Sunday Post 51; It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 51

 
The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

Once again, capitalism struck when I was most expecting it, and work happened. 

I didn't go to quiz on Wednesday night, as Son of Mine's school had the audacity to schedule parent/teacher interviews then. The way it works here, is you get an interim report, and on it the teachers indicate if they want an interview or not. Three of his teachers did, so I had to like ... parent.

It was fine. I always get "Son of Yours is a great kid but needs to focus." Which. I didn't need to miss quiz to find out, I already knew.

It was a short week, and I had Friday off. I watched TV, did some reading, did some stitching, played some Dragon Age. Full on power down mode in other words.

I worked yesterday because overtime is nice sometimes. I didn't go to my friend's last night as I worked, but just came home and powered down again. 

Today I haven't done much of anything, and I don't have work until Wednesday, so I have very few plans.

I'm still reading Jingo by Terry Pratchett, and The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson.

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Maree's Movie Night - Road House reboot

 

My question here is - why. Why Road House. The original is fine as it is, and honestly - go watch that instead.

I sat through the whole movie (the new one) and honestly I was mostly just ... bored. And confused.

It's set in modern-day Florida for some reason? Like, that doesn't make sense to me? And Dalton has a backstory, which I don't like. Mysterious drifter? Yes. Former MMA fighter with a Dark Past? Meh. 

And - I don't know - the antagonist was mostly just annoying rather than deeply, deeply evil. He was an awful person but I did not care what happened to him.

One of the things that drove the original - for me - was the soundtrack. This time around a different band plays every night and I just couldn't connect to it.

Stick with Patrick Swayze.

Sunday Post 50; It's Monday! What are you reading? 50

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

Let's see. Work happened to me again without my permission, but I've survived somehow.

We came second at quiz on Wednesday night, which is fine but honestly I prefer to win.

Son of Mine went to a friend's for a sleepover on Friday night so I settled in with some stitching and watched the Road House reboot. It was .... meh. Review coming later this week.

On Saturday morning I watched another episode of The Fall of the House of Usher before Mum's Taxi was called and I picked spawn up from his friend's. We went to the library, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon playing Dragon Age and watching You Tube before I went to my friend's as usual.

Today I haven't done very much at all, and it's been nice. 

I finished The Labours of Hercules, and I'm re-reading Jingo by Terry Pratchett - I read it many years ago but Discworld is always a good place to visit. I'm still also reading The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson.

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Two reviews

 

Sir David Suchet's portrayal of Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot is possibly one of the most recoginsable TV characters of the past 30 years or so.

One of the reasons, I believe, is the thought and effort David Suchet put into bringing Poirot to life.

It's easy to play Poirot as a caricature or entirely for humour or indeed to miss the point of him entirely (looking at you, Kenneth Branagh) but David Suchet dove into the character himself - before he even brought him to life on screen.

Poirot and Me dives into that transformation, and the consideration and thoughtfulness brought to bringing him to life solidifies the little Belgian detective as a truly great fictional character.

David Suchet has written a truly fascinating memoir centered around the TV show, the character, and how Poirot impacted his life in some very unexpected ways.

Summer and Leo are con artists, living in Summer's van and travelling around California, looking for the next grift.

Summer's speciality is pick-pocketing, credit card fraud, and identity theft, while Leo seduces wealthy men.

When Leo meets billionaire tech guru Michael Forrester and gets invited to his private island, both girls think they've struck gold.

Then Leo goes missing. Summer travels to the island, relying on her wits to get her through, to try and find out what's happened to Leo.

Most of You Can Trust Me is great - the tension is palpable as Summer tries to find out what's happened to Leo, and Leo's chapters give that reveal slowly over time.

Then everything gets a bit ... Hollywood thriller racing towards the conclusion. I would have been happy with something a bit longer that built the story up more.

ALSO  - and I don't know if this is just me - but there's a massive plot hole. I still can't get my head around it.

