MOVIE - Red Sparrow

R

3/2/18 Wide Release

Viewed Monday, 3/5/18 at Carlisle 8
IMBd:  6.7/10

RT Critic:  50    Audience:  56
Critic's Consensus:  Red Sparrow's tense, character-driven story -- elevated by outstanding work from Jennifer Lawrence -- help this topical spy thriller overcome its somewhat uneven narrative.

Cag:  5/I loved it

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Twentieth Century Fox

Based on the novel by Jason Matthews

Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling, and a short part played by Mary Louise Parker!

My comments: The review numbers weren't that great for this movie, but I found it very entertaining and exciting. I've not been enamored of Jennifer Lawrence lately, but I think she did a terrific, mesmerizing job.  And I think Joel Edgerton is really good. What an intriguing story, Russian bad guys vs. American good guys.....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Dominika Egorova is many things. A devoted daughter determined to protect her mother at all costs. A prima ballerina whose ferocity has pushed her body and mind to the absolute limit. A master of seductive and manipulative combat. When she suffers a career-ending injury, Dominika and her mother are facing a bleak and uncertain future. That is why she finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their bodies and minds as weapons. After enduring the perverse and sadistic training process, she emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow the program has ever produced. Dominika must now reconcile the person she was with the power she now commands, with her own life and everyone she cares about at risk, including an American CIA agent who tries to convince her he is the only person she can trust.

MOVIE - Spy

R (1:57)

Wide release 6/5/15

Viewed 8/22/15 at Centery Gateway (cheapie)

RT Critic:  94  Audience:  83

Cag: 4.5 so funny - loved it!

Directed by Paul Feig

20th Century Fox

Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Allison Janney, Robert Carnivale

My comments: Hystericall funny.  Melissa McCarthy  makes me laugh like , almost no other.  She had a BLAST with this part, you can tell.  AND, it was a healthy message for larger women everywhere - every one of us can totally relate to everything "Susan Cooper" felt when it came to the way people perceived her.  She came of as incredibly intelligent, witty, funny, fun, loyal, and savvy.  I loved this movie! ! !

RT Summary:  Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is an unassuming, deskbound CIA analyst, and the unsung hero behind the Agency's most dangerous missions. But when her partner (Jude Law) falls off the grid and another top agent (Jason Statham) is compromised, she volunteers to go deep undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, and prevent a global disaster. 

30. Saint - Ted Dekker

Read by Kevin King (he was the only thing that kept me reading all the way to the end)

2006, Brilliance Audio

9 cds/ 10 hours

$36.95

For: adults

One of the worst books I’ve ever read

Setting:  Hungary, New York City, Colorado, present day

Carl has been programmed to be a human robot.  Using drugs, isolation, mind-control, he is one of the best assassins that the world has ever seen. He no longer knows who he is or where he came from.  He’s manipulated and told a different story constantly.  His handler, Kelly, becomes the person he loves, and apparently she comes to love him too.  Love?  The most unbelievable love I’ve ever known.  And repetition is not used effectively here, it’s just monotonous, boring.  Then the story passes believability and surges into an ominous faith…in God?...it’s hard to tell….and weird happenings that are not believable even in this partially fantasy world.  Mind control, the space between atoms and molecules, I love sci fi and fantasy, spy thrillers and murder mysteries, but this book was none of those.  Just ridiculous spoutings.  Jumping around and throwing something out of the blue with absolutely no foreshadowing defies believability.  I could have –and should have – loved what the PREMISE of this book is, but I didn’t.  I hated it.  I can’t believe I plugged on…and on…and on (those last two cds were ENDLESS)…but it was read so well I stuck it out.  YUCK!