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Insurgent
Insurgent
Veronica Roth | 2013 | Children, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.3 (59 Ratings)
Book Rating
Original Review posted on <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2013/01/review-insurgent-by-veronica-roth.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>.

     YAYYYYY. Le Book Club decided to go straight to Insurgent after reading Divergent. Of course, I probably would've read it right before the book came out so I wouldn't be all "anticipation is killing me!!!" But a bookworm never runs out of books to read, so I'll just sit back, chillax and wait. And wait. And wait. Until the 3rd and final book finally comes out at last so I can beg my mom to go to the bookstore JUST so I can buy it. (I can always wait for the library though.) I mean, come on. Drastic cliff-hanger there. It's agonizing. Too agonizing.

     There are lots of shocking secrets here too. For one thing, WHY, CALEB, WHY?!?!?! I'm not even gonna say what he did for those who haven't read it. I just thought I was walking on my bedroom ceiling for a few minutes there when I read it. Of course... I wasn't. Or I would see clothes littering the ceiling and whatever's on the floor (not necessarily clothes). Oh, and Peter. Wow. Just wow. -_- But hey, without that, who knows what would've happened? But I am glad to say there are some peeps that are well, good riddance to them.

     I didn't get what the title really meant at first. It didn't even make sense, in my opinion. Until later. Until it was explained (kinda). But oy, what a way to end. Totally unexpected. As much as I'm a bit exhausted with Dystopian Fiction (believe me, there are probably a lot that are lurking on my Kindle App and I have no clue about. Or do I?), I'll say Insurgent was a delightful read. On the overall end, I kinda liked Divergent more. By no means of bashing whatsoever, it was more... unique from The Hunger Games (I guess that applies to all first books in a series), in the means of corrupted government.

     But what can I say? Perks to Veronica Roth for creating a unique world with it's own unique parts. :3

     And now, I have to wait. And wait. And wait. For a few months. Or is it? *checks date on Goodreads* Oh facepalm. More than a few months. Oh wait, it comes out 10 days after I'm 16! Hey, when's the choosing ceremony for us? :p
  
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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated World War Z (2013) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019 (Updated Aug 6, 2019)  
World War Z (2013)
World War Z (2013)
2013 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
World War Z - the movie that finally dared to make the zombie genre family friendly.
That premise sounds horrible on paper, but somehow, it's not too bad!
Zombie films as a rule of thumb, tend to have a slow build up, before all hell breaks loose, and were treated to over the top violence and gore.
Not the case here... WWZ takes no time at all to kick off, as Brad Pitt and his family find themselves stuck in traffic when the shit hits that fan. Were less than 5 minutes in at this time.
As mentioned, the gore is kept to a minimum, but that didn't bother me. WWZ is more a disaster film than horror, but instead of a tidal wave or a hurricane, the threat are the undead.
And there a lot of them. The zombies here run fast, and in huge numbers, making for some true spectacles as they climb on top of each other to climb buildings etc.
There are two set pieces that are particularly eye catching. The scene in Jerusalem, and the scene on the plane, are both pretty full on and entertaining.
The last quarter of the film is a bit puzzling.
After the aforementioned set pieces, the film really slows down for the last 25 minutes. It's not necessarily a bad move, but just a bit...odd for a Hollywood blockbuster.
The film ends rather abruptly (after feeling a little overlong) and on a freeze frame no less (shoot me now).

The cast are pretty good for the most part - I'm an absolutely unashamed fan of Brad Pitt. I've never seen him play a bad part, so his involvement was always going to be a winner for me.

I've never read the book of WWZ but from what I've heard, the movie sharply deviates from it, pretty much only sharing the title.
From what I've gathered about the books layout, it seems that the film could have explored so much more - it may even suit a series rather than a movie.

WWZ is not much more than a dumb, Hollywood action film, with a couple of jump scares thrown in, but it's pretty entertaining here and there.
And with David Fincher in the directors chair for a future sequel, I'm up for what comes next.
  
