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Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated Die Hard (1988) in Movies

Jan 16, 2021 (Updated Jan 17, 2021)  
Die Hard (1988)
Die Hard (1988)
1988 | Action
The casting (3 more)
Plot
SFX
Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman in general
Most of the sequels (0 more)
Welcome to the party pal!
In 1988 Hollywood Gambled on a lesser known tv star for it's high budget action thriller.

Laughed at when hearing their choice of actor, it was the 80's and when you heard action movie you'd immediately think "Schwarzenegger or stallone, maybe even Kurt Russel" Hollywood wanted obe of the bigger stars and reached out to them, but they all turned it down so average Joe became their Vacationing NYPD hero, so they stuck with the man known as Bruce Willis!

Whilst Visiting his estranged wife at the (fictional) Nakatomi plaza (Fox plaza) the building and it's workforce are quickly taken hostage.

Enter John McClain (willis) a rough looking, smooth talking (the guy literally has a smooth/relaxed voice) witty, sarcastic NYPD cop who just can't seem to catch a break.

Armed with everything I wrote above, aswell as bare feet, air-vents, and a fire hose, McClain pursues the terrorists in an action packed attempt at proving his wife wrong and maybe saving a few people in the process.

Die Hard is a classic 80's action epic that spawned many terrible sequels (excluding 'with a vengeance') that we still paid to watch aswell as countless knockoffs.

Did you know?
. The team behind die hard was laughed at because of their lead choice (you should do I just told you)

. The movie was almost shut down because they used a real life helicopter around the building whilst local residents tried to sleep causing an outrage and filed complaints.

. miniature explosions were set of atop the building for affect.

. Alan Rickman was lied to about when he'd be dropped from the "building" the capture a natural look of fear (about a 30ft drop).

. It was Alan Rickmans first movie ( what a way to hit the ground and keep running)

. A replica model of the building was built to film the remaining explosions on the building.

. The original Vest (tank top) is on display in the Smithsonian.

                    
.the movie was filmed during official construction of the fox plaza aka nakatomi plaza.
  
Surface Scratch (Neon Scars #1)
Surface Scratch (Neon Scars #1)
Gale Ian Tate | 2023 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
SURFACE SCRATCH is the first book in the Neon Scars series, and also the first book published by this author. If you're looking for a light and fluffy romance then you've got the wrong book. This one is quite dark so be prepared.

Caleb has had a hard time of it recently. He and his family were in a car accident, leaving him with some major scars. His brother walks out and his mom dies. But then he gets a job at a nightclub and is intrigued by his boss, Marcus. He gets drawn into a world of vampires where, just as with humans, some are "good" and some not so much. There are also hunters who come across more as the bad guys than anything else.

As I said, this is dark. The loving is rough and almost violent (although written incredibly well.) I enjoyed Caleb and Marcus' story but am also looking forward to finding out more from the other characters. Vincent especially made me laugh as every time he called Caleb "Buttercup", I was hearing it said by different characters from The Princess Bride movie!

A great beginning to a series with a fantastic group of characters. Definitely recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
May 5, 2023
  
The Thursday Murder Club
The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman | 2020 | Crime, Mystery
7
8.2 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
Enjoyable but Flawed Debut
Welcome to Coopers Chase Retirement Village. It’s a community for active seniors in England. There are all kinds of activities happening on a regular basis, but the most unusual, and smallest, is a group of four friends who meet every Thursday to discuss cold criminal cases. Then one day, the murder of a developer takes place near the community. Naturally, these four friends jump at the chance to figure out what is really going on. Will they be able to solve the case?

I kept hearing about this book, so I had to give it a try. The premise is certainly right up my alley, and there was much I enjoyed about it. The characters are charming, and there were plenty of twists to the mystery. In fact, I feel like we could have done without a twist or two. Yes, everything makes sense at the end, but there are so many twists at the end, it is a little overwhelming. The book is funny, although at times it feels like it is trying too hard to be charming and funny. The police let the lead characters get away with a little too much, although I usually ignore that in the books I read, so this is worth noting in passing. I did struggle a bit with the justice done at the end of this book. The story is told in present tense from multiple points of view, but we always follow which character is our focus. This is one of those books with some obvious flaws, but I still enjoyed it overall. If you are interested in it, I definitely recommend you pick it up. I’ll be visiting the characters again for the sequel.
  
