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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated The Hummingbird Project (2018) in Movies
Jun 24, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)
The trailer for this offered a glimpse at something that looked intriguing but the final result wasn't quite as impactful as you might have imagined.
Vincent has the drive and cunning to launch a project that could make them millions, Anton is the brains to make it a success. In investment you have to be a step ahead of the competition, so the competition is where you'll get the best deal on the next big thing. When they both quit with immediate effect their boss is suspicious does everything to find out what they're up to. She eventually gets a break and is soon hot on their heels to come up with something bigger and better. The stakes are high and the game is dirty, but someone has to win.
The Hummingbird Project certainly didn't lack acting talent. While I've not seen much from Jesse Eisenberg apart from Lex Luthor in the DCEU I was impressed with what he gives in this, there are a lot of powerful moments as we get towards the end of the film and he treats them well. Alexander Skarsgård plays Anton, the awkward genius cousin who spends most of his time with his eyes glued to a computer screen. His role is heavy on physical acting rather than dialogue and it's very effective against the pushy characters around him.
The duo are pitted against their ex-boss, Eva Torres, beautifully brought to life as a ruthless villain by Salma Hayek. Hayek has the bitchy boss thing down and had she been talking at me with heavily threatening undertones I think I'd have just started crying.
I found the story easy to get along with, the script wasn't overly complicated which was nice considering it could have been with all the technical things going on. As the story overall is about them fulfilling their project it means that at several points we get reminders about what's going on, and that probably helps it because every so often they get out some plans and go "this is what we're doing and this is the problem" so you don't have to really remember much as we progress.
At points it seems like it's a little rushed, which is intriguing because it feels like it's longer than billed. I assumed that some scenes are included because they're a nod to the real-life story... but it isn't a real-life story... and that in itself should be the most confusing thing about this film. I genuinely went in thinking it was "history", but it's not history, so why did they bother making it? It's just not thrilling enough to hold up as a new story. If I'm honest, finding out it's fictional after thinking it was real has knocked off some star rating.
What you should do
There are much more thrilling tales out there for this sort of story, despite the good acting I would suggest seeing something else. Seeing something else would also preserve the beautiful image of Alexander Skarsgård from being tarnished.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
A multi-million dollar idea would be quite nice.
Vincent has the drive and cunning to launch a project that could make them millions, Anton is the brains to make it a success. In investment you have to be a step ahead of the competition, so the competition is where you'll get the best deal on the next big thing. When they both quit with immediate effect their boss is suspicious does everything to find out what they're up to. She eventually gets a break and is soon hot on their heels to come up with something bigger and better. The stakes are high and the game is dirty, but someone has to win.
The Hummingbird Project certainly didn't lack acting talent. While I've not seen much from Jesse Eisenberg apart from Lex Luthor in the DCEU I was impressed with what he gives in this, there are a lot of powerful moments as we get towards the end of the film and he treats them well. Alexander Skarsgård plays Anton, the awkward genius cousin who spends most of his time with his eyes glued to a computer screen. His role is heavy on physical acting rather than dialogue and it's very effective against the pushy characters around him.
The duo are pitted against their ex-boss, Eva Torres, beautifully brought to life as a ruthless villain by Salma Hayek. Hayek has the bitchy boss thing down and had she been talking at me with heavily threatening undertones I think I'd have just started crying.
I found the story easy to get along with, the script wasn't overly complicated which was nice considering it could have been with all the technical things going on. As the story overall is about them fulfilling their project it means that at several points we get reminders about what's going on, and that probably helps it because every so often they get out some plans and go "this is what we're doing and this is the problem" so you don't have to really remember much as we progress.
At points it seems like it's a little rushed, which is intriguing because it feels like it's longer than billed. I assumed that some scenes are included because they're a nod to the real-life story... but it isn't a real-life story... and that in itself should be the most confusing thing about this film. I genuinely went in thinking it was "history", but it's not history, so why did they bother making it? It's just not thrilling enough to hold up as a new story. If I'm honest, finding out it's fictional after thinking it was real has knocked off some star rating.
