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Tomorrow (2019)
Tomorrow (2019)
2019 |
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The film had me at "brief strong sex" on the title card.

Tesla, a war veteran, struggles day to day being in the real world again. His loses weigh heavily on him and he hits rock bottom. A chance encounter with the over-friendly Sky leads him to new friends and new opportunities. Will he be able to see past his inner demons long enough to make a go of everything?

Firstly, someone at BBFC is leading a very sheltered life... moving on.

I had concerns going into this, Tomorrow was written by Stuart Brennan and Sebastian Street, if you're wondering why one of those sounds familiar it's because Stuart Brennan wrote Wolf (and directed, and produced and starred), I gave that 1.5 stars and I was one of the more generous viewers. You'll also spot the name Sebastian Street as he's playing the lead role of Tesla to Brennan's Sky.

I actually thought that Brennan did a great job as Sky. His storyline progressed at a much tougher rate than any of the other characters and his handling of it was surprisingly good.

Sebastian Street was in no way convincing. Tesla had an important point to make about disability and veterans but it felt more like he was acting in a bad soap opera than a film.

Unfortunately the downsides don't stop there, neither Stephanie Leonidas nor Sophie Kennedy Clark gave convincing portrayals, though I'm inclined to think that is more to do with the script. Tesla's love interest Katie, played by Leonidas, was a particularly hateful woman at times. I'm sure they were attempting to bring her on a learning curve about Tesla and his PTSD but there are moments that are entirely unbelievable. No one would be as oblivious as she was and I was genuinely annoyed by the fact he didn't tell her to take a hike then and there.

You'll also see on the cast list we have Stephen Fry, James Cosmo and Paul Kaye... I know! Cosmo gives a good performance but both Fry as Chris and Kaye as Milo felt like a let down. Neither character was well written and the tone really didn't fit the scenarios they were in. I have no idea why they went for the parts, I'm assuming bills.

While I felt there were a lot of issues with the film, many more than I listed, I was able to identify with part of the film and actually felt like they treated the subject with more respect than everything else was afforded. Because of that fact I'm giving Tomorrow a 2 star score, it deserves more than Wolf but I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. It's currently sitting at a 7 on IMDb which seems rather suspicious to me, the 29% on RT seems like a more accurate rating for this film.

What you should do

While I found something in this to latch onto there's not a lot to gain from seeing this.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

I've always wanted my own restaurant, so I'd have to go with that or Sky's adorable dog.
  
Hellboy (2019)
Hellboy (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After seeing Hellboy my advice unfortunately is don't.
Granted, David Harbour is probably the best substitute for Ron Pearlman- he did a really great job and acrually, i can't fault the acting from any of the cast members yet somehow it ended up like a bad B movie. The shots, the editing, the story...amateur, annoying and rather crap.

They tried too hard to be funny to the point where it was boring, annoying and in places stank of desperation.

In what I can only assume was an attempt to create some affinity for the title character, there was 20mins of a truly pointless tangent that had no conclusion or explanation which had no correlation / baring / connection to the main storyline and don't even get me started on their take of the father / son relationship.

No attempt at any sort of deep relationship which leaves what are supposed to poignant / emotive scenes severely lack lustre.

Unfortunately I was highly disapointed as they actually had a really good cast with a high calibre of acting which leads me to believe that it wasn't the calibre of actors that ruined it, it was the story, the editing and the poor script.

All I can say is well done to the entire cast for managing to maintain their high level of craft in what was a very disappointing film.
  
A Nearly Normal Family
A Nearly Normal Family
M.T. Edvardsson | 2019 | Mystery, Thriller
7
8.8 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
A pretty good read
I don't read a lot of legal/courtroom stories and even less so-called Scandi-Noir type books but, for some reason, the blurb caught me and drew me in and, overall, I was pretty satisfied with "A Nearly Normal Family".

The book centres around a seemingly perfect family (they are anything but!) and is separated into three sections each told from the perspective of a family member following the arrest of the daughter for the murder of a man; each of these sections provided insight into each of the characters and a different take on the situation they find themselves in. What it also did was make this a slow burner with the tension mounting gradually towards the great ending which I found very satisfying.

I did have a couple of problems with this book though; one being that I couldn't connect with any of the main characters and struggled to empathise with any of them, the other being that I think there were times when things seem to have got lost in translation which made the story not flow quite as well as I was expecting.

Overall though a pretty good read and definitely worth the time I invested in reading it.

Thanks go to the good people of Pan Macmillan via NetGalley for my copy in return for an unbiased review.
  
Cherokee Summer
Cherokee Summer
Susan Antony | 2019 | Romance, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Cherokee Summer tells the story of two eighteen-year-old's who both have challenging family lives, although in different ways. Ace has a dad who is cheating, a mum who is a drunk, and also has to take the major responsibility of looking after her brother. John wants to leave the reservation and go to college whilst still dealing with the rest of his family and his addict mum.

