Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) in Movies
Jul 7, 2020
Max (Patton Oswalt) feels anxious and uneasy when his and Duke's (Eric Stonestreet) owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) marries and has a child, Liam (Henry Lynch). He quickly adjusts and grows to like him and develops a strong bond, however he also develops a complex (nervous itch/scratch) thinking of danger whenever Liam ventures outside. He's left with a cone on his head after visiting the vet but the cure for his neuroses just might be a family trip to the countryside.
This movie was fun and had some decent laughs but I feel it fell short of the original. Still if you liked the first one, you're sure to enjoy this one. As someone said, it's almost like a dog version of City Slickers, which is a really funny movie too. There were a welcome addition of new characters, and a lot of take a-ways, messages and themes built into what is supposed to be a kids film. My favorite is of course Snowball who somehow has changed from villain in the first movie to superhero in this one. I give this movie a 6/10.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Booksmart (2019) in Movies
Jul 7, 2020
Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are high school seniors and best friends. Molly confronts some of her peers when she overhears them making fun of her in the bathroom and tells them how she got into a good school. They, however, reveal that despite partying, they too got into good colleges. Angered, Molly tells Amy that they should have enjoyed their time in high school more and convinces her to go to an end-of-year party. Determined to make up for lost time, they decide to cram four years of fun into one night.
This movie was hilariously funny and full of funny relatable characters. It reminded me a lot of Superbad, but a female version. The main characters had awesome chemistry and you wind up liking them right away and the situations they find themselves in border on the absurd. This film definitely delivers on the laughs but it also makes some solid points about friendship and acceptance. It's full of femininity being that both the main characters, the director, and writers were all women, but I'm sure anyone would think this film is humorous. Olivia Wilde did an amazing job in her directorial debut.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Twisted Metal in Video Games
Mar 19, 2021
Gameplay: The game focuses heavily on multiplayer combat, including various online game modes with up to 4 player split-screen and 16-players online (the online gameplay was discontinued in early 2019). For example, the Nuke Mode is a new online game mode where the players choose a faction to play against an opposing faction. In this mode, each faction has a giant metal statue that is being held in the air by a helicopter, which the opposing team must try to destroy. In order to destroy these statues, the player must abduct the enemy team's leader, then sacrifice the leader to a missile launcher that will, in turn, launch a nuclear missile.
The person who sacrifices the leader and launches the missile has to control it to hit the opposing teams statue in the air. In order to win the opposing team has to repeat the process 3 times before the statue is destroyed for a team to win. There are four factions: the Clowns, the Dolls, the Skulls, and the Holy Men. The former having been announced as being inspired by Sweet Tooth and Dollface. The latter are led by Mr. Grimm and the Preacher respectively.
unfortunately this was the last game released in the main series. No new game has been released since 2012. I need my "Twisted Metal".
A great game and a excellent franchise.
Christine A. (965 KP) rated The Shadows in Books
Aug 24, 2020
While I have "read" audiobooks for years now, this is the first one I was given to review. Let me catch my breath before starting. Wow! OK. Wow! That needed to be said.
Alex North's "debut" novel, The Whisper Man, was a 2019 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller. When I finished reading it, I immediately added his second book, The Shadows, to my must-read list.
The narrators of The Shadows are Hannah Arterton and John Heffernan. The combination of North's writing and Arterton and Heffernan's narration provides a story that feels as if the narrators are the characters themselves, sitting by a fire, retelling North's story, and not merely reading the story. It is their narration that helps North bring the listener down the rabbit hole and ending up questioning everything they thought was true. I needed to reread sections to see how I could have gotten everything so wrong.
North is a British crime writer who has previously published under another name. According to Goodreads, this is Arterton's first narration. While Heffernan has narrated a few novels, he writes mostly for film and TV but also wrote Driver For The Dead, his first comic book series.
This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 7/14/20 and updated on 8/24/20.
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