Info

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness (The Crash of Hennington, A Monster Calls

Publisher: Harcourt Children’s

Genre: Fiction – Young Adult/Sci-Fi/Dystopia

Recommended: Yes.

Background

This one has a pretty short background story: I was going through GoodReads‘ recommended books based on my past reading, and I added a few to my “to-read” list. This one, The Knife of Never Letting Go, also happened to be pretty inexpensive at $3.99, so I snatched it up. Read more »

Title: Already Gone
Price: $0.99
Author: John Rector (The Grove, The Cold Kiss)
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer / Amazon
Genre: Fiction – Mystery/Thriller

Publisher’s Summary:

Jake Reese is a writing teacher at an American university. He lives in a small brick Tudor close to campus with his art buyer wife, Diane. His life is quiet-Ordinary even. And he likes it that way. But it wasn’t always quiet. Jake’s distant past was a life on the streets, inflicting damage and suffering on more people than he can count. And now someone from his past, it seems, has come looking for him…When two men attack Jake in a parking lot and cut off his ring finger, he tries to dismiss it as an unlucky case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when events take a more sinister turn and Diane goes missing, Jake knows he can no longer hide from the truth.

As he embarks on a mission to find his wife, he realizes his dark past is refusing to stay buried, and that his future is about to unfold in ways he could never have imagined.

Conclusion: Not Buying

Maybe I’m just a little more skeptical of Amazon-published books, or maybe I’m just not interested in a mystery/thriller right now, or maybe I just have too much to read, but nothing in the description really entices me, so I’m letting this one go.

If you’re interested, though, the reviews refer to it as “flawlessly noir” (in a 3-star review), “a great read,” and “not a typical thriller.” Those who gave it low reviews (1-2 stars) complained about the writing, called it “sloppy,” and several stated that after a good start it seemed to drop off towards the middle.

Info

Title: Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Director: Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille)

Genre: Action

Recommended: If you want to turn your brain off for a couple of hours, sure.

Background

I forgot this was coming out until I suggested to my partner-in-crime that we skip Thursday movie night due to holiday travel exhaustion. I was told in no uncertain terms that we could do that…then go see MI4 on FRIDAY instead!

Apparently we were in a hurry.

Summary

The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization’s name.

Review

If you are expecting a well-choreographed but otherwise mindless action film, congratulations! You have found it.

It’s not that I particularly expect Tom Cruise-driven action film franchises to really deliver on the brains, but much of MI4 was patently ridiculous…and I’m not talking about the stunts, where it’s expected and, frankly, well-done. But the film begins with Comedy Relief (Simon Pegg) and Jane (some actress, hardly matters- they couldn’t even be arsed to look past “Dick and Jane” for the character’s name) busting EthanTom HuntCruise out of a Russian prison. HuntCruise insists on busting a pal out with him, explaining that the guy was feeding him intel and would be killed if left behind.

First: how was the guy GETTING intel? He was in prison, and hardly depicted as a sly, subtle type of guy.

Second: …why wasn’t he already killed, in that case?

And this is the kind of thing that lays casually strewn throughout the flick like so many fast food wrappers in my college roommate’s bedroom. You see one or two and you’re like, oh, they just didn’t get to it, no big. And then suddenly the room is carpeted with the stuff. And you go “ew, gross.”

Spoilerous example: At the end of the movie, you don’t even really get whether the IMF is back together. I mean, I assume it is, but then there was a character from a previous movie talking about having nothing to do. I actually briefly thought that EthanTom was putting together his own independent crew, until he got the “your mission, should you choose to accept it” nonsense.

The dialogue wasn’t very punchy, with one or two exceptions. In fact, sometimes it was downright insipid. At the end of the movie, Comedy Relief tells EthanTom that an insurance company refuses to pay out for an expensive car that EthanTom destroyed, because “apparently [insert insane stunt that destroyed car here] isn’t covered.” EthanHunt replies something like “how about that?” in faux-surprise mode…and the whole team laughs. Presumably to cover up how un-funny it was.

There are some nice bits that refer back to past movies, EthanTom’s wife, etc. And again, the stunts are pretty good. But by and large, this is just another action flick. There’s nothing about it that really sets it apart from all umpteen zillion other action flicks, which feels like a wasted opportunity since some better dialogue might have pumped it up a lot.

Oh wait, there’s one thing that sets it apart: you can spend time figuring out in each shot how they made Tom Cruise look less short. That’s always fun.