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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Just One Look in Books
Aug 12, 2021
A slightly bland thriller
After an incident at the law firm where she works, Cassie Woodson finds herself temping. She's reviewing correspondence for a fraud case--several tiers removed from her life as a lawyer. While going through the tedious emails, she discovers a series of exchanges between one of the firm partners, Forest Watts, and his wife Annabelle. Cassie can't help but read them, fixating on the way Forest seems to love and adore his wife. But when she finds a way to "accidentally" meet Forest, her fixation with the Watts turns into a full blown obsession.
"He has no idea that I have access to every corner of his life. Even the dusty ones."
This was a perfectly fine thriller, though I found it a little bland. I think it's because I'm so over unreliable alcoholic narrators. For me, that trope is just done. I lose sympathy for the protagonist at that point and just stop caring. Cassie is just an insane train wreck of a character. The whole book felt like watching one, honestly. The premise here is that she's abandoned by her mother at a young age, hence making her unstable and leading to a series of incidents (including the one where she came unglued at her law firm). But I could never quite buy why she became so obsessed with Forest Watts and his wife.
"Eyes aren't the windows to the soul. Emails are."
Most of the book focuses on Cassie's preoccupation with Forest--starting with the emails and then branching out into real life. The girl is committed, I will give you that. She creates a binder on the Watts and everything. If only she was that dedicated to something more productive. There's also a subplot with her temp co-worker, Dalton. Then with about 10 to 15% of the book left, the plot takes a complete turn and things get more exciting. However, nothing that happened previously really seemed to gel with that plot twist, so I found it all a little odd. It was a strange, out of left field turn.
Overall, I found this book interesting enough that I kept reading, so I'm still giving it 3 stars. But it was a strange ride, to say the least. Others liked it more than me, so take my review with a grain of salt.
I received a copy of this book from Random House - Ballantine and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
"He has no idea that I have access to every corner of his life. Even the dusty ones."
This was a perfectly fine thriller, though I found it a little bland. I think it's because I'm so over unreliable alcoholic narrators. For me, that trope is just done. I lose sympathy for the protagonist at that point and just stop caring. Cassie is just an insane train wreck of a character. The whole book felt like watching one, honestly. The premise here is that she's abandoned by her mother at a young age, hence making her unstable and leading to a series of incidents (including the one where she came unglued at her law firm). But I could never quite buy why she became so obsessed with Forest Watts and his wife.
"Eyes aren't the windows to the soul. Emails are."
Most of the book focuses on Cassie's preoccupation with Forest--starting with the emails and then branching out into real life. The girl is committed, I will give you that. She creates a binder on the Watts and everything. If only she was that dedicated to something more productive. There's also a subplot with her temp co-worker, Dalton. Then with about 10 to 15% of the book left, the plot takes a complete turn and things get more exciting. However, nothing that happened previously really seemed to gel with that plot twist, so I found it all a little odd. It was a strange, out of left field turn.
Overall, I found this book interesting enough that I kept reading, so I'm still giving it 3 stars. But it was a strange ride, to say the least. Others liked it more than me, so take my review with a grain of salt.
I received a copy of this book from Random House - Ballantine and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
Darren (1599 KP) rated The Accountant (2016) in Movies
Jun 20, 2019
Story: The Accountant starts as we see Christian Wolff at a young age struggling to deal with autism but with the correct tuition Christian (Affleck) has turned his math savant skills to help small town people manage their accounts. He is distant from people but always helps those who need it.
On the other side of the story we meet head of the treasury department Ray King (Simmons) who blackmails a young agent Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson) into investigating this mysterious accountant that has been working with the biggest names on the terrorists list, that accountant is Christian under an alter-ego.
Christian’s latest accountancy job is sorting 15 years of accounts for Lamar Black (Lithgow) Living Robotics company that have been working on defence contracts. While Christian gets on with his latest job we see how Brax (Bernthal) goes about cleaning up other questionable actions from the bankers. While Christian must deal with the junior accountant Dana Cummings (Kendrick) being too talkative for his own liking.
As the story continues to unfold we continue to learn just how dangerous Christian really is and what his bigger plan is. As Brax cleans up what Christian discovers his desperate need for completion explodes but what he discovers could expose the fraud going on.
The Accountant is one of the most complete action thrillers of recent years. The story does borrow elements from recent ideas with myself seeing a mix of John Wick and Dexter going on throughout. Where this story stand head and shoulders above most other films is the way the whole story gets completed. Another huge plus point for this film is that every character gets a full development and we see their story arc go full circle.
Ben Affleck gives a brilliant performance in this leading role where we get to see him have the full emotionless character that is intense to level most action character could only wish for. Jon Bernthal continues to shine through supporting roles in films after his time on television. J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson work excellently together again with a perfect story arc to their character. The only negative in this film I found was the character Dana just feels added to the story while this doesn’t mean Kendrick is bad it was the character didn’t quite fit the full story.
