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Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
The cast specifically RDJ as Tony, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlett Witch, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Holland as Spider-man and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor strange (1 more)
Josh Brolin is Phenomenal as Thanos The Score is Incredible The action sequences are awesome Every character has their moment That Ending!!
Even though every character has their moment they are all underused except Thanos and Thor (0 more)
"I hope they remember you"
Cosmic warlord Thanos begins his quest to gather the six Infinity Stones which will give him God-like power over the universe. The Avengers team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy in order to stop him, but can they?

It doesn't take long for "Infinity War" to make clear that this is not another typical summer blockbuster movie. Within the first five minutes the villain has already killed a ton of innocent people (among whom a beloved main character) and has beaten to submission Hulk, the strongest Avenger. Thanos isn't your cookie cutter bad guy who lusts after power for the sake of it. He is a man on a mission, and is determined to crush anybody who stands in his way. Unlike other Marvel villains, every time he appears onscreen the sense of apprehension is palpable. This time we aren't sure that our heroes will survive the ordeal. Josh Brolin's performance, together with the amazing CGI work, give us a character that is destined to be mentioned in the future along the likes of Darth Vader and the Joker.

The biggest concern about this feature was the ability of the Russos to successfully juggle almost 30 main characters and multiple plot-lines. They succeeded in this herculean task, as if through a miracle. The film's pace is relentless and despite it's considerable length at no moment do we feel any slack. The action is rousing and nicely balanced with more quiet and personal moments that provide crucial character development.

You can't talk about this film without mentioning its ending. Surprising and gutsy don't even begin to describe it. I understand why cynics might dismiss it as a stunt. But I also contend that this doesn't take away from its visceral impact on first sight. It's a gut punch because Marvel has gotten us accustomed in boisterous, fun, happy endings.
This one has hopelessness and futility written all over it.

Within the context of the MCU, "Infinity War"'s comparison to "Empire Strikes Back" is well deserved. The final shots of the surviving heroes reeling from their defeat, while a wounded Thanos savors his victory on a distant planet, are potent.
  
Bad Boys for Life (2020)
Bad Boys for Life (2020)
2020 | Action, Comedy, Crime
Entertaining "shoot-em-up" with 2 charismatic leads
Okay - I gotta admit, I never saw the first two BAD BOYS films starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, but I pretty much got the gist of it through the advertisements, so when these 2 re-united for a 3rd film (set 17 years after BAD BOYS II), I figured I would skip this one as well. But...as life would have it...I ended up attending this film - with a giant attitude of "this is gonna stink" to accompany me.

And...I was wrong. I was really, really entertained by this film.

BAD BOYS FOR LIFE presents Martin Lawrence's Det. Marcus Burnett and Will Smith's Det. Mike Lowry still "in the game". One wants to keep working and the other is looking to retire (if you take a look at the picture, you can figure out which one is which). The two battle like an old married couple while taking on some crooks in "shoot 'em up" action scenes.

And...what's not to like about that? Smith and Lawrence still have strong chemistry on the screen and the action scenes - staged by new (to me) Directors Adil and Bilall - keep things moving at a quick enough pace, not too fast that you get a headache, but not too slow that you start punching a hole in the plot.

And...as is typical of these types of films...the plot is paper thin and just is a reason to have these 2 banter and to have shoot-em-up scenes.

But that doesn't matter.

Ably helping the boys out is their put-upon Captain (the always watchable Joe Pantaliano reprising his role from the previous 2 films) and the members of the "AMMO SQUAD". These are young cops who are set up to replace our 2 heroes. Normally, this band of youngsters would be arrogant a-holes who end up being too cocky and are outwitted by our heroes, but this film puts that convention on it's ear and the "Ammo Squad" are actually a pretty good addition to this film series.

The filmmakers left the door wide open for BAD BOYS 4 and...I can't believe I'm saying this...I'm actually looking forward to it! Certainly not an Oscar contender, but an entertaining "blow-em-up" with 2 charismatic leads that play off each other well. Everyone involved knew exactly what type of film they were making - so they made that movie, with no apologies.

Letter Grade: a solid B

7 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
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Lee (2222 KP) Jan 18, 2020

I haven’t seen the first two movies and I’m booked to see this one later on so it’s good to read your review 👍🏻

The Rising of the Shield Hero
The Rising of the Shield Hero
2019 | Adventure, Animation, Fantasy
8
8.2 (6 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Shield Hero
The Rising of The Shield Hero is an anime series produced by Kinema Citrus and directed by Takao Abo with the light novel written by Aneko Yusagi. The series is licensed by Crunchroll and Funimation in North America. The series composition was by Keigo Koyanagi with music composed by Kevin Penkin and Masahiro Suwa designing characters.


