Search
Search results
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Black Rain (1989) in Movies
Apr 17, 2021 (Updated Apr 17, 2021)
Cold Case
Black Rain- is a good action film. Micheal Douglas was good in it. Ridley Scott directed it.
The plot: New York City policemen Nick (Michael Douglas) and Charlie (Andy Garcia) witness a murder in a bar and quickly apprehend the assailant. The killer, named Sato (Yusaku Matsuda), is a member of Japan's infamous Yakuza mob, and Nick and Charlie must transport the gangster back to Osaka for his murder trial. There, Sato's fellow gangsters free him from police custody, forcing Nick and Charlie to scour Japan's dangerous underworld of organized crime in search of their fugitive.
Watch it if you want to.
The plot: New York City policemen Nick (Michael Douglas) and Charlie (Andy Garcia) witness a murder in a bar and quickly apprehend the assailant. The killer, named Sato (Yusaku Matsuda), is a member of Japan's infamous Yakuza mob, and Nick and Charlie must transport the gangster back to Osaka for his murder trial. There, Sato's fellow gangsters free him from police custody, forcing Nick and Charlie to scour Japan's dangerous underworld of organized crime in search of their fugitive.
Watch it if you want to.
Joyce Carol Oates recommended A Constellation of Vital Phenomena in Books (curated)
Joyce Carol Oates recommended The Tsar of Love and Techno in Books (curated)
Fiasco: The American Military Adventures in Iraq
Book
Cutting through the headlines and spin, this is the first book to give us a true picture of the...
The Watchman
7.3
Rate It
Book
A wild-living young heiress slams into trouble in the L.A. night—the kind of trouble even her...
Primo Levi: The Matter of a Life
Book
In 1943, twenty-four-year-old Primo Levi had just begun a career in chemistry when, after joining a...
Considering the fact all of the nominees for the 2015-2016 Gateway Award aren't exactly very appealing and I've had quite the bad luck with them... I pretty much decided to take a stab with Ashley Elston's <i>The Rules for Disappearing</i> as my next victim.
In elaboration of that bad luck, <a title="In the Shadow of Blackbirds" href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-in-the-shadow-of-blackbirds-by-cat-winters/"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">my first one was insanity</a>. I'm scared of reading another book by Cat Winters. <a href="http://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/dnf-review-the-5th-wave-by-rick-yancey"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">My second one had a highly annoying character named after a constellation</a>.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="http://bookwyrmingthoughts.bookblog.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/317/2015/05/dean-what-have-i-done.gif"; border="0" /></div>
And now, my third book has a very materialistic character (completely opposite spectrum from me) whose family is in Witness Protection for the last year and has quite literally changed their names far more times than Zach/Jack in <i>Zach's Lie</i> and <i>Jack's Run</i>. With their eighth move, "Meg," is extremely tired of constantly having to move places, leaving her life behind, and changing her identities – the moves were beginning to tear apart their family. Meg vows to find what landed her and her family in Witness Protection in the first place throughout the book.
I personally liked how the book was formatted. The beginning of each chapter has a "rule for disappearing," possibly concocted by Meg over the year her family has been in Witness Protection, and what happens in the chapter is sort of a reason "why" Meg established the rule in the first place.
For almost half the book there isn't really too much that happens – Meg makes a plan to not settle down with her new life like she did in her past placements, her "diary" gets stolen, and she tries to avoid a boy named Ethan Landry who's a lot smarter than he seems. After accidentally hearing a few conversations her dad has over the phone in the middle of the night, things start to pick up – Meg starts to remember more of what happened in her original life and becomes more determined to get her family out of Witness protection.
Meg is like a clamshell at the very beginning – she's very closed off and she wants to isolate herself from her peers because who cares about making friends when you might be plucked from your current life any moment? It's not until she meets Ethan that she "gives up" on trying to isolate herself and becomes more open with other people. In all honesty, if Ethan didn't make a constant attempt to open up her shell, Meg probably wouldn't have told her story – how her old life was like, why she's really in Witness Protection, and what each of her moves were like compared to her original life.
Elston does drop a hint or two of a sequel near the end of the book, which I'm not exactly too excited for. <i>The Rules for Disappearing</i> felt like a stand-alone rather than a duology, but maybe the sequel will be equally or more interesting.
