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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2440 KP) rated The Forgotten Man (Elvis Cole, #10) in Books

Mar 9, 2018

Normally, a man shot in an alley in downtown Los Angeles wouldn’t cross Elvis Cole’s radar. However, this man claimed that he was the PI’s long-lost father in town to make up for lost time with his son. Could it be true? If so, what was he doing in the alley when he got shot?

At some point, this part of Cole’s past had to come into the foreground in the series, and this book does a great job of using that hook to springboard us into a great mystery. As you’d expect, there are some good twists and an exciting climax. I did feel that a flashback to Elvis as an early teen really didn’t do much for the story other than slow it down. We don’t get to see much of Joe Pike, Elvis’ partner. Instead, the sidekick role is filled with Carol Starkey, but I hated how she came across here. Definitely a step down for her character.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2018/01/book-review-forgotten-man-by-robert.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.

Kudos

Andy K (10823 KP) rated Please Stand By (2017) in Movies

Jun 18, 2018

Please Stand By (2017)

2017 | Comedy, Drama

7.6

(5 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Cute and touching

Maybe a cross between Rain Man and Lady Bird or Nebraska, this cute amusing film is about a girl with autism who is devoted to Star Trek (who isn't?) and has the opportunity to write a script for a contest where she could win $100,000.

The script turns out great, but now she has a problem: how to get it to Los Angeles within 3 days to beat the deadline.

I have always been a great fan of Dakota Fanning going back to I Am Sam, War of the Worlds and Man on Fire, and she is excellent and the star of the show here as well. Her portrayal of a young woman on the spectrum is truly believable, touching and sweet.

Some of the situations and people she encounters are a little too strange, unusual and/or only would happen in a movie, but overall her journey to LA is fun and you are really rooting for her to succeed.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Blade Runner (1982) in Movies

Nov 25, 2019 (Updated Nov 26, 2019)

Blade Runner (1982)

1982 | Sci-Fi

8.5

(75 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Cult thriller from Ridley Scott. In present-day Los Angeles, investigator Harrison Ford finds himself obliged to hunt down and destroy four androids who have illegally returned to Earth from colonies in outer space. Yes, yes: I know it's a timeless classic and a visionary piece of science fiction (if not a particularly accurate piece of prognostication), but it's not a film I've ever found myself able to particularly warm to.

One of the prettiest and most visually dense films you will ever see, of course, but Ridley Scott seems much more interested in the film's visual impact than the actual story (even so, much of the imagery is rather clunky). Harrison Ford doesn't get much to do in his drab and perfunctory section of the plot - the film only really comes to life when it concerns Rutger Hauer's oddly sympathetic homicidal android, who ends up dominating the movie. Most of the book's quirky sense of melancholy disappears, though. For all its strengths it just feels rather superficial and hollow to me.