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Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
10.0
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Based on a true story, this edition of Devil's Knot will tie-in to a major motion picture starring...
Gareth von Kallenbach (965 KP) rated Sing 2 (2021) in Movies
Dec 2, 2021
“Sing 2” is a charming and enjoyable follow-up to the 2016 “Sing” and in many ways is the rare sequel that surpasses the original. The new film finds Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) and his performers enjoying a run of sod-out shows in his theater.
Unwilling to settle for success in a regional locale; Buster and crew set off for the big city to produce and perform a show for Bigshot Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale); who is as ruthless as they come. After conning his way into an audition; Buster claims their new show will feature the return of reclusive Rock Icon Clay Calloway (Bono); who has been a recluse for the past fifteen years.
Jimmy is intrigued and gives Buster a chance and inserts his daughter Porsha (Halsey) into the show despite the fact that while she is a gifted singer; her acting is cringe-worthy.
What follows is a madcap tale filled with music and humor as the crew desperately tries to get the show ready and stay away from the very dangerous Jimmy Crystal.
The music is very good and the cast is as enjoyable as ever. I would have liked to have seen Seth Mac Farlane return but the performances from Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, and the ensemble more than deliver.
For those who enjoyed the first film and are looking for some fun entertainment for the family; “Sing 2” is a winning performance.
4 stars out of 5
Unwilling to settle for success in a regional locale; Buster and crew set off for the big city to produce and perform a show for Bigshot Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale); who is as ruthless as they come. After conning his way into an audition; Buster claims their new show will feature the return of reclusive Rock Icon Clay Calloway (Bono); who has been a recluse for the past fifteen years.
Jimmy is intrigued and gives Buster a chance and inserts his daughter Porsha (Halsey) into the show despite the fact that while she is a gifted singer; her acting is cringe-worthy.
What follows is a madcap tale filled with music and humor as the crew desperately tries to get the show ready and stay away from the very dangerous Jimmy Crystal.
The music is very good and the cast is as enjoyable as ever. I would have liked to have seen Seth Mac Farlane return but the performances from Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, and the ensemble more than deliver.
For those who enjoyed the first film and are looking for some fun entertainment for the family; “Sing 2” is a winning performance.
4 stars out of 5
Inherent Vice
Book
Read the cult classic behind the major new film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon and Josh...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The First Shot ( Last Mrs Parish book 0.5) in Books
Feb 10, 2022
25 of 230
Kindle
The First Shot ( Last Mrs Parish 0.5)
By Liv Constantine
In this gripping prequel to the blockbuster best seller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, listeners will discover exactly how Amber Patterson transformed from small-town girl to master manipulator - after all, practice makes perfect.
Amber Patterson has many secrets. This much is clear when she sneaks out of her home in the dead of night and hitchhikes across state lines to meet up with a man she hasn’t seen or spoken to since high school graduation. So begins her desperate attempt to leave her old life behind, and she’ll use everything and everyone at her disposal, from social media stalking to the kindness of unsuspecting strangers, to get where she needs to go. It’s not long before she’s ready for the main event: armed with a new identity and a new purpose, she heads to Gunnison, Colorado, preparing herself to meet her future husband among the wealthy vacationers.
Even the smallest misstep could derail this carefully-laid plan, and in the end, can you ever truly outrun your past? The First Shot is an absorbing, binge-able thriller that shows just how far some will go to build the lives they want.
This is the prequel to The Last Mrs Parish and I absolutely loved that book. This was very good too getting a bit on how Lana/ Amber started and her first victim! I really love Liv. Constantine’s writing style.
Kindle
The First Shot ( Last Mrs Parish 0.5)
By Liv Constantine
In this gripping prequel to the blockbuster best seller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, listeners will discover exactly how Amber Patterson transformed from small-town girl to master manipulator - after all, practice makes perfect.
Amber Patterson has many secrets. This much is clear when she sneaks out of her home in the dead of night and hitchhikes across state lines to meet up with a man she hasn’t seen or spoken to since high school graduation. So begins her desperate attempt to leave her old life behind, and she’ll use everything and everyone at her disposal, from social media stalking to the kindness of unsuspecting strangers, to get where she needs to go. It’s not long before she’s ready for the main event: armed with a new identity and a new purpose, she heads to Gunnison, Colorado, preparing herself to meet her future husband among the wealthy vacationers.
Even the smallest misstep could derail this carefully-laid plan, and in the end, can you ever truly outrun your past? The First Shot is an absorbing, binge-able thriller that shows just how far some will go to build the lives they want.
