Risky Business

Guess who got invited to appear on the Harlequin Blog?

That's right! Little old me. What a great opportunity to reach new readers. I assume people are short of time, like me, so as always I tried to keep it short. I talked very little about the book and instead reviewed a terrific movie that had something in common with Across the Line.

Here's a link to the blog. Check it out!

Entertaining Kate #5

Jack Reacher is a movie taken from a book series written by Lee Child. I really enjoyed it, even if I saw the twist coming. Regardless of Tom Cruise's personal life or beliefs, I think he is a good actor. There was only one line that my son and I thought was stupid. Reacher has proven himself to be a lethal fighter, and a young woman, awed, attracted to and a little scared of him, says something like, "Really, mister, who are you?"

Otherwise, I liked the action, the plot, the cast. The scary dude was really scary, and I might compare it with Taken, in that it also features a man on a mission who doesn't play by all the rules, but who thankfully has a set of morals to balance his skills.

Entertaining Kate #3 - Movie Review

Hubs and I saw Looper. I really liked it. It was intelligent spec fiction. It didn't confuse me like Inception. If you saw In Time, that movie where time was currency and they had those countdown timers in their arms...? Looper was what that movie should have been.

SPOILER AHEAD

I really like Joseph Gordon Levitt. I liked seeing Bruce Willis in an action role, but as an antagonist. I am so used to seeing him be the good guy that I kept expecting him to change his stripes. I would see him about to do something horrible and think, "Oh, he's not really going to...Oh no! He DID!" I found it refreshing.

The only complaint I had was that Levitt looked weird. They did some weird make-up stuff to his face to make him look more like Willis and I don't think it really helped. In fact, some of the time he looked uncannily like Alec Baldwin. LOL

Entertaining Kate #2 - Movie

Hubby and I rented Albert Nobbs the other night. I loved it. First, because it was a period piece, and I love the costumes and sets that go with historicals, especially since they go to a lot of trouble these days to remain true to the time. Like remember Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra? I remember that looking so sixties!

Here's a short blurb.

Albert Nobbs struggles to survive in late 19th century Ireland, where women aren't encouraged to be independent. Posing as a man, so she can work as a butler in Dublin's most posh hotel, Albert meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living.

I don't usually find myself caring so much about a character, but there was something about this woman that made me want her to be happy. At first, I was just curious to find out why she was posing as a man. I also wanted to find out why she was saving all that money. (Not a spoiler, you find that out pretty quickly.) By the time the painter arrives on the scene, I'm hooked. The actor who plays that painter is AMAZING.

I also really appreciated the fact that the gay agenda wasn't being forced down my throat, as is so often the case. (And don't get me wrong. I support many of the gay issues. My oldest son is gay. But I don't agree with everything the GLBT juggernaut stands for and it annoys me when they use entertainment to try to manipulate me into believing in this or that.)

Anyway, this is a great movie. I would watch it again, and I don't say that about many movies.

In Time - Movie Review with Spoilers

In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Here, Will Salas finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage - a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system.


We saw this Justin Timberlake flick last night. I was underwhelmed. The society in this movie managed to genetically engineer people to die when their allotted time runs out, have neon green digital read-outs on their arms, be able to restore their time via these handy little metal devices or by clasping each other's wrists, and oh, yeah, live forever (as long as they have the time stored up.) Amazing. 


I could buy that. I was totally willing to buy that. BUT:


1. They still drive regular cars. (Must have a car chase, after all) And the cars actually looked like cars from the 50s. For that matter, the guns looked like today's guns.
2. They aren't able to track criminals. I'd think technology would have advanced so that each person has some sort of GPS chip maybe inserted in their bodies. I mean, babies are even born with the read-out, so why not a location device, too?
3. The police/time-keepers don't seem to be able to use helicopters to chase criminals either. 
4. The characters are surprised every time the prices go up on stuff, even though apparently this happens all the time. Justin's character is surprised when he doesn't get paid as much because his quota went up when he wasn't looking. He even surpassed his quota last time! But when we saw him working, he was not working at an "I gotta make quota!" pace. You'd think you'd be a little frenetic when making quota is a matter of life and death.
5. They don't have cellphones. 
6. Apparently Will's mother can't just pay for part of her journey home, so she dies because she can't run all the way before her clock runs out. 


And I really didn't see the point of the movie. The protagonists, Will and Sylvia, were working to free the lower class. But the point of doling out the time was so that the world wouldn't become overpopulated. If the revolt succeeds, then Earth has a huge problem. I didn't think the system they had was right, but what Will and Sylvia do isn't going to solve anything. 


My rating: 5/10 stars.