Search

Search only in certain items:

The Wicker Man (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
1973 | Horror, Mystery
Acting, scenery, script. That song about the corn and barley? Meh (0 more)
Not bad, but unexpected nudity. I must have missed the warning. (0 more)
Something Wicker This Way Comes
Contains spoilers, click to show
Forgive me, Father, for I am about to spoil this whole film. I am a novice film reviewer, and as such, I know no other way.

This film opens up with a police officer (Sergeant Howie) flying to an island in Scotland. I knew something was up when the older gentlemen in the harbor refused to send a dinghy for him to get onto the island. The older men seemed to be in on some kind of joke. As my teenager would say, “Very sus.”

The rather uppity lawman, portrayed quite convincingly by Edward Woodward, is searching for a girl on the island. The girl, Rowan Morrison, was reported missing by way of an anonymous letter sent to the mainland.

We are then introduced to the woman who is allegedly the missing girl’s mother. She runs the most unsettling candy shop ever. There are a lot of chocolate bunnies, which I am normally all in favor of. But she corrects the officer when he refers to them as bunnies. They are rabbits, of course. Because that increases the creepiness factor by ten.

Howie’s lodging is above a righteously rollicking pub. The locals sing and play about in the pub, and all seems normal.

Forward to the next scene. Holy unexpected nudity, Batman. I am glad my son chose to stay in his room and play Roblox. There are a bunch of naked locals openly copulating in and around the churchyard. Of course, it is later explained that it is not a churchyard, because poor, very stodgy, very Puritan Sergeant Howie has stumbled upon an island of RECKLESS HEATHEN PAGANS.

The lovely Britt Ekland portrays Willow, the barmaid. In a scene early on, she does a ritualistic dance in the nude, in the room next to the very tempted police officer. My boyfriend correctly observed that Howie should stay away from this woman, as she is clearly a siren. Her dance moves were odd to me, and at one point, I asked aloud, “What is she doing?” My boyfriend responded, “She’s twerking.”

The plot thickens like a good rabbit stew. Christopher Lee aptly portrays Lord Summerisle, the leader of the island. Summerisle makes some strange claims about the island, and says the women there get pregnant asexually by way of a ritual. This claim seems counterintuitive, since there seemed to be a lot of unprotected boinking going on by various members of the island, in the open air no less. But hey, maybe these adulterated pagans missed the lecture on the birds and the bees.

As a heathen myself, I didn’t find this movie too horrific until it neared the end. I was more focused on Sergeant Howie’s unwillingness to entertain a faith other than his own. The scenery was breathtaking, as it was filmed entirely on location in Scotland.

I’m not really going to spoil every detail of the ending. But I must observe that this is the strangest version of The 40-Year-Old Virgin I have ever seen.
  
    MyFreeZoo Mobile

    MyFreeZoo Mobile

    Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    MyFreeZoo Mobile – Open your own Zoo! Majestic lions, fluffy bunnies and curious kangaroos – in...

Worth The |Risk (Infinity #1)
Worth The |Risk (Infinity #1)
C.J. Lynne | 2016 | Erotica, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
5.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
solid four star read
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Tyler and Jax meet in the club that Tyler works in, Infinity. Their reaction to each is is instant and powerful. Then Tyler finds out just who Jax is, and he fights the attraction. And just when they get back on an even keel, something else pushes Tyler to question whether he is really worth the risk to Jax.

For the most part, I enjoyed this. There were a couple a lines, and phrases that kept popping up that kept it from getting the full five stars, though. Not listing them here, either cos they is wude, and some site are a little prudish in what you are allowed to say!

I loved that Jax goes all in, right from the start, making his feelings known, that Ty is really worth his time and effort, and he says those magic words early, with I don't usually like. HOWEVER, Jax makes it clear that while HE said them, Tyler can say them when he is ready, even if Jax knew how Tyler really felt at that point. Cos Jax can read Ty like the books he writes!

Ty takes some time, to word how he feels, though. He isn't sure when Jax will dump him, that's what he expects to happen. It takes time for Ty to really see that maybe, just maybe, Jax will stick around.

I did expect a couple of certain character to make trouble, but they don't. Someone else does that! Loved that Jax' family take on Tyler as a second son.

Apart from the repetitive phrases, it's very well written, from both guys plus another's point of view. These guys are at it like bunnies, and it's very explicit. Very much to my liking after several not so explicit books ?

A solid 4 star read.

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
    Inventioneers

    Inventioneers

    Education and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    * FROM THE CREATORS OF PETTSON'S INVENTIONS DELUXE * ** Please note that this game is not optimized...

The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1)
The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1)
7
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
After the success of his Thursday Next books, in which the heroine can enter works of fiction and interact with the characters, Fforde dusted off a previous idea for a novel: a town where nursery rhyme characters are real. Humpty Dumpty is found in pieces at the bottom of his wall, but did he fall or was he pushed?

Investigated by detective Jack Spratt (usefully the name Jack is quite common in nursery rhymes) and his new partner Mary Mary we meet a number of characters from nursery rhymes, songs and myth and legend. As the body count rises Jack and Mary must do what all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't, and assemble the pieces of Humpty's demise to find the culprit.

The world Fforde creates - a fictional version of the town of Reading (and strongly implied to be the same world that Thursday Next lives in, in the book-within-a-book Caversham Heights) works suprisingly well, perhaps because other than the traits inherited from their nursery rhymes the characters are otherwise conventional. So Jack can't eat any fat and is destined to sell something for beans, but at the core is a straightforward detective.

This contrasts with, say, The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin which again is a detective story populated with nursery rhyme characters (and poor Humpty is again a victim, but in a very different murder) where the setting is in Toyland so doesn't have the grounding of reality that The Big Over Easy does.

The plot itself is very complex - there are red herrings, theories and suspects galore - and Fforde enjoys playing with the reader as much as with Jack. And there is of course humour aplenty, both simple gags from the story and characters and also some good knowing winks to the reader when events mirror the characters' nursery rhymes. Above all Fforde never forgets that this is after all a detective novel.

Probably not quite as good as the Thursday Next books but definitely a good read and will entertain from the first to the last page.