For the Love of Scotland: A Celebration of All Things Scottish
Book
Did you know? * Nessie is not the only monster supposedly living in a Scottish loch. Loch Morar has...
Pawel Pawlikowski recommended Mulholland Drive (2001) in Movies (curated)
Photo 3D: The All-in-1 album for Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Picasa and RSS
Social Networking and Photo & Video
App
Photo 3D manages all your online photos in one 3D space. It consolidates photos of you and your...
Queens of Geek
8.6
Rate It
Book
Charlie likes to stand out. She's a vlogger and actress promoting her first movie at SupaCon, and...
LGBTQ Young Adult
Moonfall (2022)
5.5
Rate It
Movie Watch
In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Dead Shore in Books
May 9, 2023
Kindle
Dead Shore
By Jack Rollins
⭐️⭐️⭐️
They're coming for you and your child. How fast can you run?
When a group of teenagers mess around with a washed-up dolphin carcass, Karen and her toddler Charlie are caught in a wave of chaos and violence as one by one the residents of Ashmouth fall prey to a deadly virus, transforming them into relentless, violent zombies. Allying herself with Dean, one of the teenage boys, Karen must stay strong and alert as the world she knows crumbles around her and there appears to be no way out. Is the village doomed, and will this zombie outbreak remain contained?
A quick burst of zombie action well written but not much different to what we normally read, except these zombies seem to have a plan.
London Calling
10.0
Rate It
Book
In this sixth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James...
Seed (Dark Walker #3)
Book
Glitching between dimensions wasn't supposed to be my life, but sometimes you have to dance with the...
Horror Dark Science Fiction
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Last Looks (2022) in Movies
Feb 5, 2022
Alistair Pinch (Mel Gibson) is a talented and accomplished actor whose drinking pushes him to erratic behavior. Pinch is the prime suspect when his wife is murdered. It’s up to Waldo to come out of retirement to prove Pinch’s innocence despite his reluctance to take the case.
Based on the 2018 crime, mystery novel of the same name, Last Looks is written by Howard Michael Gould (who wrote the book and the screenplay) and directed by Tim Kirkby (Action Point). The film attempts to be quirky and funny while offering its audience something intriguing and entertaining; something along the lines of Rian Johnson’s Brick, Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, or David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake.
The biggest draw is that Waldo literally just gets his ass kicked the entire film. It’s repeatedly mentioned that Waldo is rusty in all aspects of investigating, so that likely plays a part of it. But he is knocked down and knocked out more times than you can count throughout the film. One of the only interesting aspects of the film is that Waldo is consistently given signs that he shouldn’t take this case. He’s threatened by gangsters, Pinch is arrested almost immediately after Waldo shows up in Los Angeles, and Lorena disappears without a trace. It may be as simple as Waldo still having a thing for Lorena, but you like to think that it’s also because she’d only ask him for help with a case that deserves his attention.
Last Looks is an odd film. The performances from Charlie Hunnam and Mel Gibson are relatively solid, but it’s as if they’re wasting all of their talent being trapped within the walls of a trampled and soggy paper bag. Waldo encounters all of these eccentric characters as you follow his investigation from his perspective, but it feels like it goes nowhere once it’s all said and done. In the grand scheme of things, Last Looks is boring. There’s no real humor here. The entire film can be summed up as watching Charlie Hunnam stand around and talk and get punched in the face consistently over the course of two hours.
There are some peculiar cameos in Last Looks. Method Man mostly appears in internet videos watched on a mobile phone while Dominic Monaghan shows up as a vape smoking lawyer only to never be seen again after one brief bike rack encounter. Jacob Scipio has a great introductory sequence as a gangster named Don Q who is troubled by deciding whether to get a Kindle or a Nook and then his character kind of fizzles out after that despite being featured prominently in the supporting cast. Don Q has a connection to Lorena that starts off as intriguing with a disappointing payoff.
Jayne White (Lucy Fry) is Gaby Pinch’s, Alistair’s daughter, preschool teacher and her inclusion in the story is a complete mess. White flirts with Waldo from the start, so you know where that’s going but her connection to Alistair and what that branches off into seems overly complicated for the grand scheme of things.
Last Looks is a mysterious stew that experiments with flavorful ingredients throughout its two hour duration. The film ultimately collapses under its own potential resulting in a bland and flavorless concoction. Every side character is just interesting enough to pique your interest and the film is written in a way where it seems like everyone is a suspect, but every potentially exciting aspect fizzles out before it has a chance to light up the sky; like a really expensive firecracker that turns out to be a dud. The film may be worth a look for Mel Gibson’s flashy, boisterous, and drunkenly absurd performance. The mystery in Last Looks is essentially comparable trying to discover the expiration date on a can of mystery meat that has lost its label; it may be life threatening but is otherwise a bore to experience by others.