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8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
When John Carter follows his mortal enemies Thurid and Matai Shang, he learns of a plan to free his beloved wife, Dejah Thoris, from her prison six months early. But his race to beat them to the rescue turns in to a race across Mars. Will John Carter ever defeat his enemies and be reunited with his wife?

Even written 100 years ago, this feels like a modern action movie with a science fiction setting. You’ve got a character overcoming overwhelming odds with a bit of ease and characters that are just developed enough to make us care. And just like an action film, it’s plenty of fun if you approach it with the right attitude. I certainly enjoyed finding out what happened next to these characters despite the flaws I mentioned.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2015/04/book-review-warlord-of-mars-by-edgar.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
Won&#039;t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
2018 | Biography, Documentary
A real tearjerker of a documentary
It felt weird rating this documentary as "epic," but whatever.

I saw this in theaters this week and cried like a little girl. This is a documentary about a wonderful man who did wonderful things. It showcased how he cared--truly, truly cared--and it called on the audience to remember his message: that you don't have to do anything spectacular to be special. You're perfect just the way you are. You have inherent value as a person, and you deserve to be loved and to be able to love.

If ever there was a man who embodied Christian values, it was Mr. Rodgers. The interviews here were especially poignant. They have the diverse cast and crew offer their memories and opinions. Some are heartbreaking, like interview with Francois "Officer" Clemmons.

Do yourself a favor. Watch this documentary. Remember what you learned all those years ago: you are perfect just the way you are.
  
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DJ Muggs recommended Radio by LL Cool J in Music (curated)

 
Radio by LL Cool J
Radio by LL Cool J
1985 | Rock
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When I heard this I was just completely floored. I was like 'What the fuck is this?' [Laughs]. Radio was amazing, it was so good. Similarly to Public Enemy, I heard this album and I wanted to know how he did it – I just had no idea how. He was talking my language and speaking to me but in styles I had never heard or experienced before. I wanted to know how he did this. The whole album is fire; the beats were hard and the rhymes were hard. It banged and undoubtedly became the sound of a generation. It was almost like punk rock in sentiment, urban punk rock which is effectively what hip hop is. It didn't matter which part of the world you were from either when you listened to this. The people that got this record were all going through the same shit. The worlds might have been somewhat different, but it was the same oppressive shit and it united people."

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Chungking Express (1994)
Chungking Express (1994)
1994 | Drama, Romance
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"It’s so good—so subtle, truthful, and simple. This movie allows you to just look at human beings as human beings for a second. Wong Kar-wai is a master, and I have an admiration for his ability to direct your attention to certain things but not in an obvious way. I got to see Asian people as real people who could be flawed and make choices that are selfish and don’t take into account social graces all the time. Being raised in a very Christian, traditional Korean household, you’re kind of just seeing the surface and what you’re supposed to be at all times. I remember growing up thinking all Korean people were church deacons, and then you see a Korean man driving a taxi and all of a sudden you’re like, what’s going on? This doesn’t make sense to me! Wong’s films are like traveling to Hong Kong without going to Hong Kong."

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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.
  
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."

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