This was a very enjoyable read. Overall quite entertaining, would recommend to those who enjoy thrillers/murder mysteries. Even if there is no mystery to who committed the murders. Also, I suspect the director of the Black Mirror episode "The National Anthem" read this book once upon a time...

Es un libro que me recomendó un amigo ya que tenía una temática y un humor bastante parecido al nuestro. La verdad que es un libro entretenido y con un final muy inesperado.

n  Come on, man! It doesn't get any better than this. The king of Hollywood, two mass murderers, a dying Playboy centrefold, a rinsed-out old hag of an ex-wife, a spoilt, sexy little weeping teen, blood, guns.. We've got it all! n

Damn right. Violence as a form of entertainment. And meaningful art. According to Bruce Delamitri anyway. A hotshot director of brutal movies who is about to get a taste of his own medicine. Cold-blooded murderers. In his own house. How ya like it now, Brucey? Still digging the irony? Guess not. I did though. Bruce has a delicious temper, I'm pretty sure these two natural born killers would get a thumbs-up from Oliver Stone and the humor bounces back and forth between satirical and sarcasm, black and deadpan. It made me think of Pulp Fiction as well. I had a good, good time with this one.

Giving this 3 stars is probably slightly harsh, there’s an argument to be had that it’s a 3.5 rather than a 3. But I don’t feel this is Ben Elton’s best work.

The story is enjoyable, but it feels like the ending was slightly rushed in favour of fitting more narrative and dialogue around the reason why events are transpiring. Slightly disappointed at the lack of a truly satisfying payoff at the end.

I recently read Dead Famous and enjoyed it immensely. I’ve a lot of time for Ben Elton (he’s written some of the finest comedies Britain has ever produced) but this book does pale in comparison to that. Give it a read though, it’s still a decent piece of work.

Synopsis: do violent films have an influence on real life? Grab some popcorn and this book and make up your own mind.

Fun to read. Good holiday book.

This is the first book I’ve read that made me feel tense and laugh out loud at the same time.

Very well written by a brilliant author

Oddly enough violent crime has diminished, even in America, over the last 20 years.

This is a satirical story that looks at how people are able to shirk all responsibility for their actions by placing the blame on someone or something else. In this case how violence in movies is often blamed for the actions of violent people who watch them. It also deals with how the news channels cover acts of violence and how they pump it into our homes. This is a particularly poignant and reinforcing message about the way that the news has covered the current atrocity of the Las Vagas killings and is precisely what Ben Elton was writing about (checks publication date) twenty years ago.
The story itself gets a little lost behind the message but is reasonably thrilling.

Blown-up satire of Tarantino. It has its moments, particulary when the question is of the American lifestyle.

This author is crazy, as his characters... but the subject is interesting, and the conclusion well written.
Three stars because of the many gruesome scenes - both real and filmed (and the lack of distinction is the fulcrum of the whole story)

Elton has quite a following in the UK but is pretty much unknown in the US. Primarily a novelist, here he's taken a 300+ page novel and condensed it into a two-hour play - and it's still somewhat one-note and bloated - a Tarantino-esque film director gets a taste of his own medicine when two psycho killers show up at his house on the same night he wins an Oscar. Still, the set-up is clever and there are a modicum of funny lines.

Pretty okay. I must admit for the most of the first third I was pushing on only for not wanting to quit.

The first third employs a clever back and forth in time narrative structure which is enjoyable, although it does spoil the end some what. The latter half is more chronologically simple, but the tense nature of the plot carries this forward well.

The plot and the situation the characters find themselves in is the real boon of this book. The characters suck and aren’t particularly nice people to have to spend time with. Some of the writing comes across as puerile and jarring. Maybe that’s intentional, maybe that’s 1990s Eurotrash style humour. In 2021, it seems unnecessary.

I’d looked forward to reading this, be it from the writer who scripted Blackadder and The Thin Blue Line. This is a lesser cousin and one, now read, I’ll immediately give to the charity shop.