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Lee (2222 KP) rated Crawl (2019) in Movies
Aug 24, 2019
Florida is preparing itself for the arrival of a category five hurricane. As competitive swimmer Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) changes after a session in the pool, she takes a video call from her sister, concerned that she can't get through to their father (Barry Pepper) by phone. Dad still lives in their old hometown, right in the path of the incoming storm, and Haley agrees to go check on him.
As she approaches the town, the authorities try to turn her back as everyone is currently being evacuated from their homes. But Haley slips through via a side road, determined to check on dad, and when she does find him, he's in a spot of trouble - injured and in the crawl space beneath their house. Turns out dad wasn't alone though and a couple of gators, having found their way in with the storm, are preventing Haley and Dad from getting out. As the storm intensifies and the flood waters rise, the father and daughter must outwit the predators and try to escape to safety before they either drown or get eaten.
And that is pretty much it. At just 87 minutes long, Crawl wastes no time in getting to the action and manages to keep the suspense and thrills going right to the very end. The gators are terrifyingly realistic, as are the flood and hurricane effects, and I was just on the edge of my seat throughout.
Apart from the occasional human showing up to provide the gators with something to munch on, Haley and her dad are pretty much the only characters in the movie, with Haley making good use of her swimming skills and proving herself to be a real badass. The family dog is also on hand, getting himself into the odd scrape too. Spoiler alert: the doggy survives, so don't worry.
I absolutely loved this movie. It had me gripped throughout, with a real gut wrenching intensity, and I love it when a movie does that to me. Crawl is definitely in my top 5 movies this year.
As she approaches the town, the authorities try to turn her back as everyone is currently being evacuated from their homes. But Haley slips through via a side road, determined to check on dad, and when she does find him, he's in a spot of trouble - injured and in the crawl space beneath their house. Turns out dad wasn't alone though and a couple of gators, having found their way in with the storm, are preventing Haley and Dad from getting out. As the storm intensifies and the flood waters rise, the father and daughter must outwit the predators and try to escape to safety before they either drown or get eaten.
And that is pretty much it. At just 87 minutes long, Crawl wastes no time in getting to the action and manages to keep the suspense and thrills going right to the very end. The gators are terrifyingly realistic, as are the flood and hurricane effects, and I was just on the edge of my seat throughout.
Apart from the occasional human showing up to provide the gators with something to munch on, Haley and her dad are pretty much the only characters in the movie, with Haley making good use of her swimming skills and proving herself to be a real badass. The family dog is also on hand, getting himself into the odd scrape too. Spoiler alert: the doggy survives, so don't worry.
I absolutely loved this movie. It had me gripped throughout, with a real gut wrenching intensity, and I love it when a movie does that to me. Crawl is definitely in my top 5 movies this year.
Christine A. (965 KP) rated Do You Know Your Mom's Story?: 365 Questions You Need to Ask Her in Books
Feb 11, 2019
Questions that allow you to see your mom as more than just a mom
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.
Do You Know Your Mom's Story?: 365 Questions You Need to Ask Her by Glenna Mageau is not what I expected. I thought it would be just pages and pages of lists of questions. It is much more than that. It encourages you to have a conversation with your mother. It allows you to learn about your mother as a person and not just as a title, "Mom".
While being a mom is a huge part of me, it is not all of me. Why do we assume that is all our mothers are?
The book is broken down into categories based on subjects and different points of their lives. It includes easy to talk about memories and the incredibly difficult ones. Asking these questions honestly helped change my relationship with my mother to morph from mother and daughter to person and person. It allowed us to talk as adults, as equals, and understand each other better. Memories were shared but from two completely different points of view.
I would have liked to have found something similar before my father passed away. It would have been nice to preserve his memories and thoughts of being more than just a dad.
Do You Know Your Mom's Story?: 365 Questions You Need to Ask Her by Glenna Mageau is not what I expected. I thought it would be just pages and pages of lists of questions. It is much more than that. It encourages you to have a conversation with your mother. It allows you to learn about your mother as a person and not just as a title, "Mom".
While being a mom is a huge part of me, it is not all of me. Why do we assume that is all our mothers are?
The book is broken down into categories based on subjects and different points of their lives. It includes easy to talk about memories and the incredibly difficult ones. Asking these questions honestly helped change my relationship with my mother to morph from mother and daughter to person and person. It allowed us to talk as adults, as equals, and understand each other better. Memories were shared but from two completely different points of view.
I would have liked to have found something similar before my father passed away. It would have been nice to preserve his memories and thoughts of being more than just a dad.
ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Ice House in Books
Mar 7, 2019 (Updated Mar 7, 2019)
A story of forgiveness and redemption.
A thoroughly enjoyable, gentle story, of a couple who own an ice factory in Florida. Johnny MacKinnon emigrated to the US years ago, found a job in an ice factory, where he met the owners daughter, fell in love and married her. Years later Johnny and Pauline are running the factory. Johnny had left his son and ex-wife in Glasgow, and he and his son have become estranged. Corran, Johnny's son, has a heroin addition. He has been clean for a while at the time of the story.
