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White House Down (2013)
White House Down (2013)
2013 | Action, Drama
4
6.9 (19 Ratings)
Movie Rating
They don’t make them like this anymore. White House Down is like watching an action movie from 1988-1994. It is over the top with a weak unbelievable and absurd plot. Not to mention a Scooby-doo like plot twist ending that is trying too hard.

There really is not much to say about this film. Channing Tatum is a police officer who is interviewing for a secret service job to impress his somewhat estranged daughter. While taking her on the tour of the white house, some ho hum bad guys take over the place on some convoluted quest for money, vengeance, power…whatever.

Tatum finds himself protecting the president played by Jamie Fox in which the movie tries to create a buddy dynamic that does not quite work. In fact, in 1990s action film style, Tatum and Fox are such caricatures of the resourceful cop and the idealist president that they possess no depth at all. That would be fine if the action was filled with eye candy explosions, only the action was actually subdued, predictable and unremarkable at best.

As if that was not enough, the one-liners in this film are so bad that they actually become laughably good. Not because of what was said, but rather because they are so ridiculous you cannot help but laugh at them. This may in fact be the film’s saving grace though. If you approach this film with zero expectations and are just looking for mindless fun, you may actually enjoy yourself.

http://sknr.net/2013/06/28/white-house-down/
  
Best of Bowie by David Bowie
Best of Bowie by David Bowie
2002 | Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"A dirty sexy rock & roll track from the future: that was my concept of it when I first heard it. At the time when he wrote it, it sounded pretty far out from anything he had written before. So, the challenge was finding an approach that would fit with the other songs we'd be doing. He'd write on a 12-string guitar mainly, so it always had a little bit of a folky element to it. It would sound like it came from a folk singer, but we knew it wasn't going to come out like a folk song so we would have to figure out how to break it down into a rock & roll context. Those are the things that would go through our heads as a band, and that one was, lyrically, summing up the whole Ziggy thing. You know: 'I'm an alien' and just the atmosphere around it. And when Mick Ronson did his solo on it, that was a new kind of solo. I think he used an echoplex thing, where it sort of went round on a tape machine and kept going and going and then he played on top of it – and it was pretty freaky! Pretty far out to play along with! The whole thing sounded as big as the universe while you were playing, but you had to keep grounded, keep that solid beat going and not be affected. Then when we heard it back it was like 'wow!' It went to the stars, but we still had our feet on the ground."

Source
  
A(
Adapt (Forgotten Affinities 2)
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
35 of 220
Kindle
Adapt ( Forgotten Affinities 2)
By Analeigh Ford
⭐️⭐️

I have three months to prove I can control my powers. This time, I am going to have to do it alone.

The…incident…at Homecoming left the New York Academy of Mages reeling. I don’t mind that Whitney fears me, so long as it means she leaves me alone. But I don’t like the feeling that my best friend might be beginning to become afraid of me as well.

They aren’t the only ones acting strangely.

The principal is suddenly acting on my behalf even though he was the one to try and get my powers stripped in the first place. Draven says he’s out of the mage crime syndicate for good, but even I know that those kinds of organizations don’t let mages like him go. Not really, not ever. I want to believe that the affection Flynn is showing me is genuine, but instead I get the feeling that he’s keeping a secret from me.

Even Kendall is acting distant and brooding, and I don’t know why. Cedric is the only one among them who’s acting normal—until I suggest his father’s uncharacteristic kindness might be rooted in something sinister.

There are plans at work here that I am only beginning to understand. Even now, with everything I know, it may already be too late.

I don’t like giving books 1 star so I settled for 2. It wasn’t awful but it was brilliant either started off on them I just got bored.
  
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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Destroyer (2018) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)  
Destroyer (2018)
Destroyer (2018)
2018 | Thriller
It feels like Nicole Kidman has been making a big screen comeback recently. I enjoyed Aquaman and The Upside, we're also looking forward to seeing her in Boy Erased next month. I was aware that this one was going to be a little... different shall we say? But I hadn't read up much about it. It's a very surprising role to see her in.

Days after seeing Destroyer I'm still not any clearer about the whole thing. It almost felt like it had gritty TV crime drama potential but as a film I was a little underwhelmed.

I spent a long time wondering if I had missed something, the ending caused me the following reaction... "wait... oh... huh." I'm not sure that the way it tied itself up worked. It left me a little confused, not because the story didn't make sense but because of the way the film had been organised.

The main character, Erin, takes some pretty extreme measures during the film because of our bad guy. But out bad guy doesn't seem to warrant that behaviour. Sure he's a little nuts but as a catalyst for the messed up things she does I didn't find it to be very believable.

Kidman puts on a good show as you'd expect, trying to get past that hair and make-up though... I spent the first 30 minutes getting annoyed by it. I honestly don't know if I'm annoyed because it's bad or annoyed because it feels like they've disfigured Nicole Kidman.

The story is very familiar, a cop's past comes back to haunt them isn't new territory. Kidman takes on a very strong role and I can't deny she put some oomph into it but it's just another sort of okay film. Some less dramatic hair and make-up, a more organised timeline and a little more thought for the bad guy and I think I could have seen myself giving this four stars.

[As an after thought... the guy behind me at the screening kept laughing. Proper comedy gaffawing. I have to guess he was laughing at the violence being over the top because there wasn't anything amusing in it. I've seem films that are worse in that aspect though so I'm really just shrugging my shoulders about it.]

What you should do

There are other films that do much the same as this, but seeing Nicole Kidman as Erin Bell was an eye opener that you might benefit from seeing once.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

I would like whatever Nicole Kidman has that makes her naturally look like she's no older that Sebastian Stan.
  
