The blog of author Stacy Kingsley - Stacy Kingsley

Book Review - VENDETTA by Iris Johansen

8/5/2018

Have you ever read a book where every character is the same? If not, read Vendetta by Iris Johansen, because every character is the exact same character, male and female. The synopsis from amazon makes it sound a lot more interesting than it was:

With his dying breath, Carl Venable, head of the CIA task force on terrorism and Jude Brandon’s final link to terrorist ringleader Max Huber, gives Brandon a mandate: keep his daughter, Rachel, safe at any cost. But Rachel Venable has a shocking, twisted past of her own, one that comes rushing back after her medical clinic in Guyana is attacked by Huber―the same man who murdered her father and kept her imprisoned for months.
Brandon and Catherine Ling, Rachel’s longtime ally and fierce protector, are determined to keep Rachel out of danger, but she knows that it’s impossible to stay hidden when Max Huber wants you dead.
As Rachel and Brandon race against the clock to bring Huber down before he can orchestrate a disaster that will lay waste to half the country, they also fight a growing attraction to each other – an attraction that could prove just as dangerous as Huber himself.

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, and while it says it is an "Eve Duncan Novel" it is not as there is no character named Eve Duncan, so I am hoping that there is a fix in the cover before this novel is released in October.

While the book synopsis makes this sound like an interesting book, this is a flat book. All of the characters are exactly the same, with the same types of speech patterns, and the same physical attributes or movements. I couldn't get involved in any of the characters because they were all blunt and forward, and they ended up blending into each other. I would have liked at least one character who wasn't trying or pretending to be strong. In fact the most interesting character was Huber, because he had childish outbursts, which made him stand out from other characters.

Also, this book is a little long, and it took a while to get through. I wasn't interested enough and some of the scenes could have been deleted. I just wasn't a fan.

I think that, to be honest, I am not a fan of Iris Johansen's writing, so I will most likely not read another one of her books.

Movie Review - THE LOFT

7/23/2018

The Loft is a 2014 movie that I had wanted to see in the theater. The movie revolves around five married men who join together to secretly share a loft. This loft provides a place of their own where they can take their extramarital affairs if they so choose. One day the unthinkable happens, and they find a body in their loft. They must decide what to do, and which of them might be the murderer.

This movie, when I first saw the trailer, looked like it might be an interesting horror film. It is actually more of a suspense movie, with a little extra infidelity in it. None of the men are really good guys as they all either want to or do cheat on their wives. The movie does however start with a shock as we open on a car being struck by something heavy, which one can only presume to be a body due to the tone of the movie. This beginning also sets up the overall dark tone of the film itself.

Of the five men the leader, or the one who provides the loft, is Vincent. Vincent is a man who doesn’t seem to care for anyone, his wife, his friends, or the women he sleeps with. Marty is a drunk who tends to do whatever he wants, and say whatever he wants, when he is drinking. Chris tries to believe he is a good guy, but he is like every other guy, although his wife doesn’t make things any easier as she doesn’t seem to like him, or any of his friends. Phil is a man who plays until the day he marries, and he really does play until the DAY he is married. Lastly, there is Luke, a man who seems to have his life together but who also seems to have a secret, which everyone thinks is his attraction to other men.

Throughout most of this movie it goes round and round, showing all of the bad deeds done by the men. Each one of them confesses to a problem they have had, and each one shows how little they care for others. This movie didn’t have many likeable people in it. The only one any of the audience could feel in the least bit sorry for is the character of Sara. But, to talk about her too much is to give away a lot of the story.

There was suspense, as we could wonder throughout who the killer was, and who the victim was. Also the depth into which the men go to live their lives as degenerates, it makes none of them likeable characters. In the end we do want to know what is going on, but it is almost a little anti-climactic. The story behind it was a little tedious, and finding out that some of the men get what they deserve while some of the others don’t was a little frustrating.

This was not a movie with a happy ending, and when it did end I felt bad for Luke. If you do end up watching it then you’ll understand why. His character was very sad, and he even though in the end he was not a great guy, just like his buddies, he did leave us with something to feel.

