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Loki
Loki
2021 | Action, Adventure
Great Cast & Acting (2 more)
Superb CGI & Special Effects
Excellent Plot and Story
Some characters and places weren't given enough time and felt underutilized or under developed. (0 more)
Filled With Glorious Purpose, and Lived Up To The Hype
During the events of Marvel's Endgame, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) escaped using the Tesseract when the Avengers went back in time. Many fans wondered what happened to this "alternate" Loki, as the Loki in the present timeline met his demise at the hands of Thanos. This "Loki" is captured by the TVA (Time Variance Authority), a mysterious bureaucratic organization that monitors the timeline and exists outside of time and space itself. He's put on trial before Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) where he is found guilty for his crimes against the "sacred timeline" and sentenced to be "pruned". However, Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) enters the picture and Loki is given a choice to help fix the timeline and stop a great threat or face being erased from existence for being a "time variant". He agrees to help Mobius hunt down another Loki variant who has killed several TVA agents and has become a serious problem for the TVA.


So usually going into a movie or show with high expectations is a guarantee to be disappointed but I'm so glad this show wasn't a disappointment. First off, I was super excited for this highly anticipated series since Marvel was finally going to answer the question of "What happened to the "other" Loki?". The third Disney Plus series to be released after Wandavision, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki brings us more of Tom Hiddleston and the fan favorite character Loki. Loki was a really great show that I enjoyed every episode of. There was so much that it did right. It had great actors like Owen Wilson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw and acting with great performances by Tom Hiddleston and Sophia Di Martino who had really good chemistry. It had awesome special effects and CGI throughout the whole show from the incredible views of the TVA and Lamentis-1, to the animated character Miss Minutes, to the amazing intro of the final episode. It also had an excellent plot and story that kept the show going at a good pace, with a nice mystery that kept you intrigued and hooked with a twist at the end of every episode. It also had movie quality cinematography you expect from a big budget blockbuster and definitely felt like this could have just as easily been on the big screen in theaters as it was on Disney plus. The first episode starts off with Loki finding out who and what the TVA are and what they want with him. Which is to help them hunt down a Loki variant. It feels like there was a lot of attention to the plot and detail of the storytelling, although a lot of it was building up what was to come, I think it did a superb job of setting the vibe and feel of the series and the storyline from the first episode on. I really liked Owen Wilson and his character agent Mobius, he came off as serious but funny in a aloof kind of way. Kind of reminded me of a teacher who is nice until you start giving them trouble and they have think of some way to deal with you. There was a really good mix of humor and emotion and action as well, although some episodes were more action heavy than others. The music and score were very fitting of the MCU but with a clear influence of Loki's personality in it as well as the mystery and grandness of the plot and story. So without giving away any spoilers in this section I give this series a 8/10 and my "Must See Seal of Approval". I know this review is super late to the party but if you're late too and haven't seen this show you need to definitely check it out.
  
The Perfect Husband
The Perfect Husband
Lisa Gardner | 1997 | Crime, Thriller
9
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Research (1 more)
The Characters
The Perfect Husband is a perfect novel
I have an admission to make. I am a true crime buff.

I love reading about unsolved mysteries, solved mysteries and everything between. I read books, listen to podcasts, and belong to several amateur sleuth blogs. Yes. I even belong to the Hunt A Killer curated box mystery. There. I've admitted it.

In the world of true crime my biggest passion is serial killers. Cliche, perhaps, but it's true.
I, like many, always asked myself about the family that surrounds serial killers; both before and after they are caught. Most importantly, what about the wives of serial killers? Lisa Gardner attempts to answer this question.

The thing I love most about Lisa Gardner's work is that she takes the time and effort to research before she even puts words to page. It is clear by the lingo that she uses and the characters that she builds that Gardner talked to actual law enforcement officials, and really listens to what they do.

The main character is the abused and traumatized wife of a sadistic serial killer. She is attempting to learn to protect herself and in so doing turns tot he meanest mercenary that she can find to teach her. She wants to learn to fight and shoot so that she can handle the man that law enforcement lost, the husband who is obsessed with killing her.

I absolutely adored this book, and immediately went out and bought three more of her novels.

The main female character is suffering from battered woman's syndrome. She is trying her best to cast off the mental and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her narcissistic and criminal spouse.

The mercenary she turns to...has issues. He is, in his own way, as broken and screwed up as our heroine. But, through her, he begins to give a damn again.

The killer, our heroine's former husband, is so fantastically well done that it is almost too easy to picture him on the front page of a newspaper, or scattered across social media blogs.

It's fantastic. I recommend this to anyone who likes female protagonists, serial killers, or thrillers.
  
