The Living Daylights (1987)
7.2
Rate It
Movie Watch
Fifteenth film in Eon's James Bond series and Timothy Dalton's first in the role. (Pierce Brosnan...
Mrs. Caliban
Book
In the quiet suburbs, while Dorothy is doing chores and waiting for her husband to come home from...
fiction
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
Book
Collected here are Gogol's finest tales - from the demon-haunted 'St John's Eve' to the strange...
David McK (3219 KP) rated Sharpe's Assassin in Books
Oct 10, 2021
In chronological order, that was then, novel # 11 of 23 (including short stories in that count).
While Cornwell continued on with his 'Saxon Stories / Last Kingdom' series starring Uhtred of Bebbanburg (read those. Enjoyed those), I've always held a soft spot for the soldier-up-from-the-ranks of Richard Sharpe, so I was quite happy to hear that he would be returning to that character.
This is that return, chronologically novel # 23 of 24, taking place almost immediately after the Battle of Waterloo (worth reading Sharpe's Waterloo again - you don't need to, but it gives context). There's no historical battle (for the setting) this time around; instead we have Sharpe getting caught up in/foil an a plot to assassinate the Duke of Wellington - who, here, seems to have mellowed somewhat towards Sharpe - and the returning King Louis XVIII, with a large portion of the novel set in and around the environs of Paris (in particular The Louvre).
Good to have Sharpe and Harper back together!
A King Under Siege (The Plantagenet Legacy #1)
8.0
Rate It
Book
Richard II found himself under siege not once, but twice in his minority. Crowned king at age ten,...
Historical Fiction Richard II Plantagenets
Sarah (7798 KP) rated Richard Jewell (2019) in Movies
Nov 7, 2020
This is yet another true story I know nothing about, so for me I found this to be quite an interesting watch to discover what happened. To be honest I was almost in disbelief at times to see how Richard was treated by law enforcement and whilst I know some artistic license is always used, it’s still crazy what they did to him! The story is fascinating, although I do think the film drags this out a bit at a run time of well over 2 hours.
That said, there are some good performances in this namely from Paul Walter Hauser (who was great in I, Tonya too), Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates. The relationship between Richard and Rockwell’s character Watson is particularly heartwarming and provides a lot of the funnier aspects of the film and actually proves to be the best thing about this. Sadly there are some who have fared less well - Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde’s seem like your typical cliched FBI and reported characters respectively, and while they both put in good performances, the characters let them down.
What confused me the most about this film was the tone. It felt like it should be a rather tense suspense filled drama (similar to say Patriots Day) but instead it felt too happy or lighthearted to be serious, which considering the subject matter is rather odd. And I think this impacted on how much I liked this. It also didn’t help that they completely gloss over who the real bomber actually was right at the end, and this felt rather abrupt and frustrating considering the length of time the film spends showing them investigating Richard! Overall this is an enjoyable interesting film but falls short of being anything spectacular.
Starsceptre
Games and Entertainment
App
Starsceptre – Infinite chances to save the Galaxy Exclusive debut only on iPhone & iPad! "App of...
The Portuguese marriage proposals was something that I did know about, but here it's presented so logically it makes absolute sense. The chosen bride was a princes of Portugal, with a Spanish Infanta also in the playing as a reserve option. Both of these princesses were descended from the legitimate and senior branch of the House of Lancaster! Furthermore, it seems that a Portuguese marriage was also in the offing for Elizabeth of York. That being so, the letter supposedly written by her (reported by Buck, but now seemingly lost) makes more sense as does the confusion over Richard II wanting to marry Elizabeth, his niece, which never made any real sort of sense as, if we accept the truth of the Eleanor Butler pre-contract, then the children of Edward IV by Elizabeth Woodville were undoubtedly illegitimate, so there would be absolutely no point in Richard marrying her. On the other hand, Elizabeth and her sisters were the closest things available to Royal Princesses to be traded on the dynastic marriage market.
Cancer: A Very Short Introduction
Book
In 1961 John F. Kennedy pledged to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Nine years later,...
Steven Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career
Book
This is an account of Steven Spielberg's first stand-alone film, Duel, a made for TV movie that...