Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (2916)

Content

Andy K (10823 KP) rated Red State (2011) in Movies

Aug 23, 2019

Red State (2011)

2011 | Action, Horror, Thriller

6.4

(15 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Kevin Smith cult film

I had always meaned to watch this film since I'm a big Kevin Smith fan, but just had never gotten around to until now. If you go in thinking you will be watching Clerks or Chasing Amy you would be mistaken. Maybe more like his follow up movie, Tusk, than anything else.

It's kind of the story of three high school friends. One of them meets and lines up a "hook up" with a mysterious woman on a dating phone app so the hormone-filled teens race to score. Their initial meeting at the woman's trailer seems to be going well until the boys realize the woman has drugged their beers and the boys drop to the floor.

When they awaken, they realize they have been abducted, bound and gagged and are now going to have something bad happen to them courtesy of a crazy cult-like religious leader in front of his "flock" complete with women and children.

All doesn't go according to plan when the boys try and escape and then the feds show up outside to try and handle the situation. Tensions escalate quickly and the bullets start flying.

The movie started promising with kind of a Hostel meets Wicker Man vibe. I enjoyed the tension built as the teens try and assess their situation and figure a way out. You definitely quickly grow to hate the cult leader and his disciples as they do nasty things to others and blindly follow their leader to carry out his every order. I feel the movie falls apart in the last act.

Without giving anything away, the resolution wasn't satisfactory and a lot of things are explained at the end instead of being shown which was disappointing. Not sure if this was meant to be this way or they ran out of money and/or time so that's the way thing ended up.

Overall, I was entertained, but felt it lacked something to make the experience completely fulfilling.

Kudos

Alarm Clock HD Pro

Utilities and Productivity

(0 Ratings) Rate It

App

The classic alarm clock pro on iPad! The HD version of the No.1 alarm clock app on the app store! ...

ClareR (5846 KP) rated Wolf Hall in Books

Aug 23, 2020

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry

6.0

(8 Ratings)

Book Rating

This isn’t the first time I’ve read this book, and it probably won’t be the last, either. I’m reading the first two books in preparation for reading the final book. Wolf Hall is as good as it was the first time round, and I think it’s a book that bears reading more than once - I’ve picked up things this time that I didn’t see the first read through. I have a sneaking suspicion that you could find something new, no matter how many times you read it.

It can be a little confusing at first, when Cromwell is referred to as ‘he’ throughout, but I slipped into the habit after a while. When learning about the Tudors at school, Cromwell is very much skimmed over. We learn that he had his moment of favour and then had his head chopped off 🤷🏼‍♀️. It seemed to be a bit of a professional hazard if you worked with royalty in those days.

This book gives Thomas Cromwell personality, feelings and you get to see his hopes and aspirations. He is portrayed as a thoroughly nice person, a good, caring father and employer. Someone who fought his way out of poverty, and tried to bring others out of that same situation. But he’s also shown to be calculating, cunning, a man that is no fool. There would have to be an element of the cut-throat about a man who wanted to work with Henry VIII; a king who was unpredictable, to say the least, and easily influenced by those around him.

I adore this period in history. Nothing is as shocking as real life, and I cannot for the life of me get over how cheap life was in a time where it should have been worth more (with no antibiotics, high infant and maternal mortality, death around the corner from simple illnesses). I’m really looking forward to rereading the second book in this trilogy now.