The Smoke Thieves
The Smoke Thieves
Sally Green | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Review This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

From the author of the popular fantasy trilogy, Half Bad comes a brand new historical-fantasy series: The Smoke Thieves. Featuring a princess, a traitor, a soldier, a hunter and a thief, Sally Green’s fictional world is a dangerous place for these five teenagers. From demons to tyrannical fathers, they must do their best to overcome every obstacle placed in their way to survive a world that is destined for conflict.

The five main characters are a mixed bag of personalities and status. Princess Catherine is preparing for her arranged marriage, which aims to politically unite two nations, or so she believes. Her brutally ambitious father, on the other hand, has other ideas. Ambrose, Catherine’s guard and a traitor to her father, escapes death by chasing after Catherine with news of her father’s real plans.

Meanwhile, March, a soldier whose entire family and heritage were wiped out in a war, aims to get revenge by finding his king’s illegitimate son and only heir, however, he does not anticipate the prince being the naïve thief, Edyon. March and Edyon travel through the country in the company of an elderly man until they are ambushed by a demon hunter and his thirteen-year-old assistant, Tash. All Tash wants to do is hunt demons, collect their drug-like smoke and sell it so she can buy a pair of boots, but fate has other plans, and it is all because of demon smoke.

Coming from all walks of life, the unlikely characters join forces at the conclusion of the book, preparing to face the biggest battle of their young lives. The first book of the series is an exciting introduction to the action promised in the following novels. Slow to start but growing increasingly interesting, The Smoke Thieves is an engaging story with fantastic main characters.

As a work of historical fantasy, The Smoke Thieves is a welcome change from the contemporary fantasy Sally Green has previously written. This book suggests the author has great ideas to come in the near future.
  
When I decided to read and review this book, I was not aware that it was part of a series. Number five in the series to be exact. I'm a big fan of thrillers especially when there is a character like Vanessa Michael Munroe. I can't wait to go back and read the rest of the series.

Vanessa Michael Munroe is very good at what she does. Just off a recent job, she decides to spend some time with a very special person in her life, Miles Bradford. They were in the same line of work, but their personal relationship was something different. On assignment in Japan, Bradford's on the hunt for a thief at ALTEQ. Munroe asks several times to join Miles at work and help with the assignment. More times than not, he refuses. When Miles is framed for murdering a Chinese woman at the company, Vanessa, the girlfriend takes a backseat and Michael the mercenary takes over. Not just to finish the job Bradford started, but also find the real killer. Not sure who she can trust, Munroe, disguised as a man takes on this arduous task. Will she be able to find the killer before she herself is killed?

I'm really upset that I haven't read this series chronologically. I feel like there are parts of Vanessa Michael Munroe that I am missing. I want to know more about her relationship with Bradford. Munroe is the kind of woman we all wish we could be. Able to evoke fear with just a glance, can read people like a book. She is strong, intuitive, resourceful, and smart. I'm not sure if it was love or devotion to the job/craft that made her go to the length she did to save Miles.

This book takes you on a journey where you are unsure of what is going to happen next. In a foreign country where you're not sure who is in charge and who you can trust, it's difficult to get help. The way Munroe handles herself shows the skill in her profession.
  
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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Polar (2019) in Movies

Feb 7, 2019 (Updated Feb 7, 2019)  
Polar (2019)
Polar (2019)
2019 | Action, Crime
Mads Mikkelsen (0 more)
Everything Else (0 more)
Extremely Polarizing
Wow, what a train wreck this turned out to be..


Think diet John Wick meets an immature, garish comic book full of pantomime villains and you have Polar. Sometimes you see a movie and can't help but wonder, "What the hell were they thinking?" Unfortunately this is one of those times. There are folks out there that have crafted a solid script and are struggling to get their movie funded and made, meanwhile there is low level trash like this being paid for and distributed by a huge platform like Netflix?! It is an outrageous and pretty sad state of affairs.

Without a doubt the worst part of this thing is the god awful assortment of villains. They are so annoying and infuriating in every scene they are in and only get worse as the movie goes on. Half the movie is spent following this massively irritating group as they hunt for Mads Mikkelsen's character and they are so unlikable, but not in the way that they are supposed to be. They all work for the main villain, who is inexplicably played by Matt Lucas from Little Britain. That's right, Vicky Pollard is this movie's main antagonist. He is god awful here and I genuinely don't even know what they were attempting to do with this character. Every scene that he is in feels like a discarded Little Britain sketch.

The one bright spot in the film is Mads Mikkelsen's turn as Duncan, the ex-hitman being hunted throughout the film by his ex-employers who serves as our main protagonist. I love seeing Mads in anything he appears in, so I actually found the scenes with him in them pretty enjoyable, and frankly they were the only thing that stopped this movie from being scored a pathetic 1/10.

