Guest Blogging

I'm blogging at the Wedding Planners today. You can read my post about wedding movies here.

I spent yesterday at Amy's and had a great time. So did the kidlets. We hadn't seen each other in a couple of years so we had a lot of catching up to do about life, family and, of course, writing. Her pool is awesome, too!

Last night, my movie watching continued. I watched the special features from The Other Boleyn Girl which were very interesting. I loved hearing how Phillipa Gregory discovered the relatively unknown Mary Boleyn and listening to the history of the Tudar period.

Once I'd had my fill of historical trivia, I put on The Jane Austen Book Club. Hubby and I liked it. Of course, how could I not enjoy a movie that had one character comparing Austen to Star Wars Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back. I have the book and will probably read that one next. I'd like to see how the characters from the movie compared to the novel. I have a Jane Austen thread in my blinddatebrides.com book, too.

Now a pet peeve about the movies I've been watching. In two of the last three movies there were rock climbing scenes on an indoor rock wall. One in Fever Pitch and one in The Jane Austen Book Club. In both, the climbers fell. But the scenarios were so far removed from the reality of climbing I don't know if it was shoddy research or a convenience factor. Either way, it made me roll my eyes and wonder what the director and writing were thinking. Why? Both scenes were so wrong it wasn't funny.

In Fever Pitch, the belayer was just holding onto the rope. That is, she wasn't wearing a harness or have a belay device. In the Jane Austen Book Club, no one was even holding onto the other end of the rope. In case you've never climbed a rock wall at a rock gym, this is not how you do it.

Granted this could happen at some random playground wall or even a crag itself if the climbers were 1) totally inexperienced and 2) stupid, but not at the kind of gyms portrayed in the two movies.

No gym would ever allow these scenarios to happen because someone could easily injure themselves or die. There are rules that must be followed. I've climbed at three different rock walls and at all three you have to pass a belay test before you're allowed to belay anyone, so the scenario out of Fever Pitch is totally ridiculous.

I'm not quite sure what they were thinking with Jane Austen Book Club because anyone who'd climb without a belayer (unless they were self-belaying which may happen in gyms, but I've never witnessed it) is a total idiot. Granted that character was rash and extreme, but this definitely crosses the TSTL line. (To Stupid To Live.)

Okay, rant over.

Have you noticed mistakes in books or movies that just really get you mad? What were they?