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ArecRain (8 KP) rated Resist in Books

Jan 18, 2018  
R
Resist
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have read Missy Johnson before, and while I enjoyed her previous work, it did not prepare me for this novel. It was dark, intense, sexy, and complicated. I wasn’t expecting it to be such an emotional ride, but it sure was.

However, I am way past over the whole torment hero/heroine trope, so I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at some parts. It’s not the author’s fault. My reading list has just been saturated with this trope lately. I would just like some main characters who don’t need therapy. I am also confused by the storyline. Even now, I am still not 100% sure I know what happened. Maybe I missed something or skipped over pivotal parts?

I didn’t enjoy this book for one main reason: as someone who has been sexually abused, this book felt more like abuse than BDSM. I feel there are many authors who try to write BDSM but they follow the vein of 50 Shades. What I mean by this is that it seems more like a game of power with a woman not strong enough to know who to play. Thus it just comes off as abuse rather than a sexual exploration.
  
The Dead Don't Die (2019)
The Dead Don't Die (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Horror
The dead should die...
I wanted to like this film so badly, but when I wanted to turn it off less than an hour in, i had to admit it wasn't for me. Although I did at least persevere until the end, even if it wasn't worth it.

I'm all for off beat and dark humour and wit, but I'm afraid for me this film was just too far in the left field. I liked the deadpan aspects and humour and also how it surpassed the fourth wall, the problem was the laughs were still few and far between. I like how this poked fun at today's society and there was a lot of social commentary, it was just so deadpan that a lot of the witty remarks were lost. The plot development too was so slow. The film was virtually over by the time it felt like it was going anywhere, and even when the zombies emerged in full they couldn't breathe any life (ha) into this. Strangely such a stellar cast were wasted too. Tilde Swinton's wacky funeral director was by far the most fun but even she got on my nerves by the end.


I'm all for your non-typical comedy, but sadly this film just wasn't for me. There are some good ideas in this but they feel wasted
  
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. by Bruce Springsteen
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. by Bruce Springsteen
1973 | Compilation
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This is Bruce’s first album and probably one of his best. There’s a richness and naïvety on this record that ends up in these lyrical paintings that speak something dear to my heart. It’s about my home, and it’s in a language I understand. I always felt like this was “our” record. The people like “us” who were outcasts growing up. It’s one part Dylan, one part Van Morrison, and then there’s this Marlon Brando part that encapsulates the beautiful losers. There aren’t any winners on this record, only people in “Lost in the Flood.” Even the brighter moments have a sadness to them. “Does this Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” says it well: “Drink this and you’ll grow wings on your feet.” Since reality is so hard, at some point the fantasy takes over. Fantasy, and die hard belief in a different life just over the horizon. It’s that fantasy of rock and roll that some people are too affected to believe in anymore. But this record helps me keep the faith in the childlike wonder of music, and rock and roll in particular. This was my rulebook starting out writing songs. It still is. For the lost, for the lovers, for the crazies, and everyone in between—""For You."" It was like he was saying to me and everyone I knew who lost but believed in spite of those losses, you could still win. “I came for you.”"

Source
  
Pulse (2006)
Pulse (2006)
2006 | Horror, Mystery
Offensively awful, legitimately reprehensible filmmaking. I challenge anyone to find a worse American remake of Japanese horror than this. Not at all shocking how mercilessly they unceremoniously gutted the original of any sense of breadth, nuance, emotion, horror, intelligence, memorability, you know - all of that stuff that actually makes a half-decent horror film because apparently us dumb Yanks just couldn't handle any ounce of it... but by God did it have to look like moldy garbage too? This may be the worst looking film I've ever seen, whoever color-coded this to look like a chemical reaction between bleach and rotting flesh better have been blacklisted from working in the film industry since. I had to stop somewhere around the halfway point (which still felt like a goddamn century even though this barely touches 90 minutes with credits) because I felt physically ill from stomaching these shit visuals for that long. Of course it's ineptly acted, too. Is this what they thought the original meant? Some doltish technophobic lecture about how cell phones are as evil as murderous demons which also doesn't have a single milliliter of character to its name? The kind of stuff that could feasibly be used in torture chambers to get information out of people. So ironic that it kept the name, because it honestly doesn't have any pulse to speak of. Needed a trigger warning for pure stupidity.
  
 Devil's Gold (Black Rose Mystery #1)
Devil's Gold (Black Rose Mystery #1)
Amanda McKinney | 2018 | Crime, Reference
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
great little short!
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

 This is only short, just over an hour reading time for me, some 120 pages, but it packs quite a punch!

Dixie is the middle sister of three, running their father's investigation agency. She's good at it, even if she is the least put together of her sisters. Liam is in town visiting relatives, and when their paths cross, it's a proper "eyes across a crowded room" moment. When Dixie puts herself in danger, Liam knows he can't let her go, and he will do anything to see her safe.

Like I said, quite a punch!! Very pleasantly surprised, I have to say!

I have to admit, I did not see the whodunnit coming at me, so that was well played!

There is just enough hints and clues to make you think, well just who DID kill these four women.? Just enough heat and passion to make you fan a little. Just enough of just about everyone to make you want to know MORE about these people!

Because that's my overwhelming feeling I'm left with, I want MORE! Whether it's Liam and Dix, or Dixie's sisters, or co-workers (cos Ace is quite a character!) or even just more from this writer, I don't know, but that is what I want. MORE!

Filed firmly on the hangover shelf, because that's what I used it as and it certainly did the trick.

So, Ms McKinney, *holding up open hands with puppy dog eyes* more please!

4 solid stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**