Movie Review: The Angels' Share

If you’re into Scottish comedy movies then I would avoid The Angels' Share, even though it is billed as a comedy. I found this confusing as there are only about five jokes in it. 

Anyway, for those of you who are shocked to read that other countries besides the US make movies, I will fill you in on the plot. The Angels' Share is about a thug from Glasgow who is trying to clean his life up. After narrowly avoiding jail and becoming a dad, Robby’s quest to stay on the straight and narrow is made almost impossible by threats from his partner’s uncles. While on a whisky distillery tour Robby discovers he has a talent for identifying various kinds of the famous drink. In order to get a fresh break in life Robby and his pals decide to steal a few bottles of what is meant to be the world’s rarest malt to sell and be set-up for life. 

The Angels' Share is not a bad film. The plot is good, as well as the acting and the filming. However, it is quite boring. Not a lot happens sadly and besides a few great jokes and golden moments it falls flat. This movie could have easily been great if there had been more comedy and more peril, especially when Robby sets about stealing the world’s rarest whisky. There were a lot of missed opportunities here unfortunately. 

The Angels' Share gets 5/10.

Ebook Review: Sorrow's Point

What do a defrocked priest, a witch and a creepy house have in common? Punch lines on a postcard please. Joking aside, this is the set-up for author Danielle Devor’s paranormal thriller, Sorrow’s Point. 

This is the third book by Devor that I have read and probably the darkest. The story is told from the first person perspective of Jimmy, a former priest. When an old friend he has not seen for years shows up at his door during the middle of the night, Jimmy agrees to travel to the cheery-happy-fun named Sorrow’s Point. His friend Will takes him there to help his daughter, Lucy, who he believes to be possessed and asks Jimmy to perform an exorcism. But it quickly becomes apparent that whatever’s happening to Lucy will not be so easily solved.

Sorrow’s Point is definitely a slow burner but it is worth the wait for what happens later in the story. As I said earlier, compared to the author’s other books (Tail of the Devil, Constructing Marcus), this story definitely has a darker edge to it. It can be gory and unforgiving in some places. 

Also, Devor has done well to weave Christian mythology and magic together into the fabric of the story without making the book feel silly. It’s not overdone and the characters react to such circumstances in a believable manner. There’s definitely a lot more going on in the story than there originally appears to be and it’s well worth a read if you are a fan of tales about the paranormal.  

Curse The Moon First Look

Today it is my turn to host the blog tour for Lee Jackson's new espionage thriller Curse the Moon: Cold War Rising. So what's it all about? Read on to find out!

Curse The Moon Synopsis:

His code-name is Atcho. He leads guerrilla fighters through the US-supported insurgency that rages at the Bay of Pigs in the early days of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Captured and cast into the island’s worst dungeons, Atcho learns that a phantom-like officer of the Soviet KGB shadows him. Inexplicably released from incarceration and still dedicated to his country, he battles through the bowels of the Kremlin in Moscow, into the granite halls at West Point, and finally to the highest levels in Washington, DC. Atcho’s rise opens doors into US National Defence even as the seemingly omniscient KGB officer holds unflinching sway over his actions. His public life clashes with secrets that only he and his tormentor share, isolating him in a world of intrigue among people whom he is determined not to betray – and then he finds that he is the trigger that could spark thermonuclear war. 

Excerpt: 

 In this chamber, Atcho reflected on the comparative merits of life and death. He decided that death had a greater advantage. Every hope he clung to now came with a price so high it seemed impossible to pay.  Death became a morbid fascination. He longed to welcome it, and imagined various ways he could achieve his demise. But there was no escape. In his torment, Isabel came often to his mind, and he obsessed over her well-being. But Govorov had been clear in what his suicide would mean for Isabel and her husband.

By the end of the first week, he was gaunt, his clothes hanging loosely on him. His body began to devour itself. Why not allow my darling daughter absence from suffering? He though. If I die, I will end her misery as well.

Since he felt a profound sense of having failed her, the thought comforted him. From the day she was kidnapped nearly twenty years ago, he had been excluded from her life. But now, he could expedite her passage to a state completely free of strife and pain. Through his delirium, he snickered at having upset Govorov’s plans while advancing Isabel’s welfare. He exulted over the Russian’s imagined rage, and an image of the Lubyanka fracturing at its base.

   
About the Author:

I write Historical Thriller Fiction - particularly surrounding the Cold War. Having lived in Morocco, Germany, Costa Rica, and of course in the United States; and, having been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan for a combined 38 months, I've been up-close-and personal with many different cultures. I graduated from West Point and Boston University, resulting in a front row seat on many pivotal events. I live in Texas with my wife. My first novel, Curse The Moon is out now. I publish under my own name, Lee Jackson.

Curse the Moon is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. 

Lee Jackson can also be found online at:

Website: AuthorLeeJackson.com

Facebook: facebook.com/AuthorLeeJackson

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+LeeJacksonAuthor/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7406574.Lee_Jackson

Twitter:@Stonewall_77

Amazon: http://Author.to/LeeJackson