Bandit (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                                  

Jim's Review

Robert Whitman (Josh Duhamel) robed a record 59 banks and jewelry stores and eluded police for many years. He used his crafty and creative disguises to be one step ahead true story charming criminal

In his journey he meets and fall in love with Andrea Hudson ( Elisa Cuthbert) who remains in the dark for little and then she quickly realizes her husband is up to no good, she remains with him and they start a family and move out Pembroke,Ont to relax and for Robert to get away from the police

Tommy Kay (Mel Gilbson) is a bar owner who supported Robert in his many crimes show up in Pembroke to see Robert and that can only mean one thing Trouble!

The two police officers on his tail Snydes (Nelson Carbonell) and Hoffman (Swen Temmel) are one step behind Robert for a long time and with some luck they finally have a strong lead on Robert

The climatic end will end a low key drama and everyone involved will finally feel some closure in the matter.

8 out of 10 stars

Movie Plot

After escaping from a Michigan prison, a charming career criminal assumes a new identity in Canada and goes on to rob a record 59 banks and jewellery stores while being hunted by a police task force.

The Resort (2022) TV Show review

                                                                                       

Jim's Review

Emma (Christine Miloti) and her husband Noah (William Jackson) for an anniversary to embrace their marriage. They get involved in Yucatan's most bizarre unsolved mysteries from 15 years ago when Emma stumbles upon a cellphone with text and pictures that gets her start investigating and speaking to locals.

The soon begin a course of learning clues and meeting locals with secreits they are not sharing with them.

The saga continues to deepen for both of them...

Show plot

An anniversary trip puts a marriage to the test when a couple finds themselves embroiled in one of Yucatan's most bizarre unsolved mysteries from 15 years prior involving the disappearance of two young adults, a murder and a once in a century hurricane; with everything connected, solving the crime requires unraveling some of life's biggest questions.

Quantum Leap (2022) TV Show review

                                                                               

Jim's review

Episode 1 and 2

Dr Ben Song (Raymond Lee) find himself leaping in time with no memory on how he got there! Luckily Addison Augustine (Caitlin Bassett) is able to meet up with Ben via hologram to keep help him and try to figure out a way to get him home!

In episode one he is a help out bank robbers in 1985  and episode two on the space shuttle in 1998, Both situations are full of drama and action. His team back in the present are facing their own challenges as a team and trying to figure out who Ben is 

Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson) Ian Wright (Mason Alexander Park) & Jenn Chou (Nanrisa Lee) and struggling to piece together crumbs of information that Dr. Ben has left behind.

Janice Calavicci (Georgina Reilly) appears in Episosde 2 and someone has brought in by Dr. Ben in search of specific date in the future.

Episode was dedicated to Dean Stockwell who passed away in November 7, 2021

Show plot

Set 30 years after Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished, follows a new team that must restart the project hoping to understand the mysteries behind the machine and its creator.

Barbarian (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                                      

Jim's Review

Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) sets out to use an Airbnb for an important interview she has, upon arrival someone else is in it! 

 Keith(Bill  Skarsgård) invite her in and lets her stay, she seems weary and hesitant and slowly begins to let her guard down.

She goes to see her friend to prepare for the interview and it become very evident Catherine says to her "You shouldn't be there!"

And with that I will reveal very little of the plot due to the fact that it become an interesting and twisted story.

  A.J Gilbride (Justin Long) from Jeepers Creepers (2001) shows up eventually and brings a different view point to the film and literally serves as a minor distraction from what has already occurred.  

 He then gets intertwined into the plot leading to the reveal of the plot and the climatic end that will have you wondering and little confused but in the end the title does say Barbarian. so you shouldn't be to surprised.

  Horror films are here to stay and if you really want to get scared do watch Jeepers Creepers! 

 

8 out of 10 stars

About film

A woman staying at an Airbnb discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems.

Wealth Mastery with Robin Sharma in Toronto on Oct 1,2022

                                                                                   

Develop the mindset you need to grow your business. You’ll learn from Robin Sharma himself as he teaches you how to master your craft.

About this event

Don't Miss Our Last Event of the Year!

