Search
Search results
Jessica Erdas (463 KP) rated Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) in Books
May 16, 2018
Another amazing piece by Gayle Forman. Instead of following the life and thoughts of Mia, as the first book did, Where She Went follows Adam and his spiraling journey after the accident, gaining fame and his struggle with the lost connection with his dreams and the love of his life. As relatable as If I Stay in the realistic emotional and physical turmoil of mental health, waning friendships, exhaustion and so much more. Three years have passed since Adam saw Mia and their connection was seemingly destroyed. A chance of fate brings the two back together for one day to face the demons that brought their relationship a halt as their lives skyrocketed away from them both. Highly recommend a read, especially if Where She Went pulled at your heart strings and kept you turning page after page, as it did to me.
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post
Jul 7, 2020
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Dragon Token (Dragon Star, #2) in Books
Jan 19, 2023
10 of 235
Book
The Dragon Token ( Dragon Star #2)
By Melanie Rawn
⭐️⭐️⭐️
A generation of peace among the Sunrunners has been shattered by a seemingly unstoppable invasion force. Now the time has come to fight back. Prince Pol and Maarken, his most valued general, must rally their forces in a desperate bid to halt the faceless army.
I have to admit I found this one a bit of a struggle at time. We are coming from the death of Rohan and war is raging. They are fleeing from the desert and fighting to stay alive. This book certainly didn’t shy away from a kill count with a few shocks. But it completely dried up for until we hit the last 6 chapters. I usually love this series and I will continue as I’m completely invested and really need to see this come to a conclusion. Oh the New High prince Pol is certainly trying to find his feet.
Book
The Dragon Token ( Dragon Star #2)
By Melanie Rawn
⭐️⭐️⭐️
A generation of peace among the Sunrunners has been shattered by a seemingly unstoppable invasion force. Now the time has come to fight back. Prince Pol and Maarken, his most valued general, must rally their forces in a desperate bid to halt the faceless army.
I have to admit I found this one a bit of a struggle at time. We are coming from the death of Rohan and war is raging. They are fleeing from the desert and fighting to stay alive. This book certainly didn’t shy away from a kill count with a few shocks. But it completely dried up for until we hit the last 6 chapters. I usually love this series and I will continue as I’m completely invested and really need to see this come to a conclusion. Oh the New High prince Pol is certainly trying to find his feet.
Nick Friesen (96 KP) rated The Circle (2017) in Movies
Jul 12, 2017
Tom Hanks (2 more)
Bill Paxton
The core concept
Unrealized Potential
There's a part early on the circle where the main character, Mae, is interviewing for a job at the titular company. The interviewer asks her what her biggest fear is. "Unrealized potential," she responds. That's pretty much my review of the movie. There's so much that could have been done with the great core concept of the Circle, but the potential was lost in poor writing and direction. The movie doesn't take the concept of questioning the benefit of privacy or lack thereof anywhere significant, and lots of screen time is spent on side tangents that also go nowhere. The Circle is perhaps most exciting in the final scene, when Mae pulls back the curtain on the antagonists, but it all comes to a screeching halt with no resolution. Couple that with Emma Watson's worst performance to date (she CAN NOT muster an American accent to save her life), and the Circle becomes a forgettable and not-so-thrilling thriller that not even Tom Hanks can salvage.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) in Movies
Mar 2, 2018 (Updated Mar 2, 2018)
A career that spanned over forty-five years, included nearly seventy movies, and featured the same accent every single time came to an end with this, Sean Connery's final on-screen appearance, in a would-be blockbuster based on Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's idiosyncratic comic series. The original heroes of pulp fiction are assembled to battle a mysterious villain with plans for world domination.
Connery had one of his massive spats with the director and virtually disowned the movie, but it's not really as bad as all that. It's not nearly as subtle, dark or clever as the comic book, obviously, and there's a horrendous moment in the second act where the whole thing grinds to a halt, but the effects are never less than competent, and the art direction is good. In the Marvel age of movies this is not without interest, making clear as it does the debt comic book heroes owe to the characters of an earlier age. Inevitably a bit of a disappointment, but not even the worst superhero movie of 2003.
