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David McK (3425 KP) rated Hornblower: The Even Chance (1998) in Movies

Aug 15, 2021 (Updated Aug 15, 2021)

First of the TV movie adaptations of CS Forester's famous nautical hero Horatio Hornblower, taking it's main inspiration and plot from the earliest (set, if not released) of those books when Hornblower had just joined the navy.

Ant, therein, I found, lies my biggest problem with the film: Ioan Gruffudd (back before Hollywood came calling - he was Mr Fantastic from the original Fantastic Four movies, remember) is simply too old for the part!

That's not to say that he doesn't give it his all, or even manage to fully inhabit the role: just that, in this one at least, I couldn't get over the fact that Midshipmen were only supposed to be in their very early teens (11, 12, thereabouts), and yet here we have an actor in his mid 20s (at the time of recording) playing a 17 year old - and even 17, to me, seems too old to be a Midshipman during the period portrayed.

Kudos

Destiny

7.3 (10 Ratings) Rate It

Video Game

Destiny is an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and...

Bungie science fiction halo mmofps mmo fps

The Collective

Alison Gaylin

7.5 (2 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Just how far will a grieving mother go to right a tragic wrong? Camille Gardener is a...

David McK (3425 KP) rated Catch Me If You Can (2002) in Movies

Mar 11, 2023

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

2002 | Action, Drama

7.2

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Spielbergian drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks and supposedly based on the true-life story of Frank Abagnale Jr (I wonder how much of it is, how much made up, and how much dramatised?), with DiCaprio playing the role of Frank Abagnale, who successfully bluffed his way into work as a co-pilot at a major airway, as a doctor and as a lawyer all before he reached his 18th birthday.

In order to do so, he also forged numerous official documents, which brings him to the attention of Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who makes it his mission to capture Abagnale, with the two then forming a sort of co-dependent relationship on each other.

It's not a bad movie by any means, with it also attempting to provide some form of justification/explanation for Frank's actions through the lens of his childhood and his relationships with his parents, although I did find it a little slow to start with.

Kudos

David McK (3425 KP) rated Skulduggery Pleasant in Books

Jan 26, 2024

The first in Derek Landy's 'Skulduggery Pleasant' series, which I decided to borrow recently from Kindle Unlimited.

I read (or heard) somewhere that this was attempting to be the heir to the Harry potter crown, and I can definitely see the similarities: a secret world alongside our own full of magic, where a dark sorcerer wants to gain control over the mortal world, and where a young pre-teen is introduced to the world and has (to them) unknown connections to it already, and some unpleasant relatives...

However, unlike the Harry Potter series, this is primarily set in and around Dublin (rather than London) - and so, to me, is closer to home - while the home life of the protagonist is far more settled: she's not an orphan, and lives with her family.

I also found Skulduggery Pleasant to be more of an interesting character than Dumbledore, as well as playing a far larger role in the proceedings.

Finally, I may yet read more of these.