Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

 TV show based on Stephen King novels.  Excellent acting.  Brody is particular, though really terrific throughout.  Good story, too, though to make 10 episodes they stretched it a bit.  Killer drives through waiting job seekers, killing many.  Retired detective back on his trail after computer contact.   Good weird mother/son relationship.  Good workplace--computer store with obnoxious managers.   Solid!

Hooked it.  Didn't seem bad, exactly, but on the small screen the visual impact is lost.  Also, the special effects don't seem so special now.  Seemed oddly slow.  May give it another try later.

Well done Israeli thriller. Good acting, not too  one-sided in depiction of Israeli=Palestinian conflict.  Tight story line . . . 35 minute episodes Panther is killed by his protegé.  Doran loses his Palestinian doctor lover when she learns he's Israeli.  Doran also seems to have lost his wife to another team member--hard to feel sorry for Doran on this score as he doesn't love his wife and the new guy does.  On to Season Two

Turning out to be pretty good.  Hamas captures Doron's brother-in-law (Boaz).  Pretty doctor who Doron is keen on is forced to insert a bomb in Boaz.  Exchange is arranged.  Hamas blows up Boaz. Doron, in reprisal, blows up the Sheik who was to be exchanged.  "The Panther" daughter is injured. Israelis take her to Hadassah hospital.  Her mother--furious with her husband for his activities--visits her there.  should she transfer her to Palestinian hospital? Dilemma. Eye injury. Doron and his team, failures, are out . . . but they  must get back in, or the show is over.

Israeli.  An elite group of Israeli police plan to infiltrate a Palestinian wedding and kill terrorist responsible for 150 deaths. All goes completely to hell. They are uncovered, end up shooting the groom and putting a gun to the head of the bride, chase after but don't get their real target. Looks promising.

Just tries so hard to be edgy that it becomes a bore.  Eve and her double meet up a couple of times.  The double could kill Eve but doesn't . . . she kills everyone else.  Eve could shoot the double but doesn't, but then stabs her.  Season One ends with Velonalla (?) something like that, fleeing and bleeding. Done with it.  

Trying for the "double" theme, but not working so far.  Eve is pretty normal in the sense that she's normally unhappy. V. is a psychopath.  They meet a couple of times. V. doesn't kill Eve because . . . I guess some empathy, kindred feeling.  Now V. is off to Russia to finish off Nadia who didn't die even though she was run over a couple of times.  Keep waiting to get hooked . . . hasn't happened yet.  Lightly likeable, but tries so hard to be off-beat.

Brad Pitt etc. Never saw it when it came out.  Expected this to be lively, smart, etc.  I don't know . . . maybe it loses on the small screen . . . but didn't work for me.  Twenty minutes of a good try, and then back to DVD Netflix.

Sandra Oh.  Just okay so far.  A bit of a yawner.  She is in MI6 and is after a female assassin (cartoon character) who loves to kill and is cool as a cucumber and as efficient as a robot. Plot enlivened by quirky moments. Discovery Bill is bisexual. Giggling over death of boss's wife.  The attempt at quirky seems a bit forced, as if writers said to themselves:  Okay, three quirky moments per show.

Very well acted "terrorist" series. Brody, returned from the dead in Afghanistan, is suspected of being a terrorist, not a hero by our CIA agent, Claire Danes.  She looks right, then wrong, then right again. Finishes with quite a flourish.  Brady goes back to Iran, infiltrate Revolutionary Guard, assassinates top commander.  Redemption.  Carrie tries to get him out, but is betrayed by her calculating bosses who believe a dead Brody will help their other "spy" initiatives.  So, Brody hangs. Just a cut below the very best, Breaking Bad, Sopranos, Narcos, Americans . . . but not much.

Money launderer in Chicago caught stealing.  Everyone killed but one partner who promises the money theft victim to make it all right by laundering money in the Ozarks.  Wife immediately cashes all their money and tries to ditch him, but he stops her.  So far . . . a few betrayals, four execution style murders, a visit to hookers, on-line porn 30 minutes.

Probably a very good movie.  The coronavirus "shelter in place" stuff is  going on now, and it just didn't have the right feel.  Hooked it . . . doubt I'll ever try it again.  Bad vibes.

Felix has escaped and outwitted the DEA, making them look foolish.  But then . . . he overreaches.  He tries to become the dictator of the federation, but the plaza leaders from Tijuana, Juarez, Guadalajara, Sinoloa all walk out on him.  Worse, he loses his protection from the government.  They want to sign NAFTA, and what better way to please the USA than to arrest  the (formerly) powerful, but now nobody--Felix. Season ends with Walt getting an award which he disdains, Felix in the slammer, the various plazas co-operating.  But for how long?  Walt visits Felix in the prison; Felix tells Walt--Drug War among cartels will soon break out.

It's taken a while to get going, and it's tough to keep all the characters straight.  Felix in trouble.  Cartel coming apart.  PRI may not win election (his political cover).  DEA agents after him.  All is riding on one huge cocaine shipment.  He buys airplanes, builds airfield, but will he be betrayed first? Lots of murders.  El Chapo has appeared and built his first tunne. 8 out of 10 . . . charitably

Weaker story than Emma, so weaker movie.  Two sisters needing husbands.  Our heroine loses her love to another . . . but wait . . . it was actually his brother who married.  Jane Fairfax is tragic figure, forced to marry the shallow Willoughby even though she has great attributes.  Marianne gets the Colonel, not Willoughby.  She's sad but then realizes it's for the best. Our heroine (can't recall her name) gets Knightley--shy and perfect.  Yawn

Last movie we will go out to see because of Covid-19 virus.  Hope it's not the last movie I ever go out to see.  Scary times.  Great film.  Tremendous moments where Emma insults well-meaning windbag in front of all friends.  "You won't be able to stop at three stupid comments." She grows up and it all works out in an earned way.  Terrific.

