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Diamond Smuggler and the Spy Novel

 Tuesday: Mississippi Burning (1988)

     This movie is inspired by true events. Two FBI agents are sent to a small town in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of three civil rights activists. From the moment they get there they are met with hostility. No one is willing to talk to them. No black person will talk to them for fear of being beaten up or worse by the klan. No white person will talk because they are protecting what they think is right. The more they investigate the more they realize how corrupt this small town is. I thought this movie was alright. It was such a horrible time. It's crazy how much klan members were protected by every level of the local government. They could do whatever they wanted.

Friday: Argylle (2024)

     Elly writes novels about spies and global spy syndicates. She is very successful. While on a train to visit her parents she meets a real life spy named Aiden. He tells her that her books are actually predicting what is happening in real life. There really is a spy syndicate that has turned bad. They are coming after Elly to get information they think she has. Aiden got to her first to try and help her. Aiden and Elly have to stay ahead of the syndicate to put an end to it all. This movie was alright. It was a little over the top. But it had a good twist.

Saturday: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2022)

     A.J. owns a bookstore on a island off the New England coast. His wife passed away and since then has been miserable. His only comfort is wine and his prized collection of Edgar Allan Poe poems. When the poems are stolen he has nothing left. Then one day he finds a baby girl in his store. Someone had left her for him to take care of. He can barely take care of himself. But A.J. decides to adopt her. She turns his life around. He falls for a book agent who visits his store and becomes friends with the sheriff. A.J.'s life isn't easy but he is content with it. I thought this movie was bad. It started out ok. Then it fell apart after he adopted the girl. The acting isn't great. New plot points are randomly inserted into the story. They are meant to be dramatic but fall flat. It's like a bad Hallmark movie, but somehow worse.

Sunday: Double Feature- Man's Castle (1933) and Blood Diamond (2006)

       Man's Castle is about a drifter in New York named Bill. He works went he wants to and prefers to sleep under an open sky. He meets a young woman, Trina, who is down on her luck. She is recently homeless. Bill takes her under his wing. They eventually get a shack in Central Park. Trina does her best to make it a home. She loves Bill. He doesn't treat her very well. Always putting her down and threatening to leave. He does some nice things for her. For whatever reason she still love him and will do anything to be with him. This movie was alright. I mostly watched it because Spencer Tracy is in it. It's not a happy story necessarily. He is horrible to her yet she stays and somehow it has a happy ending.

       Blood Diamond is inspired by true events. During the mid 90s many countries in Africa are at war over the diamond trade. Many are killed. Many are made to work in the mines. Young boys are turned into soldiers. A fisherman named Solomon lives with his family in a village. The village is attacked. He is separated from his family and made to work in the mines. One day he finds a blood diamond. Solomon hides it. Then everyone is captured and sent to jail. A smuggler named Danny is in the same jail. He hears of the blood diamond and knows it's his way out of Africa. After Danny gets out of jail he uses his contacts to get Solomon out too. He has to convince and threaten Solomon to get him to show Danny where the diamond is. They have to travel far over war zones to get to it. I thought this movie was good. It was a horrible situation. It makes you never want to own diamond with there being a small chance it came from this situation. I mean I think most jewelry companies don't get there diamonds like that anymore. But you never know. I wasn't sure at first about Leonardo DiCaprio's (Danny) South African accent. But it wasn't too bad.

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