Movie Review - MOTHER!

3/4/2018

So I watched this movie the other day, and I think I might have accidentally ingested some weird drugs. MOTHER! stars Jennifer Lawrence as the "Mother" in the movie. She wanders hopelessly in a house she in renovating for her poet husband. All during the film she can't say no to anyone, or anything that happens to her, or to the house she is trying to save.

I know a lot of people either didn't watch this movie, or they watched it and didn't like it. It really does feel like a movie one should watch after ingesting copious amounts of drugs, partly because it is all over the place, and partly because it might only make sense to someone who has taken drugs while they watch it. I actually looked up what the plot of the movie was to see if I had figured it out. While looking up a movie is probably something most people will find annoying, I had to know if what I thought was a correct interpretation of the movie.

I was wrong about what the movie was about, but it is fine because I actually had to think about it before I tried to figure it out. It is defined as a psychological thriller, and to that extent it is exactly what it promises. A psychological thriller film is one that makes you think, one that will make you question not only what a movie is about but if you are right when you decide what you think it is about.

This might now be Jennifer Lawerence's best acting, it is a movie where she seems to have a lot of development, or at least or emotion she had in both The Hunger Games and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. She ran around this house as things happened around her. She tried to control some of these things, but they always seemed to get out of her control. She not only loses her house, but she loses herself as her husband grows in popularity because of some particularly awesome poetry he wrote.

This is a hard movie to review, only because it is hard to really tell you what it is about without giving away it all. I recommend watching it, but I am going to warn you that this recommendation is not telling you to watch it because I think it is a good. I am honestly not sure if this is a good or bad movie. It is, however, a movie that will make you think. It will cause you to not only question what you watched, but also question the brilliance behind the themes of the movie. You might be surprised at what you think of after you watch it.

Either way, this is on movie where I am going to let you choose your own path. You decide if you like it or not.

Movie Review - ONLY GOD FORGIVES

8/16/2017

This 2013 movie is set in Thailand. The plot revolves around a drug trafficker (Ryan Gosling) who has an icy mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) who sends him on a mission to avenge his older brother, who was killed for beating an underage prostitute to death.

This movie didn't gain much of an audience as it is a pretty avant-garde and unknown film. It is stylistically breathtaking, and the characters are all toned down a little so they aren't overstated or reaching. Gosling is a very quiet character who doesn't say much in this movie.

The movie begins in with men boxing and slowly moves to Gosling's older brother visiting a brothel. The brother is a disgusting human being. When he gets to the brothel he tells the proprietor that he wants a younger girl, when the proprietor says he doesn't have anyone younger, the brother tells him to bring his daughter. He ends up not getting the 14-year old he wants. In the end bad things happen and the brother ends up dead. Gosling goes on the lookout for the person or people responsible for his brother's murder, but when he finds out why we find that he has a high set of morals. The mother then arrives and we find that the relationship between her and her two children is somewhat complicated.

We meet several characters throughout the movie, and none of them have any redeeming qualities. Even with his morals Gosling is still a despicable human being. Now, don't get me wrong, I did not hate this movie. It wasn't a great movie and seemed very simplistic, but it wasn't terrible either. The best part of this movie was the stunning atmosphere. The brilliant and florescent colors were fantastic, and the scenery was brilliant in working with the flow of the movie.

From one scene to another the picturesque brightness and the dim park work It is almost as with each scene the director is setting the mood and making sure the viewer understands what is happening. For example the scenes with the other are often bright and she is often the center of the picture, yet of what the audience learns she is one of the worst mothers in history. Each scene of violence is expertly portrayed with both bright colors.

I don't know if I can recommend this movie based on the acting or the merits of the movie, but as a stunning picture it is wonderful to watch. It was also interesting to see Gosling play a man of few words and not really much in the way of muscular prowess.

So take this review as you want, and either watch the movie for the settings, or skip it, it won't hurt my feelings.

