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A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
2017 | Comedy
Christmas is the happiest time of the year. At least it’s supposed to be, Moms are expected to work tirelessly throughout the Christmas season to ensure that the holiday is absolute perfection for their families. The gifts are to be wrapped with precision, decorations hanging from every available bough, food that could be lifted from the pages of Bon Appétit magazine, all done without breaking a sweat. Tis the season for family and frolic, yet our Bad Moms are stressed beyond their imagination this holiday season. Why? Because their mothers have arrived.

This Christmas, Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell) and Carla (Kathryn Hahn) are enter the holiday season feeling the pressure of Christmas present. With all that need to be done, they agree that this is the Christmas where they make the rules. Amy decides that they are going to have a low key holiday. However, that goes against the everything Ruth (Christine Baranski), Amy’s mom believes and expects as she arrives in a tornado of holiday perfection, trailed by her blissfully oblivious husband Hank (Peter Gallagher). Ruth is a perfectionist, a task master extraordinaire who expects no less from her child. Amy, tired of trying to get her mother’s approval, decides to change the traditions.

 Kiki’s Mom Sandy (Cheryl Hines) is the clinging, overbearing type who’s behavior could be classified as stalker; if she were not Kiki’s mom. Sandy’s need to be close to her daughter crosses the comfort zone in so many ways. Kiki decides to see Dr. Karl (Wanda Sykes), the family therapist, who explains the maternal process of insanity in hilariously truthful detail.

Isis (Susan Sarandon) shows up at Carla’s house unexpectedly. She seems to only show up at Carla’s door when she has run out of money. She is on the other side of the maternal spectrum, the hands off type. Carla has had to fend for herself for years and expects her mother to take off without a moment’s notice.

I enjoyed the first Bad Moms, but I was hesitant to watch the sequel because there was a chance that it would not be as good as the first. I quite surprised by how much I enjoyed the movie. It made me snort laugh more than once. This is the perfect movie for a Girls Night Out. Grab your BFFs and head to the theater to take a break this holiday season!
  
The Last Black Unicorn
The Last Black Unicorn
Tiffany Haddish | 2018 | Biography
7
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I've been wanting to read this book ever since I saw Haddish's interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. This woman is HILARIOUS. Somehow I didn't realize she was in the movie Girls Night until I read about it in her book - I really do need to see that movie. That aside, this book was pretty great. It's written in her speaking style, so it's not technically correct grammar, but it SOUNDS right, which is more important in a memoir, in my opinion. It's supposed to show the author's personality, and this does.

I don't know that I'd put this on quite the same level as Trevor Noah's Born A Crime, or Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy, but it's not far behind them. Haddish talks about her childhood in the foster system and then raised by her grandmother, her string of no-good boyfriends, and her abusive marriage. She's had a rough life, but somehow she's come out of it with a gift for comedy and a grounded personality.

Her swamp tour with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith is one of the most hilarious stories in the book, and one of the few that is purely funny. Most of them are underscored with a serious issue that make me feel a little bad for laughing at them, but Haddish laughs at them, so how can you not? It's an interesting conflict that leaves me with slightly mixed feelings about the book.

It's a pretty quick, easy, fun read, and if you like Tiffany Haddish, it definitely shows what she's gone through to get where she is now.

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
  
It (2017)
It (2017)
2017 | Drama, Horror
8
7.9 (355 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The best way to describe the most recent adaption of Stephen King's It, is that it feels like a ghost train.
It's one scene after the next of spooky imagery and mild jump scares - it's not overly terrifying, but it's an enjoyable time.

I didn't find It to be particularly scary - there were parts here and there that were uncomfortable (the old woman in the background of the library scene - no focus on her whatsoever, but it gave me chills) and of course, the already infamous scene at the beginning with Georgie is hard to watch considering the age of the child.

But it's lack of all out terror is not a bad thing - the movie can concentrate on a hugely important aspect of the original book - the friendship shared betweens The Losers Club.
The young actors in this are great, all hugely believable, and likable, as they set off on their quest to stop Pennywise and his reign over the town of Derry.

In a world transfixed with Stranger Things, the atmosphere of It treads familiar turf, the 80s setting hitting the right nostalgic spots.

Bill Skarsgård makes a great Pennywise. He doesn't try to copy what the great Tim Curry did in the original TV movie, he makes it his own. He's not quite as sinister as Tim Curry, but he's damn entertaining, and his costume and make up make for a creepy enough clown.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming Chapter 2, to see if Andy Muschietti can pull off the ending as well as he pulled off the beginning.
  
Batman: Return to Arkham
Batman: Return to Arkham
2017 | Action/Adventure
You get to be Batman (3 more)
Voices of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill
Both storylines are worthy of any comic book or movie
Just everything about it
You’ll play City more then Asylum. (0 more)
I’ll get committed to this Asylum any day.
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was never a fan of these sort of games but it came out and I love it. You’ve got the best Batman and the best Joker in 2 of the best games I’ve ever played. Asylum you are stuck to Arkham Island and there isnt much you can do, City I feel is the best, more characters, more gadgets, more abilities, bigger environment, bigger bad guys to fight, loads more trophies. There also is side missions ranging from helping Bane to facing off against Deadshot. What I really love is that no character is the same from previous movies or TV series, I mean Poison Ivy is seriously fit, Freeze looks futuristic, Catwoman looks like a prostitute, you can play as Catwoman, challenges on both Games are good, city’s is tougher though. If you love a good game or a fan of the Dark Knight like me, you won’t be disappointed
  