Overall, this is total mess. It is the worst type of comic book movie and doesn't seem appealing to anyone over the age of 12. Please don't waste your time with this garbage, there are much better movies out there based on graphic novels that don't only cater to horny, brain-dead teenagers.
  
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Andy K (10823 KP) Feb 7, 2019

Studios will continue to dump their crap on Netflix as long as they continue to buy.

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Amailen (1 KP) Feb 11, 2019

Train wreck is the perfect phrase for this movie! I kept waiting for it to get good, but then there was another boob..

Evil Runs
Evil Runs
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A French priest, a Texas sheriff, and a female CIA agent walk into a bar looking for Evil. Sounds like the start of a corny joke, but it's not. Evil Runs by Vince Milam is a religious thriller that takes these three on a trip around the world to destroy the evil that has disrupted their lives.

Still grieving the loss of his wife, Sheriff Cole Garza is now dealing with multiple homicides at a nursing home in his small Texas town. Leaving the scene, he sees a most peculiar man who appears to be running away from another man with a long gray ponytail who is just as peculiar. Looking into the eyes of the murder suspect, Cole sees something familiar, something he saw in the eyes of his wife's murderer. When Father Francois Domaine appears in Texas with orders from the Vatican, things begin to really get strange. They have a suspect in custody and are currently looking for his accomplice, Adal Moloch. He was the peculiar man seen leaving the crime scene, and the hunt is on. With the help of Nadine May, a CIA operative with unbelievable tracking and computer skills, they are able to follow Moloch wherever he goes. Will they find him and bring him to justice before more people are hurt?

This is a book for those who believe in a higher power, or for those that don't, you just might after reading this book. Adal Moloch is not your typical suspect. He is a demon sent to have his evil bidding done by anyone who is willing to follow him. Destroying him is going to take more than a bullet to the head, but also a faith that God is stronger than him with that faith you can destroy anything. We always wonder if faith is enough. Can our faith in God destroy the evil that is around us? Can we rise above the evil and do what is right? At first, I was a little skeptical about this book thinking it was going to get a bit paranormal, but it didn't which made me thoroughly enjoy it. This is the first book i a series and I can't wait to read what is next.
  
TM
The Mask (Vanessa Michael Munroe, #5)
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
When I decided to read and review this book, I was not aware that it was part of a series. Number five in the series to be exact. I'm a big fan of thrillers especially when there is a character like Vanessa Michael Munroe. I can't wait to go back and read the rest of the series.

Vanessa Michael Munroe is very good at what she does. Just off a recent job, she decides to spend some time with a very special person in her life, Miles Bradford. They were in the same line of work, but their personal relationship was something different. On assignment in Japan, Bradford's on the hunt for a thief at ALTEQ. Munroe asks several times to join Miles at work and help with the assignment. More times than not, he refuses. When Miles is framed for murdering a Chinese woman at the company, Vanessa, the girlfriend takes a backseat and Michael the mercenary takes over. Not just to finish the job Bradford started, but also find the real killer. Not sure who she can trust, Munroe, disguised as a man takes on this arduous task. Will she be able to find the killer before she herself is killed?

I'm really upset that I haven't read this series chronologically. I feel like there are parts of Vanessa Michael Munroe that I am missing. I want to know more about her relationship with Bradford. Munroe is the kind of woman we all wish we could be. Able to evoke fear with just a glance, can read people like a book. She is strong, intuitive, resourceful, and smart. I'm not sure if it was love or devotion to the job/craft that made her go to the length she did to save Miles.

This book takes you on a journey where you are unsure of what is going to happen next. In a foreign country where you're not sure who is in charge and who you can trust, it's difficult to get help. The way Munroe handles herself shows the skill in her profession.
  
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
John Boyega (0 more)
More of the same... not that there's anything wrong with that
It's 10 years since the apocalypse was cancelled. The son of the man who uttered those immortal words is Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), currently doing anything but follow in his fathers footsteps. Scavenging fallen Jaegers for parts in order to sell to the highest bidder and living a carefree party lifestyle.

His hunt for a highly expensive Jaeger part leads him to a 15 year old girl called Amara, who is a bit of a mechanical hacking genius and has managed to use old spare parts she has scavenged (including the big one that Jake had his eye on) to build her own, much smaller, Jaeger. Rogue Jaegers are illegal, so after a bit of a tussle with one of the official, bigger Jaegers, Jake and Amara find themselves in trouble with the law. Thanks to Jakes sister stepping in though, they find themselves paying for their crime by being sent to the PPDC (Pan Pacific Defense Corps) where they begin training for a possible return of a Kaiju related world threat. And, coincidentally, one of those just happens to be right around the corner!

