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Pineapple Express (2008)
Pineapple Express (2008)
2008 | Comedy
The ultimate stoner movie - rivaled only by ๐˜›๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ and ๐˜๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ & ๐˜’๐˜ถ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ณ ๐˜Œ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ ๐˜๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ ๐˜Ž๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ ๐˜‰๐˜ข๐˜บ. Just so precisely captures that essence of getting high with your buddies, and then ingeniously represents it through these literal Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, and Chaotic Evil trio of leads - played to (unsurprising) perfection by Franco, Rogen, and McBride respectively. The comedic value earned in each scene by transitioning from shooting the shit about nonsensical high musings abruptly into blunt violence cannot be understated - those fights are so side-splitting. And I'll be damned but the action... actually looks like action! Further proof that these are at their best when made by people who regularly get blazed as hell. Two hours straight of hilarious Rogen and co. histrionics, general destruction and chaos which routinely draw blood, and it ends with a 15 minute long shootout + fistfight combo in a pot farm. Just spectacular, as funny during its low-key moments as it is when it goes off the rails. Naturally, Amber Heard is the only major weak point.
  
Indelible (Grant County, #4)
Indelible (Grant County, #4)
Karin Slaughter | 2004 | Thriller
5
6.4 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Better then the last but still not in the same league as the first couple of books in this series....
This is the fourth in the Grant County series and for a series that started so strong (I loved the first two books) I was really disappointed with this. I would recommend approaching this series in order as they do carry a lot of emotional baggage through the series.

This was the first one I listened to as an audiobook and the Southern American accents used were a bit grating for me, so I'll try to stick to the books in the future for this series (obviously a personal preference.)

With a shootout occuring in the town in the present day, we get flashbacks to an โ€œoriginโ€ type story 12 years earlier, which sets out to give the reasoning behind the attack. Itโ€™s a pretty shocking attack and the present day part was tense.

This book is very focused on two of the main characters from the series, Medical examiner Sara Linton and her now ex husband / current boyfriend (itโ€™s a complicated relationship) Police Chief Jeffrey. In the flashback parts of this book we see Sara and Jeffrey taking a trip to Jefferies hometown where his best friend ends up shooting someone and a body is found from Jefferies distant past. I didnโ€™t find the investigation part here as engaging as in the previous books, with too much focus on what Jeffrey was like as a lad.

I think my main issue with this particular book is I just donโ€™t like Jeffery and having so much dedicated to back story for him didnโ€™t endear him any more to me. I came out of that part of the story still not liking him or really understanding why Sara is so in love with him (I suppose love is blind.)

Although I enjoyed the action packed present day shootout it still had a character issue in the form of the ever complicated Lena Adams. She is back to being a cop and this is her first day back (talk about bad timing!) I really have no idea why they are letting her back on the force she just seems to be a terrible cop (and not a particularly nice person) who is suffering from PTSD.

I feel I may be being too harsh on this book and I can fully understand people who love the characters in this series (or love to hate main characters) enjoying this book. I just prefer this series when itโ€™s slightly more focused on a case rather than their personal lives.
  
Wyatt Earp (1994)
Wyatt Earp (1994)
1994 | Action, Drama, Western
Historical technical detail (0 more)
So loooooooooooooooonnnnngggggg...... (0 more)
In a shootout with Tombstone this would be heading for Boot Hill
The film is very worthy. It tells the story of Earp preceeding, and beyond the events at the OK Corral. There seems to be a reasonable amount of legitimacy to the story, but as always Earp's character - and his relationship with Jospehine - is pretty whitewashed, and hyped for drama.

But that's not actually what's wrong with the film, after all we expect that from Hollywood. The single largest failing of this film is that it plods. It's a plodding film that could have been a t least half an hour shorter than it is. Even that failing probably wouldn't have been so pronounced if this film hadn't bee released at almost exactly the same time as Tombstone, a film with as much historical accuracy in the Earp tale, but which was an hour shorter.

Then there was the cast. Wyatt Earp had a fabulous cast, as did Tombstone but the latter had breath-taking, career-high performances , a script that zinged and considerably more clarity of story and character.

Without Tombstone this film could have been a stand-out historical drama. But it isn't.

Worthy, but not brilliantly engaging
  
Mr. Robot  - Season 2
Mr. Robot - Season 2
2016 | Drama
The final scenes of the season are nearly jaw dropping (4 more)
A shootout sequence that ranks up there with the best single shot sequences of anything on a screen big or small
Contains yet another episode that would fit right in with Lynch's canon
Alf
One of best Casablanca references ever made
Barely any Tyrell (1 more)
Dealing with the consequences of something is never as fun as the thing itself
Even though it didn't quite live up to the standard set by season 1, it was still one of the best sophomore seasons in television history
Contains spoilers, click to show
After one of the best seasons of television ever made, season 2 was bound to disappoint somewhat, but it does nothing to diminish season and actually manages to deepen it.

While the show really misses the presence of the male Tyrell, it deepens his lady MacBeth in unexpected ways and introduces another fascinating new character in the form of an FBI agent investigating the case against Elliot. In fact this season is all about the ladies, giving every female character new depth and agency. In fact, Angela maybe the new series MVP - her final scene of the season had me actively gasping out loud.


There is no show I'm more excited about right now than this, and believe me, that's almost hard to admit considering how much I'm in love with the new "Twin Peaks".
  
The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)
The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)
2018 | Action, Comedy
Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon make a good team (0 more)
Not enough comedy (1 more)
Drags on way too long
More action spy movie than comedy
In recent years, whenever I go to watch a comedy at the cinema, I come away totally disappointed, and end up going off on a rant about the state of movie comedies these days when I review them afterwards. Mostly, these movies have a very simple plot premise, which they then just try and plaster over with a tonne of gross out scenes or poorly written 'comedy' set-pieces. Other times they feature a bit more story and plot, with the humour being more of an add-on. The Spy Who Dumped Me veers more towards the latter, ending up as more of an above average action spy movie than a comedy.

Mila Kunis is Audrey, celebrating her birthday in a bar. Only her celebrations have been ruined somewhat by the fact that her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux) recently dumped her. By text! She's with best friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon), and as they complain about Drew, we see that he's in a spot of bother of his own over in Europe - taking out bad guys in a market shootout, getting chased through somebody's apartment while the owners watch TV, jumping out of a window onto a truck, and casually strolling out of a building as it explodes behind him. But when Audrey sends him yet another text, this time threatening to burn all of his stuff, Drew quickly gets in touch with her. Turns out that a small trophy in among his little box of dirty undies and other possessions is the key to saving a lot of people, and the bad guys want to get their hands on it at all costs. So, Audrey and Morgan unwittingly become involved in the world of spies and villains, traveling around Europe and bumbling their way through all manner of problems to ensure that the trophy finds its way into the right hands.

As mentioned earlier, every effort has been made to make sure that this is a high action spy movie along the lines of the Bourne and Mission Impossible movies. The aforementioned escape from the bad guys, a huge restaurant shootout, a deadly villain, a high speed street chase involving cars, motorbikes and guns, not to mention almost as much double crossing/who can you trust shenanigans than MI: Fallout recently, are all present and presented really well. All the while, Audrey and Morgan bring lighthearted relief and humour to it all. Kunis and McKinnon doing exactly what we're used to from their separate movie comedies but coming together here as a really likeable team and with a good supporting cast too.

Overall, The Spy Who Dumped Me isn't too bad, but it isn't too great either. It also seemed to drag on way too much for my liking and I would have preferred a much tighter movie, with a few more laughs. Still fairly enjoyable though.