This is the prequel to The Last Mrs Parish and I absolutely loved that book. This was very good too getting a bit on how Lana/ Amber started and her first victim! I really love Liv. Constantine’s writing style.
Christine A. (965 KP) rated Such a Quiet Place in Books
Jul 20, 2021
The accused killer returns home. Is she guilty? If not, who is?
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.
The setting for Megan Miranda's latest thriller, Such a Quiet Place, is Hollow's Edge, a picture-perfect, idyllic neighborhood where neighbors become family. That is until the Truetts were killed. Now, a year and a half later, new evidence emerges, and the convicted killer returns home to Hollow's Edge. Once a warm and open community now finds neighbors locking their doors, spying out their windows, and hiding secrets from each other. Did the jury get it right? Was Ruby guilty? If so, what should they do? If not, the killer is hiding among them.
Such a Quiet Place is a suspenseful roller coaster from beginning to end. She kept me guessing until the big reveal.
Megan Miranda's suspenseful writing immediately made her an author on my "I have to read" list. Her most well-known novel is All the Missing Girls, with a 3.77 rating and more than 146,000 reviews. The Last Guest House was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection, and my review can be found at https://philomathinphila.com/last-house-guest-by-megan-miranda.
I first found her through her YA novels and know, whichever age group she is writing for, it will be a story to remember. The ratings for her novel average 3.72 on Goodreads.
This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com.
The setting for Megan Miranda's latest thriller, Such a Quiet Place, is Hollow's Edge, a picture-perfect, idyllic neighborhood where neighbors become family. That is until the Truetts were killed. Now, a year and a half later, new evidence emerges, and the convicted killer returns home to Hollow's Edge. Once a warm and open community now finds neighbors locking their doors, spying out their windows, and hiding secrets from each other. Did the jury get it right? Was Ruby guilty? If so, what should they do? If not, the killer is hiding among them.
Such a Quiet Place is a suspenseful roller coaster from beginning to end. She kept me guessing until the big reveal.
Megan Miranda's suspenseful writing immediately made her an author on my "I have to read" list. Her most well-known novel is All the Missing Girls, with a 3.77 rating and more than 146,000 reviews. The Last Guest House was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection, and my review can be found at https://philomathinphila.com/last-house-guest-by-megan-miranda.
I first found her through her YA novels and know, whichever age group she is writing for, it will be a story to remember. The ratings for her novel average 3.72 on Goodreads.
This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com.
Big Little Lies - Season 2
8.0
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TV Season Watch
It seems all of the ladies of Monterey will have drama to contend with in the new season, as HBO's...
RəX Regent (349 KP) rated Sing (2016) in Movies
Feb 19, 2019
I admit, I went into this with low expectations. It looked like a karaoke kids movie from an animation studio that I do not rate that highly. But what do I know?
Illumination studios have managed to rack up a “Stinker” on this blog with The Lorax (3D) (2012), which was filled with songs which did not seem to go with the movie and maybe that was in my mind when I first saw the trailer for this, but I must admit, that I was wrong.
The story focuses around a Koala Bear (Matthew McConauhey) who owns his dream theatre in New York, but it is about to fail big. He ends up setting up singing contest in order to try and save it and a verity of animals from this this Zootopia styled world inhabited solely by animals, are entered into the competition.
The writing was good, strong and simple. The characters had enough depth, the song choices were good and the antics surrounding Matthew McConauhey’s efforts to keep his theatre open against the odds were genuinely funny.
It was also nice to see that several character tropes were not pandered too, such as the house wife pig (Reese Witherspoon) goes to elaborate lengths to take part, by automating her house to get her litter of piglets to school and her middle management husband to work, all of whom take her for granted so much that they fail to even notice that she is not there.
But instead of attacking her housewife status and saying that she was being hampered by this “boring” life and should be a singer and follow her dreams as many films would suggest, this simply asks for a balance. That impressed me… a lot.
Well worth a watch and defiantly one for the whole family.
Illumination studios have managed to rack up a “Stinker” on this blog with The Lorax (3D) (2012), which was filled with songs which did not seem to go with the movie and maybe that was in my mind when I first saw the trailer for this, but I must admit, that I was wrong.
The story focuses around a Koala Bear (Matthew McConauhey) who owns his dream theatre in New York, but it is about to fail big. He ends up setting up singing contest in order to try and save it and a verity of animals from this this Zootopia styled world inhabited solely by animals, are entered into the competition.
The writing was good, strong and simple. The characters had enough depth, the song choices were good and the antics surrounding Matthew McConauhey’s efforts to keep his theatre open against the odds were genuinely funny.
