The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest (2009) – Daniel Alfredon

The third installment in the Millennium Trilogy, based on the novels by Stieg Larsson delivers a white knuckle ending to the film series that is just as engaging and character driven as the books on which they are based. Noomi Rapace returns as Lisbeth Salander, who is in the hospital, and then arrested following the…

A Quiet Place Part II (2020) -4K Review

For those of you who may not have Amazon’s Prime streaming service, or like me, and love physical media, Paramount Pictures has released the much anticipated follow-up to the horror thriller A Quiet Place directed by John Krasinski. The sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, written and directed by Krasinski, is now available on 4K,…

Parable of the Sower (1993) – Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction tale, that follows a young woman of colour on her quest to understand herself, the ideas of god, and the destiny of humanity. Within pages of this novel, I was completely swept up in Butler’s storytelling style, her characters, and the world she created. And here’s the thing, the world…

Six of Crows (2015) – Leigh Bardugo

I came across this title on a list of fantasy novels that are must reads, and though I hadn’t read the other books set in the same universe, the Shadow and Bone series, that help compose what has become known as the Grishaverse, I figured I would dig in and see what it was all…

Fast & Furious 6 (2013) – Justin Lin

The Fast and The Furious series has really found its footing, and Justin Lin delivers another fun thrill ride that takes Dom (Vin Diesel) and his family international as the join forces with Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to bring down an international criminal with big plans, Shaw (Luke Evans), and the team is motivated by the…

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) – Don Coscarelli

The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), Micheal (A. Micheal Baldwin), Reggie (Reggie Bannister) and Jody (Bill Thornbury) are back again as Don Coscarelli delivers us a fourth Phantasm outing in a universe that I like visiting and revisiting. Eschewing a lot of the humour that showed up in the previous film, the fourth film is probably…

Panic (2014) – Lauren Oliver

Lauren Oliver’s Panic is a page-turner on a monumental scale. I can’t remember the last time I was so swept up in the narrative of a story. I had to find out what happened next. As much as I have been enjoying my foray into the tales of Ian Fleming’s 007, and the writings of…

The Sniper (2021) – Chang Kuo-Li

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…

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…