[Lush]

*cough*

So, having watched "Ringers" recently, here's what I have to say:

Movies that are made "by the fans for the fans" are generally kinda tame. There's just not that much interesting stuff in "Ringers" specifically. There's lots of padding, in fact (I got the point when the hippie chick started dancing the first time around, goshdarnit).

I think a really cool film about Tolkien fans can be made, but it would have to focus on the good, and the bad, and the plain awkward. It would have to include flame-wars. It would have to include crazy people stalking Orlando Bloom (I'm totally not one of those people, stop grinning). It would have to be made by someone who can at least detach himself or herself from the scene. It doesn't mean they have to be a non-fan, or merely a clinical observer, but that they look at the project the way the people behind "Trekkies" looked at theirs.

You know what I'd pay for? To see a (metaphoric... maybe) cage-fight between someone like davem and one of my old academic acquaintances with a penchant for Tolkien.

As it stands, "Ringers" struck me as very sweet. It certainly achieves its own aims. But I am still waiting for that great documentary on Tolkien fans.