After Johnny collapses at the factory and receives bad news from the doctor, he decides to return to Scotland and visit his son and his new granddaughter.
This is such a lovely story. The characters are so well written and such likeable people. You can see that Johnny is really trying to deal (or ignore!) his medical condition and to mend fences with his son. Whilst Pauline his wife, left behind in Florida to deal with a huge problem at the factory alone, is struggling with the decisions she made as a younger woman - and who can blame her for making them? Corran is trying so hard to be a good father and clearly struggling.
This is such an emotional book that made me both laugh and cry. It's well worth reading.
Many thanks to Readers First for my copy of this book.
After Johnny collapses at the factory and receives bad news from the doctor, he decides to return to Scotland and visit his son and his new granddaughter.
This is such a lovely story. The characters are so well written and such likeable people. You can see that Johnny is really trying to deal (or ignore!) his medical condition and to mend fences with his son. Whilst Pauline his wife, left behind in Florida to deal with a huge problem at the factory alone, is struggling with the decisions she made as a younger woman - and who can blame her for making them? Corran is trying so hard to be a good father and clearly struggling.
This is such an emotional book that made me both laugh and cry. It's well worth reading.
Many thanks to Readers First for my copy of this book.
Steve Fearon (84 KP) rated Pyewacket (2017) in Movies
Sep 26, 2018
This film doesn't know WITCH film it wants to be...
Pyewacket is a witchy teen angst film, that feels a bit like it wanted to be Ginger Snaps for witches, following the life of a teen girl whose father has recently died, and whose mother is not dealing well with the new reality.
Against her protestations, her mother moves them to a house in the woods, and away from her school and friends and after a heated exchange, the daughter decides to perform a dark ritual in the woods.
The crux of the film is that she later regrets the decision and is haunted by ghostly presences in the house that she suspects are the result of her ritual.
The whole film feels out of time, as if it were a late 90's early 2000's teen horror, with the majority of time spent exploring teen angst and cringey cliched subculture banter, rather than really tyring to ramp up any tension or scare the viewer.
At no point is a bad film, but it is trying to walk the line between genuine horror and that sort of 'The Craft' style teen culture movie, and it just doesnt seem to really nail either.
Its not bad, its not great, its just ok.
Against her protestations, her mother moves them to a house in the woods, and away from her school and friends and after a heated exchange, the daughter decides to perform a dark ritual in the woods.
The crux of the film is that she later regrets the decision and is haunted by ghostly presences in the house that she suspects are the result of her ritual.
The whole film feels out of time, as if it were a late 90's early 2000's teen horror, with the majority of time spent exploring teen angst and cringey cliched subculture banter, rather than really tyring to ramp up any tension or scare the viewer.
At no point is a bad film, but it is trying to walk the line between genuine horror and that sort of 'The Craft' style teen culture movie, and it just doesnt seem to really nail either.
Its not bad, its not great, its just ok.
Allison Knapp (118 KP) rated Public Secrets in Books
Jan 22, 2019
Well written and complex characters (7 more)
Covers a broad range of social topics such as addiction, domestic violence, and homosexuality in a way which is both well written and accurate with the times
Strong character dynamics
Not nearly as cheesy as the romance novels of which she is known for writing
At times creepy or psychologically disturbing in a way which makes you care even more about the life of the main character
Strong ensemble cast
Great nostalgic look at music and cinema from the 60s up through the 90s
Excellent and unpredictable plot twists
Murder Mystery set in the world of the Music Industry
The illegitimate daughter of a young rock star witnesses the accidental murder of her baby brother when she is still very young, and due to a case of isolated amnesia, cannot identify the murderer. As she grows up under the public eye, amidst the tragedy and its effects on her family, struggling to let go of her nightmares of that fateful night while struggling to find her own identity aside from the shadow of her father and the legendary status of her family, she faces many struggles and challenges just to prove an identity of her own. Yet as she grows up into a mature young woman, she learns that there are some tragedies from her past which were worth suffering through if she were to finally help bring justice for her brother and their family.
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Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Cargo (2017) in Movies
Jul 7, 2020 (Updated Oct 26, 2020)
Emotional Story About Father's Devotion To His Child During The Zombie Apocalypse
Contains spoilers, click to show
I like this movie. I mean an emotional journey of a father trying to find a safe place and people to take care of his baby daughter before he turns into a zombie is a great premise. Martin Freeman also puts on quite a good performance as he portrays the character Andy on this journey. The backdrop of Australia was beautiful as the setting in this movie too. This film has a well written plot and tense atmosphere but for me personally didn't quite reach fare enough into the horror genre to scare you and not enough zombie action. What it did have was added tension from the characters of other survivors and not knowing how they would deal with Andy being infected. I really liked some of the small details like how the little girl Thoomi made modifications to her shoes so her mother couldn't find her tracks or how she painted her face with stuff to hide her smell from the zombies. I even liked the villain's motivations and reasoning because they seemed realistic and very believable. Still it has me on the fence a bit because it feels like it was missing something when being considered a zombie movie. I wanted to rate it higher but personally feel like it deserves the score of 7/10.