I like most everything Lawrence Block has written. The above is without a doubt the rawest of the Matt Scudder series. If you remember the old movie, Burglar, it’s from his more lighthearted series, also well worth the read.Originally Posted by Casual Friday
Unlocked is a spy thriller starring Noomi Rapace and several other well known actors (Orlando Bloom, Michael Douglas, John Malkovich). Noomi plays a CIA interrogator brought in to an operation that tries to stop a terrorist attack on London and... Well, then stuff starts to happen. The plot is stupid and some people complain the movie tries to be politically correct, but at the very least the writing is good and you probably won't be seeing all the plot twists in advance. I did enjoy watching this movie.
Mean Machine stars Vinnie Jones as a former British footballer who ends up in prison, and the captain of the convicts football team. So it's a football movie, set in a prison with crooked guards and governor. The prison setting causes a few twists in the plot like the occasional bit of violence, blackmail, the odd bomb going off, what have you. Now, I don't have any interest in football. No, let me try that again: I really don't give a toss about football. And yet, nonetheless I still found this to be an entertaining movie to watch. I suppose that says something about the movie.
Unlocked is available on Netflix, Mean Machine on Amazon Prime.
Young Rock The premise is that Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is doing an interview because he is running for president and recounts his childhood experiences. Acting and writing are typical for a network half hour sit-com but it can be nostalgic for anyone who remembers old school pro-wrestling, For example, the first episode had a scene where Andre the Giant, the Iron Sheik, the Wild Samoans and his dad, Rocky 'Soulman' Johnson are hanging out playing cards at his grandmother's house, and stuff like that.
"You can't win a war with choirboys. " Mad Mike Hoare
I think he is a republican with moderate views and political aspirations. Maybe it’s a trial ballon and if well received will result in him running for something. I’d probably vote for the Rock before a lot of other choices I’ve been given recently. [emoji1]
Edited to add: TOTALLY not meaning to turn this into a political thread. Please nobody make me regret this post.
I started The Expanse one or two nights back. I'm 3-5 episodes in so far and I like it. It's good to see some pretty decent production values in there. Kinda reminiscent of the first season of Altered Carbon to me, but not quite as edgy.
Reminded me of something else too but can't recall what it is now.
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Yeah, it's definitely less "hard/edgy" sci-fi than Altered Carbon. Both are very good in their own ways
(I freely acknowledge that season 2 of Altered Carbon was a really screwed up mishmash, but I really liked the first season and the first two books. I have not read the third book.)
FWIW, the first season of the Expanse reminded me of the early seasons of Babylon 5 except that the Expanse has different subsets of humans interacting and the only alien was the proto-molecule as opposed to B5 which involved a variety of humanoid alien species. OTOH, the band of misfits thrown together to save the human race is a little like Firefly.
"You can't win a war with choirboys. " Mad Mike Hoare
I've always had a hard time with Sci Fi that puts too much emphasis on various alien races with bad prosthetics glued to their head. I think that explains how the further along the Star Trek franchise they got, and the more "aliens" became part of the main cast, the less interested I became. I think I watched maybe half an episode of Babylon 5 for the same reason. Star Wars, at least the vast majority of the main characters are always human and the aliens tend to be bit parts. Probably why I like the Expanse and Altered Carbon. The only weird-looking folks are mutated not alien, which somehow makes a difference for me, apparently.
never gave it much thought until just now.
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"How are ya now", I just stumbled across Letterkenny (on Hulu); nothing about my personality suggests I should have liked it, but I LOVE it. Once you watch enough, you see how consistently they repeat references to people or events in previous episodes.
I'd love to hear what some of our Canadian members think of this show, and in particular a) the obvious theme that Canadians like to brawl, b) are the cultural references/stereotypes mostly on point (e.g. everyone having an opinion about how you're grilling your food) and c) do you really love Canada Goose enough to terrorize a country club over its plan to "grease the eggs"
Time to get back to chorin'
We just stumbled on The Chosen (https://studios.vidangel.com/the-chosen) -- it came out in '17 but a second season is supposed to be near release.
We thought it was fantastic; we have binged it twice now, and some episodes may get a third watch.
It was put together by evangelicals, but we didn't find anything to quibble with as Catholics (we haven't watched the pilot, which I understand has a flaw). It is, unsurprisingly, pretty pro-Jesus, so if that bugs you it might get in your way, but I would suggest a watch for most because of the quality of writing and acting. In particular, the portrayal of Matthew is worth the whole series.
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