<blockquote>We force you to sit through the chick flicks so maybe you'll get some idea of how you're supposed to act.</blockquote>
<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-the-rules-for-disappearing-by-ashley-elston/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
In elaboration of that bad luck, <a title="In the Shadow of Blackbirds" href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-in-the-shadow-of-blackbirds-by-cat-winters/"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">my first one was insanity</a>. I'm scared of reading another book by Cat Winters. <a href="http://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/dnf-review-the-5th-wave-by-rick-yancey"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">My second one had a highly annoying character named after a constellation</a>.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="http://bookwyrmingthoughts.bookblog.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/317/2015/05/dean-what-have-i-done.gif"; border="0" /></div>
And now, my third book has a very materialistic character (completely opposite spectrum from me) whose family is in Witness Protection for the last year and has quite literally changed their names far more times than Zach/Jack in <i>Zach's Lie</i> and <i>Jack's Run</i>. With their eighth move, "Meg," is extremely tired of constantly having to move places, leaving her life behind, and changing her identities – the moves were beginning to tear apart their family. Meg vows to find what landed her and her family in Witness Protection in the first place throughout the book.
I personally liked how the book was formatted. The beginning of each chapter has a "rule for disappearing," possibly concocted by Meg over the year her family has been in Witness Protection, and what happens in the chapter is sort of a reason "why" Meg established the rule in the first place.
For almost half the book there isn't really too much that happens – Meg makes a plan to not settle down with her new life like she did in her past placements, her "diary" gets stolen, and she tries to avoid a boy named Ethan Landry who's a lot smarter than he seems. After accidentally hearing a few conversations her dad has over the phone in the middle of the night, things start to pick up – Meg starts to remember more of what happened in her original life and becomes more determined to get her family out of Witness protection.
Meg is like a clamshell at the very beginning – she's very closed off and she wants to isolate herself from her peers because who cares about making friends when you might be plucked from your current life any moment? It's not until she meets Ethan that she "gives up" on trying to isolate herself and becomes more open with other people. In all honesty, if Ethan didn't make a constant attempt to open up her shell, Meg probably wouldn't have told her story – how her old life was like, why she's really in Witness Protection, and what each of her moves were like compared to her original life.
Elston does drop a hint or two of a sequel near the end of the book, which I'm not exactly too excited for. <i>The Rules for Disappearing</i> felt like a stand-alone rather than a duology, but maybe the sequel will be equally or more interesting.
<blockquote>We force you to sit through the chick flicks so maybe you'll get some idea of how you're supposed to act.</blockquote>
<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-the-rules-for-disappearing-by-ashley-elston/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated Jurassic Park (1993) in Movies
Jun 11, 2019
JURASSIC PARK (the good one)
Back in 1993 Steven Spielberg breathed life into everybody's childhood obsession with dinosaurs with ground breaking CGI during its release which still holds up today.
Jurassic park is story of a mans dream to bring back the Jurassic age on an (presumably) uninhabited island. After inviting his grandchildren, Dr alan Grant an archaeologist, ellie satler another archaeologist and ian malcolm who's just along for the ride to witness this ground-breaking creation,they quickly become endangered when the parks security parameters fail and they have to outrun and out smart their way to safety with a dinosaur at every turn, and a kitchen scene you'll never forget (that's right, kitchen!)
Jurassic park is story of a mans dream to bring back the Jurassic age on an (presumably) uninhabited island. After inviting his grandchildren, Dr alan Grant an archaeologist, ellie satler another archaeologist and ian malcolm who's just along for the ride to witness this ground-breaking creation,they quickly become endangered when the parks security parameters fail and they have to outrun and out smart their way to safety with a dinosaur at every turn, and a kitchen scene you'll never forget (that's right, kitchen!)
Erika (17789 KP) rated Melmoth: A Novel in Books
Jan 9, 2019
Well, my first read of 2019 is completed and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this novel. I've had Sarah Perry's @The Essex Serpent on my bookshelf since it came out here in the US, but have never picked it up.
This novel utilized the myth of Melmoth the Witness (and its various iterations/spellings) and the atmosphere of Prague. Perry utilized an epistolary format for some of it, which I felt was effective. My biggest problem with the novel is that it was all very predictable, and I think it was because the foreshadowing was a little too obvious. That was what knocked this book down to just good.
This novel utilized the myth of Melmoth the Witness (and its various iterations/spellings) and the atmosphere of Prague. Perry utilized an epistolary format for some of it, which I felt was effective. My biggest problem with the novel is that it was all very predictable, and I think it was because the foreshadowing was a little too obvious. That was what knocked this book down to just good.
Make Believe: A True Story
Book
In Make Believe, Diana Athill, acclaimed author of Instead of a Letter and Stet, remembers her...