Movie Review - MATCH POINT

6/12/2017

This is a quite mystery thriller that is slow to burn and I'm betting that many people haven't heard of it. MATCH POINT was released in 2005, and was directed by Woody Allen. It has a stellar cast with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emily Mortimer, and Scarlett Johansson. The movie follows tennis pro, Chris, as he tries to get back into things and figure out what he wants. He meet a young man, Tom Hewett, who introduces him to his family, and his fiance. Chris becomes intimate with Chloe Hewett and eventually marries her. While Tom and Nola have their ups and downs and eventually they break up. Chris is very fascinated by Nola and eventually begins an extramarital affair with her. Things come to a head and Chris finds himself in a predicament that he eventually only sees one solution to.

This movie was a little slow, and after a certain point there are no character to like. The only character who seems promising is Tom, but after the marriage of Chris and Chloe there isn't much of Tom in it. He actually seems to disappear, and is not further developed, which he should have been. At first, Johannson's character Nola, is very intriguing, but then Allen creates a whiny woman who the audience just sees as a brat. She isn't interesting, and just seems like a bratty, whiny character who feels that she is entitled to things she doesn't deserve. This was not the best character Johannson has played.

Chloe has only one concern, almost as soon as her and Chris are married, and that is to be pregnant. This, along with Chloe's mother harping on Chris as to when he is going to give her a grandchild, makes both Chloe and her mother annoying and cliche. I wanted to strangle her and her mother, not only does Chloe seem mousy and unsophisticated, but she doesn't stand up for herself against her mother when she should. And the mother is just not nice throughout the entire movie. She doesn't approve of Nola because she is an American and a struggling actress. She only approves of Chris because he is better than the man her daughter was having a brief fling with.

Chris isn't much better. He is an annoying self-entitled a-hole, who begins an affair with Nola as many men do, selfish motives because he can't communicate with his wife. I hated him, and not just because he was a cheating a-hole, but because he wasn't interesting. There was nothing about him to like or enjoy, he wasn't an interesting character. This was disappointing since I know Rhys Meyers has quite the acting skill, having seen him in VELVET UNDERGROUND and THE TUDORS his range is exceptional. I don't think he was used well in this and everything seemed lazy. In fact all of the acting seemed lazy and half-assed.

There are people who either like or dislike Woody Allen, and I think I may just be in the latter group as I haven't found a movie by him that I truly enjoy. Most of his movies are so slow to come to a point that I end up losing interest.

The ending of this is unexpected, and yet it is also unsatisfactory and doesn't make me like the characters any more. I appreciated the surprise ending, but it was anticlimactic after watching 2 hours of build up.

So, I don't recommend this movie, unless you are a Woody Allen fan, then you might like this. Personally, I just don't get it, I don't get him, nor do I get the appeal of his movies.

Movie Review - BURIED

2/28/2017

This 2010 movie is about an Iraq-based American civilian truck driver Paul Conroy, played by Ryan Reynolds, who, after being attacked, wakes up to fins he has been buried alive in a wooden coffin. The only things his attacker or kidnapper left him are a lighter, flask, flashlight, knife, glowsticks, pen, pencil, and a mobile phone.

I can honestly say it took me a while to talk myself into watching this movie. I wasn't sure a movie about a guy buried in a box would be very interesting, like what could actually go on. And I had read that this movie was all about the guy in a coffin, there were no other landscapes, nor any other actors to watch, just Ryan Reynolds. Another reason I wasn't sure if I could like or be able to watch this movie is the fact that it is a guy in a coffin, and one of the things I have always been afraid of is being buried alive. I hate admitting that I am afraid of anything, being a horror author, nothing is supposed to scare me, but being buried alive seems like a slow and torturous way to die. However, I decided to finally watch this, and I can't say I hated it.

The synopsis at the beginning of this post is basically what this movie is about. Throughout the movie the audience gets to see the panic, the hope, the anger, and the acceptance Paul goes through. This shows what a good actor Ryan Reynolds can be, especially after doing that horrible GREEN LANTERN movie. He has done a lot to come back from that movie, besides playing DEADPOOL in the movie, he has done this and he was in another movie I reviewed, THE VOICES (which is a really good dark comedy if you haven't seen it). This is just Ryan Reynolds reacting to outside stimuli, mostly the voices on the cell phone he has been left with, and the fear, the panic, the discomfort he feels, the viewer can actually feel it.

