Search

Search only in certain items:

TG
The Grief of Others
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book tracks a family in & out of several years in their lives. It follows John, Ricky, Paul, Biscuit & Jess. It tells their stories & allows you a glimpse into their innermost thoughts. I find it hard to describe this book because nothing really happens, yet everything happens...loss, betrayl, grief, love. The ending fit with this theme of everything & nothing. It was not a typical satisfying ending & lacked closure. Yet was the perfect ending to the Ryrie's story at the same time.
  
The Green Mile (1999)
The Green Mile (1999)
1999 | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The Shawshank
The plot: Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) walked the mile with a variety of cons. He had never encountered someone like John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a massive black man convicted of brutally killing a pair of young sisters. Coffey had the size and strength to kill anyone, but not the demeanor. Beyond his simple, naive nature and a deathly fear of the dark, Coffey seemed to possess a prodigious, supernatural gift. Paul began to question whether Coffey was truly guilty of murdering the two girls.

Again what a perfect cast, michael clarke duncan will be missed, he was a great actor. I know he passed away years ago, but he is still missed. Same with river Pheniox who was in Stand By Me, he will also be missed.

I would highly reccordmend this movie.
  
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
2001 | Drama
Story: A Beautiful Mind starts as we see John Nash (Crowe) start his time at Princeton University where we meet fellow students Sol (Goldberg), Hansen (Lucas), Bender (Rapp), Ainsley (Gray-Stanford) and his roommate Charles (Bettany). Struggling to find his place in the University it takes an everyday occurrence for John to final start rolling on his theory.

After becoming the brightest student John moves onto becoming a teacher while secretly working for the government on code breaking reporting to Parcher (Harris). While teaching he meets the beautiful Alicia Nash (Connelly) and the two strike it off before starting their lives together.

When it becomes apparent John is struggling to manage both live the people that care about him with Charles returning to his life, Parcher pushing him too much and his wife wondering what he is up to, but this beautiful mind is about to be tested when Dr Rosen (Plummer) a psychologist enters his life.

A Beautiful Mind is a wonderfully drama showing us the story of one of the greatest minds of our generation. We see how difficult the life was for John before learning of his mind being damaged due to his schizophrenia. We follow from his time in school until his Noble Peace Prize. We see John deal and learn with his condition to still go on achieve greatness in his life. This is such a brilliant story that shows how success you can achieve your potential regardless.

 

Actor Review

 

Russell Crowe: John Nash is the brilliant mathematician that believes he has been working for the government cracking codes, but when we and he learns the truth we discover this beautiful mind is damaged in other ways. We see John’s life from early Princeton till his final acceptance in the scientific world. Russell gives the best performance of his career her where he shines in the drama.john

Ed Harris: Parcher is the man John believes works for the government as he lives the life of mystery and code breaking John believes he is part of. Ed is great in this supporting role.parcher

Jennifer Connelly: Alicia Nash starts off as a student of John’s before being the only person that sees there is something wrong with his mind, she supports him through every decision in their lives. Jennifer is brilliant in this role of the patience wife.

Paul Bettany: Charles is the roommate John has at Princeton that helps him break out of the problems he has been suffering through but we learn the truth about Charles once we learn John’s mental state. Paul put himself on the map with this great supporting role.charles

Support Cast: A Beautiful Mind has a brilliant supporting cast that all give performances worthy of this subject matter.

Director Review: Ron Howard – Ron shows that he can handle the serious films that are important to see the greatest people in human history.

 

Biographical: A Beautiful Mind shows the struggles John Nash had with his own sanity to achieve unlocking all of the potential inside his mind.

History: A Beautiful Mind is one film that shows the mind of someone so troubled achieving so much.

Settings: A Beautiful Mind uses the real life location re-created for the story to be unfolded in.
Suggestion: A Beautiful Mind is one for everyone to watch at least once. (Watch)

 

Best Part: The Pen scene.

Worst Part: Slightly too much time on the imagined side of John’s life.

Favourite Quote: Dr Rosen ‘Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?’

 

Believability: Based on the John Nash and his amazing story.

Chances of Tears: Maybe a few nearer the end.

Chances of Sequel: No

Post Credits Scene: No

 

Oscar Chances: Won 4 Oscars including Best Picture, Director and Supporting Actress with another 4 Nomination including Best Actor.

Budget: $60 Million

Runtime: 2 Hours 15 Minutes

Tagline: The Only Thing Greater Than the Power of the Mind is the Courage of the Heart

Trivia: John Nash is shown smoking in the film. In reality, he was a militant anti-smoker.

