One Last Job
Tom Pettifor and Nick Sommerlad
Book
One Last Job: the extraordinary life story of Brian Reader, Britain's most prolific thief.The iconic...
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Ransom (1996) in Movies
Jul 14, 2020 (Updated Jul 14, 2020)
The plot: Through a life of hard work, airline owner Tom Mullen (Mel Gibson) has amassed a great deal of wealth. When a group of criminals want a piece of his cash, they kidnap his son (Brawley Nolte) for a $2 million ransom. Encouraged by his wife (Rene Russo) and an FBI agent (Delroy Lindo), Tom prepares to pay the money, but the ransom drop goes awry. Enraged, Tom decides to turn the tables on the kidnappers by making the ransom a bounty on their heads -- which he announces on national television.
The original story came from a 1954 episode of The United States Steel Hour titled "Fearful Decision". In 1956, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume into the feature film Ransom!, starring Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, and Leslie Nielsen. The film was also influenced by Ed McBain's police procedural novel King's Ransom.
Also it has a great surporting cast: Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Brawley Nolte, Delroy Lindo, Liev Schreiber, Evan Handler, Donnie Wahlberg, and Lili Taylor. Gibson. Ron Howard does it again.
Its a great thriller and a must watch film, it will leave you on the edge of your seat until the very end of the film.
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2171 KP) rated Murder in Greenwich Village in Books
Mar 10, 2021 (Updated Mar 10, 2021)
The book starts off quickly, but I did feel the pacing was a bit uneven as the story unfolded. There was one thing that I wasn’t satisfied with at the end of the book as well, but only because I disagreed with Louise’s conclusion. Overall, the plot is interesting and held my interest all the way until we reached the logical climax. Louise is a wonderful main character, and I’m very interested to see where the series takes her next. The suspects are strong, and the rest of the cast is interesting. The book was a little darker than I was expecting, more a traditional than the cozies I normally read. As long as you know that going in, you’ll be fine. I will definitely be visiting Louise again. I’m anxious to find out what happens to her next.
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated Saw II (2005) in Movies
Mar 18, 2021
The thing is, Saw 2 manages to add to the law put down in the first film. It expands on Jigsaw's motivation, expands his plans and uses two characters from the first film, Amanda and the 'Pig' and reveals that they were/are the same person. It is these additions to the law that help make the Saw franchise stand out from some others. Other franchises have the slashers going around killing their victims and repeating the same few bits of information unless it is important to that film. Of course, a big part of saw 2 are the kills but it does work on furthering the story and laying the ground work for more films.
It goes with out saying that there is blood and gore in this film but it suites the tone and isn't as over the top or as unrealistic as some other films.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2171 KP) rated Much Ado About Nauticaling in Books
Jul 30, 2021 (Updated Jul 30, 2021)
As soon as I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it. I always love Southern California settings, although it’s been years since I visited Catalina. I certainly did enjoy the setting. Overall, the book was too frenetic, however. It was trying to be funny, but much of the humor didn’t work for me. I did laugh a few times, but overall, it was too much. This effected some of the characters, too, although I did enjoy others. Despite finding the body early on, the pace was uneven, getting better the further we got into the book. While I followed the killer and motive, the ending was rushed and left some questions about earlier twists in the book. I was hoping to love this debut, but it turned out to be average.