The movie itself was simple, with a few things happening to give the audience hope that he will be found and that everything is going to be okay. The ending of the story was really, really, well awesome! I was actually thinking one thing was going to happen, and it did, but I was surprised at how and what was said.

I recommend this movie, as a horror movie not so much unless you are afraid of being buried alive, more of a suspense because the audience gets to go through it all just to find out what happens.

Movie Review - A CURE FOR WELLNESS

2/20/2017

All right, this is what IMDb has as the plot synopsis for the movie: An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company's CEO from an idyllic but mysterious "wellness center" at a remote location in the Swiss Alps, but soon suspects that the spa's treatments are not what they seem. This doesn't even begin to describe what the movie is about.

In the last few months I have not gone to see many movies in the theater, partly because there haven't been a lot of movies that I have wanted to pay six dollars to sit through. This should have been one of these movies. Now, let me say that I did not hate this movie, nor did I love it, it did however make me wonder how long I was in the theater, and what in the world I had just watched.

Going into this movie I thought I was going to be watching a horror movie, and while it did have some of the elements a horror movie would have, it was not a horror movie, it was more of a suspense thriller. Watching this movie was like watching a car wreck about to happen and then happen, between a clown car and a car full of roaches. It was interesting to begin with, although you don't really like clowns, then it got weirdly creepy with roaches running all over for no reason, then it got creepier after the car accident when the roaches started climbing into every free orifice of the clowns.

This movie starts out as a very young executive transfers to another office, partly because he is needed to go retrieve the CEO, and partly because he has done something stupid and will be paying retribution for it. When he arrives at the wellness center he sees that it is full of older patients, and he is annoyed by a young desk nurse. He tries to see the CEO he was sent to retrieve, but is not allowed, then on his way back down to town the car he is in hits a deer and he is in a terrible accident.

He wakes up in a clean white bed, in clean white clothes, in the wellness center, supposedly three days after the accident. Many odd things happen. Some of the older patients seem a little off. The director of the center is a strange and stoney man. Besides the employees there is one other younger person there, a young girl named Hannah, who is there because she is "special".

The young executive, Lockhart, wanders around the facility trying to find Pembroke, the CEO he was sent to bring back to New York. What he finds is a lot of weird questions that he doesn't have the answers to.

This was a very weird movie. I went into it thinking I was going to see a horror flick, but there was a literally a butt load of naked older booty, a few uncomfortable sex scenes, and a lot of sexual innuendo. Overall this was about sex and babies and incest, which on the best of days can be an interesting combination. This movie did not pull it off. While there were some uncomfortable moments, teeth being pulled, stuff being shoved down a patients throat, awkward sex scenes that made some in the audience cringe, this was not the best movie. It was nothing like what the previews lead me to think it was.

So, if you want to see a horror movie this is not the movie for you. If you want to see a movie that has some hot old ass in it, this is the movie for you. If you like movies that are weird and make you question what the hell you just watched, this is the movie for you. If you like movies that make you feel like you have spent a half a day in the theater because it is the longest movie ever even though it is only two hours, this is the movie for you. If you like wasting time and money, this is absolutely the movie for you.

Me? I wish I had waited for it to get to the dollar theater.

Movie Review - DON'T BREATHE

9/7/2016

There are times, when a movie comes along and you think to yourself, "well this is so predictable" then your mind is blown. DON'T BREATHE is one of those movies.

The summary from IMDb reads: Hoping to walk away with a massive fortune, a trio of thieves break into the house of a blind man who isn't as helpless as he seems. If you out there in internetland have seen the previews then you know that this is exactly what the previews and trailers show. You also see one of the characters die (so you already know that's going to happen), but what you don't see is the twist which caused the movie to take a really weird turn.

