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David McK (3600 KP) rated The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) in Movies

Aug 26, 2025  
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
1999 | Drama, Mystery
6
7.2 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
1999 thriller starring a (very young) Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law, with Damon playing the Mr Ripley of the title, a young man with a talent for mimicry, who is hired by a wealthy American businessman (in the late 1950s) to bring his errant son back home from his idyllic lifestyle in sun-drenched Italy.

Initially planning on doing just that, Ripley soon finds himself drawn further and further into their lifestyle, soon going to extreme lengths in order to live the life that he craves (and that they do).
  
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David McK (3600 KP) rated Skeleton Crew in TV

Feb 1, 2025 (Updated Feb 1, 2025)  
Skeleton Crew
Skeleton Crew
2024 |
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Disney's latest Star Wars offering, very much taking the Amblin films of the 1980 as its template, with a cast of (alien) kids accidentally launching into hyperspace on board a pirate ship, and now struggling to find their way back home: a home that those out in the galaxy believe to be a myth.

Jude Law is the undeniable pull of the show, and undeniably enjoying himself as the shifty main character Jod Na Nawood, whom the kids encounter early on in the run, and whose motives are always suspect.
  
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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Rooster Bar in Books

Jan 1, 2018  
The Rooster Bar
The Rooster Bar
John Grisham | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
3
4.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Timely plot topics (0 more)
Slow-moving (1 more)
Not interesting
Not one of Grisham's best
Mark, Todd, and Zola all had big aspirations when they signed up for Foggy Bottom law school. They also dreamed of the big paychecks that would follow after graduation. Those paychecks would help pay off the student loans required to attend Foggy Bottom--a less than well-respected for-profit law school that has left each of the trio with an average of $200K in debt. Even worse, Foggy Bottom is such a terrible school that they are receiving a mediocre education from sub-par professors; they may not even pass the bar exam. And if they do, they have little chance of gaining one of the coveted, well-paying law positions that can pay off those loans. So when one of their close friends, Gordy, alerts them that their school is owned by a shady financial operative who also has ties to a bank that profits off their loans, they are outraged. When tragedy besets the group, Mark, Todd, and Zola decide to take matters into their own hands, no matter what it takes. Even if that means quitting school a few months shy of graduation...

Oh man, I wanted to like this one, but it just didn't work for me. It took me eleven days to read--unheard of for basically any book, let alone a Grisham, and I practically had to force myself to finish it. It seemed like a really good premise: the novel combines the timely issues of student loan debt and immigration, but nothing meshes together well.

I never warmed to the protagonists. It's really hard to like or empathize with Mark, Todd, or even Zola, who is dealing with her family being deported. What's being done to the three law students is certainly not great, but their response just never seemed fully justified to me. I could not root for them like I could a Darby Shaw, a Gray Grantham, a Reggie Love. It's a shame, because the bad guy is fairly despicable, but we don't get enough development on either side to feel fully invested. As for our trio, for instance, they basically blow a huge case for someone and never do anything to make amends--nor ever really seem to show any real remorse. How is that any better than the people they are going up against?

Without anyone to really root for or a plot to quickly move forward, this one just dragged on. For me, it was slow-moving and not-interesting. Definitely a letdown. 2.5 stars.