The Promise by Bruce Springsteen
The Promise by Bruce Springsteen
2010 | Pop, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
7.8 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Around this time I started heading out on tour and The Gaslight Anthem really started moving. It was just after The ’59 Sound came out. That was when I started learning about the music industry and how it all works, and how insincere it all is. People pick you up and spit you out. I was taking a drive one day and I heard The Promise by Bruce Springsteen come on the radio. But it wasn’t the album version; it was just him and a piano as it appears on an album called 18 Tracks.” This song opens with the lyrics: ‘Johnny works in a factory / Billy works downtown / Terry works in a rock and roll band / Looking for that million dollar sound.’ Then towards the end of the song he says: ‘The promise was broken, I was far away from home / Sleeping in the back seat of a borrowed car.’ I remember being on tour and sleeping in the back of a car that wasn’t mine, and I heard that line and I was like, ‘I don’t know about this whole thing. I don’t know if this is right. What do I do?’ As Springsteen sings: ‘The promise is broken, you go on living / It steals something from down in your soul.’ That’s when I realised that music wasn’t about the rock star dream. It’s about connecting with people, but that’s not enough for the industry. They see you as a product and they want you to make money, and I understand that, but it’s never enough for them. They’re never satiated and they’re never satisfied. It’s a beast with a belly that will never be filled. “I’d feel a sense of dissatisfaction after every tour and I’d come home and get in my van and just drive. I’d drive around habitually for one hour playing The Promise on repeat, just to clear my head. The song made me feel like I wasn’t alone, like someone understood me. It was a huge, huge song for my development, and it always put me back in a perspective that I wasn’t alone. And even though it’s a depressing song and there’s not a lot of advice in it, it makes sense to me. I still feel good when I listen to that song."

Source
  
I got this one, too, as a freebie from Amazon a week or two ago for the UF/PR A-Z Challenge on Goodreads.

This starts with Ryker trying to escape from fellow fae who are trying to force him into going to the Bramble Edge Academy to start his training. He's resisting after his mum tells him tales of abuse and strange treatments but he ends up being captured and starting at the academy. A week or so later Maurelle is also captured after her powers manifest but her mum is killed in the process. Neither of them are happy at the academy but neither put up much of a fight against the strict headmistress and they don't understand why. Then they decide to investigate.

This had a different description which drew me in. Humans are in charge and fae are classed as a lower form of being, forced to live in squalor and in the edges of big cities. The academies are run by the humans and fae who leave the schools are only too happy to work under them. It was a puzzle to me just why that was.

Unfortunately though, it was taking a long time to get where it was going. I think if the plot had sped up a little or had a little more excitement going for it, I would have been very into this. As I mentioned above, it did have a promising premise but it was failing to grab me. I got to a point where I didn't want to pick this up anymore.

As for the writing. Well, it felt a little stilted at times. They may be fae but what teen talks like they were doing in this? Their actions were more teenager like than their words most of the time. The sentences didn't always read the best, either:

"They turned down another street and she was surprised to see a number of Fae out and about still this late at night."

"The moment she noticed he blended with the shadows that ended and reality came back."

I'm sure some people will love this but I like a good bit of action in my paranormal books and there hadn't been any in those first 36%. I was a little disappointed.
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Dane Cook: Vicious Circle (2006) in Movies

Dec 5, 2020 (Updated Dec 6, 2020)  
Dane Cook: Vicious Circle (2006)
Dane Cook: Vicious Circle (2006)
2006 | Comedy
DANEgerous Edition

Less a stand-up show and more an event where you get to watch a manic cokehead scream at the top of his lungs and convulse around a small circular stage in front of a packed, sports-arena-esque crowd for nearly 2 hours and 15 minutes - one of the most breathless and impossible-to-look-away-from things I've ever seen. Say what you will about him, but he'll die before he loses your attention - it felt like *I* burned calories after watching him writhe, sweat, and shriek about for this long. Before Chappelle's similarly hit-or-miss 𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘴 & 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴, this was arguably the most divisive stand-up special out there - most people either swore by it as one of the greats, or lambasted it as a stain on the legacy of comedy itself. It's hard to remember, but there was a time Cook was a megastar - the same year this special aired he was listed in TIME Magazine's "Top 100 Most Influential People In the World" alongside industry titans Meryl Streep and George Clooney. Outside of maybe Bam Margera I don't think any other sole entertainer represented the crass ode to reckless debauchery that was the mid-2000s quite like this guy; it's beguilingly bizarre almost solely as a piece of a pop culture time capsule alone. Though on its own merits this shockingly holds up a lot more than expected, not always funny (does some cringe 2006 shit like having two women make out on stage while Dane watches for no reason and a rather uncomfortable segment where he seemingly makes a young lady flash her breasts onstage) but home to a satiable amount of hearty chuckles and an exuberant energy that can't be denied even well past the two hour mark. Laden with dead-on observations, colossal vulgarity, intense (and super idiosyncratic) physicality, oddly cerebral camerawork + editing, and guttural cries unlike any other set I've seen... then after all that he comes back on the stage with an acoustic guitar to fucking *sing* - this is the human body being put to its endurance test as a comedic performer. A great time even if some of the jokes get drawn out way past the point of repair - what I can only describe as unforgettable, often really fucking funny, spastically aroused hyperspecificity. Nearly top-to-bottom infectious in spite of its whiffs.
  
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