I thought this movie would be the same as it seemed in the previews and trailers, but I was wrong, and honestly I am not sure I liked the twist (I thought it was a little weird) but since I didn't expect it, I was happy to have it. Now, that being said, I have to say it didn't make me like the movie any more, but I did enjoy it, even if I did think it was a little over-the-top.

I felt that none of the characters were likable, and I felt that the movie was going to end with a toss up between the two evils. For one, you don't break into a blind man's house, just don't. Second you don't keep trying to find the money you broke in for when everyone keeps getting killed and there is a secret in the house that causes the blind man to be even more scary. Lastly, if you are trapped in a house and a man is trying to protect his stuff by killing everyone or maiming them and he seems to have some scary, super skills, maybe you should just walk away and forget it.

Beside the surprises towards the end of the movie, and the weird twist, most of the movie was predictable. I am not sure what I would classify this movie as since it had both horror elements and suspense/thriller elements, but I feel it is probably more in line with the horror genre. I recommend that if you are bored with most horror movies out there, go see this one, it's not the best, but it is one of the more original endings I have seen...well really one of the most original second halves to be honest.

Movie Review - TRUTH OR DIE

5/3/2016

I wasn't sure about this movie when I first began to watch it. It started like a lot of other movies, a group of friends at a party, having fun at the party, making someone feel awkward at the party. So I thought that maybe this was going to be like a lot of other movies. The person who was made to feel awkward goes out and takes revenge on all those who made them feel bad. It kind of was like this, but much more interesting.

IMDb has the movie summarized as a young British boys and girls travel to an isolated cabin after being promised a night of heavy partying. Instead of the fun they hoped for, they meet a killer out to reap vengeance on them for the death of his brother. This summary does not do this movie justice, it is so much more.

Truth or Dare is a popular game played by schoolchildren. This movie puts a new twist on this innocent game (which usually involves someone kissing someone) and turns it into a game of truth or die. The brother of the boy who died has decided to seek revenge for what his brother did. It involves pride, military idealism, and the need for his brother to not be homosexual. The group of friends are tied to chairs so the brother can interrogate them and find our which one of them sent a postcard to his suicidal brother. He asks them to play truth or dare, but instead it is truth or let's see who gets to guzzle gas and die. One by one the group turn on each other, until they learn who sent the postcard.

Havoc ensues, people die, people get the revenge they desire, and it isn't who or how I expected it.

As far as a horror movie goes, this has lots of gore and blood, and one innocent person quickly gets their neck snapped in a very intense scene, but it isn't really a horror movie as much as it is an intense thriller or suspense.

I liked this movie, I liked the evil of the brother, and the end was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought it held my interest after we got away from the beginning party scene, which I will admit took way too long. If you are bored and wondering what to watch, I suggest giving TRUTH OR DIE a chance.

Cover Reveal for THE REDEEMED by A.G. Porter

3/31/2016

The REDEEMED will be available April 29, 2016. It is book 3 in the DARKNESS trilogy.

Nightmares. The oncoming war. More Gifted emerge and not all of them are on her side. Secrets about her father are revealed. Who are The Children of The Light?
Will Rayna be able to resist the powers of The Shadow with Jayce’s help? She had planned to face down her demons with Liam by her side, but now that he's lost his soul, is he really lost to her forever?
Question after question, obstacle after obstacle present themselves in the last installment of The Darkness Trilogy. It's coming to an end - the battle, the war. The only question Rayna Stone wants answered is whether or not she and her friends make it out alive.

You can buy it here, and it will be available for pre-order soon::
http://www.amazon.com/A.G.-Porter/e/B00IQL0P2S/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A.G. Porter is the author of The Darkness Trilogy, a YA Paranormal Thriller. She is an Independent Author (Indie Author) who enjoys writing scary stories as much as she loves reading them. When she isn't writing, she's either taking pictures, reading, making nerdy jewelry, watching movies or spending much needed time with her family. A.G. lives in New Hope, Alabama with her husband, Billy, stepson, Brenton, and their 4 dogs.
A.G. enjoys writing stories about real people in supernatural situations. She also puts a lot of her faith into her books because she knows that without Christ she is lost and without God she is nothing.