What you should do
There are much more thrilling tales out there for this sort of story, despite the good acting I would suggest seeing something else. Seeing something else would also preserve the beautiful image of Alexander Skarsgård from being tarnished.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
A multi-million dollar idea would be quite nice.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Boba Boss in Tabletop Games
Nov 21, 2019 (Updated Nov 21, 2019)
If you are a fan of Purple Phoenix Games then you probably know of our love affair with Happy Salmon. It’s an excellent dexterity card game and it just works in so many different situations. So when I saw the promo video for Boba Boss (linked below) I thought that we might have a contender on our hands. Was I right?
Boba Boss is a quick-playing modular action/dexterity card game of filling your orders for demanding customers of your delicious boba tea. You appease them by filling their order cups with brew, but your opponents are also trying to fill their cups as quickly as possible. Are you able to complete your orders before your competitors?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know if the final components will be similar or different, or if the Kickstarter campaign will alter or add anything through stretch goals. -T
To setup, you will need to decide which modules of the game you wish to incorporate. The game comes ready to play out of the box for an easier first game. I suggest you play this way to get familiar with how the game plays before you start adding in different modules. Or don’t. I’m not your mother.
Once the game is setup your objective is this: fill all your cups. You do this by frantically flipping cards from your deck hoping to get Straw cards. One straw will fill one cup. Two straws will fill two cups. Play needs to be brisk because the other players are flipping over cards as well and some of them will instruct the player to unflip (re-flip? Probably the same thing…) your readied tea card. This means that you must hope to flip over more straw cards to fill your cups.
There are three ways to play Boba Boss and they all have to do with the spill cards. These are cards that will have text on them in different colors. The three modes of play are identified by using three aspects of the spill cards: splatter color, text color, text text. So a spill card could have a red background (splatter color). If the round is played using splatter color and you flip over one with a red splatter color, you may unflip a readied red cup. The next round you may choose to play these cards with the text color. Each card will also have bubble text in different colors. So maybe that same red splatter card will have green text, so you would unflip a readied green tea card. And the final mode is text text. This means that same card may have the text in green but the word actually spells out “purple,” in which case you will unflip a purple player’s readied tea card. Play continues in this fashion until someone yells, “BOBA!” indicating they have two or less cups to fill. Once a player has filled all their cups they must yell, “BOBA BOSS!” And then they are crowned the victor.
This is just the base base game. Like I said, this game is modular in that you can add different dimensions of difficulty to it to have just a ridiculously confusing and frenzied play experience. One such module will add “optional flavors” to your game to increase the chaos and replayability. One example is shown below – “Karatea” (karate). When you draw and play Karatea you are to kick (flick) another player’s tea cup card where they will need to reset it to continue play. This just increases the time needed for the kicked player to win and just causes mayhem in the process. These extra flavor cards were provided to us but we just could not get all of them into play. The “Royaltea” and “Tea Rex” cards are favorites of ours.
Components. Again, we were provided with a prototype version of this game, so components may end up being very different from what we played with. This game is a box of a ton of cards. Thankfully the cards provided were glossy because they are handled A LOT. The glossy protection will help with survival of the game while being obsessively played. We appreciate that. The art is great on the cards, and the colors are fabulous. No issues with components from us, even in this prototype version.
As if we didn’t already have enough stress in our lives, along comes Boba Boss and makes us sweat in the first 60 seconds. This game is such an adrenaline rush as you are trying to fill customer orders for boba tea. Playing with three different game modes and tons of different cards to be added in modular fashion makes for an excellent balance of chaos and brain adaptation that you just don’t get anywhere else. Honestly, as you can see from our preview, we had so much fun playing that we didn’t have time to take photos of much of the game, but we hope in adding our photo along with a graphic and video from the publisher that you will forgive us. We are very excited to watch this Kickstarter campaign and hopefully our readers will give it a chance. It fills a unique niche and earns a place next to our beloved Happy Salmon. High praise for a great game.
Boba Boss is a quick-playing modular action/dexterity card game of filling your orders for demanding customers of your delicious boba tea. You appease them by filling their order cups with brew, but your opponents are also trying to fill their cups as quickly as possible. Are you able to complete your orders before your competitors?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know if the final components will be similar or different, or if the Kickstarter campaign will alter or add anything through stretch goals. -T
To setup, you will need to decide which modules of the game you wish to incorporate. The game comes ready to play out of the box for an easier first game. I suggest you play this way to get familiar with how the game plays before you start adding in different modules. Or don’t. I’m not your mother.