Connery had one of his massive spats with the director and virtually disowned the movie, but it's not really as bad as all that. It's not nearly as subtle, dark or clever as the comic book, obviously, and there's a horrendous moment in the second act where the whole thing grinds to a halt, but the effects are never less than competent, and the art direction is good. In the Marvel age of movies this is not without interest, making clear as it does the debt comic book heroes owe to the characters of an earlier age. Inevitably a bit of a disappointment, but not even the worst superhero movie of 2003.
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Iron Angel (Deepgate Codex #2) in Books
Nov 15, 2019
The first novel in the Deepgate Codex trilogy, Scar Night, explored the immediate surroundings of the suspended city of Deepgate. This second entry follows the fallout from the battle of Deepgate as the balance between the powers of the world realign themselves.
As with Scar Night, Campbell's imagination creates some stunning characters and imagery; the Soft Men, John Anchor, a nightmarish journey through hell. The descriptions are extremely evocative, the whole having a sort of Gothic Steampunk feel to it.
This is, however, weaker than Scar Night, partly because there is just so much Campbell is keen to show us that the detail gets lost, and at times the story grinds to a halt for some lingering descriptions of something that although interesting has no real bearing on the story and just means momentum is lost. The result is unfortunately a bit of a mess.
Not a bad book by any means, but a case of an author's enthusiasm for their own creations reducing the focus on developing an interesting and coherent story
As with Scar Night, Campbell's imagination creates some stunning characters and imagery; the Soft Men, John Anchor, a nightmarish journey through hell. The descriptions are extremely evocative, the whole having a sort of Gothic Steampunk feel to it.
This is, however, weaker than Scar Night, partly because there is just so much Campbell is keen to show us that the detail gets lost, and at times the story grinds to a halt for some lingering descriptions of something that although interesting has no real bearing on the story and just means momentum is lost. The result is unfortunately a bit of a mess.
Not a bad book by any means, but a case of an author's enthusiasm for their own creations reducing the focus on developing an interesting and coherent story
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated World War Z (2013) in Movies
Mar 3, 2020
Zombie Outbreak
With all of this news about the coronavirus, i thought i reviewing this movie. That shot in the trailer where all the zombies are trying to climb that wall looked epic, scary, horrorfying and terrorfying. And Brad Pitt was great in this film. If you havent read the book that this movie is based on, than go and read it or listen to it. Anyways the plot:
When former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family get stuck in urban gridlock, he senses that it's no ordinary traffic jam. His suspicions are confirmed when, suddenly, the city erupts into chaos. A lethal virus, spread through a single bite, is turning healthy people into something vicious, unthinking and feral. As the pandemic threatens to consume humanity, Gerry leads a worldwide search to find the source of the infection and, with luck, a way to halt its spread.
Also Marc Foster directed this film, he also directed "Monster's Ball", "Finding Neverland", "Stay", "Quantum of Solace" and "Christopher Robin". So if you like this film, go watch his other films.
When former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family get stuck in urban gridlock, he senses that it's no ordinary traffic jam. His suspicions are confirmed when, suddenly, the city erupts into chaos. A lethal virus, spread through a single bite, is turning healthy people into something vicious, unthinking and feral. As the pandemic threatens to consume humanity, Gerry leads a worldwide search to find the source of the infection and, with luck, a way to halt its spread.
Also Marc Foster directed this film, he also directed "Monster's Ball", "Finding Neverland", "Stay", "Quantum of Solace" and "Christopher Robin". So if you like this film, go watch his other films.
In the 90s, like so many other nerdy guys, I was all over THE X-FILES, esp. for Dana Scully-centric episodes! It was around that time that I got into conspiracies, from anything involving JFK to Roswell and MK-Ultra. The more puzzling the conspiracy, the better! I was gobbling up as much as I could find, and this was before DarkWeb or even just the regular web, with its extensive search engine capabilities.
My wife had told me about this book, that she'd heard something regarding on a podcast. "Invisible midgets"? What? Sold!
While it started out great, it ground to a halt at 45% in! The dialogue between the book's author and Dion, the book's "victim" (?), helped me to secure some much needed nap ignition the one afternoon. Outside of that, it was just a fluff-filled ride that went from being super-interesting and plausible as far as conspiracies to "Yeah, I just don't give a fuck how it ends!".
