Beat the Boss 2
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The Boss is back and ready to make your life a living hell. But you're not the same good guy taking...
Woman of Courage: Collector's Edition
7.0
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A Woman of Courage Makes an Epic Journey Take a three-thousand mile journey with Amanda Pearson...
Out of Breath
8.0
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Reason to Breathe and Barely Breathing , the first two books in the trilogy, are both US...
Barely Breathing (Breathing, #2)
8.0
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Barely Breathing by Rebecca Donovan is a US bestseller and the incredible sequel to Reason to...
Muse of Nightmares
9.5
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In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a...
David McK (3835 KP) rated Gladiator 2 (2024) in Movies
Dec 6, 2024 (Updated Dec 6, 2024)
In this, which plays a heavy debt to that earlier film, Paul Mescal stars as Hanno who, it turns out, also played a pivotal role in that earlier film (I don't want to give too much away, other than to say he's playing the same character circa 20 years later) and who, like Maximus before him, ends up fighting for his life in the Roman Arena for the amusement of the Roman mob.
Denzel Washington, this time, plays a role somewhat similar to Oliver Reed did in the first film, with - here - 2 Emperors instead of 1 (Commodus) in the persons of the twins Geta and Caracella - and with able support provided by the likes of Pedro Pascal (whom the trailers will make you think has a bigger role than he does) and Connie Nielsen.
Good, yes, but not up to the standards of the first.
David McK (3835 KP) rated Star Wars: Convergence (The High Republic #5) in Books
May 30, 2026
Romeo and Juliet.
But in space.
And with warring planets instead of warring families.
Now that I've finished it, I can say that - while there *is* a (strong) element of truth in that, it's also not the whole picture.
Set during the High Republic era of Star Wars (so even before the much-maligned TV series 'The Acolyte'), this was an actually an era I hadn't yet dipped my toes in to - to me, Star Wars has always been in and around the time of the original trilogy (showing my age here).
Still, for a 99 pence offer, I thought I might as well give it a try.
While it's by no means the worst Star Wars book I've read (and I've read a few...), it's also not the strongest contender: there's nothing wrong with it per se, and the setting does free it from the usual Jedi vs Sith shenanigans, and so whilst I may pick up any the direct sequel (by a different author, I believe), I'm also not in any rush to do so.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2593 KP) rated The Tell-Tale Homicide in Books
Sep 10, 2025
I enjoyed the first, but this one was a real let down. The book needed a serious edit. Most obnoxious to me with the multiple blatant timeline issues. They, along with some other things, left me wondering if the suspicious behavior I was observing was poor editing or something I was supposed to pick up on. The pacing was uneven, and a storyline involving the future of the town was wrapped up too easily. There was an element of the climax that was never explained. And some politics of the day pop up, making me roll my eyes. I did still enjoy my time with the returning characters. Well, most of them. (And don’t get me started on how that character behaved.) I see others have really enjoyed this book, so maybe it’s me, but I can’t recommend it.
David McK (3835 KP) rated Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) in Movies
Nov 7, 2019 (Updated Jul 24, 2022)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Terminator: Salvation
Terminator: Genisys
Forget them all.
(as an aside: notice how they get progressively worse as they went along?)
Right from the opening pre-credit sequence, this sets itself up as a sequel to the superlative Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ignoring all the above-named moves (and TV series). It's also no secret that this stars Linda Hamilton's kick-ass Sarah Connor (who was unceremoniously killed off off-screen in Terminator 3, before having her own TV show in the Sarah Connor Chronicles), with Gabriel Luna's Rev-9 a more worthy successor to Robert Patrick's T-1000 than Kristinna Loken's T-X and with the (inevitable) return of Arnie himself as an original series Terminator.
Like the first 2 movies, this is essentially a chase movie, with Connor and co on the run from the Rev-9 (from a future that has never heard of Cyberdyne or Skynet) while trying to protect Natalia Reyes Danni from the Rev-9: I also have to say that, like a lot of James Cameron's movies, this features powerful female roles, with Arnie really only along as back-up.
David McK (3835 KP) rated The Matrix Resurrections (2021) in Movies
Feb 9, 2022 (Updated Oct 1, 2023)
Pre Millennium.
Just at the start of our current high-tech always-on society.
And The Matrix was released, becoming hugely influential in the process and popularising the concept of 'bullet time'.
Both the sequels (Reloaded and Revolutions) were released during 'the year of the Matrix' in 2003, doubling down on the philosophical ponderings of the first movie (in particular, during Reloaded, with the whole still-to-this-day confusing Architect scenes), with Revolutions also seemingly leaving the trilogy with nowhere to go.
Until nearly 20 years later, when one of the two Wachowski siblings decided to resurrect both Neo and Trinity in this.
I's very much a film of two halves, with the first half in particular hugely self-referential (lots of nods and winks to the audience, and even clips from the earlier films shown on TV screens within the movie), while the second half settles down more into your standard action fare.
Whilst enjoyable enough, it lacks anything to match the sheer pizzaz of the first movie, or even the Freeway chase/burly brawl/chateau fight from the second or the Neo Vs Smith showdown in the third.