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Jonah Hill recommended Small Town Ecstasy (2002) in Movies (curated)
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2346 KP) rated The Plot is Murder in Books
Jul 14, 2021 (Updated Jul 14, 2021)
Interesting Idea, but Doesn’t Quite Work
Samantha Washington is pursuing not one but two lifelong dreams. She’s opening a mystery bookstore in the town of North Harbor, Michigan. But just days before the store is supposed to open, she finds the dead body of Clayton Parker behind the store. Clayton sold her the building, but he almost sabotaged the sale. Meanwhile, she starts writing a mystery of her own set in England in 1938. Will she solve the murder? How will the real-life murder influence the fictional murder?
I’ve been intrigued by this series with the story inside the story idea for a while, and I’ve heard good things about it from many others. Sadly, it didn’t completely work for me. With two stories and two sets of characters to develop, I felt like both were a bit underdeveloped. The ending of the historical mystery was weak, and it featured some abrupt character growth. Meanwhile, the modern mystery featured lots of summaries that were told to us, keeping me outside. On the other hand, I loved both sets of characters, and I did feel the modern mystery came to a good resolution. I had no trouble keeping the different sets of characters straight once I realized how close both murder victims’ names were, and there was also an obvious break between the two stories each time we switched. I can understand why others love this series as much as they do, but I wish it had focused on one story and developed that one story better.
I’ve been intrigued by this series with the story inside the story idea for a while, and I’ve heard good things about it from many others. Sadly, it didn’t completely work for me. With two stories and two sets of characters to develop, I felt like both were a bit underdeveloped. The ending of the historical mystery was weak, and it featured some abrupt character growth. Meanwhile, the modern mystery featured lots of summaries that were told to us, keeping me outside. On the other hand, I loved both sets of characters, and I did feel the modern mystery came to a good resolution. I had no trouble keeping the different sets of characters straight once I realized how close both murder victims’ names were, and there was also an obvious break between the two stories each time we switched. I can understand why others love this series as much as they do, but I wish it had focused on one story and developed that one story better.
Kim Pook (101 KP) rated Love, Guaranteed (2020) in Movies
Jan 28, 2021 (Updated Jan 28, 2021)
Loved it
Susan is a young single lawyer with a very busy life, she lives on leftover takeaways and her car is falling apart. On her way to work she bumps into an obnoxious guy who turns out to be a potential client in a very bizarre case. This guy wants to sue an online dating site called 'love, guaranteed' because he hasn't been able to find love. Susan takes the case and agrees to be signed up to the site herself for research, as well as interviewing Nicks past dates.
After a few bad dates, Susan decides to go out for a meal by herself only to find Nick on yet another disaster of a date, one thing leads to another and Nick and Susan end up eating together and have a lovely night, both agreeing it was their best meal out yet and of course anyone who has ever watched a romance move, knows where this goes.
To be honest I half expected this movie to be boring, but I enjoyed it from the start. It did take me a while to realise the main character was Rachel Leigh Cook as she looks so different, it's great to see her acting again though. I also though Heather gray am was very good in her role, she made her character seem real and who'd have thought a wayans brother would fit in to this kind of movie, it's like he was made for the part. I loved this feel good movie, but it did make me sick to death of Tiffany.
After a few bad dates, Susan decides to go out for a meal by herself only to find Nick on yet another disaster of a date, one thing leads to another and Nick and Susan end up eating together and have a lovely night, both agreeing it was their best meal out yet and of course anyone who has ever watched a romance move, knows where this goes.
To be honest I half expected this movie to be boring, but I enjoyed it from the start. It did take me a while to realise the main character was Rachel Leigh Cook as she looks so different, it's great to see her acting again though. I also though Heather gray am was very good in her role, she made her character seem real and who'd have thought a wayans brother would fit in to this kind of movie, it's like he was made for the part. I loved this feel good movie, but it did make me sick to death of Tiffany.
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) in Movies
Dec 18, 2020
Rare Exports is a proper gem of an alternative Christmas film.
