I have to admit that I was dragged to this one. The preview gave me the impression that it was in the One Righteous Woman on a Crusade genre with an extra scoop of hatred of religion, and I just had no interest in that. Fortunately, I wrong. There is a woman, Mildred Hayes (Frances … Continue reading Movie review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Hostiles is a Western in the "The Old West is dying" sub-genre. The frontier is represented by the main character, Captain Joe Blocker (Christian Bale), and Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi). Chief Yellow Hawk has been imprisoned for seven years and is now riddled with cancer. For political reasons related to the rising tide of … Continue reading Movie review: Hostiles (2017)
I, Tonya is a usually skillfully done and well acted telling of the story of Tonya Harding, the Olympic skater forever infamous for her involvement in a conspiracy to take out one of her competitors, Nancy Kerrigan. For those of you not old enough to remember, this story enraptured the country, and probably the world, as … Continue reading Movie review: I, Tonya (2017)
I’ve got a new review up at The Violent World of Parker of "Bullet in the Face," a short-lived, absurd, and very violent TV show from the creator of the '80s cult-classic cop show "Sledge Hammer!" You can check it out here.
An amphibious humanoid resembling the Creature from the Black Lagoon is brought to a government lab during the height of the Cold War. Cleaning lady Elisa (Sally Hawkins) forms a relationship with the creature and takes action when she learns of plans to vivisect him. There is a scene in The Shape of Water that demonstrates … Continue reading Movie review: The Shape of Water (2017)
It was 1982 when Abby Rivers met Gretchen Lang, becoming fast friends when Gretchen saves Abby from what looked like was going to be the most horrible, awful day in insecure Abby's whole life. They build a world of inside jokes, shared loves, favorite songs, forbidden books and movies, and anything else fun as they … Continue reading Book review: My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Pakistani immigrant and stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani ("Silicon Valley," playing himself) falls for Emily (Zoe Kazan), a white American girl, but the relationship falls apart because he is afraid of being disowned by his family if things go any further. When Emily falls gravely ill and needs to be placed in a medically induced coma, … Continue reading Movie review: The Big Sick (2017)
I've got a new review up at The Violent World of Parker of A Song to Die For by Mike Blakely, a crime novel that takes place in and around the '70s Austin music scene. You can check it out here.
Just a hair shy of halfway through The Last Jedi, I thought it had lost me for good. Rey (Daisy Ridley) was dicking around with Luke Skywalker on some godforsaken island that is just one big cliff. Meanwhile, in another star system, there was some stupid humor. Knowing there was still a long way to go, … Continue reading Movie review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Welcome! My name is Trent. My primary site is The Violent World of Parker, which started out as a website devoted to the Parker novels of Richard Stark, AKA Donald E. Westlake. While Parker, a professional thief who appeared in a series of 24 volumes, and other things related to Donald Westlake remain the primary focus of that site, the blog portion section gradually expanded to encompass asides on other crime fiction and film. Then I started to read some horror titles, and wanted to scribble some notes about them. I also made a resolution to read 365 short stories in 2018, and thought I might like to write some about that project as well. I had already stretched VWOP about as far as it could go without my readers going, "C'mon, man," so I decided to launch this side blog. Here I'll write about books, movies, and music that it would make no sense to write about over at VWOP.
Trent goes off-topic 
You must be logged in to post a comment.