This is easily one of the films of the year that I can fully expect everyone to enjoy and even at over two hours long you barely notice the time being used in this film.
Overall: Brutal action, story with heart and perfect story telling throughout.
https://moviesreview101.com/2016/12/12/the-accountant-2016/
On the other side of the story we meet head of the treasury department Ray King (Simmons) who blackmails a young agent Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson) into investigating this mysterious accountant that has been working with the biggest names on the terrorists list, that accountant is Christian under an alter-ego.
Christian’s latest accountancy job is sorting 15 years of accounts for Lamar Black (Lithgow) Living Robotics company that have been working on defence contracts. While Christian gets on with his latest job we see how Brax (Bernthal) goes about cleaning up other questionable actions from the bankers. While Christian must deal with the junior accountant Dana Cummings (Kendrick) being too talkative for his own liking.
As the story continues to unfold we continue to learn just how dangerous Christian really is and what his bigger plan is. As Brax cleans up what Christian discovers his desperate need for completion explodes but what he discovers could expose the fraud going on.
The Accountant is one of the most complete action thrillers of recent years. The story does borrow elements from recent ideas with myself seeing a mix of John Wick and Dexter going on throughout. Where this story stand head and shoulders above most other films is the way the whole story gets completed. Another huge plus point for this film is that every character gets a full development and we see their story arc go full circle.
Ben Affleck gives a brilliant performance in this leading role where we get to see him have the full emotionless character that is intense to level most action character could only wish for. Jon Bernthal continues to shine through supporting roles in films after his time on television. J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson work excellently together again with a perfect story arc to their character. The only negative in this film I found was the character Dana just feels added to the story while this doesn’t mean Kendrick is bad it was the character didn’t quite fit the full story.
This is easily one of the films of the year that I can fully expect everyone to enjoy and even at over two hours long you barely notice the time being used in this film.
Overall: Brutal action, story with heart and perfect story telling throughout.
https://moviesreview101.com/2016/12/12/the-accountant-2016/
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Happy Feet Two (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
Mumble is back and dancing his way back into our hearts. Happy Feet Two is a follow up to the 2006 Academy Award winning movie, Happy Feet directed by George Miller. Mumble (Elijah Wood) is now married to Gloria (Alecia “PiNK” Moore, who replaced the late Brittany Murphy) and they have a son, Erik (Ava Acres).
Mumble struggles to help Erik with his insecurities and inability to find his own heart song and dance steps. Erik ends up running away from Emperorland with a couple of friends, following the love struck Ramon (Robin Williams). Unsuccessful in love within Mumble’s penguin community, Ramon decides to head back to Adelieland and falls for Carmen (Sophia Vergara) who, of course, plays hard to get. So begins Ramon’s hilarious attempts at trying to win Carmen’s affection. While on their adventure, Erik and company stumble across Sven (Hank Azaria), a puffin that is mistaken for a penguin who can fly. Erik becomes enamored with Sven’s ability to fly and attempts to follow in Sven’s footsteps.
Once Mumble has found the runaway chicks, he forces them to return to Emperorland. Upon their return to home, they find a landslide has caused an iceberg to shift and ends up trapping their colony with no way out. Mumble must find help before it’s too late. In flies the self-help guru and fraud Sven to come and teach the penguins how to fly. Meanwhile, other animals in peril are an elephant seal (Anthony Lapaglia) and a couple of codependent krill named Will (Brad Pitt) and Bill (Matt Damon) who realized that their only place in life is to provide sustenance for the whales. Unwilling to succumb to their fate, the delusional Will forces the terrified Bill to swim away from their swarm and become omnivores in an attempt to move up the food chain.
In the end all these stories tie together to show a strong sense of community among different species. I do believe George Miller seems to have taken more of a commercialized approach when creating this movie. Miller once again attempts to send an eco-message regarding global warming with Happy Feet Two. Unfortunately the sequel’s message does not create the same emotional and heartfelt impact as its predecessor. Miller focused more on entertaining and visuals and less on the actual storyline which was very choppy and quite odd at times.
The animators definitely give Pixar a run for their money with their amazing Antarctica scenery details, their incredible animal close-up shots, the undersea moments with the krill and spectacular action sequences. The movie may not have had the substance of the first movie; however it was definitely enjoyable to watch. There was lots of dancing, singing and great laugh-out-loud moments; an absolute visual delight.
Mumble struggles to help Erik with his insecurities and inability to find his own heart song and dance steps. Erik ends up running away from Emperorland with a couple of friends, following the love struck Ramon (Robin Williams). Unsuccessful in love within Mumble’s penguin community, Ramon decides to head back to Adelieland and falls for Carmen (Sophia Vergara) who, of course, plays hard to get. So begins Ramon’s hilarious attempts at trying to win Carmen’s affection. While on their adventure, Erik and company stumble across Sven (Hank Azaria), a puffin that is mistaken for a penguin who can fly. Erik becomes enamored with Sven’s ability to fly and attempts to follow in Sven’s footsteps.
