Smashbomb

I absolutely adored this wonderful, sweet little romance from the very beginning.

Gregor Beaumont likes racing fast cars and seducing fast women. His late grandfather wanted to make sure Gregor and his two playboy brothers settle down and he had the brilliant idea of buying up a huge share of the brothers’ engine company and using that as an incentive for each brother to find Mrs Right. Settle down or lose the company to a competitor. Gregor has other ideas. He wants a charming but desperate girl to pretend to be his girlfriend. No problem, unless things start to get complicated.

Enter Kara Alerby. Gregor comes into her theatre wanting to hire her to act the part of his adoring girlfriend and offering lots of money that would really help her realise her dream of creating a school for gifted children. She can resist his smiles, his charisma, his beautiful blue eyes and his kiss-me mouth if it means she’ll get her school. She only needs to remember that it’s all a pretence.

When Gregor's love of racing puts his life in jeopardy, Kara isn’t ready to watch another person die in front of her as her father did. Gregor isn’t about to stop doing the one thing that makes life worth living. The two are on a collision course, one that could break them apart forever if they don’t change directions.

Although Gregor has a very public, playboy image, I loved the sexy chemistry between Kara and him whenever they were together and they were both very likeable characters. Kara is bright, ambitious and caring and very much knows her own mind. Gregor is gorgeous, mischievous and soulful. The story was sweet and captivating to the end and loads of fun to read if a little too short.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley, Relay Publishing and the author for a copy of this book.

Kudos

Phillip McSween (751 KP) rated Rabid (2019) in Movies

Mar 9, 2020

Rabid (2019)

2019 | Horror

6.5

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

The Antithesis of Horror

I just got done watching a trailer for A Quiet Place Part II and I couldn’t help but think, “Now this is what horror is all about!” It’s gripping and terrifying, keeping your attention the whole way through, even in the quiet moments. Rabid fails at this miserably. Rabid is the story of Sarah (Laura Vandervoort) and complications she experiences post-surgery following her getting hit by a car. Not only does she find herself the victim of a disease that causes her to desire raw flesh, but she also quickly discovers that she is the source of the disease spreading.

Acting: 10

Beginning: 5
Rabid could have gotten to the point a lot faster and didn’t. I was waiting for the kicker that would get my attention. When it finally hit, it was a bit of a shoulder shrug for me. I had to force myself to get into it, telling myself that things would eventually get better.

Characters: 5
Not only were the characters one-dimensional and flat, but they left me with little to no interest in the story at all. I didn’t much care what happened to the protagonist or anyone. Having seen this movie a few weeks ago, I can’t think of any characters that really stood out for me.

Cinematography/Visuals: 3

Conflict: 3

Entertainment Value: 3

Memorability: 7

Pace: 5

Plot: 3
I thought the story had potential to be intriguing, but it ended up feeling more bland than anything else. Too much of nothing, too much waiting for things to happen. There were no moments or pieces of anything to really connect me to the characters which checked me out of the story as a whole.

Resolution: 5

Overall: 49
There are some indy movies that blow me away and stand out above even the larger in-theatre titles. Rabid falls short for me due to weak story progression and weak characters. I don’t recommend.

Kudos

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Now You See Me 2 (2016) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019

The new Lionsgate film Now You See Me 2 is a sequel to the 2013 film of
the same name.

It brings back most of the same cast members: Jesse Eisenberg as J.
Daniel Atlas, Mark Ruffalo as FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, Woody Harrelson as
Merritt McKinney, Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley, and Dave Franco as
Jack Wilder. It introduces Daniel Radcliffe as Walter Mabry and Lizzy
Kaplan as Lula. It is directed by Jon Chu.

This film picks up some months after the first film ends, with the Four
Horsemen in hiding, and Dylan Rhodes pretending to try to track them
down for their crime of thievery from the rich insurance tycoon that
withheld paying Rhodes’ fathers’ life insurance claim 30 years earlier.

The movie is fast paced and full of special effects, but it is certainly
fantastical and unbelievable. I am not sure there was even a little
realism in the entire movie, but it was fun to watch.

The banter between characters was funny, and it was interesting, if not
believable, to watch the effects used to create the magic tricks in the
movie. I thought that the movie was suspenseful, and I had one ending in
my head, but that isn’t the way it turned out, so it was sufficiently
twisty to hold my attention.

My friend that accompanied me has not seen the first movie and was able
to follow the sequel just fine, due to the narratives that tie the two
movies together. Regarding this film, she says: “Just when you think
you’ve got it all figured out, its something else altogether. The movie
was light hearted, adventurous, funny and suspenseful.”

For me, the effects in the movie make it one that ought to be seen on
“the big screen” but I would be hard pressed to go during any time when
it was full price, rather, I would catch it at a matinee or with a
coupon or at the second run theatre.

Kudos

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Water Diviner (2015) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019

Russell Crowe both stars and directs the new film The Water Diviner.

The story follows Joshua Conner (Crowe) and his attempts to re-locate his three sons Arthur, Henry and Edward, who went off to war together and yet were never heard from again. The three boys were inseparable as children (Jack Patterson, Ben Norris and Aidan Smith) and they stayed inseparable as adults (played by Ryan Corr, Ben O’Toole and James Fraser) as they went off to fight in World War I in the Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey.

Joshua loses contact with his sons during the war, and after the fighting has ended, he receives a journal that belonged to them. He reads the journal with his wife and they conclude that the boys must have perished in the fighting. Corners wife kills herself in her grief over losing them and Joshua swears he will bring the boys home, even if it is just their remains, that is his wife’s last wish.

Conner crosses the continent to search for them, meeting people along the way and finding clues. His efforts to locate the boys are rejected by military authorities but he stubbornly presses on.

Seeing this film in the movie theatre rather than on a home television is definitely worth it. The action and scenes of war flash backs are better suited to the big screen than a home tv for full effect and drawing you in to feel like you are ‘right there’.

The story was a bit predictable because after all, it’s the story of a father searching for his children, but it was emotional and held my attention.

Parts of it felt a bit slow, or maybe just confusing, because during the flash backs I wasn’t really sure whose flash backs they were or why they were significant, but over all the story flowed well and I enjoyed it.