Search

Search only in certain items:

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
Almost everything (0 more)
It's clearly one half of a full story (0 more)
Thanos is badass
Starring - EVERYONE!! (almost)

Plot - Mad Titan Thanos is hunting down the infinity stones to add to his gauntlet so he can kill half the universe. Avengers, Guardians and co must stop him.

First impressions - Holy crap this film looks excellent. As expected the trailer was the unfinished article and this film looks amazing.
The plot is thin but with 10years of back story, I'd say that's allowed. Thanos is an excellent villain who is fleshed out and well motivated. Something that has been lacking from most MCU Villians.

Were the Russo brothers able to pull off so many characters being in one film?
- in a word, yes. True that some characters get more time than others but the way they jump between plot lines and sub plots feels incredibly well stitched together.

Action?
Action a plenty and very well done. Inventive and on a cosmic scale.

Is it a clever film?
....it has plot holes but they could be explained away if you so wish. My advice, just go with it. It's a universe with rage monsters, Gods and Titans.

Is it worthy of the MCU?
This is the MCU at some of its finest.

Sum up:

This is balls to the wall crazy. Some of the most fun I've had at the cinema in years. I cheered on multiple occasions, found myself holding my breath and gave it a standing ovation.
  
40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated Wonder Woman (2017) in Movies

Feb 10, 2018 (Updated Feb 10, 2018)  
Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman (2017)
2017 | Action, Fantasy, War
Would've liked to see the Invisible Plane. So to speak.
The world reacts with due amazement as a mysterious group of film-makers breaks into the offices of Warner Brothers and manages to produce a really good movie without Zack Snyder noticing. We can speculate all day about just how this happened, but my inclination personally is to not look a gift horse in the mouth and simply enjoy the best DC-based movie since Christopher Nolan parted company with Batman.

There's something very refreshing about the way laborious franchise concerns are firmly put on the back burner, and all the focus is kept on telling a good, strong story. The decision to change the setting to the First World War (apparently made to avoid comparisons with the first Captain America movie) proves to be a really smart one, giving the film its own tone and atmosphere, and the story is well-paced with great character development. It's now hard to imagine anyone other than Gal Gadot playing Wonder Woman, and even Chris Pine is not too annoying for once.

Watching Wonder Woman feels a bit like travelling back in time to a point when summer blockbusters were less calculated, grasping, and egregiously thick-headed. My advice to DC would be to give the security staff a nice long paid holiday and hope the makers of Wonder Woman come back and do it again.
  
40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) in Movies

Feb 7, 2018 (Updated Feb 9, 2018)  
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires  (1974)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
1974 | Action, Adventure, Horror
6
6.8 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Chop Sucky
One of those movies where a bunch of very talented people get together and somehow manage to produce something not all that great. The famous British horror movie studio Hammer gets together with Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers to produce a Gothic horror kung fu movie that also manages to pastiche The Magnificent Seven (et al).

You want to know the plot? Well, a gaggle of Chinese vampires feel they aren't getting the respect they deserve, and so they recruit Dracula as a sort of foreign signing to help with their brand awareness, or something. However, also on a lecture tour of China is Dracula's nemesis Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, using all his powers to elevate deeply suspect material), even though they've apparently never met before, and he sets off with a gang of local kung fu experts to sort the problem out. Cushing is not required to do any kung fu, the Chinese cast are not required to say 'Transylvania' more often than is absolutely necessary, and Christopher Lee flatly refuses to participate (Dracula, who appears to be overdoing his make-up, is played by another actor).

Nevertheless this is still schlocky good fun, although the script doesn't even make sense on its own terms and credited director Roy Ward Baker doesn't seem quite sure of what to do with the kung fu genre. One of the most bonkers of the late-period Hammer horror movies, not that this is necessarily a bad thing.
  
SI
Something in Between
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Something in Between is a timely novel that is so relevant to the political environment in our country today and a must read. Jasmine's life is turned upside down when she realizes that she and her family are in America, illegally. Her whole life she thought that they had green cards. She worked hard, was top in her class and ran herself ragged to be the best and to do everything from class president to cheer captain. It all seemed to pay off when she received a scholarship that would allow her to attend any college in the US, until her parents informed her that she wouldn't be able to accept. Couldn't accept, because she was an illegal immigrant.

Life turned upside down, Jasmine must figure out what to do and how to come to terms with her changed identity. Then Jas falls for the son of a politician who is spearheading the fights against undocumented workers. How will she reconcile her new self-identity in the world she lives in? Will she and her family be able to stay in America – will they be forced to move back to the Philippines, a country her brothers have never known. And, will all of her hard work be for naught because she cannot find a way to attend college? Find out in this young adult/teen contemporary fiction novel about family, friends and growing up.
  
Star Brides: The Meat Market (Star Brides #2)
Star Brides: The Meat Market (Star Brides #2)
Pia Manning | 2018 | Erotica, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Star Brides: The Meat Market (Star Brides #2) by Pia Manning
The Meat Market is the second book in the Star Brides series, but can be read as a standalone. It is actually a bit of a misnomer. I thought we would start off by 'seeing' the Meat Market, but no. Instead, we dive right into the story and only learn about the market through Tasmyn's remembrances.

