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Darren (1599 KP) rated Our Kind of Traitor (2016) in Movies
Sep 16, 2019
Characters – Perry is a university professor, he is trying to make amends with his wife on a romantic holiday, he reluctantly gets involved in the information trade with his good nature being used by both sides. Gail is the lawyer wife of Perry, she has become distant from him while still loving him and does question his decision to help Dima. Dima is the Russian mafia handling the accounts, but he wants out to help his own children become safe, he uses his connection with Perry to get MI6 involved in the truth. Hector is the MI6 agent that is willing to work with Dima for the information in exchange for the family, he does have his own grudge with the man they are trying to take down too.
Performances – The performances through the film show us just what Le Carre does with his characters, he gives them good moments, without making them stand out. McGregor is good, but you feel a younger up and comer would have been perfect here, Harris is good and doesn’t put a foot wrong, while Skarsgard enjoys his role, shady but loyal. Damian Lewis brings back his true English role which at times does feel weird knowing how often he has been an American character recently.
Story – The story comes from a John Le Carre novel, so instantly we know we are going to get a thriller that keeps us guessing on what everyone’s motivation will be. The idea that a normal couple get mixed up in the middle of an international information exchange is different and does work for the film because it helps us stay on edge thinking and wondering if they do have a bigger involvement. The story does feel like that one moment to make it great is missing, as everything does end up feeling just normal and good only.
Crime – The crime side of the film follows a criminal looking for a safe way out of the life for his family in exchange for bringing down the mafia’s dealings in London.
Settings – The film splits the settings between London, for the deals, Morocco for the exchanges and the final location for the next chapter of the lives, they work because they show how this world would operate.
Scene of the Movie – The escape.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It lacks the edge of your seat style of Le Carre novels have given us.
Final Thoughts – This is a solid thriller even if it lacks that final factor to make it one of the best ones, it does the by the book material well, but never develops the characters enough to understand the situation they put themselves in.
Overall: Simple thriller.
Performances – The performances through the film show us just what Le Carre does with his characters, he gives them good moments, without making them stand out. McGregor is good, but you feel a younger up and comer would have been perfect here, Harris is good and doesn’t put a foot wrong, while Skarsgard enjoys his role, shady but loyal. Damian Lewis brings back his true English role which at times does feel weird knowing how often he has been an American character recently.
Story – The story comes from a John Le Carre novel, so instantly we know we are going to get a thriller that keeps us guessing on what everyone’s motivation will be. The idea that a normal couple get mixed up in the middle of an international information exchange is different and does work for the film because it helps us stay on edge thinking and wondering if they do have a bigger involvement. The story does feel like that one moment to make it great is missing, as everything does end up feeling just normal and good only.
Crime – The crime side of the film follows a criminal looking for a safe way out of the life for his family in exchange for bringing down the mafia’s dealings in London.
Settings – The film splits the settings between London, for the deals, Morocco for the exchanges and the final location for the next chapter of the lives, they work because they show how this world would operate.
Scene of the Movie – The escape.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It lacks the edge of your seat style of Le Carre novels have given us.
Final Thoughts – This is a solid thriller even if it lacks that final factor to make it one of the best ones, it does the by the book material well, but never develops the characters enough to understand the situation they put themselves in.
Overall: Simple thriller.
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Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated The Murder of King Tut in Books
Apr 27, 2018
THE MURDER OF KING TUT—THE PLOT TO KILL THE CHILD KING (Audio Book) by James Patterson and Martin Dugard, read by Joe Barrett
Genre: non-fiction thriller
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: James Patterson tells a story in three parts—one part, the mysterious death of King Tut, the second part the discovery of his tomb by Carter, and the third part his writing, own exploration, research, and discovery of the elusive history of the boy king.
Thoughts: This is one of the best James Patterson books I’ve ever read (listened too). JP has taken an age old mystery and solved it. Yes, it appears as though the mystery of Tut is mystery no more. This book is very alive, even though the plot revolves around a murder. I felt like I was standing right there, watching it all take place. At times, I felt like the characters themselves. This was an amazing escape from reality.
Characters (5/5): Characters should be relatable for a book to be enjoyable, and the characters in Tut’s world were wonderful. They were highly developed right away, and were the kind that either you routed for or hated with a passion.
