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Deborah (162 KP) rated The Queen's Accomplice (Maggie Hope Mystery, #6) in Books

Dec 21, 2018  
The Queen's Accomplice (Maggie Hope Mystery, #6)
The Queen's Accomplice (Maggie Hope Mystery, #6)
Susan Elia MacNeal | 2016 | Mystery
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I enjoy a 'nice' murder (as my mother likes to say!), so I was happy to read and review this through the Amazon Vine programme. I realised it was part of a series, but when I got to it I found it was a fair few books in (6th I think) and the beginning was a little confusing as there is quite a strong 'through' story as well as the plot for this particular instalment. At the other end of the spectrum, this also meant that there were plot threads left hanging at the end - obviously to pull you into purchasing the next book! Sometimes in a series you can pick things up fairly easily even if you happen upon it in the middle, but I would suggest not so much with this one.

Overall it was well written and pretty gripping. It was rather gruesome though as the murderer was certifiably nuts and the victims butchered. It's also a book full of misogyny, so it's not comfortable to read. Yes, I know that's how things were, but it got to the point that it was so gruesome and so hard on women I was losing the enjoyment/relaxation that I want from reading a good novel.

On the murders, I was certain fairly early on who it had to be. I've deduced successfully in other novels, but then kept on wondering if I had it right, where here I never doubted it. I suppose part of this is personal taste - I prefer something like an Agatha Christie where the clues are all there and you can try and work things out rather than a blood-and-guts thriller. Your mileage may vary!

To conclude, well written, good characterisation, but a bit gory for my taste and I don't think I'll read any more in the series.
  
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    It's time to jazz up your weekly menu with award-winning television and radio host, Laura Theodore,...

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Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Scars of Dracula (1970) in Movies

Nov 17, 2020  
Scars of Dracula (1970)
Scars of Dracula (1970)
1970 | Classics, Horror, International
7
7.2 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Start From Scratch
Scars of Dracula- is the sixth Dracula film from Hammer and fifth starring Christopher Lee. Its a re-introducting to Dracula, even though its the six one in the Hammer franchise. Its also takes place after Taste, so im not sure why their did do a re-introducting. Anyways

The plot: Bat's blood hits Dracula's (Christopher Lee) ashes, and he rises again to fight a couple (Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley) looking for trouble.

It also gives Lee more to do and say than any other Hammer Dracula film except its first, 1958's Dracula.

This film breaks the continuity maintained through the previous entries in the Hammer Dracula series: whereas at the end of the preceding film, Taste the Blood of Dracula, the Count met his end in a disused church near London, this film opens with a resurrection scene set in Dracula's castle in Transylvania, with no explanation of how his ashes got there (although, they might have been returned from England, as a contingency, by the young acolyte from the prologue of Dracula A.D. 1972). Furthermore; in Scars of Dracula, the Count has a servant named Klove, played by Patrick Troughton; in the third film of the series, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula has a servant named Klove (played by Philip Latham) who appears to be a different character, though identically named. The disruption of continuity caused by Scars of Dracula reflects the fact the film was originally tooled as a possible reboot of the series in the event Christopher Lee elected not to reprise the role of Dracula.

The British Film group EMI took over distribution of the film after Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and other American studios refused to distribute it in the U.S. It was also the first of several Hammer films to get an 'R' rating.

Its a good film.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) in Movies

Feb 23, 2019 (Updated Feb 24, 2019)  
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
2018 | Crime, Drama, Romance
9
7.3 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Barry Jenkins' follow-up to Moonlight manages to be utterly gorgeous and profoundly moving while also being serious and thoughtful. A young black man is arrested for a crime he couldn't have committed (but you try telling the authorities that); the film backtracks to show his relationship with his girlfriend and details her life after his imprisonment, when she learns she is pregnant with his child.

A film of extraordinarily restrained anger and tremendous tenderness and delicacy; the non-linear storytelling structure and emphasis on character and atmosphere over plot may not be to everyone's taste, but every frame of this movie has clearly had serious thought devoted to it, and the performances are uniformly excellent. Would have been a vastly more worthy Oscar nominee than most of the films on the 2019 Best Picture shortlist.