 

Overall: Brilliant Biographical film that is a must watch for all.

https://moviesreview101.com/2016/05/27/paul-bettany-weekend-a-beautiful-mind-2001/
  
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles
1967 | Pop, Psychedelic, Rock

"I lived a stone's throw from Penny Lane, and my sister had Beatles wallpaper, my brother had a plastic Beatles wig and Beatles cap, and they were older than me, and my auntie Kathleen - who was a bit of a ... swinging sixties... a Liver bird, put it that way - came to live with us and she brought with her Sgt. Pepper's. She would go and see concerts like Gene Pitney at the Liverpool Empire and things like that. She was quite an interesting woman - to me anyway - and was great fun. I had one of those portable record players like you did in the 1960s, and I would play this over and over again while staring at the Peter Blake/Jann Howarth record sleeve, which made a 3D collage, and asking people ""who's this?"" and ""who is this?"". I've said it before, it was a bit like Dorothy opening the door of the house once it's arrived in Munchkinland, and everything goes technicolour from the black and white-ness of 1960s Liverpool. It was like a portal into things like the Hollywood musicals that I'd been seeing on the Saturday morning at the pictures. My auntie Kath would say, ""Ooh I saw The Beatles in the Liverpool passport office getting a passport while I was getting mine"" and my mum would go, ""I knew Julia when she used to look like Lucille Ball and she used to strut down the street"", and so it was Beatles saturation, living in that particular part of town. 'She's Leaving Home' on that album was the first song that made me cry, which I think is quite an important moment in your life, when a piece of music makes you cry. It was just the sadness of the story of a girl leaving home. Then of course there was 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', 'A Day In The Life' and all those odd string arrangements. There was also the Magical Mystery Tour double EP in gatefold technicolour glory and things like that. It was like an entry into a world that was distant yet very close as well. It made me want to learn the lyrics to sing along and I guess it was just very important to me in my journey of music appreciation. And if you had the measles or chicken pox, you were quarantined to my sister's bedroom, and it was like a TARDIS of 'John Paul George Ringo' and it would drive you absolutely insane, as it was all you could read: 'John Paul George Ringo John Paul George Ringo John Paul George Ringo' and their smiling happy faces. It was kind of great and yet torturous at the same time. Pop torture."

Source
  
The Green Mile
The Green Mile
Stephen King | 1996 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
9.1 (34 Ratings)
Book Rating
Atmosphere (1 more)
Characters
Made me cry (I try to be hard - Gerrrr) (0 more)
A disturbing but beautiful book
I'd seen the film a long time ago so no surprises with the plot but wow was I surprised at how well written and captivating this book was.

Written as the memoir of former Prison Guard Paul Edgecombe we get a look into the life of Block E of the Cold Mountain Penitentiary which Paul is the head guard of in the 1930s. In what we would call death row today they call it the “Green Mile” due to the colour of the floor. We get a snapshot of the period on the block around the time of convicted child killer John Coffey coming onto the “Mile.”

Each part of the book has a bit from the present from as Paul is writing this memoir and these served as lovely little bridge to the next part of his story.

I've read quite a bit of King and enjoy a lot of his work with his well crafted stories, but I've never fallen head over heels for his writing....until now.

Very emotionally engaging King really pulls off a great atmosphere, characters and despite a supernatural element, a story that easily carries you along. Not often I cry reading a book but this one got me.
  
Donovan's Greatest Hits by Donovan
Donovan's Greatest Hits by Donovan
1999 | Folk, Psychedelic, Rock
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was from college and Charles had it, and obviously I knew those songs. Jimmy Page and [John] Bonham and John Paul Jones did the arrangements to this song, 'Hurdy Gurdy Man'. Fucking hell man! That's epic! Also, I like the sensibility of basically saying "fuck you", well, not fuck you, but it was the freedom of the 70s - I know 'I Love My Shirt' isn't on that album but I just love that, it was like, "Wow, what kind of freedom can you get talking about your favourite goddamn shirt!" And washing it in the stream! And he'll say, "Know what I mean?" [laughs] There's a song there, 'Sunshine Superman', and I played it for Charles and he went, "Shit!" It's so strange. It took me a while, it's got - [imitates guitar] - it's got all these weird sonic spots, it's more sonic really than the melody, because the melody there, what is that?"

Source
  
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
Comedy
8
7.6 (8 Ratings)
Podcast Rating
guests, hosts, (0 more)
Full-On Belly Laughs Galore
I haven't been as devoted to this podcast as much as others but occasionally check in and binge. I listened to the Paul Rudd episode and laughed so hard tears streamed down my cheeks and my stomach hurt. I went on to listen to several more, including Neil Young, Tina Fey, Zach Galifianakis, and John Oliver. All of them were wonderful. The podcast is a relaxed setting so everyone lets their guard down and doesn't take themselves too seriously and they have time to share stories. It's a delightful, fun romp through the brilliant minds of Conan O'Brien and his guests. Never a dull moment.
  
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
1981 | Horror
7
7.1 (26 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Sleepaway Camp 1981: Sack Jason
Its Friday the 13th- my favorite day. To celebrate my favorite day, im going to review 3 of the Friday the 13th movies, starting with this one.

Part 2- picks up right after the first one. New Camp Consulers, a grown up Jason, though he's not wearing his hockey mask, he wears a sack over his face. I like the kills in this movie. Including Marks death- machete to the face, Jeff's and Sandra's death- implaled with a spear.

The only thing i dont like about this movie, that it ends all the suddenly. Thats this movies downfall, other than that its a good movie.

The plot: The second entry in the long-running horror series focuses on a group of teenage would-be counselors converging on Camp Crystal Lake for training under the tutelage of head counselor Paul (John Furey). Inevitably, Paul relates the story of Jason Voorhees (Warrington Gillette), a boy who ostensibly drowned at the camp and whose mother murdered a group of counselors in revenge. No one takes the tale seriously until a very much alive Jason begins gruesomely eliminating people.

Happy Friday the 13th.
  
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years (2016)
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years (2016)
2016 | Documentary, Music
9
7.9 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Four Lads Who Shook The World
Last night the Ron Howard directed Beatles documentary, Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years, premiered in London. As much as I would have loved to attend the premier, I have just started a new year at university and couldn’t afford to go both financially and educationally. Therefore I had to settle for going to see it in my local cinema, but it was still an awesome experience. From six o’clock, the cinema streamed the premier in London, hosted by John Bishop and Edith Bowman and featuring interviews from Ron Howard, Paul and Ringo. Then the cinema auctioned off a poster for the film for charity, (which went for £100 if you are curious,) then finally the film started.


It is a fantastic insight into what went on during the years of Beatlemania while the Beatles were on tour and what they were like as people in those more innocent days. The music is of course fantastic, but even for someone who isn’t a massive Beatles fan I think that this documentary is still relevant and tells of an important piece of recent history in an exciting, stylish way.


There are some gripes I have with the movie though, the first one being a case of some revisionist history. The only talk about the group taking any form of drugs was a blink and you’ll miss it mention of them smoking dope on the set of Help, there was no mention of them smoking a joint in the toilets in Buckingham Palace while waiting to receive their MBE’s, there was also no mention of the fact that John returned his MBE and they didn’t even mention the amount of acid they took whilst in India and in the later days. Also, all of John’s more offensive behaviour has been vastly censored and toned down. There is footage of the Beatles first American concert at the Coliseum in Washington D.C, where Paul introduces the band and asks the audience to ‘clap their hands and stomp their feet,’ as Paul is saying this John appears to be impersonating a handicapped person doing exaggerated clapping and stomping movements, which is something he did repeatedly during their first American tour, but in the film they cut away to the audience during this to avoid showing John being offensive. We also never see the footage from their Royal Variety performance, when John told the people in the poor seats to clap their hands and the rich people, including the Royal family, to just rattle their jewellery. I don’t know why they are trying to make John look like an innocent saint when he was never like that, he was always rebellious and cheeky and was never afraid to say what was on his mind. The second gripe I have is more of a personal one in that us hardcore Beatles fans were promised a story that had never been told and while there was some footage that I hadn’t seen before, I wasn’t exactly mind blown by the story that the footage told as there was very little in the film that I didn’t already know about. However despite these minor gripes the movie is fantastic, an immense story told by a master filmmaker about the greatest band in history, what’s not to love?
  
40x40

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Firewall (2006) in Movies

May 26, 2020 (Updated May 26, 2020)  
Firewall (2006)
Firewall (2006)
2006 | Action, Drama, Mystery
5
5.7 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
We've Seen This Done Before: A Dozen Times
Firewall- is a movie, that I fell like I've seen, watched oe heard of before. Thats because it is. Cause you will get these types of movies mixed up. Hostage and negotitation movies, cause their all the same.

If you like or seen "John Q", "Hostage", "Inside Man", "The Town", "The Negotitaor" and "Money Monster". Than you kinda of like this one. The Problem is that, movies like "Inside Man", "The Town" and "John Q" are better. The other problem with this one is that, the final battle just ends so quickly, badly and pointless. Like the bad guy just dies and than boom end. What?? The whole movie was building up suspense between the main charcter and bad guy, and than he just dies with one hit/blow and thats it. The whole movie felt pointless, because of that. The whole suspense just gone, you felt nothing. Felt like the whole movie was pointless and it was.

The plot: Bank security expert Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) builds a career on his expertise in designing theft-proof computer systems for financial institutions. However, a criminal mastermind (Paul Bettany) kidnaps his family, and he must work feverishly to find a way to break into his own system and steal $100 million, for the lives of his loved ones hang in the balance.

Paul Bettany was excellet as the villian.

Other than that, this movie is a decent suspense thriller and that has a bad ending that makes this whole movie pointless.