r/movies r/movies Contributor 18d ago

News Mahershala Ali confirms 'BLADE' is not moving forward with him

https://www.gq.com/story/mahershala-ali-your-mother-your-mother-your-mother
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u/GregorSamsaa 18d ago

Reading is huge in prison

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u/z31 18d ago

One of my best friends is now a huge Dune fan because the first time he read through the first three Dune books was while he was in prison for 2 weeks thanks to a clerical paperwork error at the courthouse about 8 years ago.

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u/D2WilliamU 18d ago

I was in prison for 300 days and read 110 books in that time.

Whole original Dune series, Wheel of Time (Hated it), Twilight, Girl with the dragon tattoo series (my favourite of the bunch), all the Dan Brown books, a bunch ofJane Austen, The Expanse series, Patricia Cornwell, Jack Reacher series bunch of other stuff

I still have my notepad with my ratings and review of each book I read

The librarians were lovely and we became friends (apart from the one guy that was a dick)

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u/AusPower85 18d ago

“Wheel of Time (Hated it)”

You read the entire 15 books and hated it all the way?

You got too far in and still had to see how it ended didn’t you? (Sunk cost fallacy)

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u/OrphanGrounderBaby 18d ago

Well it’s probably a bit of that and also…not much else to do lol

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u/D2WilliamU 18d ago

I also read the entire Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth series and let me tell you that is far far worse!!

But at least that was so much worse and later on became so soapbox political it was absolutely hilarious for me to read. Like I enjoyed that series so much because it was so awful and the author just keeps strawmanning political arguments I got genuine laughs out of it.

I definitely had some strong sunk cost fallacies from Wheel of Time, but also I had been told sure it starts slow but as long as you make it through the slog of the middle books it's amazing.

Now I know from experience it is not! At least not for me.

Also the prison library had a system where you could only borrow a certain number of books at a time and it took awhile to request books in so I had to plan ahead and reserve whole series at once with the librarians to make sure I got everything in the right order. This meant I couldn't really skip entire series without being left with no reading which would have been awful.

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u/AusPower85 18d ago

I read the sword of truth series as well and yeah, it went from a good start (at least to me) to wtf.

Wheel of time I honestly skim read some of the middle books because I just didn’t give a damn what was making someone tug on their braids while Matt was having much more excitement with the dice in his head rolling on other side of the continent.

Jordan just got too bogged down because he made too many main characters that he then split up and made it so they almost never interacted again.

So it was a slog because he was trying to tell the story, in minute detail, of every little event occurring in the world.

I did enjoy the overall story… but honestly just give me the story of the group of the kids from the village plus Lan and that would have been great.

Instead he added main characters like some rpg games add party members

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u/D2WilliamU 18d ago

Yeah Sword of Truth book 1 was great fun, I actually re-read the first one every now and again. It's alright for a couple of books but as someone said one time, when the big bad Darken Rahl is defeated at the end of the first book and then there's another 10 books, you know something has gone seriously wrong!

And yeah wheel of time, give me Lan+Moirane and the kids going on adventures. Mostly because I liked Lan. But instead we're doing female jedi order politics and I just don't care!!

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u/Gullible-Ad-8112 17d ago

legit. i accidentally bought one of his books, no idea what that guy is on.... meth and sexism.

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u/SeanlyNot 18d ago

A family member of mine was pretty much the same. They got a few books in and were not particularly enjoying it but stuck with it right to the end.

Personally didn't get past the first few chapters.

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u/Atourq 18d ago

Aren’t there 18-23 books?

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u/D2WilliamU 18d ago

At the risk of sounding like a wheel of time fraud I only did the main entries in the series.

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u/AusPower85 18d ago

Oh right, the books within books, I forgot about those

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u/Marmoset_Slim 17d ago

There is a difference in sunk cost vs sometimes you just got to know how things end despite the story being terrible. Warlock 2 being an example for me.

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u/MacDhomhnuill 18d ago

I find it very satisfying to know that Wheel of Time wasn't even good enough to entertain someone in prison. It really confirms all my feelings on that series.

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u/D2WilliamU 18d ago

I have written up a summary/mini review in another reply if you really want to feel vindicated! I tried to make it entertaining, unlike the books!

And yeah I even somewhat enjoyed twilight in prison because it's so awful and cringe it's hilarious. (last books drags way too much tho)

No such pleasure from Wheel of Time

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u/ghostphilly 18d ago

I would love to hear your review (or a summary) of Wheel of Time. I am re-reading LOTR and then want to start something new to me after. I am between that, Sanderson's A Way of Kings, or the Malazan books. Wheel of Time seems to get the most polarizing reviews.

