GREAT tune. Simple but awesome music VIDEO.
Bruno and his band, the Hooligans, watching women walk by on the street.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Revolution in Progress 2023
The Revolution Will NOT Be Televised due to budget cable TV budget cuts — but will be on YouTube. 😀
A Man Called Otto – Tom Hanks
I like everything Tom Hanks does. And I really liked this film, as well.
A Man Called Ove is a novel by Swedish writer Fredrik Backman, first published in English 2013.
An odd book, it launched Backman’s career as a major novelist.
That said, I’ve tried to read it twice and got fed up both times.
The premise is enticing:
Ove is a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him ‘the bitter neighbour from hell.’ However, behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. …”
Age-59, Ove’s wife recently died. And he’s not handling it well.
The Swedish film adaptation looks more entertaining than the book.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Tom Hanks plays the role in the Hollywood adaptation. To mixed reviews. I thought it was excellent.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Cocaine Bear
I never would have watched this comedy horror movie unless I was trapped on a long distance international flight.
Cocaine Bear is loosely inspired by the true story of the “Cocaine Bear“, an American black bear that ingested nearly 75 lb (34 kg) of lost cocaine. …
The film opened to generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $89 million against a production budget of $30–35 million.
I have to admit, I enjoyed this absurdism. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator speech
The Great Dictator is a 1940 American anti-war political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced, scored by, and starring British comedian Charlie Chaplin …
Chaplin’s film advanced a stirring condemnation of the German and Italian dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, as well as fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis.
At the time of its first release, the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany and neutral during what were the early days of World War II.
Chaplin plays both leading roles: a ruthless fascist dictator and a persecuted Jewish barber.
It’s best remembered for this speech.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe is one of the better Hercule Poirot books.
Shorter. Fewer potential suspects.
Soon after he visits his dentist, Poirot is investigating the death of the dentist.
More people are dead, and the investigation widens, as Poirot slowly finds his way to the true stories behind the murders. …
A Canadian reviewer felt that “the pace is swift and talk – curse of the English detective story – is kept to a minimum”.
The title based on the olde English language nursery rhyme.
Of course there was at least one TV adaptation.
This is the final novel appearance of Chief Inspector Japp.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Like nearly everyone, I was a big fan of the Indiana Jones films:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Did we really need Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) ??
Or Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) ??
In fact, I loved the 5th and probably final instalment.
It was great to see Karen Allen again.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is fantastic, as usual.
The technology making actors look younger was amazing.
I feel it’s a worthy addition to the franchise.
… On the other hand, it grossed $383 million worldwide; a box office bomb with an expensive overall budget resulting in a $100 million loss for Disney.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
Read this book for:
- the humour
- Leo Johnson’s commentary on the book DRAFT chapters. He’s a beta reader.
The story is not easy to follow, IMHO.
Four strangers are sitting in the reading room of the Boston Public Library quietly working when a woman’s scream pierces the silence.
Later, a body is found, and the four characters quickly become friends as they work to piece together what happened.
That’s the premise of Sulari Gentill’s mystery, titled “The Woman In The Library.”
The 4 seeming strangers are:
- Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Aussie writer
- “Freud Girl”
- “Heroic Chin”
- “Handsome Man” (Cain)
The author uses those nicknames when she doesn’t yet know who they are.
The whodunit is which is the murderer.
So far, so good.
The confusion for me is that this tale is being written by another Aussie author, Hannah Tigone — who’s getting emails from beta reader Leo Johnson, an American who knows Boston well. And American idioms.
Finally, the real author is Sulari Gentill, yet another Aussie author.
If my math is correct, there are 3 murder mystery authors. YOU sort them out. 😀
Bad Sisters – season 1
FUNNY. 😀
Irish humour is the BEST humour.
Good music.
Rotten Tomatoes 100% approval.
Bad Sisters … is an Irish black comedy television series …
The five Garvey sisters—Eva, Grace, Ursula, Bibi, and Becka—live in present-day Dublin.
After Grace’s abusive, controlling husband John Paul dies unexpectedly, the sisters find themselves at the centre of a life insurance investigation.
The series flips between timelines—one before John Paul’s death, in which Grace’s sisters plot to murder their brother-in-law, and another after his death, in which a determined insurance agent tries to prove the sisters’ malicious involvement …
A second season is in the works.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny
I’m not a huge fan of these books. I prefer the TV series, actually.
But if YOU like them — this is one of the best.
A World of Curiosities is the 18th novel in a series featuring the fictional character Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.
The 2022 crime mystery follows the investigation of a series of murders in Quebec.
We learn that Gamache decided to go into Homicide after being one of the responding officers in the1989 École Polytechnique massacre. Fourteen women were murdered; another 10 women and 4 men injured. The killer was a 25-year-old white male who legally purchased a lightweight semi-automatic rifle, systematically planning to murder women at his former school.
Canadians mark the day of the killings with a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Curiosities is a sequel to Penny’s 2021 book The Madness of Crowds.
… features siblings Sam and Fiona Arsenault, whose mother Clotilde was killed after subjecting them both to sexual abuse in their younger years. …
Wikipedia
Rick McCharles 