Once the game is setup your objective is this: fill all your cups. You do this by frantically flipping cards from your deck hoping to get Straw cards. One straw will fill one cup. Two straws will fill two cups. Play needs to be brisk because the other players are flipping over cards as well and some of them will instruct the player to unflip (re-flip? Probably the same thing…) your readied tea card. This means that you must hope to flip over more straw cards to fill your cups.
There are three ways to play Boba Boss and they all have to do with the spill cards. These are cards that will have text on them in different colors. The three modes of play are identified by using three aspects of the spill cards: splatter color, text color, text text. So a spill card could have a red background (splatter color). If the round is played using splatter color and you flip over one with a red splatter color, you may unflip a readied red cup. The next round you may choose to play these cards with the text color. Each card will also have bubble text in different colors. So maybe that same red splatter card will have green text, so you would unflip a readied green tea card. And the final mode is text text. This means that same card may have the text in green but the word actually spells out “purple,” in which case you will unflip a purple player’s readied tea card. Play continues in this fashion until someone yells, “BOBA!” indicating they have two or less cups to fill. Once a player has filled all their cups they must yell, “BOBA BOSS!” And then they are crowned the victor.
This is just the base base game. Like I said, this game is modular in that you can add different dimensions of difficulty to it to have just a ridiculously confusing and frenzied play experience. One such module will add “optional flavors” to your game to increase the chaos and replayability. One example is shown below – “Karatea” (karate). When you draw and play Karatea you are to kick (flick) another player’s tea cup card where they will need to reset it to continue play. This just increases the time needed for the kicked player to win and just causes mayhem in the process. These extra flavor cards were provided to us but we just could not get all of them into play. The “Royaltea” and “Tea Rex” cards are favorites of ours.
Components. Again, we were provided with a prototype version of this game, so components may end up being very different from what we played with. This game is a box of a ton of cards. Thankfully the cards provided were glossy because they are handled A LOT. The glossy protection will help with survival of the game while being obsessively played. We appreciate that. The art is great on the cards, and the colors are fabulous. No issues with components from us, even in this prototype version.
As if we didn’t already have enough stress in our lives, along comes Boba Boss and makes us sweat in the first 60 seconds. This game is such an adrenaline rush as you are trying to fill customer orders for boba tea. Playing with three different game modes and tons of different cards to be added in modular fashion makes for an excellent balance of chaos and brain adaptation that you just don’t get anywhere else. Honestly, as you can see from our preview, we had so much fun playing that we didn’t have time to take photos of much of the game, but we hope in adding our photo along with a graphic and video from the publisher that you will forgive us. We are very excited to watch this Kickstarter campaign and hopefully our readers will give it a chance. It fills a unique niche and earns a place next to our beloved Happy Salmon. High praise for a great game.
Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager: 2016
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Alpha Female's Guide to Men and Marriage
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Debbiereadsbook (1541 KP) rated To Catch a Dream in Books
Jul 6, 2021
i wanted Will and I dont get him!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
Caitlin starts a new job, and finds herself drooling over her boss. But with a rubbish childhood and still dealing with an abusive ex, she doesn't think she deserves anyone. But Will is determined, and more importantly, willing to wait for Caitlin.
OH! But for one teeny tiny thing, this would have been a 5 star! I'll get back to that, though.
Cat is still dealing with her abusive ex. He is stalking her and keeps turning up in random places, kicking her door in! So, quite rightly, she doesn't want to start anything, let alone with her boss. But Will is a sweetheart, and once he knows about the ex, he's willing to wait for Cat, as long as it takes.
I loved Cat! She's not perfect, she doesn't pretend to be, but she is working and playing hard. She wants to be rid of the ex, but he isn't taking any notice of her saying no. I LOVED Ben and Alex, Cat's best friends! Oh those guys are the BEST best friends a girl could wish for, made me wish for a male best friend! I love what they do to help her to recover from the ex. But as serious as that is, they are so much fun!
It's not especially steamy, as Cat herself finds out 😉. But that's not what this book is about. This book is about getting yourself free of a toxic relationship, giving yourself time to heal, and letting yourself love again, on YOUR terms. And it's about friendships that can help you do that, IF you let them. It's about falling in love again, when you really didn't expect to.