Rings (2017)
Rings (2017)
2017 | Horror
1
3.8 (21 Ratings)
Movie Rating
EVERYTHING!!!! (0 more)
Why?!??!
This review is being written mid film... Because I don't know if I can finish it.
So far it's been horrible...
If some of you can remember, Johnny Galecki was in I Know What You Did Last Summer, playing a semi bad character who was battling for Jennifer Love Hewitt's affection... And he sucked at it.
Fast forward ten years and he's been playing The Big Bang Theory's Leonard Hoffsteader, a super intelligent physicist with a witty sense of humor... Now stick another ten years on it and he's playing a professor who watches the dreaded tape of Samara Morgan's and is cursed with death... But it seems allot does is make him an asshole... The man is not made to play these types of roles... He's just too nice...
So I'm not sure if I can find his portrayal genuine.
.I haven't jumped, screamed or had my heart race once during this film. It is a waste of time and space...
If I could rewind my life and take back the time, I would've picked something else... Hell I would've rather watched the emoji movie than this. Probably would've been more entertaining.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Anon (2018) in Movies

May 14, 2018 (Updated May 14, 2018)  
Anon (2018)
Anon (2018)
2018 | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Anon Starter
Well-styled but ultimately sluggish, laborious and derivative sci-fi thriller. Clive Owen plays a troubled cop in a somewhat dystopian future where (basically) attaching everyone's audio-visual sensory centres to the internet has eliminated crime. Or has it? Someone has come up with a way of editing themselves out of the system, allowing them to kill with impunity.

A decent idea, I suppose, but rather implausible and also not nearly as original as everyone seems to think; the thriller plotline is largely neglected in favour of ruminations on the nature of fact and truth, secrecy and privacy, guilt and memory: none of these produce any insights or anything really memorable, and the film's pretensions to being a serious movie are kind of undermined by the gratuitous nudity required of many of the female cast. Looks okay, and Owen is always watchable, of course, but I was waiting impatiently for it to end well before it actually did. I'll choose an interesting bad film over a boring one any day of the week, and Anon's worst crime is that it's simply really dull.
  
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Sam (228 KP) rated Avatar (2009) in Movies

Mar 3, 2019  
Avatar (2009)
Avatar (2009)
2009 | Action, Comedy, Mystery
Beautiful Animation (2 more)
Interesting combination of reality and the animation
Thorough Story
Predictable Plotline (0 more)
A Whole New World
The combination of reality meets animation creates this beautiful masterpiece as you find yourself exploring a whole new world. Personally I don't think this film gets enough appreciation for just how much was put into this film and how much it holds up not only in the design but in the story itself. Although I'll agree with many that the whole film follows a very straightforward and predictable plotline that we've seen across the board from Pocahontas to Dances with Wolves this particular version offers a whole new realm of exploration around it as well as an interesting dynamic between the good and bad on both sides of the fight. Plus I find this movie is more focused on the curious new world and becoming apart of it ourselves as the audience, this plotline is merely one of the guides offered to present this world to us on the screen and my oh my what a world it was. Filled with beauty and diversity and unimaginable creations, this is a world anyone would love to see.
  
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David (771 KP) rated Logan (2017) in Movies

Jan 17, 2018  
Logan (2017)
Logan (2017)
2017 | Action, Adventure
Banter between Jackman & Stewart's characters (0 more)
Very different from other X-men films
I sat at home to watch this not knowing much about it except the synopsis on screen. Watched the colour version rather than the film noir version. As my title says it's not like other X-men films with it's bloody violence and bad language as the previous films were aimed at a younger audience (in my opinion). The film was fast paced and gave us a little back story on how Prof X and Wolverine got to where they are now. As I am used to him in humorous roles, Stephen Merchants character was a surprise showing that he can step out of his comfort zone. The actress that played Lauren was fantastic even though she didn't speak for the first half of the film. She would be a great evil spirit in a ghost/horror movie as she has a very good deadpan glare that looks straight through you (chilling). I am not going to do spoilers, I will say that I would watch the film again maybe even the film noir version.
  
The Last Templar
The Last Templar
Raymond Khoury | 2006 | Thriller
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
It's an O.K. Read, But...
...but. It's not riveting. I had no problems putting it down and going to do other things. In fact I stopped for a day half-way through and read an entire other book. That said, I had no problems picking it up again.

The writing style is a bit unsophisticated. It seems to swing between slightly out-of-synch passages of 'Historical Travelogue' and 'Something That Was Written With The Movie in Mind' - screaming Hollywood-esq car chases, murderous priests etc.

In it's favour the theory it puts forward is intriguing and over-all the story is well-paced and well presented. Unfortunatly parts of the plot only stand up if you read them with one eye shut, from behind a pillow, and some of the arguments are highly dubious to say the least (e.g: people can only be good, kind and charitable if inspired to be by religion; Christianity was the first religion to preach love not hate)

All in all, it's not a bad read but if you have to budget your 'book allowance' I'd suggest getting it from a library or borrowing it from a friend.
  
Eat Locals (2017)
Eat Locals (2017)
2017 | Comedy, Horror
5
5.8 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Strong cast (0 more)
Doesn't live up to its billing (0 more)
One of those can't decide good or bad movies
Every now and then a movie comes along that you don't really know what to say or think about it... This is one of those films, a strong cast that wouldn't have been out of place in an early Guy Ritchie film, fills you with promise, but it feels very rushed in its storytelling, not really giving you time to work out who the characters are and what the significance of their meeting in a remote farmhouse is and to that point why and how the "Vampire hunting elite squad" knows where this meeting is yet not how many there are, other than they have one target they are after...
Don't get me wrong I did enjoy it, I'm just not quite sure why! if you like comedy horror Cockneys vs Zombies does it better, but the sight of Victor Meldrew's wife (Annette Crosbie) going from knitting in the kitchen to wielding an automatic weapon does leave you somewhat satisfied...

I think this is one that people would really need to make up their own mind on.