Writing (4/5/5): James is an awesome writer. I always love reading his work because it’s so lyric. His words flow smoothly and he doesn’t overuse too many phrases (though several “waves” of various things did “wash over” many people).
Content (4/5): There was barely any language in this book, which was a nice change of JP’s work. It wasn’t necessary, either. It just goes to show that the point can be made—and made well—without filthy language. There was a little bit of sex but it wasn’t too graphic, nor was it frequent.
Reader (4/5): I really liked the voice of the reader for this book. I’ve heard some pretty awful ones before, I’ll say that much right now! But Joe’s voice was perfect for this book. The only thing I didn’t like were the voices he put with the characters—the accents were pretty lousy, and when he put on a “fake” voice for the child characters, it just sounded a little silly. I was glad when Tut got old enough that he didn’t have to do that anymore!
Recommendation: Ages 16+ to lovers of fiction, history, nonfiction, thrillers, mystery, or to any James-Patterson-addict.
Genre: non-fiction thriller
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: James Patterson tells a story in three parts—one part, the mysterious death of King Tut, the second part the discovery of his tomb by Carter, and the third part his writing, own exploration, research, and discovery of the elusive history of the boy king.
Thoughts: This is one of the best James Patterson books I’ve ever read (listened too). JP has taken an age old mystery and solved it. Yes, it appears as though the mystery of Tut is mystery no more. This book is very alive, even though the plot revolves around a murder. I felt like I was standing right there, watching it all take place. At times, I felt like the characters themselves. This was an amazing escape from reality.
Characters (5/5): Characters should be relatable for a book to be enjoyable, and the characters in Tut’s world were wonderful. They were highly developed right away, and were the kind that either you routed for or hated with a passion.
Writing (4/5/5): James is an awesome writer. I always love reading his work because it’s so lyric. His words flow smoothly and he doesn’t overuse too many phrases (though several “waves” of various things did “wash over” many people).
Content (4/5): There was barely any language in this book, which was a nice change of JP’s work. It wasn’t necessary, either. It just goes to show that the point can be made—and made well—without filthy language. There was a little bit of sex but it wasn’t too graphic, nor was it frequent.
Reader (4/5): I really liked the voice of the reader for this book. I’ve heard some pretty awful ones before, I’ll say that much right now! But Joe’s voice was perfect for this book. The only thing I didn’t like were the voices he put with the characters—the accents were pretty lousy, and when he put on a “fake” voice for the child characters, it just sounded a little silly. I was glad when Tut got old enough that he didn’t have to do that anymore!
Recommendation: Ages 16+ to lovers of fiction, history, nonfiction, thrillers, mystery, or to any James-Patterson-addict.
Lee (2222 KP) rated The Shape of Water (2017) in Movies
Feb 8, 2018
Sally Hawkins (1 more)
Michael Shannon
Beautiful and Enchanting
The Shape of Water really is one of those movies where I feel the trailer doesn't really do it justice. From seeing the trailer, I wasn't really sure how much I was going to enjoy the movie. Like I'm sure many others will be, I was persuaded that I might be wrong by the 13 Oscar nominations it recently received. I shouldn't have had any doubts to be honest. Pan's Labyrinth, also directed by Guillermo del Toro, is one of my favourite movies and The Shape of Water shares many similarities with that. A beautiful and enchanting mix of fairy tale, love story and monster movie.
Sally Hawkins plays Elisa Esposito, a mute woman who works nights as a janitor for Occam Aerospace Research Center along with friend Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer). At home she lives a simple life, watching musicals with her gay neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins) and finding joy in the simple things in life. One day a strange creature is brought into the research center to be studied, surrounded by military and medical personnel. Colonel Richard Strickland has accompanied 'the asset' from it's previous location, and appears to have developed a serious dislike to it. He carries an electrified cattle prod, which he takes great delight in using on the creature. In return though, the creature does manage to remove two of Stricklands fingers, and also inflicts serious injuries on others.
But Elisa takes pity on the creature and over time tries to befriend it, bringing him hard-boiled eggs and teaching him sign language. When she learns that plans for the creature involve vivisection, she hatches a plan to help him escape, and from that point their feelings for each other develop into love. A true Beauty and the Beast style fairy tale.
I found myself absolutely captivated, swept along by the story, and everything about it is just beautiful. Sally Hawkins is incredible, portraying such varied emotions without speaking, she provides much of the films humour, and shines in the more serious scenes too. Doug Jones does what he does best as the creature, but the real monster of the movie is Michael Shannon as Colonel Strickland. Terrifyingly brilliant.
