Search

Search only in certain items:

The Power of the Dog (2021)
The Power of the Dog (2021)
2021 | Drama, Romance, Western
The film has more layers than onions, it's layers on top of layers, each character is a unique universe full of ramifications and that scares. It's impossible to understand every detail of his actions and emotions, just like in the real world, I've never seen it in the cinema elevated to such an exorbitant degree, at least not that I can remember. We can only close a few holes with our imagination, but in doing so we remain unsure of anything. I found Kirsten Dunst's character a bit exaggerated in the film and I only identified Keith Carradine at the end of the film. Everyone is talking about Cumberbatch's performance, which is really undeniably good, but for me Kodi Smit-McPhee steals the show, the boy best known for playing the X-Men's Nightcrawler in the latest films in the franchise was simply spectacular. I don't even need to talk about the technical part here, it was a spectacle.
  
Allies & Enemies (The Immortals #2)
Allies & Enemies (The Immortals #2)
Cheryl S. Mackey | 2015 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Immortals is a prequel trilogy, placing events and characters that are mentioned or appear in another series by Cheryl Mackey, the first book of which is called The Unknown Sun and is available now.

Allies and Enemies start with our Four once again on the search for something. This time it is a map, but they need to find a map to find the map! Nothing is easy or straightforward for these four. Although Ivo, Jaeger, Jadeth, and Emaranthe know and work well together, they are joined by a couple that could help or hinder them.

Full of action and enough twists and turns to keep everyone happy, this is a fast-paced Fantasy. Full of imagination and leading nicely to the next book. Definitely recommended.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Oct 27, 2015
  
A Most Malicious Murder
A Most Malicious Murder
Melanie Fletcher | 2021 | Mystery
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Edgar Allen Poe is on a tour of the universities of England, His first stop Oxford. He's worried about his wife who's had a rough time on the way over. Hes had a bit too much to drink to celebrate his success he then wakes up in what he thinks is his room with a very sore head and a dead chambermaid at the bottom of his bed on the floor!
He must do everything he can to clear his name so he can continue with his tour.

It is an absolutely encapsulating story it did remind me a bit of Sherlock and Watson. It's very well written and captures your imagination from the start!

The murder scenes are rather gruesome but then murders aren't meant to be pretty are they! The air of mystery through out the novel keeps you wanting to read through to the end to find out whodunit and why?

a fantastic mystery to keep you captivated.
  
Wonder Park (2019)
Wonder Park (2019)
2019 | Adventure, Animation, Comedy
Kind of inoffensive? (1 more)
Animation is fine
The plot (2 more)
The concept
The execution
Horrible Park
Contains spoilers, click to show
I have five kids. So I've seen a ton of kids' movies. Some are good, some are bad, and some are meh. "Wonder Park" falls completely and stubbornly into the bottom range of Meh. It's not so bad that you hate yourself for watching it, but it isn't even interesting enough to hold your attention for the 80-minute runtime.

"Wonder Park" is about an imaginary amusement park called Wonderland (they never explain the discrepancy in name versus the name of the movie) invented by a young girl. She talks about the park, she draws pictures of it, she makes models of it, and she creates new rides with the help of her mom.

Unfortunately, in a real downer of a plotline, her mom gets sick with an unnamed illness and has to go away to see specialists somewhere. This makes the girl depressed, which makes her stop using her imagination, which makes her stop caring about Wonderland.

Then, in a situation that makes no sense, she hops off of a bus on the way to Math Camp, takes off on her own through the woods, and stumbles onto a real-life version of Wonderland run by real talking animals. Except there's a problem: Wonderland is being destroyed by a big black cloud and a sea of stuffed monkeys.

The girl eventually realizes (duh!) that the black cloud is basically her sadness, and to save the park she has to learn to use her imagination again. So she does. Then she leaves the park, goes back home, and her mom is magically better from the illness and everyone presumably lives happily ever after.

It's a neat concept (kid creates amusement park!) with bad execution, a terrible story, and too much depression for a kids' movie. Plus it wraps up too neatly. And it isn't funny. And I literally almost fell asleep watching it.

If you have to see a family movie, you can do a lot better than this one. I wouldn't even recommend renting it from Redbox. It is that bland and inoffensive.