The Terminal List

tags: Amazon streaming, corruption, military drama, revenge

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finally, an Amazon series that I watched and enjoyed regardless of a few flaws

*cough*honest journalist and righteous FBI agents*cough*

filmed in the dark, it's hard to see the scenes clearly

too many flash backs

last man on his list is predictable

Chris Pratt's acting is not bad and Taylor Kitsch stands out as his best buddy. This series is not for viewers with low tolerance for brutality which is necessary to convey extreme anger and thirst for revenge. One scene in particular is literally gut wrenching.😁 If you watch the series, you'll know which one I'm referring to. The death scene of the smug businessman, played convincingly by Jai Courtney, is short but still satisfying. I like that there are several witty one-liners here and there.

I have not read the book the series is based on and I plan to read it. According to reviewers on Amazon, 2 female characters, Liz and the journalist are not portrayed accurately. The journalist is supposed to be a blonde female European but here in the series is played by a short slightly overweight American of Chinese descent, the only woke hire for a main character, thank goodness. Her acting is sub par though, yelling for emphasis when it is not necessary, or sounding like a child psychiatrist. For example, on Episode 8, she was trying to convince Reece to not eliminate the next one on the list. She talks to Reece as though he is a 2 year old retard with her super clichéd lines and delivery. Ugh! Fault of director and actor herself. At least, I'm thankful the production left out the alphabet soup.

Recommended for revenge genre fans.

President Trump At The Wheel

Actual footage of Trump on Jan 6 pic.twitter.com/wwJWFrvmXK

— GTA Senator Poso (@JackPosobiec) June 28, 2022

So far, Trump’s second term has been a huge success. He has several major SCOTUS victories, looks better than ever compared to Biden, and the Jan6 theater just went full Jussie. You can’t win harder than that.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) June 28, 2022

Everybody knows you don't go full Jussie, man. 😂😂😂

 

Brief history of Trump hoaxes:

• Russia hoax
• 'Fine people' hoax
• Ukraine 'whistleblower' hoax
• 'This is MAGA country!' hoax
• Bleach hoax
• Trump 'church photo-op' hoax
• J6 Trump 'incitement' hoax
• Trump 'grabbed the wheel' hoax

This is all Democrats got, America.

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) June 29, 2022

Snowflake Mountain

tags: Netflix streaming, reality show

⭐⭐⭐

Sometimes reality shows are more entertaining to watch than mediocre and badly written TV shows and movies. 

Snowflake Mountain features a group of delicate, immature 20-somethings who party hard, can’t hold down jobs and still live with their parents. These “snowflakes” — which the show defines as young people who are “overly emotional, easily offended and dramatic” — are sent into the wilderness, in an effort to push them into growing up. There is $50,000 waiting for one of them at the end of the show.

Filming took place in Cumbria, UK, in the Lake District National Park, and some filmed at The Graythwaite Estate owned by a family, the Sandys, who have lived on the 5000 acre estate for over 500 years. 

I thought after watching the first episode that it is scripted but after the second episode, I find the show is real and I ended up watching the comple series. I've grown to like a few of them and my favorite snowflakes are American Deandra Joseph and British Liam Brown. Deandra and Liam seem very real, honest, and they are so hilarious and entertaining. 

Most of the snowflakes are in their early 20s, some are overweight, don't have permanent jobs, and lazy so their parents sent them to the reality show to help them grow up a little. They did at the end. I didn't expect to like the series but I did and now I'm looking forward to the new set of snowflakes if Netflix decides to have another season. 

BTW, the word snowflake is a term that the political right dubs leftists who are easily triggered and offended and melt easily at the slight provocation. However, the term has expanded to anyone who is overly emotional and dramatic and the snowflakes in the show are non-political. I recommend the series for its entertainment value.

Persuasion...No Thank You!

 

Persuasion is the last novel written by Jane Austen and published after her death. It's a coincidence that I just finished rereading it last week so the story is still very fresh. Then I got a suggestion from Netflix an upcoming movie adaptation of the book.

I watched the trailer only to get insulted by these:

>Anne's character is perky and snarky, too forward, too modern, and extremely annoying. Austen's Anne Elliot is quiet, reserved, kind, and thoughtful.

>Turning a thought provoking satire into a 21th century almost slapstick rom-com is ill conceived and vomit inducing.

>Anne's younger sister Mary's husband is played by a Black actor so naturally the whole of his family would be black. He has a large family. Unacceptable casting #1.

>Mr. Elliot, a distant cousin and their father's presumptive heir, is played by a half Malaysian half English actor. Unacceptable casting #2.

>Lady Russell is played by a Black actress. Extremely unacceptable casting #3.

The movie would not have been as repulsive if it is just based on the novel and set in the present time. Example: Clueless took the idea from Emma and it was good. Funny and relatable without bastardizing the original. Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow is not bad but not good either although acceptable.

This is the reason why I LOATHE HOLLYWOOD WITH ALL MY HEART and I rarely watch their latest movies and TV shows. They have to change the original story, characters, skin color, etc. to fit their stupid woke virtue signaling diversity crap. Everything Hollywood [and the left, democrats, communists, etc.] touches turn to excrement. No way in hell will I watch this stupid movie. The trailer alone makes me ill. Jane Austen must be turning in her grave for making a mockery of her novel. Persuasion is not a comedy although the reader will smile at some satiric parts of the novel. I cannot wait to thumb down this idiotic movie when it arrives!

Avoid and thumb down when it appears on your Netflix suggestions

Money Heist Korea

 

Coming tomorrow, June 24, 2022 on Netflix streaming, 

Money Heist: Korea, Korean version of the Spanish drama Money Heist or La Casa de Papel.