It was also nice to see that several character tropes were not pandered too, such as the house wife pig (Reese Witherspoon) goes to elaborate lengths to take part, by automating her house to get her litter of piglets to school and her middle management husband to work, all of whom take her for granted so much that they fail to even notice that she is not there.
But instead of attacking her housewife status and saying that she was being hampered by this “boring” life and should be a singer and follow her dreams as many films would suggest, this simply asks for a balance. That impressed me… a lot.
Well worth a watch and defiantly one for the whole family.
Tim McGuire (301 KP) rated S.F.W. (1994) in Movies
Jan 7, 2020
374. S.F.W. One of my fave movie of the 90s. I recently noticed that it was based on a novel. Read it, rewatched movie, and it was still dope... One day Cliff Spab and his best friend since birth Joe Dice head into a convenience store for smokes and beer. Unluckily for them this was also the day that a terrorist organization called Split Image decide to take the place over, and everyone that happened to be in the store as hostages. The masked men are also filming them the entire time, pretty much keeping track of them losing their minds, after all, they've only been eating junk food and beer for the past month. Obvi they make it out after putting up a fight when they've reached the end of their ropes. However, only two make it out alive, Cliff, who everyone calls Spab and a upper class young woman, Wendy. The tale starts at the end of the hostage crisis. Upon escape, Spab and Wendy realize they are now celebrities, every night on TV, millions watched the events unfold in the store. Cliff puts on a brave smart ass attitude making the public love him more, but inside he's suffering some ptsd, and he just wants to disappear. His family use him for the fame, his friends use him for the fame. His one true friend is dead. And the only one he can share any of this with is Wendy, and they are being kept apart by fame, family and all of that. Movie gives you a look at our news becoming just pure entertainment, based on money and popularity. And this was before the internet. Stephen Dorff as Spab and Reese Witherspoon as Wendy were awesome in this dark comedy, with a freaking kick ass soundtrack! Check it out! Filmbufftim on FB.
Vegas (725 KP) rated Litte Fires Everywhere in TV
Aug 7, 2020
Very strong cast (2 more)
Story progression
The soundtrack
Fantastic, but not an easy watch
Not knowing anything about this show except that it kept pestering me to watch it on Prime, I thought I'd give it a go, for some reason not expecting it to be as heavy as it was.
It started quite slowly, and I almost gave up on it after the first episode, which, as with all of the episodes felt a lot longer than it was.
However, I persevered, and am glad I did.
The story progressed at quite a slow speed but it was a pace that suited it, the ups and downs of all of the characters and the changes to their lives are handled in a way to draw you into their lives without feeling rushed...
The two leading ladies Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon are fantastic, playing the two mothers in such a way that you never know which person is in the right or wrong, and who to side with, both win you over at different points of the story and their backstory flashbacks are equally well handled by the actresses who played their younger versions and give you a real sense of how they became what they are now.
The supporting cast are equally strong from Joshua Jackson as Witherspoon's husband, to the five children of the main characters there isn't a weak performance.
A powerful and moving story examining relationships, lies, sexuality, and loyalties there is a lot to take in, it's not an easy series to binge watch quickly, I had to do it only a couple of episodes at a time, but I highly recommend watching it, just don't expect laughs and an easy time...
It also has a great soundtrack which is also a bonus...
It started quite slowly, and I almost gave up on it after the first episode, which, as with all of the episodes felt a lot longer than it was.
However, I persevered, and am glad I did.
The story progressed at quite a slow speed but it was a pace that suited it, the ups and downs of all of the characters and the changes to their lives are handled in a way to draw you into their lives without feeling rushed...
The two leading ladies Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon are fantastic, playing the two mothers in such a way that you never know which person is in the right or wrong, and who to side with, both win you over at different points of the story and their backstory flashbacks are equally well handled by the actresses who played their younger versions and give you a real sense of how they became what they are now.
The supporting cast are equally strong from Joshua Jackson as Witherspoon's husband, to the five children of the main characters there isn't a weak performance.
A powerful and moving story examining relationships, lies, sexuality, and loyalties there is a lot to take in, it's not an easy series to binge watch quickly, I had to do it only a couple of episodes at a time, but I highly recommend watching it, just don't expect laughs and an easy time...
It also has a great soundtrack which is also a bonus...
The Perfect Betrayal
10.0
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'A captivating, suspenseful thriller that draws you in - with a twist that will take your breath...
Mystery Thriller General Fiction (Adult) Grief Trust