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ClareR (5674 KP) rated Dog Days in Books

Mar 16, 2021  
Dog Days
Dog Days
Ericka Waller | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy, Romance
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dog Days is a moving, and at times very funny, book about three people: George, Dan and Lizzie. It is NOT a book about dogs - which is what I thought it would be about to some extent - but the main characters do all have dogs. And they are dogs with a purpose. All three of the main characters are going through difficult times in their lives, and their dogs are the ones who give them love, support and a reason to keep going.
George, Dan and Lizzie are all vulnerable characters: whilst Dan and Lizzie seem to suffer in silence, George is happy to let the world know how angry he is. The comedy element of the novel comes from George, but you can see the grief of the sudden loss of his wife behind his bluster and foul language.
Dan is a counsellor with OCD, which he keeps largely hidden. The only person he seems to socialise with is his cousin, Luke, who he goes running and dog walking with. And that’s his life: work, Luke, Fitz (his dog). Dan has a secret, and I think to begin with, it’s a secret even from himself.
Lizzie is another complex character. There’s a lot going on with her: she’s in a women’s refuge with her young son and won’t talk about what happened to her. She seems to be punishing herself about a mistake she believes she has made. And it’s a bit of an “Oh wow!!” moment when that reveal comes along.
This book had me laughing out loud and having a bit of a weep in equal measure. It’s an emotional book. I really, really enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend it.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this.
  
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Jeff Nichols recommended Hud (1963) in Movies (curated)

 
Hud (1963)
Hud (1963)
1963 | Drama, Western
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"This one — they’re just kissing cousins, really — but the last Paul Newman film I’ll talk about is Hud — just the greatest introduction to a character maybe ever on screen. You’ve got this goofy kid walking around town and he walks past the bar, and there’s glass on the sidewalk and the bar owner’s sweeping it up. And the kid goes, “Did you have trouble in here last night?” “I had Hud in here last night.” Such an awesome way to introduce the main character of this film. When you first meet him, he’s walking out of this married woman’s house putting his boots on and the husband pulls up, and he immediately blames his nephew. It’s this really incredible thing. I was lucky enough to work on a college professor’s documentary called The Rough South of Larry Brown. Which is about the writer Larry Brown out of Oxford, Mississippi. In that documentary Larry Brown talks about his writing, he says, “Yeah, you read my stuff and you read a little bit and you might think it’s pretty funny. And then you read a little bit more and you realize, it’s not funny worth a damn.” And that’s Hud. You start it off and you’re like, “Gosh, look at this rapscallion, this character,” and then you realize, “Wow, that’s not funny; there is some deep stuff inside that man that is hurt and angry, but is manifesting itself in very evil ways.” The complexity of that — it’s different than Newman’s character in The Hustler. In The Hustler, he’s doing pride, but there’s something deep going on in Hud that’s darker. It’s more about family and legacy and things that I think, because it’s attached to the family, I relate to very much. I had to deal with familial relationships that are complex."

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The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)
The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)
2021 | Action, Comedy, Crime
7
6.8 (13 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard picks up relatively soon after The Hitman’s Bodyguard. Ryan Reynolds’ Michael Bryce attempts to take a sabbatical after the events of the first film. His sabbatical doesn’t last long, when Sonia, played by Salma Hayek, crashes his vacation to ask for his help to save her husband from the mob. After they locate Darius Kincaid, the crew gets involved in this ridiculous international situation with Antonio Banderas, playing a Greek dude named Aristotle. Aristotle is angry that the EU kept sanctions on Greece, so he decides to knock out Europe’s interwebs. It is as dumb as it sounds.
The comedy trio of Reynolds, Hayek, and Jackson is amusing, and helps move the film along. The plot is silly, and predictable, but overall enjoyable. One of the funniest parts was when Morgan Freeman made an appearance in an unexpected way as Senior. I liked that there was a little bit of Sonia’s backstory, and we got to see some of her previous cons.
If you watch the first film, right before seeing this one, as I did, you can laugh at all the references back to the first. That being said, some of the jokes were disgustingly crass, particularly when Sonia talks about attempting to get pregnant, and it was too much. Also, the use of the word Mother F-cker was so excessive, it just became annoying. While I liked having more Hayek in the film, she flips out way too often for it to be funny. Another issue I had was the use of multiple dream sequences. It’s funny the first time, but not after that.
This is the first big, dumb, fun action movie to grace us with its presence since theaters opened up, and it was a good start to the barrage of big, dumb, fun action movie season.
  
Project Power (2020)
Project Power (2020)
2020 | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
If you're looking for a straight down the middle-of-the-road action flick, then you're in the right place.

Project Power has a decent concept - a new street drug that gives the user a random superpower for 5 minutes is running rampant in New Orleans. Police officer Frank (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is working hard to shut the whole thing down, whilst Art (Jamie Foxx) has a more personal vendetta against the manufacturers of the drug, and will stop at nothing to get to those at the top.

Now, Jamie Foxx is a damn fine actor, and here is no exception. He carries the film along side Dominique Fishback (a teenage dealer who sort of becomes his sidekick). The two of them share some great chemistry, and gave the film a bit of heart.
The usually reliable Gordon-Levitt however seems so uninterested in what he's doing. Honestly looks and sounds like he just doesn't give a fuck, which is a shame - he's usually a highlight for me!

The CGI in this movie is weird - sometimes it looks pretty decent, other times it looks horrible.
The majority of the final action sequence - good. The big scary bearded guy knocking down thick steel doors - bad.
The woman who turns icy - fairly good. The guy who turns into a big angry monster thing - really really bad, like the first Harry Potter troll bad.
Some of the action is entertaining, but it's nothing we haven't seen before from the up and down X-Men franchise.

Project Power isn't a bad film - it's watchable for the most part, it's just a little underwhelming, and I have no doubt I'll have forgotten it in a few days.
  
    The Incident

    The Incident

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    THE INCIDENT is a fast-paced, retro-style action game. Run, dodge and jump your way to safety as an...

    Squids

    Squids

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    SQUIDS is a unique mix of action strategy and RPG: build your team of heroes for epic turn-based...