*************THE REVIEWS are in on SMITH CORONA BLUES*************
"A great cinema-noir cop thriller hybrid that pays off very well... a great visual read... Truly a great combination of action/noir genres... The climactic confrontation has a great twist..."
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"This was incredible! This screenplay is the best one I've read on this website! It is fast paced, well written and the dialogue is really good. This has the makings of a "Lethal Weapon" screenplay. It was well thought out and well conceived. The action is well done and I couldn't put the story down once I started reading it. Great job! I look forward to reading many more written by you!"
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"Smith Corona Blues is a crime story, in which an aging detective, ailing from cancer, sets out to take revenge on the man who killed his son. As he and his new partner work their way through a tangled web of misinformation and murder, he proves that nothing, not even death, is what it seems... OVERALL: Script is tightly plotted, with complimentary A and B stories and effective plot twists and reversals and a satisfying pay off... CHARACTER: Detective Lou Carter, the hero, straddles the line between wise-cracking, salt-of-the-earth cop, a la Die Hard's John MacLean, and obsessed avenger, a la The French Connection's Popeye Doyle... Roddy McGill, the detective's comical partner, on loan from the United Kingdom, is charming within the story as well as on the page. His colorful, idiomatic vocabulary is authentic and hilarious... PLOT: The story is tightly plotted. Highlights include: the B story, an investigation into a writer's murder, connecting shockingly with the A story about Carter's pursuit of a crime lord; and a series of reversals working equally well, the most delightful being the revelation of McGill's relationship to the murdered writer... QUALITY OF WRITING: Overall, the writing is snappy and appropriate. Striking visual descriptions make for an enjoyable read... CINEMATIC QUALITY: Urban rain imagery, along with the above-mentioned punchy visual description, is a source of production value, as is the peppering of compelling action. The scope of the story is fundamentally grounded in the crime and detective genre and, given today's difficult, high-rolling film investment market, the story may be most appropriate for the present at least for TV and Cable."
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"I liked the story... It was a typical who-done-it, drugs-for-money-for weapons-story, with some twists and turns along the way... I thought the whole thing came together well... The writing, the characters, the story, the plot, basically everything was done well... It was a brain teaser about who the good guys and who the bad guys were from the begining to the end... All in all I thought is was well done... "
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"SMITH CORONA BLUES is a neat "who-done-it" with a lot of intrigue, action and several good twists."
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"Overall there's a lot I liked here. It was a good fast read and ride with enough character development to make me care... Roddy pops from the page... I wanted to follow him, but only in the way you keep watching a car going way too fast... The action was well written... Good clean writing. You know how to get in late and get out early... It felt original enough and yet familiar, which is good. Putting some of it in Seattle was great. Cinematic Quality: No complaints. It read like a movie with good visuals. As I said, the action moved well... keep up the great work! Someone's gonna bite soon!"
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"One of the unique qualities is the Seattle locale, rarely used for crime films. The waterfront is a great backdrop to a chaotic gun battle and chase scene. Another original concept is the smart British detective as ladies man. The sportscar-driving, snakeskin-boot-wearing character of Roddy could be written for Colin Farrell or perhaps Jason Statham... the third act adds international intrigue by being set in Macau, China... "
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"It appears to be told from the POV of it's author, who is dead, but his tome becomes evidence to untangle the messy espionage web at the beginning of act 3. The resulting atmosphere is more Ian Fleming than Guy Ritchie... The first three pages are a frenzy of action, jumping back and forth from Coburn's writing fantasy world (as it were) to his grim reality and then back to the incident that may have provoked the attack on him. It's quite exciting... Reality, fantasy and memory collide in real time. Then there are pages of chase and fight action that is rousing and written taut and clean... The story forms a moebius pattern as the cops investigate the murder of the author of our story... More great action rounds out the story, with a killer last line from Roddy... I just had an overall good time reading this, for what that is worth. I wish you luck... "
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BREFNI O'ROURKE is a New York based screenwriter actively marketing all of his materials for possible sale or option. He is the author of more than 50 original feature-length spec screenplays, primarily within the action, suspense-thriller, and horror genres. The "cinematic Brefniverse" includes:
"The Awning", a supernatural thriller, was a quarterfinalist in the 2023 WeScreenplay Feature contests. It was named a finalist in the 2022 Story Pros International Screenplay Contest and has been awarded a Coverfly badge of - Top 6% of discoverable projects. In March of 2023 it made the Red List as the # 8 ranked thriller screenplay.
"Wake", a psychological thriller, was recognized as a semifinalist in the 2022 Creative World Awards. It was recognized as a quarterfinalist in the Final Draft/Big Break Contest (top 10% of entries) and the American Zoetrope contest. It has been awarded a Coverfly badge of being among the top 22% of discoverable projects.
"Descendancy", an action-thriller, was recognized as a Quarterfinalist in the Script Lab - TSL Free Screenplay Contest 2022 and has been awarded a Coverfly badge of - Top 18% of discoverable projects.
"Moving Day", a supernatural thriller, was recognized as a quarterfinalist in the 2015 Final Draft/Big Break Contest. It has been awarded a Coverfly badge of being among the top 34% of discoverable projects.
"Panopticon", an action-thriller, was selected as a "Notable Project" by Amazon Studios (one of only 50 projects recognized as such).
"God's Work", a supernatural action thriller was optioned by The Ferla Consulting Group.
"Threshold", a horror-thriller (cowritten with Elizabeth Rowin and Greg DeRochie) was optioned by Contribution Films. (http://www.contributionfilms.com/threshold.html).
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