Nicolas Sparks Sucks

This post contains spoilers for a couple of sucky movies, so if you care about that, you might not want to read on.

I've read only one Nicolas Sparks book, "Message in a Bottle" -- that was more than enough for me. Sentimental, trite, maudlin crap! And I occasionally like sentimental stuff, but this was too much, even for me. Since then, I've now seen three movies made from his books, "Message in a Bottle", "The Notebook" and (just last night), "Nights in Rodanthe". In every. single. movie. we are treated to a melodramatic death of one (or more!) of the main characters, always in a way that is exploited for maximum emotional impact. As soon as I realized this was a Nicolas Sparks movie, I should have known better and refused to watch. Did I follow my instincts? Not on your life. I thought to myself, 'surely, ALL of his stories can't end the same way?' But no, predictably again, main character: DEAD. Just when the movie has reached it's romantic crescendo too. Whatever. Nicolas Sparks, I am done with you. Done! What amazes me also is that all these relatively good and popular actors continue to agree to be in these crappy movies. I mean, "Nights in Rodanthe" had Diane Lane, Richard Gere and Scott Glenn for chrissakes. What were they thinking???