Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (2313)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated American Made (2017) in Movies

Jul 11, 2019  
American Made (2017)
American Made (2017)
2017 | Mystery
7
6.7 (29 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Biopics can be problematic in their attempt to retell history or use individual perspectives to inform their audience about events that many may already be familiar with. In American Made, Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal, a TWA pilot who is recruited by the CIA to fly reconnaissance missions in Central America. He soon finds himself at the center of drug trafficking, gun trafficking, and as a pawn of several different entities seeking to use his skills and expertise for their own purposes.

The film is ambitious in trying to tell serious historic events as a campy adventure in which Barry is care free despite the consequences of his actions. Nothing about the film seems right. It unfortunately, can make an audience feel uneasy cheering on a drug smuggler who is making inordinate amounts of money for some of the most dangerous individuals on the face of the earth.

A positive effect of the film is that it demonstrates to audiences the complexities of American Foreign policy, drug policy, and corruption that existed in the 1980s and that it shouldn’t be viewed with rose colored glasses. If anything, it may offer another perspective about the period that not too many people may be familiar with and create a desire in them to research more about the period and events.

American Made offers audiences a funny, introspective, personal account of one man’s experience working for the government and drug cartels that allows for a break from some of the more serious and dark portrayals that have typically been featured. Audiences will enjoy reminiscing about the 80s and think back to how complicated the period actually was.
  
    Model Paint 42

    Model Paint 42

    Lifestyle and Reference

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    A database of over 4000 paints from 16 manufacturers designed just for modellers. Whether you model...

    Mobike - Smart Bike Sharing

    Mobike - Smart Bike Sharing

    Travel and Health & Fitness

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Mobike is the world’s first and largest dockless, cash-free bike share platform. With Mobike you...

    Kendall and Kylie

    Kendall and Kylie

    Games and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    JOIN KENDALL & KYLIE JENNER as the up-and-coming star of a big new adventure... choose your own path...

40x40

ClareR (5950 KP) rated Creation Lake in Books

Jan 20, 2025  
Creation Lake
Creation Lake
Rachel Kushner | 2024 | Contemporary, Thriller
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Creation Lake was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and I can see why. I really enjoyed this story of a spy called Sadie, who infiltrates an eco-terrorist cult in France. They are led from afar by a man called Bruno, who lives in a cave, and believes that the only way to save humanity is to give up technology and return to out non-mechanised, non- fossil-fuelled past. They are extremists, but even the eco-cult reach a point where they can see that Bruno’s vision goes a bit too far.

I really enjoyed reading Bruno’s emails with Sadie (she has hacked into the email account of the eco-terrorists), got really involved with his theories, googled some and discovered that what he was saying may not have been 100% true or sane.

Sadie is an observer. She’s not your typical all action spy, but she certainly drinks quite a lot of alcohol and has to fend off a lot of unwanted male advances. But she does also use her sexuality to get what she wants.

There are some observations on the state of modern life: greedy landowners who will do anything to make money, the effects of modern life on the young (there’s a young boys story that I found particularly disturbing, and the fact that I wasn’t surprised by it, made it all the more disturbing!).

There were several laugh out loud moments in this too, and the laughs tended to come most needed.

I liked this thought-provoking, tongue-in-cheek novel, and I thought that the way that Bruno’s emails were dotted throughout the novel really worked well alongside Sadie’s investigations.