For me, I'm not sure if this beats Pan's Labyrinth, but The Shape of Water is certainly worthy of all the praise, and hopefully the awards, it receives.
Sally Hawkins plays Elisa Esposito, a mute woman who works nights as a janitor for Occam Aerospace Research Center along with friend Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer). At home she lives a simple life, watching musicals with her gay neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins) and finding joy in the simple things in life. One day a strange creature is brought into the research center to be studied, surrounded by military and medical personnel. Colonel Richard Strickland has accompanied 'the asset' from it's previous location, and appears to have developed a serious dislike to it. He carries an electrified cattle prod, which he takes great delight in using on the creature. In return though, the creature does manage to remove two of Stricklands fingers, and also inflicts serious injuries on others.
But Elisa takes pity on the creature and over time tries to befriend it, bringing him hard-boiled eggs and teaching him sign language. When she learns that plans for the creature involve vivisection, she hatches a plan to help him escape, and from that point their feelings for each other develop into love. A true Beauty and the Beast style fairy tale.
I found myself absolutely captivated, swept along by the story, and everything about it is just beautiful. Sally Hawkins is incredible, portraying such varied emotions without speaking, she provides much of the films humour, and shines in the more serious scenes too. Doug Jones does what he does best as the creature, but the real monster of the movie is Michael Shannon as Colonel Strickland. Terrifyingly brilliant.
For me, I'm not sure if this beats Pan's Labyrinth, but The Shape of Water is certainly worthy of all the praise, and hopefully the awards, it receives.
Asiza Tait (139 KP) rated Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1) in Books
Feb 1, 2018
Bream Reading Club Reviews of Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Total Stars out of 5: 3 Stars
The first book in the Grisha Trilogy was full of promise. Dynamic and different, full of interesting places and characters, it ended on a cliff hanger pulling the reader in to read book two. Unfortunately as it often is with cases like this, the first book was great and the rest was not.
We are introduced to Alina and Mal, orphans who are raised together in the same orphanage. Some of our members assumed their affection was more familial so their stilted and lengthy romance felt awkward and though the rest of us ‘saw it coming’ it still felt contrived. Their love story we assumed was supposed to be something truly epic, a love that overcome all odds, but by book three we were still left wanting, perhaps the author changed her mind half way, leaving the reader sadly unfulfilled.
Alina is discovered to be the long awaited for ‘Sun Summoner’ the one the Darkling has been waiting for. The Darkling is a very interesting character, one with depth and personality. For a little while one almost looks forward to the relationship beginning to form between Alina and him, but that hope is for nought. It felt as if the author was afraid to let these two characters have a night in the same bed, and veered away from it instead of facing it head on. The light and dark of their respective powers draw these two together, but any chance of them bonding is ripped away with an old lady called Bhagra compelling Alina to run away, revealing what the Darkling really is.
Alina made good her escape but not for long. The Darkling’s powers are overwhelming and she is soon back in his grasp. The books ends with Alina managing to take control again of her own power and saves Mal’s life while sacrificing other Grisha in the process.
If you’ve noticed how Mal is not spoken about a whole lot in this review it is because his character is undeveloped. He is supposed to be the ‘hero’ in this story but all we saw of him was a square. He is immature and all the members agreed that Mal was short changed when it came to putting him on paper.
For all its promise, it did not deliver.
Total Stars out of 5: 3 Stars
The first book in the Grisha Trilogy was full of promise. Dynamic and different, full of interesting places and characters, it ended on a cliff hanger pulling the reader in to read book two. Unfortunately as it often is with cases like this, the first book was great and the rest was not.
We are introduced to Alina and Mal, orphans who are raised together in the same orphanage. Some of our members assumed their affection was more familial so their stilted and lengthy romance felt awkward and though the rest of us ‘saw it coming’ it still felt contrived. Their love story we assumed was supposed to be something truly epic, a love that overcome all odds, but by book three we were still left wanting, perhaps the author changed her mind half way, leaving the reader sadly unfulfilled.
