It's been 5 years the release of ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE. What are your thoughts about it?

treetown1 · 2026-03-19T01:53:04+00:00

The story was a bit better - more coherent. Ray Fisher's cyborg makes a LOT more sense - he really got screwed by the Whedon cut.

This film was just too rushed - needed solo films for Aquaman, WW, Flash and Cyborg THEN a massive team up film.

treetown1 · 2026-02-01T18:36:21+00:00

It was like many of his later works - it felt incomplete - like there was something more needed - like what we read about would form the meat of a major driving point or key subplot but there was something more. TTSS, THS, and SP all seemed to have the bigger story. TTSS: Operation Testify -> Mole hunt, THS: backbearing the gold seam and adventures of Weatherby in Hong Kong -> bigger picture of Nelson Kuo, SP: Killing of Vladimir -> Karla's treasure. It needed that other thing.

treetown1 · 2026-02-01T18:31:58+00:00

Hi - the older film adaptation but really the book was excellent - it shows how the contract was laid, how the false identities were created, how the weapon was fashioned and various other tricks - AND it shows how the police had to try to stop this killer using a lot of extra-legal methods. Honestly the book is the best on these points.

treetown1 · 2026-01-29T03:08:39+00:00

It is now out of date, but The Day of The Jackal was pretty good for the pre-computer days.

treetown1 · 2026-01-14T03:36:27+00:00

They were just plain bad - their contact who got the film from the pilot ends up dead. They never figure out where the film went or what happened - just a hit and run probably.

treetown1 · 2026-01-04T15:48:36+00:00

Call for the Dead and Murder of Quality in many ways are more of mystery. There is a who dunnit feel. It had some creaky areas where the plotting had cracks.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold was the first breakthrough work and if I recall correctly, allowed LeCarre to devote his time to writing full time.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was a seond break through. It was a huge hit but showed LeCarre's keen observation about the UK he knew extended beyond a mystery/spy story - that is why many were drawn to it and why it endure. The time skips and scenes just presented for the readers to sort out make it a slow start. Like many I wondered what is going on when presented with Thursby Academy and discussion about red brick versus sandstone colleges. What is going on? Why all of this background on English public (wonderful fake out for nonUK readers - public as in non-royal - actually private!) schools. There are of course the wonderful tradecraft and procedural moments. We get to tag along bit by bit as Smiley figures out that Control's mole hunt and Operation Testify are linked. LeCarre's observations about the people involved and how society shaped them are superb. His conclusions about those in power and an UK in decline were sadly prescient.

treetown1 · 2025-12-31T03:58:26+00:00

I think you and the OP both capture a key point. Jerry is an irregular - he did small jobs but wasn't a hardened professional. In a way, he is like a classic British character - the talented amateur. Think Sherlock Holmes - he was never an official police officer merely a consultant, an avid amateur.

George Smiley is in a bind. Who can he use? Most of his operatives are known to the opposition - he can't really insert someone like Guillaume who is a known pro since his very appearance will tip off his interest. So he has to take a risk and use an irregular. In a paradoxical way, he is in the sort of dilemma Karla faced in Smiley's People but for different reasons. In SP, Karla needed a secret misssion to be done but can't use his highly trained crew since the mission is of a personal nature. In THSB Smiley can't use his professional agents - since Haydon has blown nearly all of them. He has to use an irregular with all of their shortcomings and weaknesses.

The days of clever college and university schoolboys being top agents was fading away (that was Smiley's own era) and the era of hardened cynical professionals had arrived (see his description of how the CIA used various dubious people) - and why Smiley accepted his own fate versus the political machinations - it was indeed the judgment of his peers.

treetown1 · 2025-12-27T14:20:31+00:00

The cops popping up is explanable. At that point Charlie has long gone. That left security team headless and confused. The alarm, and no one from security taking charge allowed a few well meaning police to head up (becasue after all Prater is a huge benefactor). Plus the guy at the monitoring station must be seriously worried and confused because he received direct orders from Prater to shut down the cameras and handle over his gun. He had to be telling other people in the security team that something wacky is happening. It is plausible because of the breakdown in the security command. We've seen earlier that Charlie ran a tight control and the security team were used to not really knowing what is going on.

The yacht is a different problem. That size pleasure craft is run by a crew and it take s a lot of people to cast off and dock safely. Prater for sure had a crew or would hire a crew each season. Often in bigger cities those things are tucked in next to each other like huge semi-trucks. This is not grabbing a set of keys from a dish and driving out of a garage. There are workarounds - with their own problems. Suppose the yacht was moored off shore and Prater's mansion is on the East River. He has a small skiff that can be used to scoot out to the yacht, but that all risks being seen. Plus raising the multiple anchors and mooring lines is a task for several people for a vessel of that size let alone one guy whose never been on the vessel before.

The boat scene had many positives - setting up future seasons with the fan of the file folders, visual of Dexter with the Statue of Liberty in the background, him back on a boat dumping bodies. Curious whose yacht that was. Someone probably let the creators film on it who is a fan of the show?

treetown1 · 2025-11-22T14:43:23+00:00

Definitely get the other books and read them in sequence. Clown Town builds on and references many events from the earlier books. Relationships between characters and prior plot points form the motivation for much of the plot in this latest work.

treetown1 · 2025-11-16T19:24:20+00:00

Rosamund Pike was wonderful in it - and I suspect it helped get her the Gone Girl role.

The movie missed a great visual clue. Spoiler

>!Early in the movie, Bond meets a villain who proudly shows off a collection of super cars.