Once Mumble has found the runaway chicks, he forces them to return to Emperorland. Upon their return to home, they find a landslide has caused an iceberg to shift and ends up trapping their colony with no way out. Mumble must find help before it’s too late. In flies the self-help guru and fraud Sven to come and teach the penguins how to fly. Meanwhile, other animals in peril are an elephant seal (Anthony Lapaglia) and a couple of codependent krill named Will (Brad Pitt) and Bill (Matt Damon) who realized that their only place in life is to provide sustenance for the whales. Unwilling to succumb to their fate, the delusional Will forces the terrified Bill to swim away from their swarm and become omnivores in an attempt to move up the food chain.
In the end all these stories tie together to show a strong sense of community among different species. I do believe George Miller seems to have taken more of a commercialized approach when creating this movie. Miller once again attempts to send an eco-message regarding global warming with Happy Feet Two. Unfortunately the sequel’s message does not create the same emotional and heartfelt impact as its predecessor. Miller focused more on entertaining and visuals and less on the actual storyline which was very choppy and quite odd at times.
The animators definitely give Pixar a run for their money with their amazing Antarctica scenery details, their incredible animal close-up shots, the undersea moments with the krill and spectacular action sequences. The movie may not have had the substance of the first movie; however it was definitely enjoyable to watch. There was lots of dancing, singing and great laugh-out-loud moments; an absolute visual delight.
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Mike Wilder (20 KP) rated Tower Heist (2011) in Movies
May 30, 2018
This seems like the perfect recipe for a film.
Contains spoilers, click to show
This seems like the perfect recipe for a film. Take a few comedy greats, some Academy Award nominated actors and a great director and you have the makings of a classic comedy film. However something went wrong. That's not to say this film isn't good it is, but it isn't close to what it could have been.
The film is about a robbery in a very secure building with the latest security and the best staff that money can buy. The staff have invested their own personal savings and their pension fund with one of the tenants, a financier Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). However he is arrested for fraud and they find out that he has lost all their money.
The cast including Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Téa Leoni, and Juan Carlos Hernández is good. They work well together and they all have great moments. Gabourey Sidibe steals every moment she is on screen and she could have a great future in comedy.
This film should have been great. It was originally going to be in the style of Ocean's 11 but somewhere along the way it changed into this. You have comedy greats Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller and Ferris Buller. I say Ferris Buller because it feels like Matthew Broderick is playing that character after he has lost everything. The film felt like it should have been full of big comedy moments, but I couldn't find them. There are some very funny scenes but not many. As for the hi-tech building security mentioned a few times in the film, it doesn't materialise, all you are shown are a few cameras that are quickly disabled with a smiley face sticker! I was really looking forward to this, mainly in the hope that Eddie Murphy would give a performance worthy of his comedy legacy. I loved his films from the 80's. His films of the 90's were hit or miss until his performance in Bowfinger, one of his best performances. Apart from his role in the Shrek films there was nothing great about any of his roles since then. So what would he be like in this? Fortunately he is good. Not as great as the Eddie Murphy back in his reckless care free roles, but better than 90% of the last two decades of his films. The reason he is so good in Bowfinger is what makes this role work. It is because he isn't in the lead role. Take the pressure away from having to carry the whole film and he shines.
I was disappointed with the lack of great comedy moments and the lack of risk for the characters, but it is a good film, just don't watch this expecting a comedy classic as you will be disappointed.
The film is about a robbery in a very secure building with the latest security and the best staff that money can buy. The staff have invested their own personal savings and their pension fund with one of the tenants, a financier Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). However he is arrested for fraud and they find out that he has lost all their money.
The cast including Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Téa Leoni, and Juan Carlos Hernández is good. They work well together and they all have great moments. Gabourey Sidibe steals every moment she is on screen and she could have a great future in comedy.
This film should have been great. It was originally going to be in the style of Ocean's 11 but somewhere along the way it changed into this. You have comedy greats Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller and Ferris Buller. I say Ferris Buller because it feels like Matthew Broderick is playing that character after he has lost everything. The film felt like it should have been full of big comedy moments, but I couldn't find them. There are some very funny scenes but not many. As for the hi-tech building security mentioned a few times in the film, it doesn't materialise, all you are shown are a few cameras that are quickly disabled with a smiley face sticker! I was really looking forward to this, mainly in the hope that Eddie Murphy would give a performance worthy of his comedy legacy. I loved his films from the 80's. His films of the 90's were hit or miss until his performance in Bowfinger, one of his best performances. Apart from his role in the Shrek films there was nothing great about any of his roles since then. So what would he be like in this? Fortunately he is good. Not as great as the Eddie Murphy back in his reckless care free roles, but better than 90% of the last two decades of his films. The reason he is so good in Bowfinger is what makes this role work. It is because he isn't in the lead role. Take the pressure away from having to carry the whole film and he shines.
I was disappointed with the lack of great comedy moments and the lack of risk for the characters, but it is a good film, just don't watch this expecting a comedy classic as you will be disappointed.