Alina is discovered to be the long awaited for ‘Sun Summoner’ the one the Darkling has been waiting for. The Darkling is a very interesting character, one with depth and personality. For a little while one almost looks forward to the relationship beginning to form between Alina and him, but that hope is for nought. It felt as if the author was afraid to let these two characters have a night in the same bed, and veered away from it instead of facing it head on. The light and dark of their respective powers draw these two together, but any chance of them bonding is ripped away with an old lady called Bhagra compelling Alina to run away, revealing what the Darkling really is.
Alina made good her escape but not for long. The Darkling’s powers are overwhelming and she is soon back in his grasp. The books ends with Alina managing to take control again of her own power and saves Mal’s life while sacrificing other Grisha in the process.
If you’ve noticed how Mal is not spoken about a whole lot in this review it is because his character is undeveloped. He is supposed to be the ‘hero’ in this story but all we saw of him was a square. He is immature and all the members agreed that Mal was short changed when it came to putting him on paper.
For all its promise, it did not deliver.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Baki in TV
Jul 7, 2020
Ridiculously Crazy Yet Insanely Hardcore
Baki is the third season of an anime series based on manga series titled Grappled Baki or Baki The Grappled. It is directed by Toshiki Hirano, written by Tatsuhiko Urahata and produced by Kei Watahiki, Yuki Yokoi, and Executive Producer Tetsu Kohima. Baki is made by TMS Entertainment and licensed by Netflix.
Baki is anything but a normal teenage high school student. After becoming one of the greatest martial artists in the world by winning a legendary underground fighting tournament, Baki continues to train with intense focus to become strong enough to surpass his father, Yujiro Hanma, the strongest fighter in the world. He is warned by Mitsunari Tokugawa, ruler of the underground fight arena, that five of the world's most dangerous, violent and brutal death row inmates have escaped and they are all converging on Tokyo. Their unmatched skill and strength have made them bored and their objective is to taste defeat. Tokugawa warns Baki that they are seeking him in hopes of being overwhelmed and utterly crushed. Other underground martial art warriors gather to fight by Baki's side after being summoned by Tokugawa.
This anime is pretty freaking crazy. Whether it's the ridiculous amount of muscles the characters have or the amount of damage they can handle, this anime is over the top. From the beginning they hype up these individuals with the stories of why they're in prison and the impossible ways that they escape. But when they start fighting it really picks up. This series was a guilty pleasure of mine for a bit, I totally binge watched the first season and eagerly awaited the second. That being said it is far from perfect. There is a lot of talking sometimes (a bit too much exposition) and waiting for action but when it happens it rarely disappoints. I mean the fight scenes are really graphic with blood, broken bones, teeth breaking, eye stabbing etc. I really hate that it has CGI at all but it's far and in between. At first I didn't like the art style at all but it kinda grew on me. Also to me the second season didn't live up to the hype of the first one but that's just my opinion. If you're looking for straight up action then this is the anime you're looking for. I give it a 7/10.
Baki is anything but a normal teenage high school student. After becoming one of the greatest martial artists in the world by winning a legendary underground fighting tournament, Baki continues to train with intense focus to become strong enough to surpass his father, Yujiro Hanma, the strongest fighter in the world. He is warned by Mitsunari Tokugawa, ruler of the underground fight arena, that five of the world's most dangerous, violent and brutal death row inmates have escaped and they are all converging on Tokyo. Their unmatched skill and strength have made them bored and their objective is to taste defeat. Tokugawa warns Baki that they are seeking him in hopes of being overwhelmed and utterly crushed. Other underground martial art warriors gather to fight by Baki's side after being summoned by Tokugawa.
This anime is pretty freaking crazy. Whether it's the ridiculous amount of muscles the characters have or the amount of damage they can handle, this anime is over the top. From the beginning they hype up these individuals with the stories of why they're in prison and the impossible ways that they escape. But when they start fighting it really picks up. This series was a guilty pleasure of mine for a bit, I totally binge watched the first season and eagerly awaited the second. That being said it is far from perfect. There is a lot of talking sometimes (a bit too much exposition) and waiting for action but when it happens it rarely disappoints. I mean the fight scenes are really graphic with blood, broken bones, teeth breaking, eye stabbing etc. I really hate that it has CGI at all but it's far and in between. At first I didn't like the art style at all but it kinda grew on me. Also to me the second season didn't live up to the hype of the first one but that's just my opinion. If you're looking for straight up action then this is the anime you're looking for. I give it a 7/10.
Written in the Stars
8.5
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This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has...