Basically, she went there with a friend, got tangled up with a creature, and ended up being 'married' to two men, brothers. She goes back to their planet, to find out everything has changed, and they are shipped off to a different planet. There they have to learn how to live and work together, as well as deal with dangers on the way.

This is an easy to read book, with no great depth to it, or twists and turns. However, what is here is excellently written, and provides enough story for a nice, lighthearted, read. The characters all work together, and help to round each other out. The scenery is easy to see, and the pacing is smooth. There were not editing or grammatical errors to disrupt my reading flow.

A great read, perfect for what I wanted, and thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely recommended by me.

* 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!
  
Best of Three is the 3rd book (shocking I know haha) in the Just Everyday Heroes:Night Shift series featuring the Dixon siblings. A sort of spin-off/continuation of Just Everyday Heroes:Day Shift

Emma Dixon is the wildest of her sisters and a thorn in her big brothers side. She doesn’t think before she acts by any stretch of the imagination. She is someone that acts first and thinks second. She doesn’t know how else to be until a car accident changes her wild streak drastically.

Dr Nate Sullivan is a single dad raising a teenage son. He has little time or patience for a woman like Emma, someone without constraints or limitations. When a car accident puts her on his operating table he literally puts her life back together. Can he handle this wild woman in his life.

Nate is the only man to ever be immune to Emma’s charms, she doesn’t quite know how she feels about that. Does it make him more mysterious to her or does she just have the hots for him rebuffs and all.

After some hysterical antics that may involving stalking Nate’s son Michael and Emma’s psuedo daughter Shannon, these 2 find they may just be more suited for each other than either one ever imagined. Together, Emma calms down while Nate looses up, a match made in the operating room.
  
OT
On the Edge (The Edge, #1)
8
8.2 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is a book that I would place in my Fantasy section rather than romance, although that does play its part.

The world in this book is divided into 3 - The Weird, The Edge and The Broken and yep, the world we live in (as we know it) is The Broken. The Edge is where there is some magic but not usually that much and The Weird is where there is loads of magic all the time. To be able to enter The Weird you need to have magic, to be able to enter The Broken you need to be able to survive without any, Edgers can usually go to The Broken but not many can go to The Weird - ok, now that's sorted.

The story mainly focuses on Rose, her Grandma and her two brothers who all live in The Edge, barely making ends meet. Along come a pure-blood from The Weird who succeeds in turning their lives upside down. Throw in some horrible 'beasts' that no one really knows about, a madman, magic and a big fight and there we go.

I enjoyed this book and have read it a few times as it's one that I can read without having to concentrate too much about it. It is the only Ilona Andrews book that I have at the moment but I would like to get some more of hers in the future.
  
Star Brides: The Meat Market (Star Brides #2)
Star Brides: The Meat Market (Star Brides #2)
Pia Manning | 2018 | Erotica, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Meat Market is the second book in the Star Brides series, but can be read as a standalone. It is actually a bit of a misnomer. I thought we would start off by 'seeing' the Meat Market, but no. Instead, we dive right into the story and only learn about the market through Tasmyn's remembrances.

Basically, she went there with a friend, got tangled up with a creature, and ended up being 'married' to two men, brothers. She goes back to their planet, to find out everything has changed, and they are shipped off to a different planet. There they have to learn how to live and work together, as well as deal with dangers on the way.

This is an easy to read book, with no great depth to it, or twists and turns. However, what is here is excellently written, and provides enough story for a nice, lighthearted, read. The characters all work together, and help to round each other out. The scenery is easy to see, and the pacing is smooth. There were not editing or grammatical errors to disrupt my reading flow.

A great read, perfect for what I wanted, and thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely recommended by me.

* 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!
  
Fantasy Island (2020)
Fantasy Island (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
Guilty pleasure...
399. Fantasy Island. It's pretty amazing, no not the movie. It's pretty amazing when you go into something with low expectations they are usually met. And this was no different. With that mindset, I enjoyed it. I remember watching the show as a kid, but it somehow gets meshed with The Love Boat, so I remember Tattoo saying 'de plane, de plane' and Mr Roarke saying 'Welcome to Fantasy Island' that's about it. Minus Tattoo, Mr Roarke welcomes this group of 5 people to the island and explains the rules. Live out your fantasy until it's natural conclusion. Natural conclusion heh? We get two brothers on the Island simply wanting to have it all. Another guy's big dream is to enlist in the military like his daddy. Another guest's fantasy is to get revenge on her high school bully, and the final guest wants to say yes, instead of no at her wedding proposal. And everything is pretty freakin sweet for awhile until they realize that the fantasies are a little too real. Whats wrong with that? Small example: The guys that simply wanted it all. When you have it all, other people usually want to take it from you, including armed masked men! Fantasies with consequences, whats up with that??? I'd want a refund! A movie so bad, it's good. Maybe, maybe not. Guilty pleasure, sure! Filmbufftim on FB