John Boyega manages to carry this movie with his lovable roguish charm for quite a while, in what is otherwise a pretty average movie. But, we're here for Jaegers and the Kaiju (well, I was anyway), and once that action kicks in, that's when the movie really steps up a gear. To be fair, if you enjoyed the original Pacific Rim, then you know exactly what you're in for and really should enjoy this second outing. For me, I enjoyed it just as much as the first.

Something that many other reviews have commented on is the fact that the fight scenes in Uprising tend to take place during daylight, whereas the original tended to favour night. I found the daylight scenes to be a huge improvement, allowing for much greater enjoyment of the incredible fight choreography on display, along with the gloriously detailed CGI destruction of Tokyo!
  
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Lee (2222 KP) created a post

Jun 24, 2018  
I was wondering how everyone feels about digital copies of movies, in particular the digital redeem code that you get when buying a Blu-ray. Personally, I find the whole system very frustrating.

Over the years, I've built up a nice little collection of these backup copies online using flixster video. I have the app on my iPhone and iPad, and although I've never really made much use of them, it's nice to know they're there if I ever do want to access them. I also used to have the flixster app on my NowTV streaming stick (a Roku based system, produced in conjunction with Sky TV), enabling me to fire up a movie quickly without having to hunt for the Blu-ray and load that up. Nice, I liked where this was all heading.

But then NowTV disallowed the flixster app from their boxes, presumably in favour of their own Sky store system. And then I bought a few Blu-ray's and tried to redeem the digital code, only to find that flixster wasn't supported, only Google Play. Luckily, I have a Google Play account, so I was able to still use it, but the point is I now have my digital movies in multiple locations.

Recently, my daughter wanted to own Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The Blu-ray wasn't out yet, but it was available to buy and download, and Amazon we're offering it at a reduced price. So, now we also have another location where a purchased movie lives.

All of these companies seem to be so interested in restricting us to using their service, and only their service. To me, that makes life more difficult, when it should be getting easier. Instead, I now find it easier to just pickup a Blu-ray from the shelf, instead of trying to remember where My digital copy is located. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, maybe I'm using the wrong service altogether. Maybe there's a simpler way out there that I don't know about. Or maybe I'm just getting too old for technology these days! I don't know but I'm interested to hear what others think.
     
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Andy K (10823 KP) Jun 24, 2018

Very much agree. If you own the movie, you can do what you want with it, when you want. If you own digital, you are entirely at the whim of the studios which is what they want, but not good for you. What if Disney decides they don't want you to own the digital Beauty and the Beast any more? They can just yank it from you. Now stores like Best Buy are not even carrying DVDs at all their locations. It's a conspiracy!

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Meg Dean (138 KP) Jun 25, 2018

I like them for the same reason I like ebooks...they are easy to store. We live in a small apt. so my massive library needs to have as small a footprint as possible.

The Darkest Part of the Forest
The Darkest Part of the Forest
Holly Black | 2015 | Young Adult (YA)
10
7.9 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
Folklore (0 more)
The Knight is Young
Holly Black sticks with folklore for Faeries and still is able to make her own twist about a town called Fairfold where the townspeople coexist cautiously with the Fae. In this town there is a boy who is a changeling pretending to be human, a boy who wishes for love out of fairy tales, a girl who desires to be more than ordinary, and a horned prince in a glass coffin all of who are very important to the story because without one it is possible none of which is happening would be happening.

Ben and Hazel are on the hunt for their prince who's awoken from the glass coffin, but what is the cost of finding him when his freedom is the start of the town pointing fingers at Jack? Will these once duo in hunting the wild faeries drift further apart? Will Hazel be able to decide who she wants to be? Can she decide which side she must be on? Or will be betray those she loves, those who have confessed to her what they hold for her to keep her place? Will Ben betray his sister for the horned prince? Will he allow his jealousy for her to overcome him to ensure he is able to finally have what he wants? Will he ruin his friendship for all this?

And is anyone safe in town?

The flow of this book was amazing. We're introduced to our key characters, minor ones, and even less important ones within the first few pages or throughout without any of the development taking from the story or plot. It takes off into the action without pause and even though one would think not skipping a beat would be bad to convey the story it works here as there is so much occurring to piece the puzzles pieces together. The relationship between brother and sister despite what is between them is wonderful as it shows you can care for someone no matter what you believe within your own mind. Their interactions are what makes TDPOTF so great. I believe without Hazel's and Ben's siblinghood this book would have not worked.