It revolves around a British company drilling into the mountain Korvatunturi in Lapland, hoping to find a legendary gravesite. A local child Pietari spies on proceedings, and is convinced that this company have found the grave of the original Santa Claus, not the jolly red and white icon that everyone is familiar with, but the proper monstrous version spoken about in fairtytales in Piertari's books. This being a child centric horror, of course no one believes him, until all the other children in the village start to go missing, and shit starts going sideways.
Rare Exports strengths lies in its strong cast. Greta performances from Onni Tommila and Jorma Tommila (father and son in both the film, and real life, just for that extra layer of believability!) The pair, alongside the supporting cast keep everything pretty grounded, despite the absurdity going on around them.
The film's dialogue is largely in Finnish, and this coupled with it's sparse and snowy setting, lend the narrative a truly otherworldly but authentic feeling.
It's also effectively creepy, especially the skinny old man "Santa" that the group capture and cage up. The need to figure out what is really going on never lets up either, even as the plot flies towards it's increasingly WTF climax (there's a silly amount of dong by the way, just FYI).
Rare Exports is certainly worth a watch. It's delightfully barmy, and is a great tonic if you become weary of "traditional" Christmas movies. 🎅
It revolves around a British company drilling into the mountain Korvatunturi in Lapland, hoping to find a legendary gravesite. A local child Pietari spies on proceedings, and is convinced that this company have found the grave of the original Santa Claus, not the jolly red and white icon that everyone is familiar with, but the proper monstrous version spoken about in fairtytales in Piertari's books. This being a child centric horror, of course no one believes him, until all the other children in the village start to go missing, and shit starts going sideways.
Rare Exports strengths lies in its strong cast. Greta performances from Onni Tommila and Jorma Tommila (father and son in both the film, and real life, just for that extra layer of believability!) The pair, alongside the supporting cast keep everything pretty grounded, despite the absurdity going on around them.
The film's dialogue is largely in Finnish, and this coupled with it's sparse and snowy setting, lend the narrative a truly otherworldly but authentic feeling.
It's also effectively creepy, especially the skinny old man "Santa" that the group capture and cage up. The need to figure out what is really going on never lets up either, even as the plot flies towards it's increasingly WTF climax (there's a silly amount of dong by the way, just FYI).
Rare Exports is certainly worth a watch. It's delightfully barmy, and is a great tonic if you become weary of "traditional" Christmas movies. 🎅
Eleanor (1463 KP) rated Elevator Pitch in Books
Sep 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 22, 2019)
Not for those living the high rise life......
Well I made the mistake of reading this while on holiday in Vegas and having to deal with a lot of elevators!!! When an elevator accident in Manhattan is followed by more on following day it soon becomes clear there's more going on than a simple malfunction and the incidents are terrifyingly portrayed.
Along with the elevator incidents a number of other violent crimes are occurring and Elevator Pitch sets out to take you on a twisty tale to see how these things are all connected or not. Unfortunately the path was a bit too twisty for my liking; constant and numerous POV changes made it hard to really get much of a feel for the characters leaving them all feeling a bit flat.
I did love the core idea and story line of elevators being used as a way to terrorise a city and the little stories around the hapless victims and the incidents themselves were very vivid and tense. However the numerous side threads / red-herrings that added so little to the story made it a bit of a drag in places. No real surprise on the bad guy but I do read a lot of crime books so it takes a lot to throw me. Very interesting concept just didn’t quite hit the high I hoped for.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Along with the elevator incidents a number of other violent crimes are occurring and Elevator Pitch sets out to take you on a twisty tale to see how these things are all connected or not. Unfortunately the path was a bit too twisty for my liking; constant and numerous POV changes made it hard to really get much of a feel for the characters leaving them all feeling a bit flat.
I did love the core idea and story line of elevators being used as a way to terrorise a city and the little stories around the hapless victims and the incidents themselves were very vivid and tense. However the numerous side threads / red-herrings that added so little to the story made it a bit of a drag in places. No real surprise on the bad guy but I do read a lot of crime books so it takes a lot to throw me. Very interesting concept just didn’t quite hit the high I hoped for.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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