Maree's Movie Night - Road House

 

Ah, 1980s Patrick Swayze. So handsome. Riding the success of Ghost and Dirty Dancing. 

And then. Road House. Look, I know Road House isn't a good movie. You know Road House isn't a good movie. But here's the thing. As terrible as it is objectively, it's also great. It just is, and no correspondence will be entered into.

Swayze is a bouncer, or a "cooler" who's hired to clean house at the Double Deuce - the type of Road House the band plays behind chicken wire (which, side note, always reminds me of the Blues Brothers.)

So Dalton (Swayze) rides into town ready to kick ass and take names and set the world to rights. Which, of course, he does.

There are some unintentionally funny moments - and some intentional ones as well - but overall it's just pure entertainment.

Do yourself a favour - if you haven't heard them before, look up the band from the movie - The Jeff Healey Band. So good. 

Sunday Post 49; It's Monday! What are you reading? 49

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

My week was fairly uneventful, except of course for the heavy chains of capitalism.

We won at quiz on Wednesday night by one point, but a win is a win, no matter how narrow the margin. 

We got talking at work about some of the "reboot" movies that are coming out, and Roadhouse came up. So, of course, on Thursday night I had to dig into the vaults of TV Land and watch the original. The original Roadhouse is both great, and also terrible. This remains true. The soundtrack, however, still slaps. (Is that what the kids are saying? "Slaps"?)

Friday, Spawn had a friend over for a sleepover, so I retreated to my room and told myself "I'm not going to watch the whole Eras tour movie, it's over three hours long." Reader, I watched the whole Eras tour movie.  I don't consider myself a "Swiftie" as such but I do like quite a few of the songs, and I admire the work ethic. And honestly - it's a great show. One of my workmates went to see Taylor Swift in Sydney and declared it the greatest night of her life. 

Saturday a friend of mine and I went to the library, and after Spawn's wee friend had gone home and he had tidied up the debris of their sleepover, we went trawling some secondhand stores. Spawn bought a couple of books, and I found a photo frame for 50cents, which I've used to frame a Monet print card. 

Saturday night I went to my friend's place as usual and we stitched and watched reality TV. We're off to the movies later today to see Wicked Letters.

I finished Poirot & Me, and also You Can Trust Me, both of which I did enjoy. 

Currently I'm reading The Labours of Hercules, short stories by Agatha Christie featuring the little Belgian detective, and I started The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, first book in the Order of Legends series, which is shaping up to be very promising.

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Maree's Movie Night - Pain Hustlers

 I was going to watch The Bourne Supremacy on Friday night, but couldn't find it anywhere.

This popped up on Netflix, and I thought it looked interesting, so I dived in.

Pain Hustlers is based on a true story about a small, start-up pharmaceutical company trying to push a new painkiller for cancer patients.

Emily Blunt is down on her luck single mother Liza who talks her way into a job with the company, and Chris Evans is the slightly skeevy rep who recruits her.

It's always fun to see Chris Evans play against the Captain America stereotype and it's the same with this movie, although the front and centre star is without a doubt Emily Blunt.

Her character is motivated by the right things - she's trying to make a better life for herself and her daughter who is prone to seizures due to a tangled bundle of nerves in her brain. Catherine O'Hara also shows up in a great supporting role as Emily Blunt's character's somewhat chaotic mother.

The drug starts to take off for cancer patients, and it's not long before doctors are prescribing it for all kinds of pain. The kicker is - it's fentanyl. Which I don't know a lot about, but I do know it's incredibly addictive. There's a lot of other dodgy dealings and kickbacks as well which did largely go over my head.

But the story and the acting were engaging enough to keep me invested.

When the husband of one of her friend's dies from an overdose, Liza realises she needs to do something, and turns whistleblower, which brings the company crashing down.

Pain Hustlers is definitely worth watching - great cast plus a solid story make for a good night in.