In this story you get to see where each character comes from, with their own trials and tribulations, as well as seeing them grow closer together - mainly through adversity!

There are many characters in here, some of whom play a big role, some of whom don't. There are good characters and bad. What this means is you get rich, well-rounded story with plenty to keep you turning the pages. There is action and adventure, young love, suspense, and even some moments that had me shaking my head in gob-smacked wonder.

Full of drama, this is told from the first perspective from the viewpoints of both Ace and John. If you are on the lookout for an intriguing story then I can definitely recommend this one.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
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Graham Lewis recommended ETT by Klara Lewis in Music (curated)

 
ETT by Klara Lewis
ETT by Klara Lewis
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"She's going to represent all the new. This is what we like, new electronic music. Rock music is boring, absolutely boring. How many times have we been bored with it, that's the question. It's really odd, that feeling that you step out of the room. What's interesting about it? Rock music doesn't captivate me. It's faintly ridiculous isn't it? Men with guitars. When we started Wire we thought about how the group would be on stage and how we'd behave. We thought: 'This is a good area to exploit, we can take the piss.' There's got to be a sense of pushing it to almost folly or failure, try again. Now you get things like Inga Copeland, people who are really fucking wilful about what they're doing. It's like: 'Fuck you'. Klara's not like that, but she's very much, 'This is what I am doing, that's it'. She has this manifest confidence, that always helps when you're listening to something. I think because she's processing field recordings and found sound it's got what seems to me to be a very organic feel, in the way she composes things. She deeply understands the importance that things sound right tonally. I've seen her playing in a few different spaces, and her music has translated for all of them."

Source
  
Strands of Truth
Strands of Truth
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Who knew something as simple as a DNA test could lead to a whole lot of mischief!

     I have always thought about doing one, but now I would be even more cautious or nervous to take one. Who knows what could happen or where it would lead? Personally, I loved how Colleen Coble used something like a DNA test and made a spectacular mystery surrounding it. The idea got my brain thinking and very involved/engaged with the characters and their thought processes. It was like living out a dream, you never quite knew where you (or the characters) would end up.

     This book kept me guessing the whole time, although I had my theories, as to what was happening and why it was happening to some seemingly random people. I truly enjoyed the roller coaster that Colleen Coble took me on. There were many happy moments, some very serious life-altering moments that personally would have been very hard to write. However, Colleen Coble gave depth to the personal decisions her characters made and by the end of the book I really felt that I had gotten to know the characters quite well and really didn’t want for their story to end. Colleen Coble did leave the opening for another book in the series and I am so excited to see what comes next
  
Shadow Thief (Flirting with Monsters, #1)
Shadow Thief (Flirting with Monsters, #1)
Eva Chase | 2020 | Paranormal, Romance
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
DNF @ 56%
Contains spoilers, click to show
This starts with Sorsha breaking into a big house where she knows the owner has a collection of creatures in his exhibition room. Shadow creatures that need dark to escape but are kept under blinding lights. Sorsha breaks them all out and is shocked the next morning to find three of them waiting in her kitchen wanting to do her a favour back for freeing them. They also seek her help in freeing their boss from the band of humans who took him - and possibly the same group who tried to take Sorcha's "aunt" many years ago.

I did struggle a little with this one right from the start. I never really got into the storyline but I decided to carry on, thinking the action at the start might continue throughout but it was few and far between.

The description had me intrigued and I don't mind reverse harem books but up to the point i got to (56%) Sorsha had only slept with one of the three demons - the incubus - and was secretly lusting after the other two while trying to hunt down the people who had taken the demons' boss but it was going so slowly... I was bored. I was finding other things to do; buying other kindle books, watching tv instead of being engrossed in this. It just wasn't working for me.
  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2173 KP) rated Killers of a Certain Age in Books

Feb 6, 2023 (Updated Feb 6, 2023)  
Killers of a Certain Age
Killers of a Certain Age
Deanna Raybourn | 2022 | Mystery
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
If You Plan to Take Out Killers, Don't Miss
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have spent their lives working as assassins for a super-secret organization that calls itself the Museum. They have had a successful career individually and as a team, but they are ready to retire now. However, the cruise that the Museum sends them on turns out to be a trap. Now they have to wonder who is out to kill them. And why.

I’ve been hearing good things about this book, so I went in looking forward to it. And I did enjoy it. It reads like an action movie, and there were plenty of scenes that had me turning pages. However, it could have been stronger, with another few twists and turns and slightly stronger characters. The book fits in the action genre in that regard, right? It does have more language and violence than I typically read. It also has plenty that made me smile and laugh as I was reading. Most of the book is written in first person past tense, but we a few chapters flash back to the past and they are written in third person present tense. While I didn’t think this book was quite as good as many others seemed to, I definitely enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it.