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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2440 KP) rated Murder on the Half Shell in Books

Feb 5, 2020

Life’s Not Quite a Beach

Penelope Sutherland and her catering crew are working on a period mystery filming on an island in Florida. Penelope has hired a few locals to help out, including two teen girls who work part time as servers. After a party one Friday night, the teens disappear. Suspicion falls on Emilio, one of the chefs that Penelope studied under at culinary school. Penelope doesn’t want to believe her old teacher is guilty, but there is something in his past that makes Penelope doubt her judgement. Where are the girls? Who is responsible for what is going on?

It’s been a few years since I read the first in this series, and I didn’t remember who everyone was. Sadly, this book assumes you remember the relationships, and it took me longer than it should have to figure out those connections. The characters are good, but they don’t feel fully developed to me. I was pulled into the plot, however, with the missing teens making it easy to care about the outcome. There are plenty of twists and turns, and the climax was satisfying. Being able to visit a beach location during the winter was a great treat, and I found the balance of the mystery with the slower life of the island was well done. This is a quick read, and I enjoyed it.

Kudos

Dillon Jacoby-Rankin (202 KP) rated Dragon's Gold in Tabletop Games

Jan 18, 2020

Dragon's Gold

2015 | Fantasy, Medieval, Mythology

6.3

(3 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

Great Components (4 more)

Easy to learn to play

Quick Turns

Fast Decision Making

Card Placement Strategy

Shields could be bigger (1 more)

Hard to tell difference between silver and gold in certain lighting

Fast Paced Fun

Players: 2-4

Components: The gems are very good quality of either some sort of plastic or acrylic. They are colored very well except for the silver and gold which can be hard to tell apart depending on how the light hits them. There are limited amounts of each color for different reasons. The cards are nice and the artwork is decent enough but nothing I found to be out of the ordinary that struck me as amazing. The real focus isn't on the cards anyway but the gems.
Easy to Learn: Rules are quite simple. Players will lay down cards until a dragon is defeated. (The strength of the cards is more than the dragon's) then all players involved have a minute to split the loot or no one gets anything. Certain objectives depending on the game being played will make for end game scoring strategies. The mage and thief cards allow for extra bonuses especially when played together.
Quick Turns: Splitting loot only takes a minute keeping the game moving along fairly quickly.
Shields: I feel like the Shields could have been a little taller or something.

Kudos

Kim Pook (101 KP) rated Rocketman (2019) in Movies

Mar 31, 2020

Rocketman (2019)

2019 | Biography, Drama

8.0

(59 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Acting (1 more)

Musical numbers

Contains spoilers, click to show

The movie starts with Elton in an AA meeting, he is asked about his childhood and we're thrown in a toe tapping number of the bitch is back and I'm instantly aware that the movie is going to be a musical biopic. As a big fan of musicals I'm instantly drawn in.
It is obvious from the start that regi was talented from a young age. As he gets older he pursues his musical career and eventually Elton John is born. I'm not a great fan of Elton John so it came as no surprise that he was so much into drinks and drugs, however knowing his onstage personality was all an act to hide his problems was a bit of a shock and it just goes to show you never know what goes on behind closed doors even in the life of a celebrity.
The whole movie had its ups and downs, with a few emotional moments such as Elton trying to kill himself and singing with his younger self whilst drowning. But there was also parts where I wanted to smack him.
The movie was an interesting watch and because of the musical aspect I found it very entertaining, I do feel without this aspect though it may not have been as good.

Kudos

Veronica Pena (690 KP) rated He's Just Not That Into You (2009) in Movies

Apr 2, 2020

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

2009 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

6.7

(11 Ratings)

Movie Rating

the more i see it, the worse it gets

This film is just bad. Some acting is horrible, the plot entirely sucks, and the characters are so one-sided. I like movies like this, in the sense that its characters that are woven with each other through their relationships with others - in the same way, Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve were done. But this one, it's just not it.

I found Gennifer Goodwin's character to be the most annoying, along with Jennifer Connelly's. They were both just obnoxious and frustrating to watch. The way that GiGi was obsessed with literally every guy she ever went out with was just cringy and gross. And then when she threw herself at Alex? I literally muted it so I didn't have to hear their conversation, that's how bad I didn't want to watch that scene.

I think Neil was the best character of all of them. His only "flaw" really was that he didn't want to get married, but even then, he was still committed and loved Beth so much.

I feel like this is the movie you watch when you're going through a breakup and you're lonely and trying not to call your ex. Which I don't think is a good scenario to watch any movie so there's that.