Poems: 1962-1997
Robert Lax and John Beer
Book
"One of the great original voices of our times--a pilgrim in search of beautiful innocence."--Jack...
Seven Contemporary Plays from the Korean Diaspora in the Americas
Book
Showcasing the dynamism of contemporary Korean diasporic theater, this anthology features seven...
David McK (3880 KP) rated Black Widow (2021) in Movies
Aug 8, 2021
This was alos released concurrently on Disney+ (behind a paywall) and in the cinema: indeed, this is the very reason for ScarJo's lawsuit against Disney (she says she was told it would be theatres first, then Disney+ and that she only gets a percentage of box office takings).
Anyway, all that aside: this is actually set pre-snap; the majority of it back just after the events of 'Captain America: Civil War' (and thus before 'Avengers: Infinty War'), with Natasha on the run from the US government having broken the Sokovia Accords. It's not long, however, before she receives a package from a previous safe-house (Budapest. Yes, the Budapest mentioned before with Hawkeye: 'remember Budapest?') that leads her into a further adventure, this time involving her surrogate 'family' from when she was undercover in America as a kid in the mid 1990s.
Her 'dad' (David Harbour) 'Red Guardian' steals the show, while Florence Pugh (as her younger 'sister') and Rachel Weisz (as her 'mum') also provide sterling back-up.
Plenty of action, but the film does, perhaps, fall into the common Marvel trap of having a CGI-heavy ending ...
The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah: The Autobiography
10.0
Rate It
Book
Benjamin Zephaniah, who has travelled the world for his art and his humanitarianism, now tells the...
Autobiography
School Lies
5.5
Rate It
Book
After finding his headmaster father slumped over his desk from a gunshot wound, Levi Abrams is ready...
David McK (3880 KP) rated Lesser Evil (Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendency, #3) in Books
Sep 25, 2022
Anyway - and, as before for this trilogy - this is set 'A long time ago, beyond a galaxy far, far away ...' and finally completes the arc/narrative started in Chaos Rising (and continued on in Greater Good) with the Chiss Ascendency under attack from a shadowy figure who has been pulling the strings all along (now that I type that, sounding a bit like Palpatine (it's not) ) turning the Ascendency against itself and their neighbours also against them at the same time. It's actually only really in the epilogue, where Thrawn and another character discuss the Fall of the Republic and the Rise of the Empire that you really only get a sense of where and when these events happen, which is both the novels greatest strength (it's fresh! it's not beholden to what-has-come-before) and weakness (the setting may be too 'new' for more casual Star Wars fans).
Awix (3310 KP) rated Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) in Movies
May 30, 2019 (Updated May 30, 2019)
I am not the best person to be objective about a new Godzilla movie, but I had a good time with this film. Even so, it does have obvious flaws: Kyle Chandler is kind of useless as the supposed protagonist, and the story does have a very 1990s vibe to it which I expect some people may have an issue with. However, the tone of the film is just about perfect: the Toho monsters look and behave exactly as you'd hope, and the film incorporates lots of little details from the original movies, most obviously the classic musical themes for Godzilla and Mothra. If you like Japanese monster movies, I think you will enjoy this movie a lot - if not, well, it's about a dinosaur, a dragon, a moth and a pterodactyl doing all-in wrestling together; whether you think that is an outrageously cool idea or unbelievably stupid is a matter of personal taste, but the movie itself is unlikely to change your opinion. Bring on the big ape!
Punk in the Gym
Book
Andy Pollitt is as close to a Hollywood A-lister as the climbing world will ever get. He had the...
Last in the Tin Bath: The Autobiography
Book
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM CRICKET'S HUGELY POPULAR COMMENTATOR With his infectious enthusiasm...
Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, Contradictions, and Complementarities in the European Economy
Bob Hancke, Martin Rhodes and Mark Thatcher
Book
Since the early 1990s, Europe's economies have been facing several new challenges: the single market...