Movie and Book Reviews

Movie Reviews:

“Flight”, ****, The is a very good movie while Denzel Washington plays the role of a commercial airline Captain with amazing piloting skills.  The movie offers a diversified list of action, drama, some romance, and surprising twists at the end.  When a commercial airliner with 106 people on board experiences mechanical failure at 30,000 ft of altitude, Captain Washington saves the day for 100 of them with very un-orthodox thinking.  He becomes a hero until the blood tests taken while he was in hospital reveal he had used alcohol and drugs prior to the flight. Turns out he had even bigger problems than that.  Go see to find out what they were.  Rated R for drug and alcohol abuse, language, sexuality/nudity and an intense action sequences.

“Lincoln”, ***** +, This movie should get best movie, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, and best director.  Needless to say this is one great movie.  Daniel Day Lewis made you feel like Abraham Lincoln had been resurrected to play in this movie.  His acting is beyond reproach.  Sally Field does the same as Mary Todd, wife of the 16th President of the United States.  Tommy Lee Jones plays a Republican who knows how the Congressional games are played.  This is a tremendous movie with great scenes of excitement, drama, stress, between the members of Congress in the great debate of whether to present and vote on the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, that would eliminate slavery in the USA.  Go see, a must!!  Rated PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language.

“Skyfall”,  *****,  By far the best James Bond movie of all time.  This version, starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, gives us great action and directing.  The story line is a familiar subject of an evil villain, played by Javier Bardem, trying to destroy the secret service and take over the world.  From the initial scenes it appears that Bond is done and maybe in some form of retirement; however, his loyalty gets the best of him and he returns.  This version also shows Bond to be on the cutting edge of getting a little old for the job, but he does come through with flying colors and we also learn about his early years of life.  Rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences throughout, some sexuality, language and smoking. 

“The Twilight Saga:  Breaking Dawn”, ***, NOTE:  Since I do not like Vampire movies I am using the rating and narrative from local critic William Kerns. It is basically a war between vampires with Native American werewolves.  Sounds kind of silly to me but if you like those sort of things go see.  This is supposingly the last version of this series. Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sensuality and partial nudity.

While I haven’t done any book reviews in a while it doesn’t mean I have not been reading, so here goes:

“The Secret Race”, ****, Great tale tale book on doping at the highest levels of professional cycling as told by elite cyclist Tyler Hamilton.  While his main target may seem like it is against Lance Armstrong it really is against the overall rampant doping that existed during Hamilton’s days while competing in the Tour de France.  Since Armstrong won it 7 times(more than any rider in history) he was mentioned many times in the book.  This is a very well done book and interesting to see the other side of not-competing fairly.

“Finish Strong”, ****, Made up of stories of courage and inspiration.  A small book you have on your shelf to read when things look a little dreary in life.

“Life Without Limits”, *****, About three quarters done on this book about a young man who was born without arms or legs, and survived.  It is an amazing true story of how this young man took a real bad lemon and made some delicious lemonade.  He is 35 now and has a very successful motivational speaking profession.  Everyone on the planet should read this book, it has some of the most positive and motivational points I have ever seen.

“The Payoff-Why Wall St. Always Wins” *,this is a true story written by Wall Streeter and Senators aide on the inter workings of the Congress and politics.  Also, covers how Wall Street controls the economy.  Since the author, Jeff Connaughton worked for VP Joe Biden he also reveals a lot about the real man.  It is not as revealing as you might expect and basically became a story of Connaughton’s frustrations with not really getting to where he wanted to get because of the political games that are played.  Actually I would not recommend wasting your money on this book.

“Fifty Shades of Grey”, ****, This is a best seller three book series about the life of a young eccentric millionaire and his obsession with bondage sex.  He meets his match and ultimately the love of his life and the first book takes us through their early years and her reluctant acceptance of his sexual practices.  It is is quite graphic and could be a turn on for some and a bore for others.  

“Fifty Shades Darker”, ****.  More of above but now we are seeing the development of the real love affair, but the bondage aspect is still there.  Just an evolution of advancement of the two lovers.

“Fifty Shades Freed”, Since I didn’t actually read this I did find out that the magic couple did get married and lived happily ever after.  Yea I know, sounds boring after all that bondage stuff.  Oh well the author became rich and famous and many women in the world, I am told, had new fantasies in their sex life.  

EA, SH.......:)!

greerman