Murder at birding institute.  Head scientist (beautiful woman).  Was it her cuckolded husband?  A jilted grad student? Subplot:  two boys on the island are gay--upsetting family of one.  Solution:  another scientist, years earlier, had worked with the beauty.  an affair, pregnancy, birth--but dad not told.  He marries, has child, child dies.  The couple come to work on the island.  Wife sees the son of the beauty-scientist. Boy looks just like her dead boy.  She figures it out, confronts woman, "accidentally" kills her. Cleeve tells a good story, but this recurring "unlikely female murderer" technique is wearing thin

Great start. Neighborhood in Mexico City.  Family with servant girl.  Gentle pacing.  Servant girl tells madre of house she is pregnant.  Mother has her own worries--father has gone off to Quebec on a suspicious trip.

1917 brings to mind this film, another movie-magic war film.  Not the editing, but the massive scale of the film Dunkirk  is a 2017  war film  written, directed, and produced by  Christopher Nolan  that depicts the  Dunkirk evacuation  of  World War II . Its  ensemble cast  includes  Fionn Whitehead ,  Tom Glynn-Carney ,  Jack Lowden ,  Harry Styles ,  Aneurin Barnard ,  James D'Arcy ,  Barry Keoghan ,  Kenneth Branagh ,  Cillian Murphy ,  Mark Rylance , and  Tom Hardy . The film was distributed by  Warner Bros.

American Beauty/Skyfall WWI story filmed "all in one shot" sort of.  Can't have been too many shots, though there are a few times when you can tell they're reloading film.  (Screen goes black after one explosion and the protagonist is knocked cold . . . screen goes watery blue when he goes over a waterfall and stays underwater and out of view). Amazing filmmaking, sets.  What a challenge!  Pretty mundane plot though.  Two soldiers need to get a message to a major to avert a charge-of-the-light brigade disaster.  They face a series of dangers (mines exploding, airplanes, Germans). One dies, the other gets the message to the major in time to keep the second wave of assault from taking place and thus saving many lives, but not all of them (21st century, not 1950.) Saw this at Majestic Bay matinee.  would never have made it on TV

Taking itself a little too seriously.  Tommy is forced to steal tanks for the White Russians fighting the Bolsheviks.  He wants to go straight. He's also involved with a dispute with the Italian gang in London.  PB's burn down a tavern and shoot a guy in the legs.  At a big shindig put on by Tommy, someone tries to kill him but they kill Grace (his wife) instead.  Tommy morose.  Tommy wants to torture the lead Italian. His brothers stop him by shooting the guy before Tommy can cut him up.  Now . . . the big plan to steal the tanks and get them away.  The danger? A traitorous priest who is giving information to the Bolshies.

Giant ants in New Mexico as a result of nuclear testing.  1950's horror film that is mildly entertaining, but nothing to get too excited about. Movies on TV gives it 3.5 stars. 2 stars is more like it.  Perhaps the "nuclear" warning at the end caught the reviewers attention. James Whitmore Fess Parker

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta co-star. Noah Baumbach directed--Squid and the Whale; Margot at the Wedding I liked both of those, especially Margot, but this not so much.  Main flaw: way too long.  It's really a divorce story.  Charlie (Driver) is hot=shot theatre director in NYC. Nicole (SJ) is actress who gains stature with his group, but was known before for a teenage romp (filmed in LA) in which she appears topless.  They have one child.  So, it's Charlie's hotshot career vs. Nicole's supporting actress career.  NYC vs. Los Angeles.  Sort of in the middle is their child, but he seems oddly passive, goes with the flow. Three or four arguments about whether or not Charlie promised to spend time in LA or not.  Three or four arguments about whether Charlie respects Nicole's ambitions and talent.   Movie is well over two hours.  At ninety minutes or so, it would have been much better Big, screaming fight in Charlie

Fantastic short series (8) from Netflix.  Girl is raped, then bullied by Lynnwood cops into saying she wasn't raped.  No family, no one to help her.  Depressed, kicked out of her group home, contemplating suicide. Years later detectives in Colorado solve a serial rapist case and discover evidence of the Lynnwood rape. Magnificent acting.  10 out 10

Documentary on shooting of black teenagers in Jacksonville by irate white guy who claimed he felt threatened when teenagers didn't turn down music and told him to fuck off.  Killer says he thought he saw shotguy. Brave testimony by man's fiancee who says she never heard him, in the time they spent together after they fled, mention a shotgun or any weapon. First trial ends with mistrial on murder, but conviction of attempted murder for firing at three other boys in car who didn't have weapons.  Weird verdict. Retrial. Conviction of first degree murder. Life.

Took a while to get going, but ended up strong.  Tommy with multiple girls in love with him:  Grace, Esme, his ex-prostitute present secretary, rich girl horse trainer.  Campbell out to kill him. Tommy is recruited to kill a British officer.  Murder will be blamed on one faction of the IRA, thus bolstering the other faction. Tommy does the killing and then is betrayed.  He's going to die!  Last second reprieve when one of his three killers knocks off the other two.  "We have more plans for you," he says.  "Winston Churchill will be in touch!" Campbell, meantime, is killed by Polly whom he raped earlier.  Second time Campbell has been shot at the end of a season, but this time he really does look dead.  Too bad.  Good character