How to Find a Princess
How to Find a Princess
Alyssa Cole | 2021 | Erotica, Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy, LGBTQ+, Romance
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A repetitive and lackluster romance
Makeda Hicks loses her job and her girlfriend in the same day. Reeling, she's forced to move back with her grandmother and help out at her bed and breakfast. Being back with Grandmore means hearing more about when Grandmore supposedly had a passionate affair with the Prince of Ibarania--leading to Makeda's mother. Makeda has no patience for this story, as her mother's obsession with being a Princess dominated Makeda's entire childhood. When it never panned out, she disconnected from life (and Makeda), receding into alcoholism and forcing Makeda to grow up fast. When Beznaria Chetchevaliere, an investigator for the World Federation of Monarchies shows up at the B&B, claiming to be looking for Ibarania's missing heir, Makeda wants nothing to do with it. But the beautiful and chaotic investigator is surprisingly persuasive. Can she convince Makeda to go with her--and is Makeda indeed the heir to Ibarania?

"No adventures, no drama, and always there to lend a helping hand, even when her hands were full, that was Makeda."

This was one of my #Pride reads for June, and it sounded so cute. There were definitely funny and enjoyable moments, and I'm always glad to see queer romances in the world, but overall, this one didn't really work for me. I am a sucker for a good Hallmark movie, but even I couldn't get into this crazy idea--an unhinged royal investigator, a reluctant heir... and eventually a lot of fakedating and a cargo ship. It was all too much.

It's hard to believe the instachemistry between Bez and Makeda, especially as we do not get a lot of backstory on the two women. Makeda's "will I go with Bez or won't I" takes an inordinately long time--it was incredibly frustrating. Just decide already! Things are repeated over and over, making the story feel inordinately long. Being unable to get into the characters or their romance, it was just hard to really love this one. The pacing and timing always seemed off. I wound up skimming the last half just to find out what would happen, otherwise it would have been a DNF. 2 stars.
  
A disturbing read
The true story and crimes referred to in this book are something that I'm aware of as it happened in my local area (I lived in the next town over which is mentioned a few times n the book) but I wasn't aware of the full detail. And this book really doesn't shy away from giving you the full sordid details!

This book relates the experiences of Girl A, the main victim and witness in the huge Rochdale sex ring, and this is not a pleasant read and definitely not one of the faint read. It's hard not to get emotional reading what happened to this poor girl and it's very gripping. It's also very well written and is a truly haunting and disturbing thing to read. Even more so for me as this happened virtually on my doorstep in a neighbouring town.

That said, it isn't perfect. There are some parts that are mentioned heavily earlier on in the book but then are barely mentioned or ignored when it comes to wrapping it up at the end (I.e. what happened with her family). Also, this is a very one sided story. Whilst I have no interest in hearing the abusers point of view or doubt their guilt, I am slightly concerned about the viewpoints on social services, the council and the police. I dont doubt that there were massive failings here, however there are comments made about these organisations that were entirely unnecessary and seem to have been made to further negatively impact people's view of them. It's subjective and from working for the police myself, its not always as clear cut as this. They messed up, but this is only one persons view that maybe a little biased in the first place.
  
Noelle is trying to forget all about Christmas, both the holiday and the town. Currently in a dressing room she hears noises coming from the room next door. Oh great now she gets to hear a couple going at it, she truly needs a life. After hearing some commotion outside her door it flies open and a very hot man literally ends up in her almost naked lap. After one very scorching kiss he leaves her room so she can get dressed again. She hightails it out of there hoping no one sees her.

Mark waits a minute and returns to the dressing room area to get the name of the woman who just blew his mind with a single kiss. She is no where to be found, great. Work calls then, as he is needed at the station to get information on the latest robbery in town. A business was targeted and their Christmas funds stolen. Heading to the location he asks to see the owner to get more information on the theft and runs smack into his mystery kisser.

