ReganMacArthur
@reganmacarthur
Writer of crime fiction under my own name. Published author (starting Sept. 8, 2023!) of morally-deficient pulp novels as Clint Reno. For those who want more of me: reganmacarthurauthor.blogspot.com
LAST BULLET/ BALLE PERDUE 3 (2025) Netflix They saved the best for last. The tram sequence is an I-kid-you-not classic of action cinema. I love this series.
LOST BULLET 2/ BALLE PERDUE 2 (2022) Netflix This is turning out to be a great action movie trilogy. Instead of being a remake of the first film, this sequel actually moves the story forward. I am a happy viewer. Bring on the third movie!
LOST BULLET/ BALLE PERDUE (2020) Netflix Low-budget French crime flick made with heart. No wonder it became the first in a trilogy. The fight scene in the police station is worth your time.
It's possible that all the Homer I've been reading has had an influence on my writing: "...and as a flat steel scraper bunches and crumbles the paint, shearing a wall bare and desolate, so to did the high-velocity hollowpoint strip the flesh from Lash's ribs."
THE ODYSSEY (2026) It could have been called ONE GREAT CHOICE AFTER ANOTHER. Nolan and company do an excellent job adapting Homer's work. Highest recommendation.
Homer would have needed to kill a minimum of 86 goats to have enough skins to write upon for composition of The Iliad.
Photo of Ulysses Tower in Lisbon. Legend has it that Odysseus founded Lisbon. It was really founded by the Phoenicians, which is another breadcrumb among many leading to the bold theory that The Odyssey is a shameless rewrite of Phoenician mythology.
With Chicago having the worst air quality IN THE WORLD today, you might think that people wouldn't be eating outside at Paradise Pup this evening. You would be wrong. The American ability to act like nothing is wrong is truly incredible.
How the text of THE ILIAD looked on the original papyrus scrolls: SINGGODDESSOFTHEANGEROFACHILLESSONOFPELEUS....
Possibly the best fried chicken I have ever tasted. Lao Sze Chuan restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown.
Currently listening to the audiobook of THE ODYSSEY. Now brace yourself for this incoming bombshell: Sir Ian McKellan is very good at his job.
"Her fear gave me strength, for when is one not the stronger through being needed?" The quote is from a book by Louis L'Amour, but I've had a similar thought many times in my life.
ROOFMAN (2025) Put me in the fan club. This is a based-closely-on-a-true story masterpiece of a crime movie.
"In my travels, I have witnessed supernovas cresting and planets being born. Rainfalls made of emeralds and aliens made of gossamer and neon." The beauty of science fiction, to me, is that you're allowed to write like that.
TRAP FOR CINDERELLA by Sébastien Japrisot Woman wakes up with her face covered in bandages. She has total amnesia. Another girl didn't make it out of the burning house in time. Was the amnesiac the intended murder victim or the culprit? I wasn't thrilled by the book but it's a hell of a premise.
Buying bootleg DVDs is wrong... Unless it's something you really, really want.
Character development: Tried to think about all the things that scare me. One of them is doctors. Currently toying with the name of Doctor Zest for a villain after rejecting Dr. Shrike, Dr. Bolt, etc. ("What would be a posh version of Rutger Hauer's character in THE HITCHER?")
GRIFTER'S GAME by Lawrence Block (1961) Even an apprentice work by Lawrence Block is strong enough to make most professionals weep with envy. Highest recommendation.
Wailua River Falls, Hanalei Mountains, Waimea Canyon Island of Kauai
But where do Hawaiians like to go on vacation, you ask? Answer: Las Vegas. They say it's for the gambling but I suspect that copious amounts of cheap food is a big draw.
I came across not one but two stories in this anthology that rip off Agatha Christie's EVIL UNDER THE SUN. That old dame casts a shadow larger than night over the mystery genre and she probably always will.
Will Chicagoans embrace the Indiana Bears? They might. I am continually amazed at how much crap sports fans are willing to eat.
LAST KNOWN ADDRESS/ DERNIER DOMICLE CONNU (1970) There's no way around it: an accurate depiction of policework is going to make for a boring movie.
If KIMI is the update of REAR WINDOW for the age of the virtual assistant, what thriller should be updated for the age of AI chatbot psychosis?
"...as late as 1949 you could buy a military saber in the cutlery department at Harrods*." -Paul Fussell, WARTIME *a luxury department store in London