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Eduardo Sanchez recommended Blade Runner (1982) in Movies (curated)

 
Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner (1982)
1982 | Sci-Fi
8.5 (76 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Again, I think chronologically, is Blade Runner. It was the movie right after Raiders. And Harrison Ford is, you know, my favorite actor. He just has this… He’s just such a likeable guy. He’s obviously been one of the biggest stars in the last 20, 30 years. But he’s really been underappreciated now. And Blade Runner, to me, was such a cool film. And I know it didn’t do well at the box office, but I saw it opening night. People were expecting a lot because Raiders was the film that had just come out before. I just thought it was so ballsy, you know, especially for Harrison Ford to do this, because it wasn’t an action film, it was more of a noir/science fiction movie. And just that opening sequence of going over Los Angeles and those big fire plumes, and the spinners and the angelic soundtrack, it was just, it was religious. It was like a religious experience. Again, I really got into how they made it. I had already been a fan of Ridley Scott but this really solidified him as one of my favorite directors. Just the mood of that movie, it’s just beautiful. It’s one of those weird movies where I’ve seen all the versions and I actually like the original studio version better. I really love Harrison Ford’s narration. To me it was just kind of classic noir, crime/mystery film, you know? But it was set in this frickin’ crazy science-fiction future and I just loved it."

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The Scarecrow (Jack McEvoy #2)
The Scarecrow (Jack McEvoy #2)
Michael Connelly | 2009 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
10
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Will Jack End His Career in a Blaze of Glory?
After a decade covering crime for The Los Angeles Times, Jack McEvoy has just gotten let go due to budget cuts. He has two weeks left to train his replacement, but he also intends to use that time to write one last major story. He thinks he’s found that story when he hears about Alonzo Winslow, a sixteen-year-old drug dealer in prison for a brutal murder he denies committing. As Jack investigates, he once again crosses paths with FBI agent Rachel Walling. Can the two of them figure out what is really going on?

I enjoyed Jack and Rachel’s first book, so I was glad to finally get to their second novel. They make a great team, and their characters are as strong as ever. The rest of the cast is just as great. The mystery is full of twists and thrills, and I always had a hard time putting the book down. The book did get a bit too far into the details a couple of times for my taste, but fortunately, those scenes didn’t last long. I do wish that author Michael Connelly would figure out a way to set up his climatic set pieces without stopping the story to give us data dumps. It’s always obvious when that happens, too. It’s a minor issue, but still something that makes me rolls my eyes. Overall, this is a strong thriller that kept me engaged until I reached the end.
  
The Shadows
The Shadows
Alex North | 2020 | Thriller
9
9.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

While I have "read" audiobooks for years now, this is the first one I was given to review. Let me catch my breath before starting. Wow! OK. Wow! That needed to be said.

Alex North's "debut" novel, The Whisper Man, was a 2019 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller. When I finished reading it, I immediately added his second book, The Shadows, to my must-read list.

The narrators of The Shadows are Hannah Arterton and John Heffernan. The combination of North's writing and Arterton and Heffernan's narration provides a story that feels as if the narrators are the characters themselves, sitting by a fire, retelling North's story, and not merely reading the story. It is their narration that helps North bring the listener down the rabbit hole and ending up questioning everything they thought was true. I needed to reread sections to see how I could have gotten everything so wrong.

North is a British crime writer who has previously published under another name. According to Goodreads, this is Arterton's first narration. While Heffernan has narrated a few novels, he writes mostly for film and TV but also wrote Driver For The Dead, his first comic book series.

This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 7/14/20 and updated on 8/24/20.
  
A Little Murder for Christmas
This year, Anty Boisjoly is planning to spend Christmas with his aunt Azalea, who is a bit of a recluse. He hasn’t visited her in years, in fact. When Anty arrives, Azalea informs him that she’s just discovered the body of her next-door neighbor, a man she’d begun to be friendly with. The victim is a local war hero, and everyone in the village is upset by the news. Unfortunately, the footprints in the snow make it look like Azalea is the only person who could have realistically killed the man. Oh, and there’s also the fact that he was seen by many people in the pub hours after Azalea claims she found the body. Can Anty figure out what really happened and prove his aunt innocent?

The book doesn’t hesitate, jumping into the murder in the first chapter. I found the pacing to be a little uneven, especially early on. The further I got into the book, the more impossibility we saw, and the more I was engaged. By the end, everything made sense. I also found the suspects a little shallow. I loved the first in the series, so maybe my expectations were too high here. The one thing that was definitely the same as the first book was the dry wit. I laughed so much reading this book. We get some nice Christmas cheer over the course of the book as well. Overall, I enjoyed it and recommend it for anyone looking for a humorous impossible crime mystery.