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Too Much Pressure by Selecter / Selector
7.0
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Album
The Selecter were one of the key bands of the ska revival in the late '70s and one of the few...
How It Should Have Ended
6.0
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YouTube Channel
Welcome to How it Should Have Ended! A place for animated parody alternate endings to major motion...
Two Man Advantage (Point Shot #1)
Book
3 Hours, Unabridged Version Victor Kalinski, all-star forward for the Boston Barracudas, is one...
Contemporary Sports MM Romance
The Crimson Skew (The Mapmakers Trilogy #3)
7.0
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Book
The final volume in S.E. Grove’s stunning, bestselling Mapmakers trilogy. At the end of The...
alternate universe time travel
Sarah (7798 KP) rated Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) in Movies
Dec 28, 2018 (Updated Dec 28, 2018)
A brilliant concept
Black Mirror is one of those series that is very divisive, people either seem to love it or hate it. I absolutely adore it. I love the bleak, technology driven alternate reality based stories, it’s fascinating and a worrying insight into what our future could become. I only found out yesterday that they were releasing this feature length standalone on Netflix, and when I found out it was a ‘choose your own ending’ type story, I couldn’t have been more excited. And it really does not disappoint.
The choose your own adventure style is flawless. I was worried it’d be clunky, slow or disrupt the flow of the scene, but it really is immaculate. The scene carries on while you choose, and choosing is simple, although you do have to be quite quick. It starts off with a few innocuous choices but then soon descends into ones that are a lot darker, and in some cases a lot funnier too. When you get to whatever ending you’ve reached, it allows you to go back and change some of your choices to see how the outcome would’ve differed, exactly like you’d do if you were reading a choose your ending Goosebumps book - flicking back and choosing a different option. On watching some of the alternate options, I soon realised some of the ones I’d picked were the best choices!
The plot itself is interesting and relevant, and also very meta as the story goes along, which for me really helped involve me as a watcher. There are some very bleak, gruesome and funny moments in this, which is really exactly what you’d expect from Charlie Brooker and even gets you questioning your own reality. Fionn Whitehead is great as Stefan, after this and Dunkirk he’s sure to do well. My only negative is that the story seemed to unfold very slowly in parts, but this could have all been down to the choices I made.
This is a fantastic concept for Black Mirror, and I’d love to see it used in other parts of the series. Albeit very sparingly, as it is something that could get old quite quickly if overused. But for Bandersnatch, it was a delight to watch, and take part.
The choose your own adventure style is flawless. I was worried it’d be clunky, slow or disrupt the flow of the scene, but it really is immaculate. The scene carries on while you choose, and choosing is simple, although you do have to be quite quick. It starts off with a few innocuous choices but then soon descends into ones that are a lot darker, and in some cases a lot funnier too. When you get to whatever ending you’ve reached, it allows you to go back and change some of your choices to see how the outcome would’ve differed, exactly like you’d do if you were reading a choose your ending Goosebumps book - flicking back and choosing a different option. On watching some of the alternate options, I soon realised some of the ones I’d picked were the best choices!
The plot itself is interesting and relevant, and also very meta as the story goes along, which for me really helped involve me as a watcher. There are some very bleak, gruesome and funny moments in this, which is really exactly what you’d expect from Charlie Brooker and even gets you questioning your own reality. Fionn Whitehead is great as Stefan, after this and Dunkirk he’s sure to do well. My only negative is that the story seemed to unfold very slowly in parts, but this could have all been down to the choices I made.
This is a fantastic concept for Black Mirror, and I’d love to see it used in other parts of the series. Albeit very sparingly, as it is something that could get old quite quickly if overused. But for Bandersnatch, it was a delight to watch, and take part.
Joe Julians (221 KP) rated The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) in Movies
Feb 6, 2018
Solid performances (1 more)
Great effects
The Cloverfield link (1 more)
Muddled story
Not a long review for this one as I can't think of too much to say about it. There's a great movie here somewhere, the first half in particular sets up a solid space adventure that looks to really focus on the intriguing alternate reality concept it presents. But this ends up becoming muddled and not overly interesting. The cast are fne and the script has moments of greatness, but a lot of this is just a bit dull and not as gripping as it could have been.
