Ghost Stories by Coldplay
Album Watch
Ghost Stories is the sixth studio album by British rock band Coldplay. Co-produced by the band with...
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Peppermint (2018) in Movies
Jul 2, 2019
This vigilante action film is pretty much what you think it will be. There is blood and a lot of action. The acting is okay but not really the focal point of the film. But one thing that is not in doubt is the ending, don’t worry I won’t spoil it I don’t need to. With the somewhat recent success of films like Taken, John Wick and The Equalizer, and their sequels, this genre is not lacking in content. For me this dilutes the quality and original story telling of this type of film. The director, Pierre Morel (Taken, The Gunman), seems at home in this film type and does a decent job here. Jennifer Garner comes off as a bad ass and I enjoyed her in this film. The rest of the cast is good but pretty stereotypical of the genre also. This is not a bad movie just one I feel I have seen before. I will say I enjoyed all three of the movies I mentioned above and that should speak well to this movie. I just wanted a little more. It is also worth mentioning that in many of the scenes where Garner was exacting her revenge the audience was prone to laugh as a bad guy was getting a bullet to the head or a file cabinet dropped on their head. That makes it hard to take the movie too seriously.
If you are a vigilante movie fan this is definitely one to check out. The action is good and there is definitely a good amount of it. A little over the top with the blood for me but not too bad. It is nice to see Garner back in the action world and I hope this leads to more from her. I would say save your theater money for another movie and stream this one when it hits your favorite service.
The Critical Surf Studies Reader
Dexter Zavalza Hough-Snee and Alexander Sotelo Eastman
Book
The evolution of surfing-from the first forms of wave riding in Oceania, Africa, and the Americas to...
Akrotiri
Tabletop Game
Akrotiri places you in the role of an explorer in Classical Greek times, combing the then-uncharted...
BoardGames 2playerGames
Red Dwarf - Season 1
TV Season Watch
It was a script rejected by everyone at the BBC for three years. It starred a poet, an...
Etape: The Untold Stories of the Tour de France's Defining Stages
Book
In ETAPE, critically acclaimed author Richard Moore will take readers on a virtual Tour de France,...
Punk Drunk And Trembling by Wild Beasts
Album Watch
England's Wild Beasts were founded in 2002 by Hayden Thorpe (guitar, vocals) and Ben Little...
indie
Delay and Disruption in Construction Contracts: First Supplement
Book
Delay and disruption in the course of construction impacts upon building projects of any scale. Now...
Transport Tycoon
Games and Entertainment
App
Build the ultimate transport empire! Take control of your own fledgling transport company, and use...
Ross (3282 KP) rated Squeeze Me in Books
Oct 13, 2020
I am quite a big fan of Carl Hiaasen, having discovered his quirky corrupt Floridian crime novels as a recommendation for fans of Chris Brookmyre. His books are filled with pollution, government corruption, and bizarre things happening to extreme characters.
Squeeze Me follows the strange disappearance of a rich old fan of the president (who isn't explicitly named but is a bulky chap who likes a tanning bed and has a younger, more attractive wife) at one of her many charity balls near her winter Florida home. Coincidentally, pest control expert Angie Armstrong is asked to dispose of a large, engorged python from the property. There then follows a rollicking tale of cover-ups, dodgy gangsters, racial intolerance, extra-marital affairs and murder, and a small appearance from everyone's favourite governor-turned-hobo-eco-terrorist.
This book is fairly typical of Hiaasen, with all the different characters crossing paths through unlikely events and plots. However, his books are famed for their extreme, unbelievable bad guys: the hoods hired to do a corrupt supposedly honest businessman/government official's dirty work. We have had someone in the past whose hand was bitten off and replaced with a weed-whacker, someone who was hooked on steroids and raped by a dolphin etc. This book is sadly lacking of such characters, as all the bad guys are fairly textbook thugs or criminals.
Also, Hiaasen readers are used to the unbelievable corruption at the hands of government officials, but when the real life president is so corrupt and unethical, any such corruption will struggle in comparison to the real thing. The president is more of a bumbling oaf who hires one man purely to service his sunbeds, another as a body double to test them out before he uses them. His racial hatred of non-North Americans is present, but becomes a small part of his character here.
This is a book about the bizarre adulation towards the president in those who are in his outer inner circle and clamouring for his attention, and the industry that builds up around them.
It is a little bit of a letdown from Hiaasen's best work, but still a great crime and corruption caper.