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Sarah (7800 KP) rated The Devil’s Star (Harry Hole #5) (Oslo Sequence #3) in Books

May 28, 2020  
The Devil’s Star (Harry Hole #5) (Oslo Sequence #3)
The Devil’s Star (Harry Hole #5) (Oslo Sequence #3)
Jo Nesbo | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
A great crime thriller
I'm not a huge fan of crime thrillers, especially not series related ones. Mostly because they're two a penny and the majority of them are fairly second rate. However there's something about the Harry Hole series that really draws me in.

Maybe it's Harry Hole himself. A beyond flawed and almost irredeemable reckless and crazy character, yet one you really can't help but love. Or maybe it's because Nesbo really knows how to write a crime story. He keeps you guessing to the very end and the plot in this story is particularly interesting - an intriguing serial killer mixed in with Harry's vendetta to bring down a corrupt cop. The story in this is just right. The right amount of detail and twists to be thrilling and entertaining yet still plausible.

This isn't my favourite Harry Hole book, the accolade for that probably goes to The Snowman (how they turned such a good book into a terrible film I'll never understand). But this is definitely one of the better books in the Hole series and worth a read.
  
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RəX Regent (349 KP) rated We Own the Night (2007) in Movies

Feb 25, 2019  
We Own the Night (2007)
We Own the Night (2007)
2007 | Action, Drama
6
6.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Crime movie for crime movie fans
Contains spoilers, click to show
This is a crime film for crime movie fans. It has it all, from sex, violence, wires and gritty hits. But at its heart is family, here driven by the two leads, Mark Wahlberg and Jequium Phoenix, reunited in yet another of James Grey's films. The tone is dark, with a realistic look as we are taken on trip back to 1988 and a fictional cop family, led by the Deputy Chief Of Police (NYPD) Robert Duvall, who is the father to Wahlberg's up and coming cop, with Phoenix's nightclub manager, who is not a criminal as such, but is a disappointment to his family.

As the trio become embroiled in an organised crime syndicate, they find themselves under a very personal attack and must take down the mob boss to save their lives. The problem with this film is that it plods its way through, lacking enough tension or high key performances to carry, what to me, should have been a taunt screenplay. Instead, it's a bit flat, with Phoenix's trademark sleepy performance. On the other hand, it's quite good, driven by real motivations and characters, is what saves this from 5/10 rating is a fantastically low-key car chase which looked and felt phenomenal, ending with tragedy which would drive the story in a more dubious direction.

Phoenix will end up being granted special dispensation to become a cop in order to track down the mobster, a plot point that I found to be a little far-fetched, though maybe this sort of thing has happened, I don't know but it just tipped the film over the edge of plausibility. I feel that We Own The Night, the motto of the now disbanded NYPD Street Crime Unit, which is headed up here by the fictional Captain Joseph Grusinsky (Wahlberg) thinks very highly of itself as a top quality crime drama, up there with the likes of The Godfather (1972) and Heat (1995), but it is not. It's good and better if you like the genre, but this is a film set in the late 80′s, made in the style of The Godfather light, which was a quintessential 1970′s movie. It needed to pack more of a punch or have some of the style which films such as those of Michael Mann or Martin Scorsese.

A decent story, good cinematography and noble effort but failed to blow me away.
  
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Bubba Gee (147 KP) rated Baby Driver (2017) in Movies

Jun 27, 2019  
Baby Driver (2017)
Baby Driver (2017)
2017 | Action, Comedy
9
8.2 (159 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Casting, soundtrack, story (0 more)
Spacey is creepys (0 more)
Driving, music and heists
Contains spoilers, click to show
I went onto this thinking it was just a film about a heist crew getaway driver, in truth it is much deeper.
Baby, a talented driver (played by Ansel Elgort) is a quirky likeable slightly weird character.
We quickly come to learn he is in debt to a crime boss Doc (played creepily by Kevin Spacey) for a mistake made several years earlier.
He is used as the driver for every one of Doc's planned heists with colourful criminals (played by Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez and Jamie Foxx), this is unusual as Doc changes the whole crew for each heist except for Baby whom is used again and again due to his driving talent.
From here there is lots of action and crime, we also however learn about Baby's difficult upbringing and love of music and how that all ties in with the movie.
There is of course the awkward introduction of a love interest Debora (played by Lily James). In the later scenes there is more crime, action and death with twists of revenge.
All in this is a complex and deeply moving take on a crime film where we find ourselves rooting for the main character and hoping he makes it, if he does or not, you will have to see for yourself.
The soundtrack is also very good.