Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (2699)

Content

Darren (1599 KP) rated A Most Wanted Man (2014) in Movies

Sep 2, 2019

A Most Wanted Man (2014)

2014 | Drama, Mystery

5.7

(3 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Thoughts on A Most Wanted Man

Characters – Gunther Bachmann is the German agent that is tracking known terrorists, his team has connections and keeps eyes on most of the suspects with their latest one being one wanted worldwide, he must figure out if this man is a danger or not. Martha Sullivan is part of the American team searching for the terrorist, she is trusting Gunther to do the right thing only she isn’t sure what he is going to do. Annabel Richter is an attorney that is trying to help the suspect get into Germany, she is just doing his job using her connection to help make his move go smoother. Tommy Brue is the bank manager that has been dealing with multiple nationalities through the years, he gets involved in trying to get the transfer of money done.

Performances – Philip Seymour Hoffman in the leading role steps into the German character with ease, showing the composure to take his character to be the standout of the film. Robin Wright, Rachel McAdams and Willem Dafoe fill the supporting roles well through the film.

Story – The story here follows the German and American intelligence agencies as they are trying to figure out if an immigrate is a potential terrorist suspect, both sides have difference of opinion on what is true and they must try to stay ahead of each other the best they can. This story does try to come off like an intense spy thriller that seems to get bogged down too easily, by making everything seem like it is just an everyday incident, this does move at a slow pace which only brings down everything because they do just seem to pick a random person, that could have reason to suspect from the early point in the film.

Crime – The crime side of the film shows how the authorities operate to try and tackle potential criminal actions, it does show that they could be above the law at times too.

Settings – We have the German backdrop for this movie, showing how they are planning to operate to keep tracks on terrorists.

Scene of the Movie – Pick up.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It just seems dull.

Final Thoughts – This is a spy thriller that never seems to get going, it tries to play along with the idea that we are building, but we soon lose the attention because it is more of a political spy thriller over anything going on thriller.

Overall: Slow burning thriller that just doesn’t get going.

Kudos

Becs (244 KP) rated Gone Girl in Books

Oct 2, 2019

Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry

7.7

(142 Ratings)

Book Rating

Style: Formal, serious.

Point of View: Third person – each chapter is either Nick Dunne or Amy Dunne, never both.

Difficulty Reading: I struggled with the first half of the book. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to read it because the movie was bomb as f*ck. The movie had me sitting on my toes the entire time, but this book was such a drag. Once you get about halfway through, that’s when it gets good.

Promise: The book promises a thrilling crime mystery and it does deliver it. But it delivers it in a way that makes the book almost seem repetitive as he said, she said.

Quality: It was a well-written book, I’ll give the author that. But there was a lot of swearing – and I cuss like a sailor. That kind of took the appeal of the book down quite a few notches.

Insights: If I could change anything about the book: take some of the cuss words out – it’s way too much, make the first half of the book more gripping – you lose readers because it’s boring.

Ah-Ha Moment: When Nick Dunne realized that Amy Dunne was just f*cking with him, he knew it but couldn’t tell anyone because then it would seem like he was the one who set the whole thing up.

Another moment was when Amy Dunne killed her old friend. I was like ‘what are you doing woman’ the entire time I read it.

Favorite Quote: “A lot of people lacked that gift: knowing when to fuck off.” – I feel this is the best representation of who I am as a person and of people nowadays.

“Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it.” – Any quote that talks about cats are always great.

What will you gain: An interesting but hard read. If you don’t have the time or patience, put this book down.

Aesthetics: The copy I bought had the cover poster for the movie and it was nice to imagine Nick Dunne as the man on the cover. The first page of the book was what drew me in, the whole staring at the back of Amy’s head and thinking of breaking it open to mush your hands with her brain just appeals to me in a way that’s hard to describe. (I promise I’m not a serial killer. Yet…) Then as I read more, I struggled until I hit the point of the plot doing a massive U-turn and actually becoming interesting.

“There’s a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her.”