For the very first time Robin Sharma and Sneh Desai will be on stage with Sunil Tulsiani to bring an incredible life-changing event in Toronto.

We'll have leaders investors entrepreneurs real estate investors and multi-millionaires from all over the world attend... in-person or virtually.

Here's What You'll Learn:

1. Learn New And Improved Models That Will Kickstart Generational Wealth Through Real Estate Investing & Entrepreneurship

2. Scale Your Portfolio And Network With Toronto's Most Influential Entrepreneurs & Investors

3. Discover How To Create Opportunities Despite Potential Doubts Or Limitations

4. Walk Away Transformed & Energized To Start Your Journey To Attain Wealth And Success

5. Mastering Wealth By Learning How YOU Can Be Profiting From The Recession

6. All Of The Insightful Ways That Our Expert Speakers Claimed Massive Success & Invaluable Lessons On Personal Growth

You'll also be able to learn network and break bread with wealthy investors potential money partners mentors business moguls and people who have access to cash to fund your business or properties.

                                                               Buy Tickets today

Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic: Book Review

                                                                                          

Jim's Review

The covid19 Pandemic did affect us in so many ways. Too many people hurt and died from this terrible pandemic

Noral Loreto goes through the days and months and covers all the details on what happened and how it was handles. There were numerous failures by government, media. politicians and those who wrote about it.

Recommended read to learn from and make sure it does not happen ever again!

8 out of 10 stars

About book

As Canada was in the grips of the worst pandemic in a century, Canadian media struggled to tell the story. Newsrooms, already run on threadbare budgets, struggled to make broader connections that could allow their audience to better understand what was really happening, and why. Politicians and public health officials were mostly given the benefit of the doubt that what they said was true and that they acted in good faith.

This book documents each month of the first year of the pandemic and examines the issues that emerged, from racialized workers to residential care to policing. It demonstrates how politicians and uncritical media shaped the popular understanding of these issues and helped to justify the maintenance of a status quo that created the worst ravages of the crisis. Spin Doctors argues alternative ways in which Canadians should understand the big themes of the crisis and create the necessary knowledge to demand large-scale change.learn more

Breaking (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                     

Jim's Review

Based on true story Veteran Brian Brown- Easley (John Boyega) who is owed money by Veteran Affairs

He holds up a bank and demands payment. In the slow paced film the drama unfolds slowly at hostages, police are intrigued and at some points confused by his demands.

The climatic end will have you asking more questions than getting the real answers that Brian Brown - Easly deserved

7 out of 10 stars

About film

When Marine Veteran Brian Brown-Easley (John Boyega) is denied support from Veteran’s Affairs, financially desperate and running out of options, he takes a bank and several of its employees hostage, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with the police.

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A Man of Reason: Movie Review (TIFF22)

                                                                                        

Jim's Review

Soo Hyuk (Jung Woo Sung) is released from jail after ten years and he want to connect with family and move with his life,

His normal life doesn't last long as a King pin he betrayed wants him removed and does all he can hiring people to do so. Soo Hyuk is trying to reach out and connect with his wife and daughter and soon they get embroiled in his life.

The drama and action overlap with many enemies and adversaries colliding upon each other and trying to figure out who is going to remain 

The climatic end will have casualties and only few will survive

7 out of 10 stars

About film

A Man of Reason is an action movie that follows a man named Soo Hyuk (played by Jung Woo Sung) who wants to start his life over after spending ten years in prison. Expectations are high on how the story will unfold as his wish to live an ordinary life becomes the most dangerous dream he could ever have. The fresh plot, powerful character and incredible action scenes are amping up the excitement among fans

Jung Woo Sung directorial Debut Learn more

End of the Road (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                 

Jim's Review

Brenda (Queen Latifa) and her family become embroiled with a bag of money and killer after them!