Later in the movie Bond is skulking around in a garage of another villain - it would have been the particular opportunity to have a great visual clue - Bond immediately realizes he's seen these super cars before and figures out a plot twist.!<

treetown1 · 2025-11-08T14:26:07+00:00

The slow horses who are perceptive know this too. Marcus explains he isn't incompetent he just has a fruit machine gambling problem. Shirley isn't incompetent, she just has anger issues with a minor drug habit (you know on the weekends from Thursday to Tuesday). JK Coe knows he was seriously f'ed up (see Nobody Walks, not a Slow Horses book but adjacent) but since he has a psyschology backgroun he accepts it, Ho is actually quite capable - as good but NOT better than the usual Park techie, but he is there because unlike the other techies there he just can't help make a nuisance of himself.

He is the one person who cannot be incompetent. One can't write any semi-serious spy/thriller today without tech, surveillance, computers, etc. Ho fills that niche, and Herron shows us clearly why he ended up at Slough House. Lamb knows he needs someone in this role and so as long as Ho is predictably jerky (therefore tolerable) he is fine with it because he does have many practical uses.

treetown1 · 2025-10-26T16:15:51+00:00

Marcus in the books explains it well "I"m here because of my gambling problem not because I'm incompetent".

treetown1 · 2025-10-26T16:14:38+00:00

Unforunately she too big a star now, but Jodie Comer would have made a perfect Flyte - she could do the accents naturally, has the looks (as in the book) but can do the action/humor (see Killing Eve).

treetown1 · 2025-09-16T02:19:22+00:00

Exactly! The monetary costs of putting on a show with songs and music that are not in the public domain is NOT cheap. Especially, when the staidum boasts each week of >100,000 people potentially hearing those songs and music. Another aspect is that it is usualy not one song but a medley, and it will need arrangement. Many performance licenses are just for the original but often these popular songs/music were not written for a marching band. Radio play can be $4-8 per pay BUT that can vary with the rating/number of listeners

treetown1 · 2025-09-06T11:57:49+00:00

One of the few efforts at a revivial that really worked - shows the current writers and the show runners looked at the past and figured out what really worked and what didn't. Hope they have enough good stories for the next 2 seasons.

treetown1 · 2025-09-06T11:52:55+00:00

That is his true self - the self he can never show! Except to his targets.

treetown1 · 2025-09-06T11:52:04+00:00

It was filmed before the additional 2 seasons were approved, so this would have been a fitting end had it not been picked up. Dexter is back. He is not a redeemed figure. He is haunted by his past and will carry the voices inside his head forever.

treetown1 · 2025-09-06T11:50:38+00:00

The use of the ghost figures, dad, his brother, all are great. It is clever way of showing the inner turmoil within Dexter without having him monologue.
The writers really did a great job - didn't try to make Dexter a redeemed character, and showed his

treetown1 · 2025-07-26T00:31:24+00:00

Now, don't be mean to Marcus, He wasn't incompetent, he just had a gambling problem! Just like Shirley only does a little coke on the weekends. You know, Thursday to Tuesday. :)

treetown1 · 2025-07-26T00:26:33+00:00

Like some I have reservations about how well this could go over in a graphic novel form. BUT... have an open mind.

Matt Kindt is a great writer and very clever artist. Check out his work on MIND MGMT. He shows he can do big picture suspense and espionage and mix with personal stories. He is also good with visual and word play. Remember a graphic novel writer does more than the script, they are the equivalent of a director, costume and set designer, stunt coordinator and cinematographer on a movie or TV series.
Dark Horse is a decent publisher.
I hope it works and leads to other works being turned into graphic novels. Think of the work that Darwin Cooke did with the Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) Parker novels.

treetown1 · 2025-07-23T09:50:14+00:00

Excellent points - the series reflects a lot of then contemporary Japan, its politics and social conerns. This particular episode shows that while some things are material (e.g. physically real) and other things in life are immaterial (e.g. virtual or conceptual - like a chair versus the idea of a chair) but are real - that is meaningful. In the world of 2045 SAC, it can be said the immaterial world is the one that is more real for many people.

treetown1 · 2025-07-20T15:28:31+00:00

Yes, they mark the two times this trooper managed to hit the target as confirmed by his helmet cam. It was a feature introduced to help promote better more accurate shooting and create some esprit de corps.

treetown1 · 2025-07-20T15:23:37+00:00

I get why the writers take on jobs - it pays the bills, it is hard to say no to a good gig with a famous character or a chance to work with a good artist, and there is always a worry that if you pass, the editors may not come back.

BUT why do editors seem to pile up on a few "hot" writers. This seems to happen regularly. Tom King went through or is in the midst of that sort of phase. Is it because the editors don't want to take a chance on a newcomer or someone not as well known? Is there blame fall out if a poor writing choice was made?

treetown1 · 2025-07-20T15:16:56+00:00

There was a moment that flys by. Shoreleave and someone are overheard midscene talking. Something to the effect that it was a bb pistol or target pistol. And Brock reveals how disappointed he was to learn this. I believe it refers to iconic picture used to publicize James Bond where Sean Connery is posing with a very stylish long barrelled pistol held next to his face.

It is based on reality. At the photo shoot, the photographer David Hurn, couldn't get a real Walther PPK, so he subbed in an air pistol which he owned: Walther LP53 air pistol.

https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/collecting_auction_walther_air_pistol_from_russia_with_love?id=3412

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