A Gentleman In Moscow

tags: historical fiction, Russia

⭐⭐

from GoodReads

He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

The novel published in 2016 has an impressive 4.5 star rating on GoodReads and Amazon but I was reluctant to read any books recommended by Oprah which are usually smarmy overly dramatic chick lit.

I was not wowed by the novel unlike most of the readers on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and pretty much all the book sellers with rating system. The writing is fine but I skipped tons of pages that aren't interesting. One of my complaints is the children, Nina and her daughter Sofia having the same voice as the adults as though they have no personality. It took me more than 5 days to finish the 460+ page novel. I would have devoured it in 2 days if the book is really good. 2 and a half stars.

Not recommended.

Jinn Hunter: The Jinnslayer

tags: adventure, fantasy, jinn

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Amazon

Oddball and loner Oliver Quinn was raised by his uncle, the proprietor of Ozymandias & Son, New York's most bizarre emporium of Oriental rugs.

Through a series of what he believes to be coincidences, Oliver discovers a portal in the basement of the shop - a portal to a magical world called Zonus.

Gradually, Oliver begins to understand that everything he'd ever considered fact is fantasy, and that if he is to survive, he'll have to start thinking in an entirely new way.

In reality, our world is nothing but a backwater in a colossal multiverse, where every permutation is not only possible, but certain. With the veil lifted, Oliver is introduced to the parallel life form with which we share the multiverse - the mysterious and all-powerful race of jinn.

Far from the loveable blue-skinned giants projected by Hollywood, jinn are capable of wreaking terror on an unknown scale. When they go rogue, as they frequently do, they must be captured and incarcerated in the Prism, a vast penitentiary. Trapping rogue jinn is a perilous task entrusted to the Jinn Hunters, the bravest fraternity of warriors in existence.

Having been accepted into the Cadenta, the training academy of Jinn Hunters, Oliver is pitted against the gravest new reality: the fact that Nequissimus, the most evil jinn in all existence, has just escaped...

Born into the hallowed ancestry of the Jinnslayers, Oliver Quinn is the only man alive with a chance at defeating the great jinn, and returning him to his cell in the Prism.

A cross between The Thousand and One Nights and Men in Black, THE JINNSLAYER is the second awe-inspiring novel in Tahir Shah's much-celebrated JINN HUNTER series.

One of the most original books of its age, it lures the reader into a twilight zone conjured from pure imagination.

The second of 3 books in this Jinn Hunter series was published in December 2020 but in paperback only. I had to wait more than 1 year for the Kindle edition which came out May 10, 2022. It's almost 2 years but the wait is worth it. Tahir Shah has written an exciting fantasy adventure with bits of philosophy and plenty of laughs.

Broker

tags: drama, Korean movie

Opens June 8, 2022

From AsianWiki

A baby box is a small space, where parents can leave behind their babies anonymously. Sang-Hyun (Song Kang-Ho) finds new parents for a baby left in a baby box and makes a special deal with them. He calls himself a broker of good will. Sang-Hyun works with Dong-Soo (Gang Dong-Won) in this endeavor. They get involved with So-Young (IU), who placed her baby in the baby box, but has now come back for her baby. Meanwhile, Detective Soo-Jin (Bae Doo-Na) and Detective Lee (Lee Joo-Young) chase after Sang-Hyun and Dong-Soo.

Cast is topnotch

Song Kang-ho

Bae Doo-na

IU - looks pretty with long hair

Gang Dong-won

Lee- Joo-young

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda who directed the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Award winner Japanese movie Shoplifters.

Must see.

The Island

tags: thriller

⭐

 

From GoodReads

After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram.

But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare. When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers.

Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.

Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.

Ugh! A 24 year-old Katniss wannabe/female Rambo. Ridiculous. Written for teenagers with short attention span and for TV movie (currently being filmed for HULU). Where's the banjo?!!

Heather and the 2 children, ages 12 and 14, have the same voice and personality. The author contrives writing the husband Tom as a happy go lucky character with lame dad jokes but fails, IMHO. Similar to someone speaking with the stress on the wrong syllable.

Avoid!

Two Nights In Lisbon

tags: mystery

⭐

From GoodReads

Ariel Pryce wakes up in Lisbon, alone. Her husband is gone—no warning, no note, not answering his phone.

Something is wrong. She starts with hotel security, then the police, then the American embassy, at each confronting questions she can’t fully answer: What exactly is John doing in Lisbon? Why would he drag her along on his business trip? Who would want to harm him? And why does Ariel know so little about her new—much younger—husband?

The clock is ticking. Ariel is increasingly frustrated and desperate, running out of time, and the one person in the world who can help is the one person she least wants to ask.

Not the best writing style, a mediocre and boring mystery, the 2 days felt like 20 years. I guessed early on, about a third through, what is happening and the supposed to be "twist". It isn't that hard to guess if you are paying attention and are a mystery novel junkie. The author is not very subtle by constantly reminding the readers lest they forget that Ariel Pryce used to be an actress. The author also keeps reiterating how beautiful Ariel is and how many times she has been sexually assaulted even as a child up to adulthood and as a married woman. Add a corrupt oversexed politician to the mix and you have a clichéd ho-hum MeToo story.😒

The author, Chris Pavone, is terribly offensive for portraying the Portuguese police as backward people living in the stone age. Ariel hands the policeman a USB memory stick and he asks what is it as though he has never seen one in his entire life. The same Portuguese policeman is written as a caricature with food grease on his necktie and he piles more food on it each time he eats. This scenario may be funny if the book is a slapstick comedy but it is not. It's supposed to be a serious MeToo story. 1 star rating for you!

Skip it.