Reggies (Ludacris) is fast talking brother adds to the drama her two kids get involved in more ways than they want to

The climatic end will be cat and mouse high octane chase that reveal all and the family will band together to win at all costs

8 out of 10 stars

About film

In this high-octane action thriller, a cross-country road trip becomes a highway to hell for Brenda and her family. Alone in the New Mexico desert, they have to fight for their lives when they become the targets of a mysterious killer.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022): Movie Review (TIFF22)

                                                                                            

Jim's Review

John "Chickee: Donahue (Zac Efron) took an idea that The Colonel at Doc Fiddlers (Bill Murray) bar shared and actually did it!

Chickie talks his way through so many situations and with little luck he begins to deliver on his promise. As he reaches Vietnam he meet photographer from Look magazine Coates (Russell Crowe) who share insights and experience on how to navigate the terrain. Chickie doesn't like the perspective that the media is sharing and Coates is assisting in doing. 

The journey continues as he goes into the depths of the water and soon find himself embroiled in controversy and so people think he is a CIA agent. This soon turns serious as he is running for his life and trying to deliver the beer!

The emotional and heat wrenching shines through as Chickie battles his way back to the real world only to learn that the message has been lost in translation.

10 out of 10 stars

About film

In 1967, John "Chickie" Donohue leaves New York to track down his army buddies in Vietnam and share a few beers with them, but instead is confronted with the horrors of the war.

Nope (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                             

Jim's Review

Siblings OJ (Daniel Oluuya) and Emerald Palmer (Keke Palmer) own a horse farm and some weird is happening in the sky.

Jordan Peele is director with a magic touch for directing with Get out (2017)  and Us (2019)

In this film with a limited number of character is very slowly peals the onion with all types of distraction from horses, possessed monkey to mysterious NOPE (Not of Planet Earth)

Now back to the storyline as the siblings and few others attempt to capture video of this entity to share with world, it begins to falter quickly and out of their control and the climatic end will be more of soft ending with more questions than answer.

Perhaps that what Jordan Peele wanted continued conversation on what is up in the stars

6 out of 10 

Movie Plot

Two siblings running a horse ranch in California discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.

Emily the Criminal (2022):Movie Review

                                                                               

Jim's Review

Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is struggling with student debt and unable to find work, Until she gets a referral from a work colleague to make $200 and after some thought she jumps in and become involved in the credit card scam.

She does it a few times and impresses Youcef (Theo Rossi) and upgrades her to $2000 scam involving a car!

There relationship deepens and Youcef''s brother Javier notices and this is when things begin to bad for both of them.

Emily has strayed from the rules that Youcef  told and his met with some severe violence and goes back to Youcef with the news.

She has gone down the rabbit hole of trouble and the authorities are on her tale.

The climate ending will have you asking What would you do?

8 out of 10 stars

Movie Plot:

Saddled with student debt and unable to find work, a college graduate becomes involved in a credit card scam, acting as a dummy shopper and buying increasingly risky products with stolen credit cards.

Lean in for Graduates: Book Review

                                                                          

Jim's Review

Lean in for Graduates provides more strategies, tips and cool stories on how to lean into your life and succeed

7 out of 10 stars

About book

The perfect graduation gift: the iconic #1 best seller, expanded and updated exclusively for graduates entering the workforce

This extraordinary edition of Lean In includes a letter to graduates and six additional chapters from experts offering advice on finding and getting the most out of a first job; résumé writing; best interviewing practices; negotiating your salary; listening to your inner voice; owning who you are; and leaning in for millennial men. 

The original edition of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In became a massive cultural phenomenon and its title became an instant catchphrase for empowering women. The book soared to the top of best-seller lists both nationally and internationally, igniting global conversations about women and ambition. This enhanced edition provides the entire text of the original book updated with more recent statistics and features a passionate letter from Sandberg encouraging graduates to find and commit to work they love. A combination of inspiration and practical advice, this new edition will speak directly to graduates and, like the original, change lives.
 