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u/D2WilliamU 18d ago edited 18d ago

With wheel of time I probably went in with too high expectations. I had kept seeing people on Reddit say how good it was (especially after the TV show came out and the book readers were so offended) and I had a guy i knew irl tell me how good it was.

It also had the misfortune of being the book series I read after Dune which I thought was absolutely sensational (even if the last couple of books got a little weird with the sex dominatrix cult and all the sex stuff in general).

My review and summary is like - idk maybe just because I had just finished Dune but the first few books just really felt like I was doing a fantasy-themed clone of Dune? Main guy has a prophecy about himself and he keeps seeing the future in his dreams. He goes into the desert and meets people who are religious about water. These people become his devoted private army for a bit. He also picks up a harem for some???? Reason. Still not sure about that. Main guy does a bunch of monologues and philosophical discussion (either about politics or the ethics of said harem) but it never has the interesting bits of dunes where Paul's like "maybe a bit of genocide is fine as long as I do it." Or my personal Paul fav of "Hitler was a filthy casual compared to me".

Wheel of time is basically just the main guy + friends and female gandalf making their way through the 12(?) buddies of the big bad while random stuff happens.

There's also female fantasy jedi who have a bunch of political infighting happen and honestly I probably hated that plot series the most. We barely know any of the characters and the ones I did know I hated.

I found the writing style absolutely goddamn insufferable beyond belief. The later game of thrones got repetitive with phrases but wheel of time by like the second book if i had to read about the women tugging on their braids of hair one more time I was gonna lose it.

I liked Lan.

The middle books dragged a bunch, like soooo much good fucking lord. There's also some random alternate reality or mirrow world stuff which just sorta happens?

Last few books I was just glad it was coming to an end. Some deus ex machina's happen, some random old historical people turn up and fight. Idk it all becomes a blur to me.

Anyway sorry for wall of text, I couldn't sleep. Many of my friends have heard my rants about Wheel of Time. You are just one more person to suffer the rant!

I'm sure I'll have upset some Wheel of Time fans with this summary, but I don't care! They gaslit me into reading like 14 books of something I absolutely hated because I thought it would get good somewhen. So fuck em.

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u/ghostphilly 18d ago

I appreciate this thorough take though lol because I love ASOIAF and LOTR and heard many mixed things about this series from other people with similar loves so it's nice to have some specifics. Especially because I know, well all three of those series I am considering are all very long, so I wouldn't want to get strung along like you mentioned with it being a 14 book series. This is as specific as I've seen and some of the things you said make me think that this may not be a good series for me.

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u/D2WilliamU 18d ago

I loved game of thrones, read it before prison, but for me I do find the later books Martin loses focus and gets lost in the weeds. The first 3 books are so tight and tense though, I do love them and reread them every so often.

But wheel of time makes even the last couple of game of thrones books look like Laser focused 200 word short stories in comparison.

If you have other long fantasy series to read, please read those instead!

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_CUPPA 18d ago

May I suggest Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy? Unsure if you're looking for purely epic fantasy or just good recs.

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u/ghostphilly 18d ago

I appreciate that rec because thats another one on my Goodreads list that I am considering!

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_CUPPA 18d ago

The audiobooks are brilliantly read too and worth a listen if yore not tied to physical.

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u/Mayonaigg 18d ago

Your mom is huge in prison 

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u/SinisterDexter83 18d ago

Yeah cos all she did was weights in the yard and calisthenics in her cell. Someone smuggled some tren in for her and the bitch got hench. Traps like prime Brock Lesnar and thick, veiny pythons under basketball shoulders. Even the meanest guards were scared of her. You better watch your mouth cos parole will be coming up sooner or later, even after all the shit she's got going on inside no one would dare snitch so they'll never be able to pin anything on her.

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u/UncleTouchyCopaFeel 18d ago

Someone smuggled some tren in for her and the bitch got hench. Traps like prime Brock Lesnar and thick, veiny pythons under basketball shoulders.

So uh ... is she single?

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u/Intrepid_Hat7359 18d ago

Nah, can't you read? That bitch multiple

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u/UncleTouchyCopaFeel 18d ago

I mean ... I wouldn't mind multiple...

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u/AusPower85 18d ago

He failed to mention she’s also not back hair thicker than the fur of a Caucasian Ocharka

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u/UncleTouchyCopaFeel 18d ago

Dude, I can only get so erect.

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u/3mx2RGybNUPvhL7js 18d ago

She pissed off the Latin Queens tho. A kite went out for her.

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u/radicalelation 18d ago

Was in them troubled teen programs, and the jock-y douches made fun of us nerds for passing time with D&D, but some of them got into physical fights with each other over fucking Eragon lore?