Noelle and Mark do all they can to avoid each other but the universe has other ideas for them. When Mark heads to the town of Christmas, Noelle’s hometown, to follow up on some leads on the thefts he sees exactly the life she is trying hard to leave behind. Pretending to be her boyfriend to stop the town gossip mill has him falling even harder for her.

Holiday themed romance with light mystery, was a good read for the holiday season for me. Part of the Santori Stories series, this is book #3
  
21 Singles 1984-1998 by The Jesus and Mary Chain
21 Singles 1984-1998 by The Jesus and Mary Chain
2002 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Around 1983 or '84, pop music stopped doing it for me. It was getting a bit clean. There was still a lot of good stuff, but I think it was The Smiths... I wasn't obsessed with them the way Sice was and a few other people I knew, but listening to them made you want to find something else. Then, when The Jesus And Mary Chain came out that was it. My brother brought their second single home and I wasn't sure at first. It was such a racket. It still is. But it was 'You Trip Me Up' that really did it for me - I was sold. This beautiful marriage of... it's not nice feedback, controlled feedback like you'd get off The Who. It's awful. But the core of what's going on - the song - is so lovely. And they looked fantastic, like The Beatles in Hamburg. They looked like a gang. It just seemed like they were blowing everything away and starting again. I went to listen to the Velvets after I'd heard this, and the Velvets did it... it was either noise or it was a great melody. They never really did the two together, whereas the Mary Chain managed to marry the two. The video is just fantastic. They're walking around somewhere in the Mediterranean, sitting on the beach in full leather gear with their massive guitars. After hearing the Mary Chain, that was all I wanted to listen to - bands who did that. They were a big band. They were in Smash Hits, which is hard to believe."

Source
  
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan
1993 | Rock
7.0 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"A friend of mine played me the Wu Tang album way before it came out. I was so entrenched and deep into this music shit by then that a lot of music was shared through people I knew and I would subsequently hear a lot of projects in their demo phase. I also got a lot of stuff from attending the underground mix shows: this was one such record. The Friday night mix shows were so special back in the day, especially in breaking new music – and what a record this was to break. It took me multiple listens to realise this was so radically different from anything I'd ever heard previously. Soon enough, I was like 'Yo, this shit is amazing.' Hearing nine different MCs with totally different styles meant that it took a little time for the Wu Tang to settle in: I admit I didn't get it the first time I heard it, but once the record came out and I started hearing it more and more, I knew this was something very special indeed. I had my favourite MCs in the group like everyone did, but as I started to get to know them more and more, I realised this was a group where at least six or seven of the nine MCs could just go off and be platinum selling artists in their own right. How many groups or collectives can you say that of? It wasn't even like a supergroup or something put together specially – these guys just came from the same sort of space as us and they were doing this incredible shit. RZA's production was phenomenal and I admired it so much, especially the concept of the slang, the Kung Fu…it was ridiculous. All the other philosophies behind it too were so special. For me, there was always something for everybody in that band because you have nine entirely different personalities in there and you're going to find something to like out of those nine motherfuckers [laughs]. Everybody had their favourites, me included. The first time I heard it, RZA and GZA were my favourites then as time went on, I liked Raekwon and Ghostface Killah. I saw them a couple of times live, like very early on before they really blew. Their gigs were just pure raw energy and the stage was chaotic and hectic because there's nine people on there with mics doing their own thing. They didn't have the most organised shows but there was this energy that they brought – this wild, fucking crazy ball of energy that they always delivered on the stage. You never really did know what was going to happen next and that was always exciting Ol Dirty Bastard was also one of the most unique characters ever in music. I always look for uniqueness and authenticity in an artist and he just had it in abundance for me. I heard him and thought, 'He's one of a one'. His music had a message of like, 'don't get stuck, free yourself'. It was a powerful message. I don't know if they can ever do something like this again or if something this special will ever exist once more: they had so much powerful energy. It's something very hard to hold together when everyone is going in a bunch of different directions, continually shifting. Yet they did it in that space and in that time: I doubt you can repeat that."

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