action. “A Working Man” has a some really slow parts, and the pacing is a bit all over the place. One review said that the script has too much skullduggery when it needed more skull smashing, something that Statham excels at.
We also watched the movie, “Black Bag,” and this was a surprisingly good movie. The synopsis is: “When his beloved wife, Kathryn, is suspected of betraying the nation, intelligence agent George Woodhouse faces the ultimate test -- loyalty to his marriage or his country.” We were surprised at the run time, approximately an hour and a half. While the movie did not have much in terms of actions, it had strong dialogue, an intriguing story, and very interesting characters. The movie has an all-star cast including: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett and Pierce Brosnan, among others, and the movie really did live and die by their performances. This is not a movie that anyone is really talking about, but it is one of those good movies that is flying under the radar.
Some friends and acquaintances of mine have shown me pictures of receiving paperback copies of The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom. I am very grateful that they spent their hard-earned money to buy my book. I can only hope that they read it, or maybe their kids read it and enjoy it. It is one thing to write and publish a book, but it is another thing to know if readers enjoy it or not. I can only hope that with some advertising and creativity that a general audience would buy and enjoy my book as well.
There are some things that we come into with different expectations, and those expectations can be met, below or above what we expected. Movies, books and all entertaining work that way. There is a risk in putting something out, as it can have a big audience or a small audience, but that really is the risk that all creative types make.