New Material for the Graduates Edition:
· A Letter to Graduates from Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Meta (previously called Facebook) from 2008-2022
· Find Your First Job, by Mindy Levy (Levy has more than twenty years of experience in all phases of organizational management and holds degrees from Wharton and Penn) 
· Negotiate Your Salary, by Kim Keating (Keating is the founder and managing director of Keating Advisors)
· Man Up: Millennial Men and Equality, by Kunal Modi (Modi is a consultant at McKinsey & Company and a recent graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School)
· Let’s Lean In Together, by Rachel Thomas (Thomas is the president of The Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation)· Own Who You Are, by Mellody Hobson (Hobson is the president of Ariel Investments)
· Listen to Your Inner Voice, by Rachel Simmons (Simmons is cofounder of the Girls Leadership Institute)
· 12 Lean In stories, short essays by readers around the world who have been inspired by Sandberglearn more

Bull shit Jobs: Book Review

                                                                               

Jim's Review

It is a very exciting title for sure.  Unfortunately it lack the sizzle it deserved. It was extremely repetitive and many of the stories were interesting and most of them very boring

It could have been half the size and would have served it better

5 out of 10 stars

About book

From bestselling writer David Graeber, a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs, and their consequences.

Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After a million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.

There are millions of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs.

Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation. learn more

Psychology of Money: Book Review

                                                                                             

   

                                                                                  Jim's Review

                                                Terrific book from the beginning all the way to the end!

                                                                         10 out of 10 stars

                                                      

                                                                           About book

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.

Money―investing, personal finance, and business decisions―is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.

In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics. Learn more

Dune (2019) Part : Movie Review

                                                                              

Jim's Review

A star studded cast that brings to life Dune directed by Denis Villeneuve.

Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is a young man born into greatness with responsibilities that will affect many people

The slow moving drama will yield many questions and have few answers in the end. 

Part 2 will hopefully have those answers...

7 out of 10 stars

About film

Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, only those who can conquer their own fear will survive.

Drive Hard: The Maloof Way (2022): Series Review

                                                                                                  

Jim's Review

An over the top amazing series to watch that is truly fast and furious on every level!

10 out of 10 stars

About film

The Maloofs, a lovable family of gearheads and stunt drivers, use their passion and skill to build car engines and perform wild feats behind the wheel.

The Young Arsonist (2022): Movie Review (TIFF22)

                                                                                     

                                                                               Jim's Review

  Cryptic relationships between four young woman will have impact on all over them as they learn and grow in troubled times

                                                                                    7 out of 10 stars

                                                                      Movie plot

Set in 1980s rural Canada, director and visual artist Sheila Pye’s haunting feature debut follows a group of teenage girls — each suffering some form of family trauma — whose relationships with one another are both strengthened and tested over the course of a summer.

The Canadian gothic film tradition is small but significant, boasting classics like William Fruet’s Wedding in White, Francis Mankiewicz’s Les bons débarras, and, more recently, Robin Aubert’s underrated À l’origine d’un cri. Doggedly rural and very working-class, the Canadian gothic tradition often focuses on teenagers or young adults forced to deal with the broken worlds their parents have left them. Sheila Pye’s visually arresting, intensely atmospheric first feature, The Young Arsonists, is a worthy addition to the subgenre. Fusing a gritty rural milieu with striking surreal imagery, the 1980s-set film touchingly recounts a summer when four teenage girls, all fleeing traumas of various sorts, band together against the outside world.

At the centre are best friends Nicole and Veronica (Maddy Martin, Jenna Warren). Nicole is consumed by tragedy, having recently lost her beloved older brother — a loss that has decimated her family. Veronica is dealing with an abusive, alcoholic monster of a father who looks like something that might have crawled out of a rusty pipe. She decides to take a stand by camping out in the abandoned farmhouse that once belonged to Nicole’s family. As the summer crawls by, tensions rise between the girls, who are pretty much on their own. But Nicole and Veronica forge an intimacy that they may not be able to hold on to when Veronica’s secrets are revealed and she lashes out.

Central to the story is the conflict between hanging on — to grief, to a lost family member, to a home you once had — and moving on. Full of haunting imagery, The Young Arsonists is a singular and promising debut from one of our most intriguing film and visual artists.

Roost (2022) Movie Review (TIFF22)

                                                                                       

Jim's Review

Anna who  17 years old (Grace Van Dien) tells her mom Beth she has a boyfriend that she met online. He visits the house and they find out he is 28 years old!