College student, Naofumi Iwatani finds a fantasy book about "Four Heroes", while in the library, and is summoned to another universe, along with three others to save mankind. Each of the heroes are respectively equipped with their own "legendary" weapon. Naofumi, though, received the Legendary Shield, the only sole defensive equipment. They are expected to fight "The Waves", a series of demonic invasions that are set to occur soon. Nobody joins Shield Hero Naofumi when partners are assigned, believing him to be the weakest of the four. However, a beautiful woman named Myne, from the Spear Hero's party joins him to help him train. To his disbelief, Myne steals his belongings while he sleeps and accuses him of rape. He becomes an outcast when his denials are ignored and he is shunned by everyone from King to peasants. Enraged and embittered, he struggles to learn how to upgrade his shield, but realizes he can't upgrade without experience or strength. Desperate and alone, he finds himself at a slave market, contemplating whether he should buy a slave to gain XP (experience points) and fight for him.


This anime is great. I really like it a lot. It is also an "Isekai" genre anime, but right away it's very different from others. Beginning with the first episode, this anime had me. I've always said that actors who can get you to hate them in movies are really good actors. And man the character, Myne, really made me hate her. I didn't expect that twist, and it is very "adult" to bring up rape like that in an anime that didn't look to me like it would have something like that in it. But it plays a big part in how the character proceeds after. I also really like the character designs and art style, but the story is what gets me wanting to see the next episode every time. That and how he is a pretty smart character too, which really helps him, since his shield holds him back from being able to use any weapons. But it's not completely useless and he learns new abilities for it constantly. This anime definitely gets my "Must See Seal Of Approval" and I give it an 8.
  
The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
2016 | Action
Better than I thought it would be
On the recommendation from a friend I bought this movie used for like 3 bucks and it was worth every penny! ?

This isn't really an origin story of Tarzan, more of him coming back to where he was raised to attempt to save the day. His origins are revealed in flashback which helps the audience understand his motivations and reservations for returning to his homeland.

When the bankrupt king summons an evil henchman to help him cleanse the land of its inhabitants for the raw diamond lot, our heroes are summoned to stop them.



Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie and Samuel L. Jackson were all really good and believable. For some reason I normally love Christoph Waltz, but I think he's played the villain too many times now and this time it felt a little generic to me.

CGI for the most part was acceptable, although any CGI gorillas will always be compared to the recent Apes reboot trilogy which is still far superior.

The action scenes were decent if you can accept humans battling giant gorillas an kept me entertained throughout.

You will certainly not be disappointed with this one in my opinion.

  
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Andy K (10821 KP) rated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) in Movies

Apr 27, 2019 (Updated Apr 27, 2019)  
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
2018 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Still more dinosaurs...
I'm not sure what a 5th "Jurassic" film can say that wasn't said in the previous 4 films, but they tried anyways.

After a volcano spews hot lava and ash on the original Jurassic island, humanity is left with the choice whether to save the prehistoric beasts or let them become extinct again maybe as it was supposed to be.

One of John Hammond's original partners is involved in trying to relocate several species from the dying island to a new home where they can be free of tourists and left to live their lives out in peace. Of course evil animal poachers seeking to weaponize the ferocious beasts intervene and only Chris Pratt (overrated) and Bryce Dallas Howard (not sure if she wore high heels the entire film this time) are here to stop them.

Not enough new material here to keep the film exciting and fresh. The same people running, getting eaten, etc is present here and I was bored.

Some cool visuals during the first half with our heroes trying to escape the volcanic habitat were compelling, however, the second half was way too predictable and not very exciting.

This franchise should now become extinct.


  
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Sarah (7798 KP) Apr 27, 2019

? at the comment about the high heels

SF
Sin For Love (Fortune For Love #1)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Received this book as a gift from a party.

Sticking to my usual rules - I'm not gonna give anything away.

So - let's start with writing style - good. It flicks between the heroine and heroes pov. Every time the pov changed - it was headed by a name. Made me feel a little thick that I needed to be told but I know some people do struggle reading pov swap books. So I'll overlook that. Written well. Not many errors.

Storyline - well laid out and the writer knew what journey she wanted to take us on. it was emotional and sensual. Almost like a dirty sexual modern day fairy tale where the guy gets the girl after trial by fire.

Sex scenes were well written, creative and steamy as hell. Will warn - public masturbation, and some girl on girl.

Did I like this story - well... Yes and no. Well written and well thought out, steamy. the only bit that put me off were the sins, but they were integral to the story line to be fair, so I can't grumble too much. Liked the back stories and how their lives were linked after an incident in both their pasts.

Definitely worth a read. <3
  
The 15:17 To Paris (2018)
The 15:17 To Paris (2018)
2018 | Drama, History, Thriller
Major disappointment
Going in I must tell you I am one of the biggest Eastwood fans out there, so if anyone should have loved this movie it would have been me.

Other than the expected climax there is really not much to like here. I think we all take it for granted when we see professional skiers, or tennis players that thy make their jobs look so easy. The same is the case with actors. Eastwood's decision to cast the real-life heroes to play themselves rather than professional actors might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it did not serve this film well AT ALL. Maybe if the screenplay would have been better or even the flow of the story would have been more cohesive it would not have stood out as much.


The climax of the film is certainly riveting and emotional; however, the 95 minutes it took to get there was just not that exciting.


I certainly don't take away anything from the heroism these men displayed or the courage they have in life. We should all step up to the challenge when presented with these events.


Looks like I'll have to go back and watch American Sniper.