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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2099 KP) rated Some Like It Hawk (Meg Langslow, #14) in Books

Mar 9, 2018  
SL
Some Like It Hawk (Meg Langslow, #14)
Donna Andrews | 2012
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
When a bank repossessed all the buildings in Caerphilly, the town clerk boarded himself in the town hall basement. Now Meg, her family, and the rest of the town are smuggling supplies to him. But when a body turns up just outside his barricade, the jig may be up. Can Meg find the killer without giving away the secret? I love these characters, and I will never complaint about spending time with them. However, I felt the plot could have used more twists or something. And these books have lost some of their humor. Still, fans of the series will enjoy this one.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2013/07/book-review-some-like-it-hawk-by-donna.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
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Darren (1599 KP) rated American Made (2017) in Movies

Jun 20, 2019  
American Made (2017)
American Made (2017)
2017 | Mystery
7
6.7 (29 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Story: American Made starts as Barry Seal (Cruise) a pilot gets offered a job by the CIA agent Monty Schafer (Gleeson) to fly over different parts of Northern and Southern America to take photos for the CIA, the job is exclusive but as his family grows with Lucy (Wright) having children, he needs more money.

When one if his flights takes him to South America he meets businessman Pablo Escobar (Mejia) and his partners who recruit him to smuggle drug into America. Before long Barry is getting pushed into other forms of smuggling both to and from America.

 

                            Thoughts on American Made

 

Characters – Barry Seal was a small-time cigar smuggling pilot before he gets recruited by the CIA to fly over other parts of the Americas to spy, soon he becomes involved in large scale smuggling across America both in and out, he believes he is working in the CIA but always seemed to be getting slightly in deeper than first thought. He struggles to keep his personal life together with his wife and children suffering his sudden changes in location. Monty is the CIA agent that recruits Barry to smuggle, he believes he is in control of the whole situation as he bails Barry out of trouble and gives him the instructions from the American side of the events. Lucy is the wife of Barry that must deal with his lifestyle but once there is a large amount of money involved she embraces the life of luxury for her family. We do have the drug dealing side of the characters that Barry deals with but we only see them in the dealing side of the story.

Performances – This is another Tom Cruise vehicle where he shows just how talent he is, this helps his credibility after the disaster which was The Mummy, this could be his best full ranged acting performance in years. Domhnall is great in his supporting role showing he can work in nearly any genre right now. Sarah Wright is good but we don’t get to see enough of her characters struggle or enjoyment of the money.

Story – The story follows Barry Seal and how he went from small-time cigar smuggler into one of the most infamous drug and gun smugglers in modern American history. We follow the events from how he remembers them explaining how he just didn’t seem to know how things just kept falling his way but he went with the flow and how the government helped support the international gun trade. This was a lot more interesting that I could imagine showing us just how corrupt the government could be when it needed to be.

Action/Biopic/Comedy – The action comes from how Barry would get the job done, he has edge of the seat moments of when it comes to the flight sequences, the comedy is lightly toned into the story which sounds like a comedy over a real story but seeing the story of Barry Seal and his smuggling makes for an interesting biopic.

Settings – The film does take us across difference parts America to show where Barry ends up going to which all look like the time being presented in the film.


Scene of the Movie – Emergency Landing

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does make the idea seem like a good thing rather than a criminal in action.

Final Thoughts – This is an entertaining biopic that shows how a smuggler ran a multi-million-dollar organisation that even the government supported.

 

Overall: Enjoyable movie all around.

https://moviesreview101.com/2018/11/01/american-made-2017/
  
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Fruit Bat (42 KP) rated A Grim Almanac of Norfolk in Books

Mar 1, 2018  
AG
A Grim Almanac of Norfolk
Neil R. Storey | 2003
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Written in almanac form  'A Grim Almanac of Norfolk 'covers over 300 hundred years of Norfolk history. There is a story for everyday of the year and is accompanied by many black and white illustrations. Naming just a few you can find tales of  bizarre accidents, smuggling, body snatching ,murder and much more. Because of the style of writing it is easy to dip in and out of with no need to read from front to back. The book is well presented and must have taken the author many hours of research to complete the book , I am enjoying reading the book and those with an interest in social history will find it interesting , however some people may find it repetitive as the book has a running theme.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Avengers - Season 3 in TV

Jul 15, 2020  
The Avengers - Season 3
The Avengers - Season 3
1963 | Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Season Rating
The third series of The Avengers is slicker, more confident, and slightly more inclined towards silliness than the one before, particularly as Brian Clemens writes more of the scripts. The occasional very serious thriller or crime episode still sneaks through, and these are often very good, but for the first time one finds stories about lunatics looking to restore the Roman Empire in addition to plots about drug smuggling.

It's still a slightly mixed bag but the two stars are endlessly watchable and the chemistry between them is great. The best episodes bear comparison to ones from the better-known filmed seasons that made up the rest of the series' run. Maybe not quite up to the standard of those later shows, but this is the foundation they were built on, and entertaining in its own right.