Copycats? (Popcorn - Ben Elton)

Member Name: Boonoiy

Product:	Popcorn - Ben Elton
Date:	06/10/01 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exciting, Quick paced

Disadvantages: Bit of a slow starter

Plot outline!

Wayne and Scout have a plan. They're the Mall Murderers - a pair of killers with little remorse, no goals or prospects, but a plan to keep them from the Chair!

Bruce is a director. He makes very graphic films - lots of death and gore, he sees it every day and passes it on to the great American public in a glamourised, jumped up way. His latest film, "Ordinary Americans" has just won him an Oscar and he's got his favourite Playboy centrefold in his house.

Predictably the two meet - The real "Ordinary Americans" and the man who likes to portray them on screen. The plan is simple - Wayne may be a psycho, but he's certainly got a good plan! He and Scout break into Bruce's hopuse and get him, by means foul and foul, to broadcast his responsibility for these two criminals to the nation. It gets done, the killers are stopped and Bruce is ruined in the business. Hos life ends with the killing of Wayne and the capture of Scout as he's now thought of as the man who's movies inspired them.

Critique:
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The book is great, it begins, admittedly, a little slowly, lots of talk of the Oscars but gets involved very deeply in the stories of Bruce, Wayne and Scout quickly and very well.

The style of the book is great, it is sometimes done as a screenplay, sometimes as a simple narrative and sometimes as Bruce in the frist person. The pace of the development from Oscar night to seige is gripping and exciting and there are a number of comic moments to enjoy.

The overall story is excellent, the copycat idea is a popular one - do we follow blindly or do we have our own free will? It raises questions about society (if you want to go that far!) and is a real thinker's book.

Highly reccomended by this member -0 have a read and follow into Elton's world, all of his books address a topical issue and end up with a great story, very enterta
ining and thought provoking.

Summary: