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The Aeronaut's Windlass
The Aeronaut's Windlass
Jim Butcher | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.6 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
Jim Butcher adds another series to his already excellent repertoire. (0 more)
If he's writing this, he's not writing Dresden :D (0 more)
Mixes high fantasy with steampunk overtures beautifully
I've read almost everything I can of Jim Butcher, so any new series he brings out will be worthy my attention.
In this new series he introduces some truly fantastical elements which blend themes of pirates, airships, high fantasy and steampunk technology to a breathtaking world.
Easy to get into and hard to put down, it's a novel you'll want to read again and again.
  
Escape Plan (2013)
Escape Plan (2013)
2013 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Mumble Mumble Mumble
Contains spoilers, click to show
Escape Plan- takes two big actons stars and throws them into a prison and escape it. Opps did i spoil it. Its in the title.

The Plot: Tough and chiseled Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) knows how to infiltrate a prison -- and bust out of one. His latest job leads to a double-cross, leaving him stuck in a high-tech facility with the worst that society has to offer. Luckily for Ray, he meets Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), an inmate who secretly helps him hatch a plot to win his freedom. Only sadistic warden Hobbes (Jim Caviezel) stands in the way of the two men successfully making it out alive.

I would highly reccordmend this movie.
  
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
2020 | Action, Adventure, Animation
I was pleasantly surprised at how good this movie became. Based on the trailer that was released with much fanfare and lackluster reception, I didn't have high expectations.

Jim Carrey is brilliant in his role as Dr. Robotnik. The other acting in the film is plenty good enough to ensure that Carrey didn't have to carry everything on his back. The story was actually surprisingly solid given the video game nature. Although Sonic did come equipped with quite a backstory to lend to film adaptation.

I saw this film in the theatre, and then I saw it again more than once after it was released digitally, with my children. Would recommend you definitely give it a go if you are on the fence,
  
American Pie (1999)
American Pie (1999)
1999 | Comedy
Comedy is a big hit in this film (0 more)
Acting (1 more)
Nudity
Moderated porn for the teen
American pie is a film based a lot around some high school teenagers who love sex. Sex nudity and more sex. It centres mainly around jim, who is still a virgin and he has a ginormous crush on the foreign beauty Nadia. The film starts off where Nadia waits for Jim in his bedroom already getting naked. This is where the nudity begins, they may as well just slap a porn sticker on the film.

Putting the porn factor aside, the film does bring some pretty hearty laughs courtesy of Eugene levy and seann William Scott. They bring the laughs and giggles to the film and make it watchable.

A good thing I find about the film though is the twist that you start to see coming with Michelle. Now if you haven't seen the film I will not tell you anymore but you must watch it! Yes I have said it's mediocre and should been put as porn but this aside it is a watchable film that delivers on the comedic factor.

It's a good film for when your on your own with nothing to do, and in need of a laugh.. or maybe some alone time...
  
American Reunion (2012)
American Reunion (2012)
2012 | Comedy, Romance
Alot of time has passed since 1999, and in that time there have been a long line of spin off American Pie films, if you don’t count the sequel and American Pie: The Wedding. Of those films only Jim’s Dad (Eugene Levy) has starred in every single one, so it was brilliant to see all the old gang back together again, and how we have missed them all.

The gang is back together – but was it worth it?
Grown up and with adult lives, they head back to where it all began for a high school reunion which of course involves a whole heap of laughter, and there is plenty of that.

Jim and Michelle are now married with a small child and stuck in a rut of a no sex marriage, Oz now a hot shot sports reporter has trouble controlling his high maintenance girlfriend. Kevin is seemingly happy as a house husband and Finch is still very much the enigma of the group, and then of course there’s Stifler, probably the only character not to have changed at all.

There are some outrageous moments, right from the opening scene, even giving a hint of what is going to happen would suck any laughter out of you so for that I am not going to reveal too much. Let’s just say it is once again Jim who pretty much steals the show.

The group start to look at themselves and realise that they are very much all grown up with things never able to be the same again, as Jim harshly points out to Stifler in one scene.

There is through all the hilarity some touching moments, in particularly featuring Jim’s Dad who is getting over the passing of his wife and takes some advice from Jim himself to get back onto the dating horse. This of course results in some more outlandish behaviour at another Stifler party.

The American Pie franchise is very much an icon of teenage angst, at least for those films that matter to us. I doubt anyone would have sat through any of the American Pie Presents films.

American Reunion manages to get the whole cast back together, even if they are only on screen for a brief few minutes its like seeing an old friend once again. It’s almost as if we can resonate with every character and are pleased that their lives have turned out or are going to turn out for the better.

The film climaxes with a killer piece of revenge courtesy of Stifler, one which in the back of our minds we knew was coming and involves a well cast cameo.

It might not be everyone’s chosen comedy of 2012, but its sure as hell going to be up there!
  
Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4)
Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4)
Jim Butcher | 2002 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (14 Ratings)
Book Rating
The fourth installment of jim Butchers' "The Dresden Files" series, this sees the eponymous PI/Wizard-for-hire (the only professional wizard in the Chicago Phone Book) becoming embroiled in Faerie politics, as he is hired by the Winter Queen to solve a murder. Meanwhile, Harry has also to deal with the backlash from the Wizard High Council, who blame him for starting a war between the Wizards and the Vampire Courts, as he's also desperately looking for a cure for his ex-girlfriend who was bitten by a vampire towards the end of 'Grave Peril'.

This book also sees a welcome return of Karrin Murphy to a larger role than in the last novel, and with Harry still wise-cracking his way through the plot it also 'felt' (if that's the word I'm looking for) lighter than that previous installment.
  
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
1993 | Comedy

"I love this movie and always have! And now I get to love it more on this far-out DVD package. Until watching the accompanying doc, I had never really thought of the film as a 1970s American Graffiti—for me, the fun of it is in the ensemble cast of young people, many of whom became huge stars later—it reminds me more of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. But also on this doc is an extraordinarily frank look at the difficulties of making this film. People in the movie business—indie or otherwise—are rarely this honest in discussing what it took to get the film you see on the screen. I really appreciated the honesty of Jim Jacks and Richard Linklater, who, uh, shall we say, didn’t always agree on the set. Also, the interviews with the young actors, like Marissa Ribisi, talking about the approach Linklater took with them, were completely enlightening. I plan to steal his entire approach from now on. :) And the packaging is an artifact to have for keeps: the cover artwork by Marc English, based on the Led Zeppelin III album cover, is supremely inspired, and the booklet is a high school notebook. It’s great pop culture folk art! I own a collection of Memoryware folk art that people used to make with all their leftover trinkets and little pieces of their lives: earrings, coins, buttons, etc. They’d take these mementos and put them in plaster on top of an old jug or jar and call them “memory jugs” or “memory jars.” And this is what this DVD is for me—a keepsake. A memory jar of seventies pop culture. No, of 1976. No, of specifically 1976 Austin, Texas. And yet . . . it’s a memory jug of anyone’s last high school rite."

Source
  
Odd Child Out (Jim Clemo #2)
Odd Child Out (Jim Clemo #2)
Gilly MacMillan | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The second book in [a:Gilly Macmillan|8183303|Gilly Macmillan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1490347732p2/8183303.jpg]'s excellent DI Jim Clemo series finds Jim back in similar circumstances from the first--working against time to save a child. Jim has returned from leave after the Ben Finch case, and he's ready to redeem himself in the eyes DCI Fraser and his peers. He's assigned what looks to be a terrible accident: best pals Noah Sadler and Abdi Mahad are out late one evening when teenage Noah falls into a local canal, rendering him unconscious. Abdi refuses to speak about what happened, leaving the families (and police) to ponder what really occurred that evening. Complicating matters is the fact that Noah is already ill from cancer; plus Noah is British, while Abdi and his family are Somalian refugees, so Jim fears how this case will be presented in the press. By most accounts, Noah and Abdi are best friends, so what truly went down night?

<i>This is another gorgeous gem of a novel by Macmillan</i>, who offers yet one more beautifully-written mystery combined with lovely, perfectly drawn characters. This book touched me in so many ways, and <i>I just cannot keep raving enough about how well this author writes, or how she so excellently embodies her characters</i>. Again, this is no straightforward mystery, or simple fiction, but a wonderful combination of the two.

For me, this book really hit from home the beginning, as Jim mentions how an anti-immigration march by a neo-Nazi group has rocked Bristol, wrecking havoc on the police force, as well as emotions in the area. It's clear that racial tensions are high. As someone who was born in Charlottesville, VA, and lived in the suburbs of the area for the last nearly ten years, I felt this in my heart all too well. The backdrop of race stretches across the fabric of Macmillan's entire novel, and it's quite well done, in my opinion.

On one end, we have the Sadler family--well-off and British: Noah attends a posh private school, Fiona manages Noah and Noah's illness, and Ed is a photographer--often of refugees. In fact, we learn that he's even photographed the very camp where Abdi's parents and sister lived. The Sadler's life, however, is clouded by the tragedy of Noah's cancer, which has basically formed each family member into who they are today.

As for the Mahads, we see how their past experiences has created them, as well. <i>One of the strengths of this book is that we get small portions of narration from all of characters: the Sadlers, the Mahads, and Jim.</i> The bits and pieces you learn of the Mahad's origins--my goodness: it will break your heart. Macmillan captures the fear of the family because they are different due to the color of their skin and the country of their origin, yet you see their strength and pride shine across as well.

The main storyline of ODD CHILD OUT revolves around figuring out exactly what happened between the boys and how Noah ended up in the water. As mentioned, you get snippets from each character, as we slowly work up to that point of no return. We also get flashbacks to various pieces of earlier parts of their lives, and we start to realize that something has spooked the Mahad family--something is not as it seems. <i>It's not your conventional mystery, per se, but it's compelling and certainly intriguing.</i>

At its core, this is a heartbreaking book whose strength lies in its characters. It's a wonderful exploration on race and immigration and how difficult it is to be deemed "different" by our society. What I loved about this book, though, is that you could also wonder: is either family truly all that different at its core? Every parent will go to any length to protect their child, after all. I highly recommend picking this one up. It can be read as a stand-alone, but if you want more insight into Jim and his mindset, you should definitely read the first book, [b:What She Knew|25817531|What She Knew (Jim Clemo #1)|Gilly Macmillan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441801604s/25817531.jpg|41344566], which is also excellent (my review <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1421220730?comment=172068859#comment_form">here</a>;). I can't wait to see what Macmillan comes up with next! 4+ stars.

In a perfect swirl of ARC goodness, I received a copy of this novel from both Librarything and Edelweiss. A huge thanks to them and the publisher for a copy in return for an unbiased review. The book is available for purchase everywhere.

<center><a href="http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/">Blog</a>; ~ <a href="https://twitter.com/mwcmoto">Twitter</a>; ~ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/justacatandabook/">Facebook</a>; ~ <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KristyHamiltonbooks">Google+</a>; ~ <a href="https://www.instagram.com/justacatandabook/">Instagram</a>; </center>
  
The Bad Batch (2016)
The Bad Batch (2016)
2016 | Drama
Being in the wasteland is just as boring as this movie
I thought with a cast like Keanu, Jim Carey, and Jason Momoa this might have been a decent movie. I was so wrong. The movie started out so gruesome that I thought we were going to get a mad max type of movie. I slowly went down hill from there.

This movie is about a girl that joins the bad batch, a group of people that are sentenced to Texas. Ouch, talk about the perfect prison. This new wasteland, as far as I can tell is divided into 2 groups. Cannibals and Stoners. With the only plot being get a little girl back to here father there was not much else going on.

It seems like the whole movie was just setting up these 2 worlds that really didn't make much sense. Although The Comfort was definitely a better place to live, they really didn't say how they pick the people that can stay there. They are boarded up by shipping containers which leads me to believe they want to keep bad people out, but then again they are all "bad". So maybe the really bad. They just seemed to not care who came and went.

I think the only good thing in the movie was Jim Carrey. Funny enough he didn't even have a spoken line, I didn't even recognize him.

Eating people and getting high could not save this move. Like I always say, I don't want to hold anyone back from seeing a movie because of me. If you like it let me know why. And as always enjoy the show.
  
Waking Up A Slide
Waking Up A Slide
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was really excited when I saw this book. I love romantic comedies and I had high hopes for this book. I was a bit disappointed.

Jason is a batchelor and has been for a while. He is a duty manager at the local hotel and is currently living with his two closest friends, Sean and Jim. When Jason receives a wedding invitation in the mail from his ex-girlfriend, Lila Holmes, his world goes into a tailspin thinking about the one that got away. His friends are on a quest to find him a plus one, while Jason is wallowing in the sorrow of knowing he would not be the one to marry Lila.

This book did not have very much romance in it and to me it wasn't really that funny. I didn't find myself laughing out loud or really connecting with the characters at all. On the positive side though, I didn't stop reading the book. I did want to know what was going to happen next and how Jason was going to actually face his ex when the time came. There were a ton of movie references in this book which really didn't add to the story. I will read another book by this author, though.