Category Archives: Review

Film Review: The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch (NetFlix) (2018) (Jewish Swiss comedy – subtitles)

Posted on March 13, 2023 by odeboyz

This Jewish comedy piles cliché on to cliché, which should ruin the film. It doesn’t. It is a clever well-balanced comedy where the principal characters hang together and form a coherent whole. The storyline is basic Jewish humour. An over-bearing … Continue reading →

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Book Review: P G Wodehouse ~ The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)

Posted on March 9, 2023 by odeboyz

It’s the centenary of the first Jeeves novel. Wodehouse created two of the most enduring comedic characters in literature, Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. The novel is a series of linked short stories. They are coherent only in the sense that … Continue reading →

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Film Review: Bank of Dave (NetFlix) (Rory Kinnear) (2023)

Posted on March 2, 2023 by odeboyz

This is the biopic of Dave Fishwick, a self-made millionaire, from Burnley, Lancashire. He lives and works there and is grounded in the community. As a wealthy man he was often asked for loans. No paperwork just a handshake. None … Continue reading →

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The Beatles weren’t a band of brothers: Who’d have thought it?

Posted on February 20, 2023 by odeboyz

If you want a book sympathizing with Paul McCartney as the guy who made the Beatles tick, and portraying George Harrison as a suspicious, less than grateful whiner, this is for you.  Geoff Emerick, Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Spent … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Richard Russo ~ Nobody’s Fool (1993)

Posted on February 9, 2023 by odeboyz

Ordinary people are fascinating. That insight led to decades of success for Coronation Street and EastEnders. Likewise, Anthony Trollope’s 19th century Palliser series and John Updike’s Rabbit quartet of stunning novels.1 Russo taps into that truth. There’s virtually no sex, … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Michael Dobbs ~ The Reluctant Hero (2010)

Posted on January 12, 2023 by odeboyz

The storyline is preposterous. It depends on a suspension of credulity, which I can’t achieve – not that I tried hard. Astonishingly I finished the book. The only justification for this is that I took it away for Christmas and … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Lee Child ~ Bad Luck and Trouble (2007) (Reacher 11)

Posted on November 14, 2022 by odeboyz

The problem for ‘book-a-year’ authors is keeping characters simultaneously the same and different. If the trick isn’t pulled off characters become stale and repetitive. Reacher is a very strong character and Lee Child can’t deviate from his Maverick strongman. A … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Christopher Brookmyre ~ All fun and games until someone loses an eye (2005)

Posted on October 24, 2022 by odeboyz

Around about 8 pm on a Saturday night I was bored and irritable so I bought this on Amazon.1 Why this one? Well it had a quirky title and I like quirky books. I didn’t feel I was making a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: George MacDonald Fraser ~ Flashman at the Charge (Flashman 4) (1973)

Posted on October 3, 2022 by odeboyz

 I made the mistake of thinking about the direction of travel that Britain is on. The Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, believes Britain is a global military power. He’s a True Believer not allowing trivialities like evidence to interrupt his beliefs. … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Jussi Alder-Olsen ~ Redemption (2013) (Translator Martin Aitken)

Posted on September 1, 2022 by odeboyz

Redemption is the third in the series of Department Q novels which centre on Danish detective Carl Morck and his assistant Assad. So far so trivial. But! This is a scandi-noir novel of the highest quality. It’s brilliantly written with … Continue reading →

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