
Colour Bar (Film Tie In): The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation
Book
The true story of a love which defied family, Apartheid, and empire - the inspiration for the major...

Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster
Book
Ben-Hur was the first literary blockbuster to generate multiple and hugely profitable adaptations,...

The Use and Abuse of Cinema: German Legacies from the Weimar Era to the Present
Book
Eric Rentschler's new book, The Use and Abuse of Cinema, takes readers on a series of enthralling...

Akira Kurosawa
Book
'Most directors have one film for which they are known or possibly two', Francis Ford Coppola has...

Donnie Darko (2001)
Movie Watch
Donnie Darko is a psychological science fiction and drama written and directed by Richard Kelly. ...
Science Fiction Drama Horror Themes

I am Not Your Negro
Book
The New York Times bestseller based on the Oscar nominated documentary film In June 1979, the writer...

Darren Fisher (2454 KP) rated Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History! in Books
Dec 21, 2020

David McK (3562 KP) rated Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2) in Books
Jan 30, 2019
You used to say live and let live
(you know you did you know you die you know you did)
But in this ever changing world in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry ...
Live and let die ..."
(cue guitar riff)
With that out of the way - Paul McCartney and Wings, later covered by Guns 'N Roses - Live and Let Die is the second James Bond book by Ian Fleming, but the eighth film in the series, and the first to star Roger Moore in the lead role.
And reading it with contemporary eyes, boy has it aged. Quite different than the movie - although the key elements (vodoo, Baron Samedi, Solitaire, American southwest setting) are intact, it can also be quite uncomfortable reading this with modern sensibilities, particularly in how Flemings (and Bond) treats the female characters, and in how the Harlem culture and denizens are portrayed.
Allowances must be made, I suppose, for the time period in which it was written ...

Hadley (567 KP) rated The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek in Books
Jan 21, 2020
When you read this novel by two of the most well-known YouTube personalities (Rhett and Link of Good Mythical Morning), be sure you have plenty of time to spare because this is a book you won't want to put down. The novel follows three best friends of a small town in North Carolina in the early 1990's, when one of them gets sent to a infamous reform school for an accident, they start to uncover mysterious deaths that have taken place there, and begin to fear that their friend is going to be a victim of one.
In 'The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek,' the main characters, Rex, Leif and Alicia, make their debut at a pig roasting to raise funds for a church, whose copper organ pipes had been stolen days before. It's here we learn that the three are making a film called PolterDog, which leads to Alicia getting sent away after a near-deadly accident with the owner and headmaster of the local Whitewood Reform School.
Soon after, Rex and Leif run into an escapee from the school (Ben), who tells them that their friend's life is in danger while she's at Whitewood. While the three come up with a plan to rescue Alicia, a woman who's visiting the town of Bleak Creek, who is trying to film a documentary about kidney stones, becomes a valuable part of their rescue mission.
Not only do we get to see from Rex and Leif's point of view, but we also get to see from inside the Whitewood Reform School from Alicia's view. This view point is much needed to help readers experience the abuse that goes on inside the school (and to realize that Ben was telling the truth) and also to help readers root for the main characters' success in their rescue mission. Even though the majority of the story is the main characters getting everything together for this mission, the writing was done so well that all of it makes sense leading up to the end.
To not give too much away about this book, I have to cut my review short of it. The writing is really good, with the pace continuously keeping the reader going and wanting more.This story also encompasses everything that makes a great novel: best friends trying to save another, small town mysteries, well-placed humor and murder. I found all of the characters likable, and the situations they found themselves in made complete sense in the story. This will be one that readers can pick up more than once and enjoy it each time they read it. As a horror book, this story is high on my scale with scenarios happening that I couldn't see coming.