Everly - DVD Review

          

         If you like a movie with a lot action, some suspense, and no plot, then I would say that you would probably enjoy Everly more than I did.   Salma Hayek is the star of this movie that was previewed as an exclusive on TIme Warner Cable as a movie that may have been released to the theaters.  

         The movie, which is more than confusing, is about Everly, who is supposed to face down assassins who are invading her home on the orders of a mob boss to kill her.  Evidently, he owns the police as well since they won’t get involved with all the gunfights that this movie has.  

         As you watch the movie, you learn that Everly is a victim of human trafficking since she came into this country and was put into this apartment as a sex slave, something that I did not expect to see as part of this movie.  If anything, the movie does make a mockery of this subject since all you see is Salma Hayek shooting up men and women like you would see in Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  

          Of course, if that isn’t enough, you can also throw in a torture scene where Hayek is locked in a cage.  My feeling was that if this movie was in the theater, then it would be the time for me to walk out of the movie and demand my money back.  I would probably be on line with all the other people who would probably do the same thing.  

          Yes, there is suspense and some drama, and quite a few scenes where I cringed.  Maybe people who saw this movie would argue that Hayek is not a action star although she did have some one liners that did make me laugh a few times in the movie.  

          I could not believed that I did manage to watch this until the end and of course, it was predictable.  If you want to put your imagination at the door and say that it’s believable that someone would be trapped in their apartment with no help by the police, only to shoot assassins and have a brutal fight with a leader of a triad group, then that’s fine.  

           Salma Hayek is a very talented actress and it showed in movies like Fools Rushed In.  The problem in Hollywood is that the writing standards are much lower than the books that we read and it shows when a movie like Everly is done.  If these are the types of movies that Time Warner is proud to say are exclusive to them before they go on Netflix, then my answer would be that Time Warner is in a lot of trouble since this movie isn’t worth more than 1 star.  

Ron Hummer 

            

The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross - Book Review

         This is the first book in a series by Andrew Gross about Ty Hauck, a homicide detective. It’s not your typical police procedural novel since the story switches at times between Ty Hauck and Karen Friedman, a woman who is a victim in the story since she loses her husband due to an explosion in Grand Central Station. 
         Of course, everything isn’t as it seems as she crosses paths with Ty Hauck since he is investigating a murder that happened the same day and that seems related to what happened to Karen’s husband’s death. The story builds further since Karen’s husband, Charles, works in the financial industry and there seems to be problems regarding the hedge funds he was involved with. 
        The story does build nicely but it seems long and drawn out at times since it is building over several years. Usually in stories of this nature, it would build over several days, not weeks or years. As the mystery builds regarding Charlie Friedman’s death, clues are revealed but since the story is switching to Karen Friedman, it doesn’t seem to be necessary since more facts are coming out about what really happened to Charlie. 
          You could say that this story is a combination of a murder mystery and a psychological thriller at times since Karen is going through a lot of problems from men who seemed to be threatening her and her family about Charlie’s financial dealings. Then the story would switch to minor characters just to build the story up further. My thought was that at times, this didn’t make the story as fast-paced as it could have been since you had to keep track of so many characters in the story. 
          At times, you could say that the main characters in the story - Ty Hauck and Karen Friedman - would be in a story that someone like Harlan Coben would write. It does rank up there but I have to say that the difference is that Coben will write around one character in the story and build it up at a better pace than The Dark Tide. 
          I would say that this is a good read but 15 Seconds was much better since it centered around one character throughout the story. It made the story easier to follow without the distractions of having additional characters in the story which to me slowed the pace of the story down. Still, I would not have a problem giving this book 4 stars. 

Ron Hummer