I'm giving it 2 Stars, simply because the first half was genuinely interesting. After that point, the train became seriously derailed. Sad.
My wife had told me about this book, that she'd heard something regarding on a podcast. "Invisible midgets"? What? Sold!
While it started out great, it ground to a halt at 45% in! The dialogue between the book's author and Dion, the book's "victim" (?), helped me to secure some much needed nap ignition the one afternoon. Outside of that, it was just a fluff-filled ride that went from being super-interesting and plausible as far as conspiracies to "Yeah, I just don't give a fuck how it ends!".
I'm giving it 2 Stars, simply because the first half was genuinely interesting. After that point, the train became seriously derailed. Sad.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Children of the Corn (1984) in Movies
Feb 28, 2020
Is Corn Really Scary?
Children of the Corn- is based off of stephen king short story. This movie is awful. Its soo bad thats its good in a way. Like how Maximum Overdrive is. Their in the same boat. Stephen King ask the question- is corn really scary and our answer- no. Are children scary- no. Is the ending weird and crappy and left a on cliffhanger kinda of- yes. Is this movie weird overall- yes. Is the villian of the movie creepy and scary- yes. Will i get to the plot of the movie- yes.
The plot: As physician Burt Stanton (Peter Horton) and his girlfriend, Vicky (Linda Hamilton), drive across the Midwest to his new job, their trip comes to a sudden halt when they encounter the body of a murdered boy in the road. In trying to contact the authorities, Burt and Vicky wander into a small town populated only by children, followers of sinister young preacher Isaac Chroner (John Franklin). Soon the couple is fleeing the youthful fanatics, who want to sacrifice them to their demonic deity.
Also by the way this movie has like six-seven sequels, a tv series and a reboot. That are all unesscary.
Skip this movie, its not good.
The plot: As physician Burt Stanton (Peter Horton) and his girlfriend, Vicky (Linda Hamilton), drive across the Midwest to his new job, their trip comes to a sudden halt when they encounter the body of a murdered boy in the road. In trying to contact the authorities, Burt and Vicky wander into a small town populated only by children, followers of sinister young preacher Isaac Chroner (John Franklin). Soon the couple is fleeing the youthful fanatics, who want to sacrifice them to their demonic deity.
Also by the way this movie has like six-seven sequels, a tv series and a reboot. That are all unesscary.
Skip this movie, its not good.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Mutants & Masterminds (3rd Edition) in Tabletop Games
Mar 7, 2018 (Updated Mar 7, 2018)
Green Ronin's supers RPG is probably the best ever published; owes a lot to some of its illustrious predecessors in the genre but is definitely its own thing. D20 mechanic keeps things mostly simple, although people used to dealing with hit point may find the damage resolution system tough to get their heads around.
This is a game which really demands that everyone is on the same page in terms of the tone and style of game they want to play: the character creation system is point-based and it's potentially very easy to create unbalanced, unstoppable combat monsters. Character advancement can also be a little tricky over an extended (20+ session) campaign. Getting to grips with the finer points of the creation system can also be difficult; using a character-building app is an extremely sensible idea.
That said, when a group is sympatico and the GM knows his comic book tropes, this game allows you to play through superhero adventures with an ease and sense of fun like few others. I played in a group running this system on pretty much a weekly basis for 15 months and the individual sessions were almost all great fun; it was long-term problems with the campaign rules that caused the whole thing to grind to a halt.
This is a game which really demands that everyone is on the same page in terms of the tone and style of game they want to play: the character creation system is point-based and it's potentially very easy to create unbalanced, unstoppable combat monsters. Character advancement can also be a little tricky over an extended (20+ session) campaign. Getting to grips with the finer points of the creation system can also be difficult; using a character-building app is an extremely sensible idea.
That said, when a group is sympatico and the GM knows his comic book tropes, this game allows you to play through superhero adventures with an ease and sense of fun like few others. I played in a group running this system on pretty much a weekly basis for 15 months and the individual sessions were almost all great fun; it was long-term problems with the campaign rules that caused the whole thing to grind to a halt.