What that teeny tiny thing was? I wanted Will and I don't get him! He was, in his own words, smitten with Cat that first day, and he falls hard and fast, but HE doesn't tell me. And I wanted him to!
So, for that reason only. . .
4.5 stars, rounded UP for the blog!
**same worded review will appear elsehwere**
Caitlin starts a new job, and finds herself drooling over her boss. But with a rubbish childhood and still dealing with an abusive ex, she doesn't think she deserves anyone. But Will is determined, and more importantly, willing to wait for Caitlin.
OH! But for one teeny tiny thing, this would have been a 5 star! I'll get back to that, though.
Cat is still dealing with her abusive ex. He is stalking her and keeps turning up in random places, kicking her door in! So, quite rightly, she doesn't want to start anything, let alone with her boss. But Will is a sweetheart, and once he knows about the ex, he's willing to wait for Cat, as long as it takes.
I loved Cat! She's not perfect, she doesn't pretend to be, but she is working and playing hard. She wants to be rid of the ex, but he isn't taking any notice of her saying no. I LOVED Ben and Alex, Cat's best friends! Oh those guys are the BEST best friends a girl could wish for, made me wish for a male best friend! I love what they do to help her to recover from the ex. But as serious as that is, they are so much fun!
It's not especially steamy, as Cat herself finds out 😉. But that's not what this book is about. This book is about getting yourself free of a toxic relationship, giving yourself time to heal, and letting yourself love again, on YOUR terms. And it's about friendships that can help you do that, IF you let them. It's about falling in love again, when you really didn't expect to.
What that teeny tiny thing was? I wanted Will and I don't get him! He was, in his own words, smitten with Cat that first day, and he falls hard and fast, but HE doesn't tell me. And I wanted him to!
So, for that reason only. . .
4.5 stars, rounded UP for the blog!
**same worded review will appear elsehwere**
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Merissa (13332 KP) rated Destiny (The Academy #1) in Books
Jan 3, 2022
DESTINY is the first book in The Academy series, and we start off with Jamie leaving her job and life in the city to return to the town she left so abruptly several years earlier. You find out about her feeling trapped and the circumstances behind that, as well as about the situation with her job and boss. Upon her return to town, she tries to mend fences with her ex-boyfriend and ex-best-friend, and there is also Wren to contend with.
Whilst I enjoyed the story, I can't say as I was enthralled by it. Jamie seems like she runs on something other than logic or feelings. I don't even know what. She makes major, life-changing, decisions without thinking them through, as well as ghosting people because she can't deal. Then she swings like a pendulum from Liam, the ex-boss/boyfriend, to Wren. She sleeps with both and yet says she is taking things slowly.
Apart from Jamie (which admittedly is a big part of the book!) I enjoyed the story. I liked the back story of the Lady in the Woods and the Wolf Spirits. I want to know more about the prophecy, about Wren, even more about Jamie's mum and Edward. But most of all, what I really want, is for Jamie to choose Wren and leave Liam behind. Although he's done 'nothing' wrong, the author has written this to make you have doubts about him. He's simply too good, considering how he was before. I don't like him, so there! LOL
As the first book in a series, I expect to have questions left unanswered, and I am looking forward to continuing with this series to find them out. I really hope Jamie makes her mind up soon. I do recommend this book but will also give a love-triangle warning if that's not your thing.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Whilst I enjoyed the story, I can't say as I was enthralled by it. Jamie seems like she runs on something other than logic or feelings. I don't even know what. She makes major, life-changing, decisions without thinking them through, as well as ghosting people because she can't deal. Then she swings like a pendulum from Liam, the ex-boss/boyfriend, to Wren. She sleeps with both and yet says she is taking things slowly.
Apart from Jamie (which admittedly is a big part of the book!) I enjoyed the story. I liked the back story of the Lady in the Woods and the Wolf Spirits. I want to know more about the prophecy, about Wren, even more about Jamie's mum and Edward. But most of all, what I really want, is for Jamie to choose Wren and leave Liam behind. Although he's done 'nothing' wrong, the author has written this to make you have doubts about him. He's simply too good, considering how he was before. I don't like him, so there! LOL
As the first book in a series, I expect to have questions left unanswered, and I am looking forward to continuing with this series to find them out. I really hope Jamie makes her mind up soon. I do recommend this book but will also give a love-triangle warning if that's not your thing.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!