Popcorn

Maybe more like 2.5. This is a very 90's satire of the gangster/crime drama genre of films that was ubiquitous and popular at that time.

I was interested in this book because Elton was a writer for two of my favorite shows from the 1980s, The Young Ones, and Black Adder II-IV. He certainly knows how to structure a plot and write dialogue.

Unfortunately, the book jacket/promo blurbs led me to believe this was going to be WAY funnier than it actually was. There were a couple of mild chuckles, but mostly it was ironic, not laugh-out-loud funny.

It's very meta and there are lots of bits in screenplay format and the whole thing is slick and superficial. It could be turned into a film easily. If the characters were a bit more developed the story would have been funnier because then, as a reader I would have been involved as the situation became increasingly dangerous if I had any insight into these people. As it stands, there are no heroes or relatable characters in the book. Everyone is a spectacular tool.

The material that it satirizes, such as Natural Born Killers, was already pretty meta and had its own messages about glorifying violence and depicting killers as folk heroes in the media. Satire should be better than what it's satirizing, and this is not; it's not even as good.

There were a couple of strong points about Popcorn. The final confrontation did have me very tense. I also appreciate that Popcorn takes a swipe at both liberal and conservative views and suggests that we take responsibility for our own actions and don't blame the media or any other circumstances for our mistakes and failures.