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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated 9 1/2 Weeks (1986) in Movies

Sep 3, 2021

9 1/2 Weeks (1986)

1986 | Drama, Romance

7.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Wild, magnetic, and hot as hell - nobody does these like Lyne, man. One of the things I love most about this is that it's one of the sacred few of these that don't demonize kink *nor* make it a symptom of some trauma/mental illness; this is simply two consenting adults participating in a kinky relationship. They were getting this shit right in 1986, people - there's no excuse to keep messing it up 35 years later. Of course Rourke and Basinger have smoldering chemistry here too, their performances are so daring for the time and hold up airtight even today. Asks the devastating question of whether it's worse when passion is lost altogether, or when it becomes too consuming for one's reasonable expectations to handle? Also features a montage of the two leads fucking on a rainy alley staircase to loud 1980s synth music after beating up a random group of thugs - so you really get the best of both worlds. The last 20/25 minutes is the best work of Lyne's entire career. 80s MTV version of 𝘍𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘺 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘺 (still not quite as good as 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺, though).

Kudos

Eleanor (1463 KP) rated A is for .... Alibi in Books

May 21, 2019

A is for .... Alibi

Sue Grafton | 2017 | Crime, Mystery

8.2

(17 Ratings)

Book Rating

Strong female P.I. lead (0 more)

Tiresome descriptions of unnecessary things (0 more)

Good time-killing mystery

This is the first book in the Kinsey Millhone "Alphabet" mystery series by Sue Grafton. I listened to the audio-book narrated by Mary Peiffer.

Kinsey Millhone is a Private Investigator based in the fictional city of Santa Teresa in California in the 1980s. In this outing she is hired by Nikki who is out on parole for her husband's murder and despite doing the time is still wanting to establish her innocence and find out the real killers identity.

The tough headed Kinsey goes head long into picking up the cold case digging up old secrets and ruffling a few feathers. I liked her as a strong female lead who, despite this being written and based in the 80s, is a lot more independent than many recent female leads I’ve read.

The main story isn’t the most exciting and the book suffers from a lot of unnecessary waffly descriptions and talk of her jogging (it’s a taboo word to me.)

I’ll be carrying on with this series as the audio-book was a pleasant distraction and I think Kinsey has a lot of potential to be a great character.

Kudos

Deborah (162 KP) rated Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death in Books

Dec 19, 2018

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

James Runcie | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry, Religion

6.3

(4 Ratings)

Book Rating

First off, I expected this to be a novel, so when I got about 70 pages in and it seemed to be winding up the mystery, I was a bit confused. It's actually a series of 6 stories which are different mysteries that Cannon Sidney Chambers finds himself getting involved in. Also, except for the division into stories, there are no chapter breaks.

Of the six stories here, I thought that some worked better than others. The first ones were a little more genteel whereas the later ones, particularly perhaps the penultimate story, were a little more dark and disturbing.

I'm too young to remember this period, so I can't comment on how accurate it is, but I didn't feel that I got a really strong sense of the period. The geographical setting is mainly around Cambridge, with several jaunts up to London. Perhaps the author thought this was just the sort of thing to appeal to those readers of Agatha Christie, because the solutions to no less than three of her books are revealed here - good job I'd read them already....

Altogether, there's enough going on to sustain the interest and I see that the author is proposing a total of six volumes, taking us right up to the early 1980s.