Beth is shocked and ask to speak to Eric (Kyle Garner) in private and he soon leaves the house that turns everyone life upside down

Lots of family secrets come to play and choices will be made and deception and decisions will be made that will impact everyone

8 out of 10 stars

Movie plot  Learn more

In this immersive thriller directed by Amy Redford, a young love affair becomes a menacing game of cat and mouse. Nothing and no one are as they seem....

A teenager and her cellphone. It’s a worrying combination for many parents, and when Anna (Grace Van Dien) tells her mother, Beth (Summer Phoenix), that she’s met a boy online, Beth goes on full alert. It turns out Anna’s new crush is not a boy but a man — 28 years old, and saying all the right things to a girl on the verge of 17 as she cradles her phone in her bedroom. Then, without invitation, there he is, on the family’s doorstep.

Amy Redford’s Roost has a terrific starting premise, drawn from the experiences and anxieties of so many families. But it twists beyond that to take the film into territory that’s both thriller and thoughtful moral drama. The familiar conflicts between a mother and her adolescent daughter get ever more complicated by the presence of Anna’s boyfriend Eric (Kyle Gallner), who seems nice but is disturbingly persistent. Beth, a single mother, may need to call on her fiancé, Tim (Jesse Garcia), a cop.

Van Dien (Chrissy in Season 4 of Stranger Things) is compelling as Anna, with both the openness and the ferocity the role demands. This is a leap forward in her growing stardom, as she shows an onscreen grit similar to that of her great-grandfather, Robert Mitchum. Phoenix, from another famous film family, plays Beth with depth and a necessary sense of mystery, revealing new sides to her character as the story takes turn after turn.

Redford, daughter of Robert, plays delightfully in Roost not just with genre, but with the traces of family legacy. One moment we think we know where these characters are going; the next, all we know for sure is that the intricacies of family often lie just out of reach.

no trailer yet

Echoes (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                    

         

                                                                                 Jim's Review

      Lina/ Gina (Michelle Monaghan) have a terrible secret they have been swapping their lives every year on their birthday.

This is until Gina goes missing and Lina comes back to find her. Thing quickly get out of  hand and Lina decides to become Gina to figure out what messes her sister has created!

The climatic end will answer most of you the questions and will have you asking  What that enough or do they want more drama in their lives?

                                                                                             8 out of 10 stars

                                                                         About film

Identical twin sisters Leni and Gina decide to swap their lives. However, there are dire consequences when one of the twins goes missing, causing both of their lives to rapidly fall apart.

                                                                      

         

The Boys Season 3 (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                 

Jim's Review

The Boys are back and this time Homelander is slightly more subdued but very quickly he get angry as everyone wants a piece of him.

Butcher and his crew are search and find the super serum and the long lost Soldier Boy

The climatic end will have supes battling out for their own reasons and the final scene will set up the next sequence of events for The Boys

7 out of 10 stars

About film

It’s been a year of calm. Homelander’s subdued. Butcher works for the government, supervised by Hughie of all people. But both men itch to turn this peace and quiet into blood and bone. So when The Boys learn of a mysterious anti-Supe weapon, it sends them crashing into The Seven, starting a war, and chasing the legend of the first Superhero: Soldier Boy.

Maneater (2022): Movie Review

                                                                                                          

                                                                         Jim's Review

                  Large shark is terrorizing a beach resort and a group of  friends is trying to stop the shark!

                                                                      6 out of 10

                                                                           Movie plot

After an accident during their vacations on a paradisiac island, a group of friends is stalked by a large shark.

                                                                   

                                                                       

The Chestnut Man (2022): Movie Review

 

                                                           

                                                                            Jim's review

          Thulin and her partner Hess are investigating a gruesome murder of The Chestnut man and it turns out to slow pealing onion that uncovers small clues into who the murderer is and why they are doing it.

 The climatic end will reveal all the reasons for why it was done and who it was doing it

                                                                 8  out of 10 stars

                                                                         About film

Thulin and her reluctant new partner, Hess, investigate a gruesome murder; politician Rosa Hartung returns to work after her daughter's disappearance.