Movie review - "Voicemails from Isabelle" (2026) ***

 Winning rom com with a heavy slice of drama and a typically strong lead performances from Zoe Deutch. Nick Robinson's male lead is fine - though, a real estate agent...? Very polished. A lot of heart and love for romantic comedies.

Book review - "Electronic Life" by Michael Crichton (1983)

 A non fiction book about computers - an A to Z on various aspects of computing. It shows its age at the time but Crichton writers cleanly, smartly with common sense; much of what he did ages well, and still applies. The last few chapters are programs for IBM and Apple; they're a little dull.

Movie review - "Micro" by Michael Crichton and Robert Preston (2011)

 Thrilling, exciting, a great read. I don't know who did what between Crichton and Preston. I'd rank this book higher than many later Crichton works. The villain is just Bad and maybe the toy aeroplanes are too much but it's such a page turner, a silly concept - shrinking people - leading to a series of fantastic set pieces. Tremendous action and a decent sized cast of characters so they are always getting knocked off - by ants, birds, wasps. Many memorable encounters. I would make a fantastic film although an expensive one. I like how the group of scientists included a coward and a whiny guy who became hero.

Really liked it. 

Movie review - "Tombstone" (1993) ***

 Lots of people love this movie. Respect that. Feels cut down from a longer work, as indeed was the case - full of interesting people who don't get enough screen time. Looks fabulous. Some excellent performances. A solid movie.

Book review - "A Murder in Hollywood" by John Lange (Michael Crichton) (warning spoilers)

 Written in 1973, published in 2026. I wonder why? Maybe Crichton was worried about lawsuits. Story seems inspired by The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing - a death during a film shoot in the West. Here it's a screenwriter. Crichton has digs at the macho star (Burt Reynolds?), the horny female star (Sara Miles?), an idiotic critic who pitches his story ideas (who was he?), a director who flew planes (surely George Roy Hill). Technical details about making a film. A Sherlock Holmes like super investigator. The unit publicist is Watson, which is cute.

Not a bad mystery - about a TV episode standard. Decent twists - they figure out who did it but then it turns out to be someone else.  A read it very quickly, had a good time.

Movie review - "The French Connection II" (1975) **

 The first film set it up for a sequel - capturing Fernando Rey - and this had the decent idea of turning Popeye (Gene Hackman) into a junkie. So he's blundering around France when he's kidnapped and injected. 

The film thus doesn't have the legenday New York touch of the first movie but it has scuzzy France and a director who'd lived in that country, John Frankenheimer. 

Look, I appreciate they tried to do something different with it being in France. By having Popeye be a fish out of water meant there was no fleshing out of his character not really - he's mostly befuddled. He has a French cop he clashes with (Bernard Fresson) though that feels like squabbling.

There's some action - chases (one on foot at the end - not as exciting as a car), gun fight, a flood. I just didn't much like it. Felt padded with chases, scenes of Hackman being given drugs and going into detox.

Fun to see Cathleen Nesbitt as a druggie old lady. Nice location filming.

Movie review - "One on Top of the Other" (1969) **

 Hitchcockian thriller from Lucio Fulci with lots of nudity - sleazy doctor Jean Sorel is married to Marissa Mell but having an affair with Elsa Martinelli. Mell dies but then a lookallike stripper turns up and cop John Ireland leads an investigation.

The story isn't bad though it feels padded - fifteen minutes could be sliced off (especially the whole "appeal for 24 hours" sequence after we know who dunnit. Sorel is handsome, Mell is gorgeous and seen from many different angles, Martinelli pretty, there are strippers. Faith Domergue pops up as Mell's sister and there's some scenes shot in  San Francisco.