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Awix (3310 KP) rated Forever And A Day in Books

Oct 20, 2020 (Updated Oct 20, 2020)

Forever And A Day

Anthony Horowitz | 2018 | Crime, History & Politics, Thriller

8.1

(7 Ratings)

Book Rating

Pastiche thriller featuring you-know-who. It's 1950, and agent 007 is killed in action while investigating drug dealing in the south of France. The head of the secret service decides to send in a newly-promoted operative to investigate the death, a young chap by the name of Bond...

Horowitz's novel tries to do the same thing as the movie version of Casino Royale - to show how Bond becomes Bond. At this he is only really marginally successful, as Bond starts the novel as a pretty icy brute and ends only more icy and brutal. That said, the book evokes the Fleming formula rather well: there is the usual mixture of globe-trotting, good living, maniacal snobbery, action, torture, and sex in just about the right proportions. Some may complain that some contemporary politics have snuck into what's essentially an escapist fantasy - one villain is a bouffant-haired American tycoon with wandering hands, who thinks America should put its own interests first, while another gets a big speech about the smallness and insignificance of Britain, and its reliance on a close relationship with Europe if it wants to prosper. Nevertheless, fun, pacy stuff and very readable.

Kudos

Becs (244 KP) rated I Do Not Trust You in Books

Oct 2, 2019

I Do Not Trust You caught my attention right away. I was drawn in by the whole history and archaeology aspect. Which is weird cause history is usually boring to me. I did find some parts to be a bore, but a majority of the novel made up for it.

It would have been nice to have a chart with the correct pronunciation of all the different character/ city names, as I stumbled over them a lot and that causes the reading to become slow and honestly a bit of a bore. The nice thing to see within the story was all of the character and story background/ development.

Throughout the novel, I did find a few grammatical/ sentence structure errors. But overall, I really enjoyed the storyline and the sassiness between Ash and M.

Reasons why I rated it 4 stars:
1. The story was captivating.
2. There were a few sentence structure/ grammatical errors.
3. There was a ton of background on not only the story but also the characters.
4. There’s magic!
5. Sassiness between MC’s was top notch.
6. It was fast-paced.

“He who hesitates is lost.”

Kudos

LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Batman: Hush (2019) in Movies

Oct 9, 2019

Batman: Hush (2019)

2019 | Action, Animation

7.0

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Batman: Hush is a fantastic and beloved graphic novel - surely an easy win for Warner Bros. Animation.
Unfortunately, they don't make it easy for themselves.

Hush isn't a bad entry into the DC Animated Universe by any means. The animation style is very satisfying to watch, especially in fight scenes, verging on anime at times. It has a very striking look from start to finish.
The voice cast are mostly great, and elements of the story are really well done (Catwoman and Batman's relationship for example).

There's a large portion of Batman's rogue gallery strewn through the story, which always works well on the page, and is always delightful to see, but the format of a scripted movie doesn't really give many of them much to do.
The big thing for me was the final act - no spoilers here, but the movie pulls away pretty hard from the source material during the climax, and although it's a respectable twist that will throw fans of the novel off, it's not a scratch on what originally happens.

It's a negative for sure, but not enough of one to detract from my overall enjoyment!

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Interview with the Vampire (1994) in Movies

Aug 8, 2020

Lavish adaptation of the best-selling novel resembles a cross between an existential bitch-fest and a hair care products commercial. Have you wondered what the ageless and immortal vampire does with all those endless nights? Well, he sits around and broods about it, if he's Brad Pitt, or shamelessly camps it up in search of an Oscar nomination if he's Tom Cruise. The film documents two centuries in the life of the undead: most of it is people sitting around in extravagantly-decorated rooms complaining about either their lives or each other.

Just a bit too artfully amoral and self-indulgent for my tastes; the gay subtext is undeniably present but you can tell Pitt and Cruise are doing their best to stamp it into the carpet (I mentioned this in a review of the novel once and someone said 'This book isn't about gay people! It's about vampires!', which I thought was rather sweet). Looks good and has some decent performances, but makes being a vampire look very boring. On the other hand, very clearly the chief inspiration for What We Do In the Shadows (both movie and TV show), although not nearly as entertaining.