Taiwanese author Chang Kou-Li delivers an action thriller this week. With its North American debut, The Sniper, is available now from House of Anansi Press, features a translation by Roddy Flagg and reads like the best of Hong Kong cinema. There are action beats, police investigations, involving characters and a weaving story that takes you…
Tag: characters
Heartbreak Ridge (1986) – Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood stars, produces and directs this love letter to the United States Marine Corps. and while fairly engaging, the film embraces stereotypes almost to the extreme at both ends, consequently the characters and tone of the film isn’t as balanced as it could be. Eastwood plays the career marine, Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway. He’s…
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) – Richard Donner
1989. I graduated high school and was living on my own for the first time, and my movie collecting addiction was swinging into full gear and this film, along with Last Crusade and Batman were some of my purchases that year, making me choose for the first time between proper meals or cinematic confection. It…
John Hughes 5-Movie Collection (Blu-Ray)
For those of an age, John Hughes films defined their high school years, and spoke to them in ways that other teen comedies (and dramas) seemed incapable of doing. There was a reality to the way the characters were written, even in some of the more comedic entries, and consequently, the viewer could relate to…
M*A*S*H (1973) – Divided We Stand, 5 O’Clock Charlie, and Radar’s Report
Season two of M*A*S*H launched on 15 September, 1973 with Divided We Stand. Written by Larry Gelbart, who developed the series for television, the episode serves as a bit of a second pilot to introduce new viewers to the characters and bring every one up to speed. In Seoul, General Clayton (Herb Voland) is worried…
Marvel: Greatest Comics (2020) – Melanie Scott and Stephen Wiacek
The Marvel Universe is huge, it’s interwoven, has history, and can seem kind of daunting when trying to figure out where to jump in. DK Canada’s new book, Marvel: Greatest Comics – 100 Comics That Built A Universe, provides a look at standout, iconic issues that helped create all that came after them. It’s easy…
The Star Wars Book (2020) – Pablo Hidalgo, Cole Horton, and Dan Zehr
1977 was… A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It’s probably a little gobsmacking to those of us who were there at the beginning to actually contemplate the fact that Star Wars has been around for so long, and has been put through so many iterations, film, television, novels, comics, and countless…
Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka (1983) – L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith ends his adventures with Lando Calrissian this week in the third book in the series that followed the young gambler, rogue and scoundrel. It would be a long eight years before any of us realised that the world could tell more, then, official stories. Smith’s novel wraps up all the story and…
The Tenth Girl (2019) – Sara Faring
In my continued search for engaging and new horror, I delve into lots of books and consult lots of lists, new and old. Well, on a few of those lists, I found The Tenth Girl mentioned and I went to work tracking down a copy to read. It’s a bit of a Gothic tale, set…
The X-Files (1994) – Beyond the Sea, and Gender Bender
Beyond the Sea marks the halfway point of the first season of The X-Files, and while most of the episodes have been solid, and we’ve learned a bit about Mulder’s (David Duchovny) family history, with the abduction of his sister Samantha, Scully (Gillian Anderson) hasn’t been much more than his brilliant, sceptical partner until now….
The Mind Reels 