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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2352 KP) rated Read It and Weep in Books

Oct 12, 2019

Romance Overshadows Mystery

This fall, Lindsey’s friend Violet La Rue is directing a local theater production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and she is encouraging everyone to try out for it. Lindsey is more interested in working behind the scenes on the costumes, but many of her friends land parts in the play. The one non-community member cast is Violet’s friend, Robbie Vine, a celebrated actor. He brings with him his wife and his girlfriend, but he still is immediately smitten with Lindsey, and he starts flirting with her, which does nothing but irritate Sully, Lindsey’s ex. However, Lindsey’s romantic troubles aren’t the biggest issue on the stage. Instead, a series of increasingly more serious accidents seem to be happening in the theater. Is someone out to destroy the production? Is any one person the target? Will Lindsey get to the bottom of things before someone dies?

Since I’m behind on this series, I knew that Lindsey was going to have some serious issues with her love life, and that is the case here. In fact, it feels more like the focus of the book with the mystery being a sub-plot. I’m a guy, so I don’t tend to read romances, and I stir clear of many romantic comedies because they aren’t my thing. The romantic comedy aspect of this book certainly bothered me. While there are some mysterious occurrences, it wasn’t really until the second half when the mystery really got going and even then, is often overshadowed by the romance. There is a good twist to the mystery, however. And I adore the series characters. We get to see a different side of a couple of them and finally spend some time getting to know Violet. On the other hand, the suspects were rather weak. I’ve read enough of author Jenn McKinlay’s books to know this is a blip from an author I usually adore. If you are a fan of her books, you’ll still want to see what happens here. If you are new to her books, you’ll be better served starting with a different book and coming back to this one later. Personally, I am looking forward to visiting Lindsey again soon.

Kudos

The Foreign Correspondent

Alan Furst

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

From Alan Furst, whom The New York Times calls “America’s preeminent spy novelist,” comes an...

Sheridan (209 KP) rated Suicide Squad (2016) in Movies

Jul 9, 2017

Cast (3 more)

Visual Effects

Dark/Dry Humour

Perfect Harley Quinn portrayal

Harley/Joker relationship portrayed felt romantic rather than what it is (2 more)

Villain was lacking

Storyline wasn't fleshed out enough

Excellent Movie - Even for a Marvel fan ;)

Let it be said now, I will always love Marvel more than DC because I relate to the characters. I've never particularly been a fan of DC heroes but I've always said they have excellent bad guys. If you're a die-hard fan of the comics this movie probably won't do it for you because there is a lot of interpretation in there. I, however, loved it solely because of the excellent casting. The storyline is a little lacking and I felt the villain in the movie wasn't quite fleshed out enough for it to be a complete movie, if that makes sense. Harley Quinn couldn't have been more perfectly cast (though I might be biased as an Aussie lol), Deadshot had an interesting interpreation from Will Smith and I enjoyed it, Joker was definitely closer to what I've seen in the comics, however I feel his relationship with Harley wasn't shown correctly (it felt more romantic than it should have, he's an awful person and truly treats her like s**t, it's a relationship based on insanity and stockholm syndrome and it didn't feel that way to me) All in all despite a few flaws it was a good movie. I would definitely watch it again.

Kudos

Lou Grande (148 KP) rated Latter Days (2004) in Movies

Jun 20, 2018

Latter Days (2004)

2004 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Contains spoilers, click to show

I saw this movie back when it was released fourteen years ago, when I was still young and had faith in things. I picked it up again to see if it held up, and you know? It's not bad. Usually romantic comedies don't do much for me, gay or straight, but I have a thing for Mormons--what can I say?

So Christian is a gay party boy livin' it up in LA, but ultimately lacking in purpose and drive. Aaron is a Mormon missionary from Iowa, who experiences culture shock and desire for the first time, because of course they become neighbors and hijinks ensue. Fun fact! This movie also stars Joseph Gorgon-Levitt as a total butt, which is quite a contrast to his role in Mysterious Skin, another gay-themed movie which came out in the same year.

The acting is actually not as horrible as you would think from the production value/budget, and the story is typical romantic comedy fare. Still, I think it would strike a chord with anyone who is queer and was brought up in a religious household. It doesn't shy away from how agonizing it can be to be betrayed by family, especially fourteen years ago. And you know, some of the dialogue is actually really poignant. If you can get over the vaguely "afterschool special" feeling of this movie, it's definitely worth a watch.

(It has a happy ending!)