Before I do I have to admit the only reason I bought this book WAS to do a review. Because checking the internet (and I checked everywhere believe me) I couldn't find a single review for this.
Now I know why.
In the book, Eric Walker talks about his life working on the two Ewok movies back in the 80's. Included is some stories during filming scenes and what his career was like before and after the movies came out.
The Good: Some fun accounts that went on around the set were good. It was also refreshing that he didn't spend too much time on his own personal life growing up or after filming the Ewok movies. It's the best use of time discussing those things in an autobiography that I've ever seen.
I love Lucille Ball. I think she was a comedic genius but has anyone ever read her autobiography? Yuck! She talks about her life growing up for 5 chapters! FIVE. Then another 7 are spent telling us about her experiences in small character roles she played in movies no one's ever heard about. It was a bore. When you get to the "I Love Lucy" era, only 2 chapters then she skips on to how her life is now. Pathetic read and even more pathetic waste of time. Mr Walker doesn't bore you much with his personal life, but rather gets to the meat of the story everyone wants to here.
He also speaks about "deleted scenes" from the movies and even provides a picture of him filming one in the book. I thought this was great, especially when we get to see what he's talking about. Very interesting at times.
The Bad: Unfortunantly you'll get lost within the dialogue and flow of this book. He refers to scenes by number in the book (exa: "That day we filmed scenes 45, 33 and 20a...") He will provide details afterwards but I thought the use of numbers was pointless.
I'm also sad we didn't hear more about funny or interesting things that took place on the set. At times it seems Mr Walker is just talking about a scene just to fill the pages of a book. With some paragraphs just to let you know what day a certain scene was filmed.
There's also an "excerpt" at the end called "Star Walker" a project that he's working on with a few friends. I tried reading it but it was too difficult to follow and not interesting at all. It's more waste in a book that already had plenty to deal with.
The Ugly: Though I appreciate Eric Walker giving us this book he really should have invested some money into an editor. Mis-spelling, incomplete sentences, periods in the middle of phrases broken paragraphs and many other writing errors run rampant in the book. An English teacher would run out of red ink on this one.
This is the reason most celebrities have someone else write their autobiography for them instead. Celebrities can't write (maybe with the exception of Mick Foley) and Mr Walker's book is greatly diminished because of it.
Worth your time and $20?
No. Believe me, it pains me to say this. I like Mr Walker. I think he's a great guy and I believe he does have interesting things to say but the book's so badly written that it just doesn't do his story justice.
But if you LOVE the Ewok movies and wouldn't mind terrible writing go ahead and pick one up. Heck, he'll even autograph it for you so it's gotta be worth a little something right?
No comments:
Post a Comment