As for the Cloverfield part, well it seems that this was never meant to have a connection at all. It seems all too apparent that all the links to the franchise were included later through reshoots and as such, it's all a muddled mess by the time the credits roll. It's a sometimes good space movie, but a pretty shoddy Cloverfield movie. Marketing wise though, the release of this was genuius. It's just a shame that hype vanishes once the movie concludes.
As for the Cloverfield part, well it seems that this was never meant to have a connection at all. It seems all too apparent that all the links to the franchise were included later through reshoots and as such, it's all a muddled mess by the time the credits roll. It's a sometimes good space movie, but a pretty shoddy Cloverfield movie. Marketing wise though, the release of this was genuius. It's just a shame that hype vanishes once the movie concludes.
The Marinated Meeple (1848 KP) rated The Departed (2006) in Movies
Apr 2, 2018
Leonardo Dicaprio (4 more)
Matt Damon
Jack Nicholson
The direction is superb
Dialog is gritty and great.
A great 2 sided coin spinning on the edge of a 3rd story window...
This shouldn't be the first oscar Scorsese wins, but tragedies happen every day I guess... That said this is deserving of the honor, more so than most oscar winners. The Cat and Rat runaround is interesting to watch unfold. plus lines like "I'm the guy who does his job, you must be the other guy." make this a great watch.
A little bit of trivia:Martin Scorsese did not realize this was a remake of a Hong Kong movie until after he had agreed to direct it. It's the only remake of a foreign film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Martin Scorsese said that he was surprised the film had won, because the film is such a tough, nasty, and violent film, he never thought about the idea of awards while he was filming it.
Here's some great alternate movie posters to enjoy as well.
A little bit of trivia:Martin Scorsese did not realize this was a remake of a Hong Kong movie until after he had agreed to direct it. It's the only remake of a foreign film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Martin Scorsese said that he was surprised the film had won, because the film is such a tough, nasty, and violent film, he never thought about the idea of awards while he was filming it.
Here's some great alternate movie posters to enjoy as well.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Astronaut's Wife (1999) in Movies
Feb 26, 2018
Turgid obstetric-horror SF movie from the days before Johnny Depp rode his Keith Richards impersonation to global superstardom. Depp goes off into space, comes back (maybe) possessed by aliens; on his return Theron is unsettled by his odd behaviour, especially when it turns out she has been impregnated by this guy.
Basically Quatermass meets Rosemary's Baby, only not as good as that sounds. Not very much happens for long periods of time, apart from regular close-ups of Theron's toes; vague atmosphere of stately menace doesn't make up for the lack of real scares, thrills, or ideas. Charlize Theron, at the age of 24, carries the movie as well as can be expected in the circumstances, Depp is all over the place. In the end the plot turns out to be a cigarette paper's width away from being total gibberish; the DVD has two alternate endings, neither of which is much cop. Gynaecologists with an interest in foot fetishism will probably love it - everyone else, not so much.
Basically Quatermass meets Rosemary's Baby, only not as good as that sounds. Not very much happens for long periods of time, apart from regular close-ups of Theron's toes; vague atmosphere of stately menace doesn't make up for the lack of real scares, thrills, or ideas. Charlize Theron, at the age of 24, carries the movie as well as can be expected in the circumstances, Depp is all over the place. In the end the plot turns out to be a cigarette paper's width away from being total gibberish; the DVD has two alternate endings, neither of which is much cop. Gynaecologists with an interest in foot fetishism will probably love it - everyone else, not so much.
BookwormMama14 (18 KP) rated Behemoth (Leviathan, #2) in Books
Jan 2, 2019
As the world plunges into The Great War, the Leviathan travels to the Ottoman Empire in hopes of keeping the peace with the Emperor. Follow Deryn and Alek as they travel around the world. These books abound with secret missions, new beasts and machines, hidden lies and truths that are (FINALLY) revealed and many historical figures encountered. As you may have guessed, I have a problem with binge reading. When I find a series that I am IN LOVE with, I won't stop until I am finished! However, most of the time I need to wait six months to a year before the next installment. Thankfully that was not the case with Mr. Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan Trilogy. My favorite beastie by far is the perspicacious loris. I want one!!! It was so much fun reading this alternate history of WWI. Learning a few interesting details about the war that did in fact happen along the way. Although Mr. Westerfeld has made some definite changes to history in this book, it was very entertaining and engrossing. I love the whole idea behind this series.
Science: The Peculiar Science Behind the Movies
Book
Just like you, Dr Michael Brooks and Rick Edwards have watched movies and been sucked into those...