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Archive for January, 2020

‘Under the Dome’ by Stephen King

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , on January 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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The first book I read in 2019 was Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King. I loved it and doubted whether I would enjoy another book quite so much throughout that year (I actually did, but Sleeping Beauties is still ranked in my top 3 books of last year)).

This year the first book I read – not counting audiobooks – was Under the Dome by Stephen King. I may have started a tradition here by starting each year off with a Stephen King novel, and so far it has worked out well, because I loved this book too. It’s dystopian rather than horror – although there are certainly some horrific scenes contained within – and I do love this genre. And of course there is a reason that King is one of the most popular fiction authors of all time – he knows how to spin a good yarn.

The story revolves around the Maine town of Chester’s Mill, which is suddenly and for no reason enclosed within a transparent dome. Everyone in the town is trapped inside and there is no way in from the other side. Naturally the air gets dirtier and supplies run short; people panic and react in different ways. The situation brings out the very best and the very worst in people and pits townsfolk against each other. It’s a great big brick of a book with a big story and lots of characters, including some major players and some more peripheral parts. As the situation gets more and more dire in a short period of time, people get ever more desperate, and while some just want to find out what has caused the dome to be there and search for a way to get rid of it, others take advantage of the situation.

I loved every page, and would highly recommend this book to Stephen King fans, lovers of dystopian fiction, or anyone who just loves a good story.

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‘The Distant Echo’ by Val McDermid (minor spoilers)

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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I listened to this audiobook, narrated by Tom Kotcher, over the course of several days. it is billed as the first in the Karen Pirie series, but Officer Pirie is very much on the periphery of this story (I suspect it was to ‘test the waters’ before writing a series based around a particular character).

It’s a book of two halves; the first half is set in 1978, when four students – who are known by their nicknames, Ziggy, Gilly, Weird and Mondo – in St Andrews stable across the body of a young woman named Rosie Duff, who is vaguely known to them. She has been attacked and left for dead. The police launch an investigation which fails to find the killer, but suspicion falls upon the four lads, and follows them around for the rest of their time at the university.

25 years later, the police reopen the cold case, but things take a strange turn when two of the former students are murdered and the remaining two decide that someone is taking revenge on them for the murder of Rosie. With the police not seeming to get anywhere, the two men decide to do some sleuthing of their own.

This is the first Val McDermid book I have ever read or listened to, and I have to say that I did enjoy it. Tom Kotcher did a good job narrating, with the exception of his American accent, which was pretty atrocious. Fortunately there are only a couple of American characters and neither of them feature very heavily, so that was not really an issue.

McDermid describes the tension and atmosphere extremely well, and I did feel that the four young men were all very distinctive; their relationships with each other were also well portrayed and formed a large part of the story. As for the mystery itself – I did actually figure out who the killer was when I was about a third of the way through, but nonetheless I still liked listening to the novel.

Based on this book, I would definitely try more by this author.

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The Two Faces of January (2014)

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , , , on January 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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I recorded this film months and months ago, because something about it intrigued me. I’m not sure what and it took ages for me to get around to watching it – somehow whenever I was trying to pick a film I fancied, I passed this one by. But finally I settled down to watch it, and wow! It FAR exceeded my expectations (and if you will allow me to be shallow for a moment, it also awakened me to the fact that Viggo Mortensen is a beautiful man!)

The story revolves around Chester McFarland and his wife Colette (Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst), who are holidaying in Athens. They meet up with Rydal (Oscar Isaac), an American tour guide, and hire him to show them around. Rydal is something of a con artist, but as the audience quickly learns, so is Chester. This fact catches up with Chester when some disgruntled victims of his hire a private detective to track him down and Chester accidentally kills him. Rydal stumbles upon Chester trying to hide the body (don’t worry, this all happens very early on, so there are no spoilers here) and not realising the other man is actually dead, helps Chester.

The two men are then inextricably bound to one another – both has the means to get the other into trouble, and also the motive – Rydal is clearly attracted to Colette, and the feeling seems mutual.

An uneasy alliance forms as the three of them are forced to stay together – I won’t say more as there are lots of twists and turns and the storyline deserves not to be spoiled for first time viewers.

I really liked this film – it’s basically an old fashioned thriller, done extremely well, with great actors. The main three are all excellent, with Mortensen and Isaac competing for who steals each scene (Dunst is also fantastic, but I think she was given less to work with). Fans of Alfred Hitchcock will like this; I feel sure that if Hitchcock were making movies today, this is the kind of thing he would come up with. It also looks stunning, the locations and the lighting were beautiful, and the music was reminiscent of thrillers from the 50s and 60s.

I was entirely unsurprised to discover after I had finished the film that it is based on a  book by Patricia Highsmith. It is undershot with just the right amount of tension, and you are never quite sure who if anyone will come out on top.

I highly recommend this film, and will also add the book to my reading list.

 

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Mr Right (2015)

Posted in Film Reviews, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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After her boyfriend cheats on her, Martha (Anna Kendrick) is devastated – until she meets Francis (Sam Rockwell), a man who seems perfect for her in every way. Well…in almost every way. Because Francis is a hit-man. But he’s a charismatic hit-man who is bored with the lifestyle, believes murder is wrong and now has a penchant for killing those people who hire him.

Unfortunately, Hooper (Tim Roth), an old colleague of Francis, is determined to kill our hero, and things are further complicated by a mob family who want to hire Francis to kill the leader so that the stupid younger brother can take over.

Reading the above synopsis, you would be forgiven for thinking that this film is a drama, or a thriller. You probably wouldn’t expect it to be a rom-com, but that’s what it is. There is a lot of violence, so if thats off-putting to you, then you might want to give it a miss. But there’s an equal amount of comedy to balance it out, and I did genuinely laugh out loud several times.

I love Tim Roth – he is just electrifying to watch – and his role here was extremely funny, and he sets the precedent for this in the first scene. Sam Rockwell is also brilliant, and ideal for the role of Francis. We can understand why Martha is so drawn to him, even after she realises what he does for a living. And Anna Kendrick was a delight too. I won’t mention all of the supporting cast, but there was not a bad performance among them.

I really enjoyed this film and would definitely recommend it. (Special shout out to the excellent use of the song ‘My Type’ by Saint Motel – great track used to great effect).

 

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