Before I Wake by Steven Spruill Pros: decent enough storyline Cons: but a dull subplot and unlikeable characters Some good. Some bad. That’s my quickie review of Before I Wake by Steven Spruill. Meet Amy – she’s the head of Emergency at a big hospital. She’s got a big problem on her hands. Some men are dying […]
Author Archives: blogger6
Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James (pen name for Erica Mitchell) Pros: Despite what everyone’s heard, there is much more to Fifty Shades of Grey than explicit sex. Cons: For me, it was a small print. Fifty Shades of Grey is the first of a trilogy. The second and third titles are Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shade Freed. Most […]
Blow Out Pros: Well-done suspense, performances (especially Travolta). Cons: Nancy Allen typical damsel in distress in spots. (Note: This review originally appeared in a slightly different form on Epinions.com) Brian De Palma is one filmmaker who has often been popular with fans. But critics tend to be split on his work. Some rave over it, […]
House Of Many Rooms by Marius Gabriel Pros: starts out OK Cons: devolves into a dull drama I’m not sure what genre Marius Gabriel’s House Of Many Rooms should be in. On the front cover, it refers to itself as a “thriller” but it wasn’t very thrilling. It was a bit of mystery, but even […]
Beasts of No Nation (2015) Pros: location photography, child actors Cons: piling on “Beasts of No Country,” the high-profile Netflix theatrical and streaming release of Cary Joji Fukunaga’s adaptation of the novel of the same name by Nigerian-American writer Uzodinma Iweala filmed in Ghana is not for the squeamish. Probably its target audience is unfamiliar […]
Closer to the Moon Pros: cast, music, gallows humor Cons: the reality was not funny, making for uncertainty of mood in making and reacting to the movie Set in Bucharest A.D. 1959, “Closer to the Moon” (2013, written and directed by Romanian Nae Caranfil; released in the US in the spring of 2015, now streaming […]
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Death Rounds by Peter Clement Pros: decent premise Cons: long dull passages, lack of action Death Rounds by Peter Clement is a disappointing medical thriller. Two hospitals are on the verge of merging. Needless to say, this makes some people very happy and others quite miserable. The atmosphere is full of tension at both places. Meanwhile, […]
The Devil’s Knot Pros: cast, Georgia locations Cons: script Atom Egoyan (1960-) has made only one great movie, “The Sweet Herafter” (1997). The 2014 “The Devil’s Knot” seems in theory somewhat similar to that classic in approaching community-wide grief, after three West Memphis, Arkansas are slain, found nude and tied up with their shoe laces. […]
The Savage Professor: A Novel by Robert Roper Pros: East Bay local color Cons: buckets of blood and other carnage What overcame my aversion to contributing to the fascination with serial killers enough to read The Savage Professor by Robert Roper (Nabokov in America, Mexico Days) was the local color. Epidemiologist Anthony Landau, the titular professor, lives in […]
Tabu (2012) Pros: sonorous voice of Henrique Espírito Santo Cons: Lisbon middle, ludicrous prologue, purple prose narrations Though there is an adulterous liaison far from Europe in Miquel Gomes’s 2012 movie, and though it is often a silent movie, and at others a silent movie with voice-over explication, I considered titling it “Tabu” is very […]