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Rob Samborn
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In addition to being a novelist, Rob Samborn is a screenwriter, entrepreneur and avid traveler....
BookCritics (259 KP) rated The Secrets She Keeps in Books
Jul 11, 2017
THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS is tense, immersive, and emotional—a perfect blend of commercial thriller appeal and the kind of rich character development and masterful plotting that's simply hard to find.
Critic- Crime By The Book
Original Score: 5 out of 5
Read Review: http://crimebythebook.com/blog/2017/5/30/book-review-the-secrets-she-keeps-by-michael-robotham
Original Score: 5 out of 5
Read Review: http://crimebythebook.com/blog/2017/5/30/book-review-the-secrets-she-keeps-by-michael-robotham
Awix (3310 KP) rated Seberg (2019) in Movies
Jan 14, 2020
Tonally awkward drama-thriller hybrid about the troubled life of 60s film star Jean Seberg (ask your grandparents, probably). Didn't know much about her (actually thought she was French), expected something arty and significant about the French New Wave - actually this borders on being another film about the Plight of Black America. Seberg (Kristen Stewart, watchable as usual) strives for significance, gets mixed up with the civil rights movement, finds herself surveilled and then tormented by the FBI.
Starts off quite interesting - Seberg is largely a forgotten figure nowadays, so the story is obscure - but as the thriller elements recede and it becomes more of a downbeat drama, the vitality and interest of the movie fades somewhat. If there is an irony in Stewart choosing to play a movie star looking to be more than just a pretty face in commercial schlock, the movie seems unaware of it. Pretty good performances, especially from Vince Vaughn (now quite well-established as a character heavy), but fizzles out a bit.
Starts off quite interesting - Seberg is largely a forgotten figure nowadays, so the story is obscure - but as the thriller elements recede and it becomes more of a downbeat drama, the vitality and interest of the movie fades somewhat. If there is an irony in Stewart choosing to play a movie star looking to be more than just a pretty face in commercial schlock, the movie seems unaware of it. Pretty good performances, especially from Vince Vaughn (now quite well-established as a character heavy), but fizzles out a bit.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Murder on the Orient Express (2017) in Movies
Feb 12, 2018
Hard to see past the moustache
Nice-looking and competent new version of the Agatha Christie classic, made in the traditional all-star manner. A bit hard to be gripped by the actual murder-mystery plot, but maybe that's because the twist in this story is so famous it barely qualifies as such any more.
Often looks more like a commercial for a luxury railway touring holiday than an actual thriller, but I suppose the production values are part of the appeal of this sort of film. Ken Branagh is arguably just a little bit hammy as a version of Poirot who appears to have some form of ASD, but he has a certain moral authority. Probably won't rock your world but passes the time nicely enough.
Often looks more like a commercial for a luxury railway touring holiday than an actual thriller, but I suppose the production values are part of the appeal of this sort of film. Ken Branagh is arguably just a little bit hammy as a version of Poirot who appears to have some form of ASD, but he has a certain moral authority. Probably won't rock your world but passes the time nicely enough.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Racer and the Jailbird (2017) in Movies
Jul 12, 2018
Very much game-of-two-halves coming together of French and Belgian talent. Charismatic gangster begins passionate affair with beautiful young racing driver, but can their love survive the stress placed on it by his career choices? Starts off looking like a slick and very commercial thriller with more than a splash of romance; second half turns into a rather glum, somewhat preposterous drama about how love can be the worst prison of all - either of these films would have been okay, but together it's two great tastes that just don't mix.
Still, fine acting from the two leads, and the first half is really, really good - does that make the way the film falls over as it gets closer to the end more or less of a disappointment? Not sure. The first half on its own would rate about an 8, the second probably a 5; probably still worth watching, though. (Racer and the Jailbird is a terrible choice of title, by the way.)
Still, fine acting from the two leads, and the first half is really, really good - does that make the way the film falls over as it gets closer to the end more or less of a disappointment? Not sure. The first half on its own would rate about an 8, the second probably a 5; probably still worth watching, though. (Racer and the Jailbird is a terrible choice of title, by the way.)
The Mountain
Howard Curtis and Luca D'Andrea
4.0
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An atmospheric commercial thriller for readers of Stephen King and Jo l Dicker Jeremiah Salinger...
Awix (3310 KP) rated 365 Days (2020) in Movies
Jul 30, 2020 (Updated Jul 30, 2020)
The same old story: boy meets girl, then he kidnaps her and keeps her prisoner for a year because he is a gangster and had a vision of her a few years previously while taking a bullet during his dad's assassination. Naturally she quickly falls in love with him; many games of hide-the-sausage ensue. Needless to say the whole thing looks like a commercial, albeit with much more cunningly-framed fellatio than the typical advert.
Basically attempts to mash up an erotic thriller (a genre noted for almost never generating excitement or arousal) with a coercive romance (the nastiest of all genres), with results that are virtually unwatchable: woodenly acted, leadenly directed, badly written in every way, it's a mixture of the clumsy and the tasteless from start to (baffling) finish. A horrible, unpleasant film: if future historians want evidence of just how badly screwed up this year was, they need only look at the fact that this film somehow became a streaming hit. Ugh, ugh; a thousand times ugh.
Basically attempts to mash up an erotic thriller (a genre noted for almost never generating excitement or arousal) with a coercive romance (the nastiest of all genres), with results that are virtually unwatchable: woodenly acted, leadenly directed, badly written in every way, it's a mixture of the clumsy and the tasteless from start to (baffling) finish. A horrible, unpleasant film: if future historians want evidence of just how badly screwed up this year was, they need only look at the fact that this film somehow became a streaming hit. Ugh, ugh; a thousand times ugh.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Into the Night in TV
May 31, 2020
The cheap gag about Into the Night would be to declare it the best Belgian apocalyptic SF disaster thriller mini-series ever made, but it deserves better than that. Not entirely unlike Lost, but without the plane actually crashing: passengers and crew of a commercial jet find themselves desperately travelling west, perpetually, as the sun's rays have suddenly become lethal. Characters come into sharper focus, tensions within the group build, there are many incidental crises and problems.
It's done with a slightly broad brush and occasionally becomes a little contrived, but there are great performances from the ensemble cast and it soon becomes genuinely gripping and tense, though not without the odd moment of black humour ('I'm going to die in Scotland... with Belgians!' despairs one character in the first episode). Not sure what they're going to do if it gets a second series, but this is a fine piece of entertainment. (Right-thinking people will surely watch the original version, with subtitles if necessary: the English dubbing is not great.)
It's done with a slightly broad brush and occasionally becomes a little contrived, but there are great performances from the ensemble cast and it soon becomes genuinely gripping and tense, though not without the odd moment of black humour ('I'm going to die in Scotland... with Belgians!' despairs one character in the first episode). Not sure what they're going to do if it gets a second series, but this is a fine piece of entertainment. (Right-thinking people will surely watch the original version, with subtitles if necessary: the English dubbing is not great.)
Grandville Bete Noire
Book
The Badger is back! At Toad Hall, lair of multibillionaire. Baron Aristotle Krapaud, a cabal of...
Flight Risk
8.0
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Bestselling author Cara Putman returns with a romantic legal thriller that will challenge the...
Contemporary Political Romantic Suspense