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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure
Contains spoilers, click to show
I would like to start by saying that I have, at the time of writing this, never seen any of the previous ‘The Fast and The Furious’ films and my knowledge of the franchise is; Film 1 - some people steel some cars, Film 2 – more cars get stolen, Film 3 racing in Japan, then apparently they get weird so I wasn’t total sure what I was getting into but hay any film that has an evil cyborg going up against two action hero’s has to be good. Doesn’t it?
Of course it does. I’m not going to pretend that ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ is a massive cinematic masterpiece but you it knows what it is, a ‘no brainier’ action film that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The plot is, of course simple and ridiculous, to stop the technological enhanced Brixton from getting a virus that can wipe out most of the people on earth Hattie injects it into herself. Hobbs & Shaw are hired to get Hattie and the virus back. Hobbs and Shaw don’t like each other having met before in one of the previous films and Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham play this brilliantly, bouncing insults off each other though out most of the film.
The film does have a slight serious theme as the subject of family is tackled but this only helps the flow of the film.
The only side effect of not seeing any of the other films was that I was unsure if Brixton had been in any of them before, there was a backstory between him and Shaw but I couldn’t tell if it did refer to something seen before or if it was just for this film. There was also a second bad guy who mentioned that Hobbs didn’t remember him but it was never reviled who this was and as neither of these points impact on the film they do not take away any of the enjoyment.
So If you like easy going action films with car chases and explosions this film is for you.
  
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Colin Newman recommended The Amateur View by To Rococo Rot in Music (curated)

 
The Amateur View by To Rococo Rot
The Amateur View by To Rococo Rot
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"How I got to know about it was through knowing their original record label Kitty-Yo and working with people in Berlin and going over there, and then I met Ronald, and this album summed up a moment for me. Dance music had so completely dominated the 90s. Really you could only ever talk about music in terms of the beat. There was techno and electro and then there was drum & bass, and they were so dominant; there was no other music. I remember thinking at the time, at the height of drum & bass, why would you listen to any other kind of music besides drum & bass? That's the only kind of music there is. There's Britpop, but that's rubbish. And then towards the end of the 90s all that started to fade and there was Tortoise suddenly appearing with what Americans who didn't do dance music did as instrumental music. And then from Germany you had To Rococo Rot. I think they gave me that record, because I think the version I've got is a promo. And again it's one of those records we just listen to over and over again. Wire did a tour, I think it was in 2000, and when we started we hadn't provided any music to go on before the band. And in every venue they were playing something like Soundgarden. Sorry, but I can't stand Soundgarden. I can't take it. So then we said well why don't we give them some music to put on? And I had that album, so we had that on before every show and it was really good. It was like you have some thrashy support band and then some thrashy dirge playing after that and then Wire coming on and it's like an evening of dirge. So to lighten it up we put something else on that puts the audience in a different space. And it also set us up in a different way. We got to feel differently about what we were doing. It was very effective for that"

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Rick Astley recommended Under the Pink by Tori Amos in Music (curated)

 
Under the Pink by Tori Amos
Under the Pink by Tori Amos
1994 | Alternative

"I haven't listened to this record for ages. But I intend to! I walk a lot and used to live by Richmond Park and I like to walk with an album as I don't do that very often. That was one of my Richmond Park albums. There's that Kate Bush element, beautiful, mad lyrical content and some of those song titles are like 'what the fuck?' Just great. What was I doing during this period? I was retired. I quit in the mid 1990s and decided I was going to teach myself to make records for other people like a producer. And it was a time when Auto-tune was king in pop music and this – and other things – made me realise I didn't want to do it and also I probably can't do it. It's quite an art to make songs for other people. You give it your everything but no one writes songs for bands, no one wrote songs for The Smiths. They write them for solo artists most of the time. That void is taken up by pop and you have to make records which are autotuned because a lot of the time - in the 1990s – the idea was 'Can she sing? Well, it doesn't matter'. But it did to me! It is an alchemy of Christ knows what to make a good record and I don't think I've got the chops to do that [for someone else]. I had a record deal with Polydor in Germany at one point specifically within the context of not having to release the album anywhere else! I did a bit of promotion there but nothing happened. It wasn't the kind of record that used to get me on the radio in the 1980s but it also wasn't the kind of record that was enough of truly doing what I wanted to do."

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Immortal in Death (In Death, #3)
Immortal in Death (In Death, #3)
J.D. Robb | 2003
6
7.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
I read the first two books in this series quite a while ago now and the only thing I remember is Eve and Roarke's relationship progressing quite quickly.

This has taken me a long time to finish and I think that's due to its length. I'm not the biggest fan of long books and the fact the writing in the kindle app for PC is so tiny tells me it's a long one. I've been reading it in spurts between other books but as the investigation into Pandora's death got going I decided to just concentrate on this one and finally get it finished.

So Pandora is a successful model, loved the world over for her style and flair but also loathed for being vicious and cruel. When she's murdered and the prime suspect is Mavis, Eve's long time friend, Eve is determined to help solve the mystery and get her friend off the charge of murder and find the real killer.

I loved the twists and turns in this. I, like Eve, thought that they'd found the killers at about the 66% mark but then like how did they go about proving it? And then it turns out it wasn't those people?! I was like, WHAT?!

Of course, this one also contains Eve and Roarke's wedding and the stuff that leads up to it, including dress shopping, hen and stag nights and picking flowers. Admittedly, we don't get the wedding in this as such, just Eve getting dressed and walking out to make her promise to Roarke.

Although I didn't enjoy this as much as previous books, I think that was down to me not being in the mood for a mystery/crime/romantic suspense book as well as it's long length. Nevertheless I will be reading more books in the series at a later date.
  
    Marijuana Handbook Lite

    Marijuana Handbook Lite

    Lifestyle and Medical

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Containing hours upon hours of content, resources, and information for medicinal marijuana users to...

    Doable

    Doable

    Productivity and Lifestyle

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    "No, this is not just another to-do app, like the many that flood the App Store. It’s a new way to...

Tyler's Alphas
Tyler's Alphas
Drew Hunt, Chad White (Narrator) | 2024 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved that the main event was faded to black!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted the AUDIO version of this book.

I have to say, for such a short book, 2hours and 5 minutes(73 pages), it packs quite a punch!

Tyler knows about werewolves, his fav soap is based around them, but he also knows that there is more to them than the soap portrays. When not one, but TWO alphas start to pay him some attention, he gets all flustered but one touch and his busy mind stills. That Tyler is a human is not what the alphas think, either!

I really only have one niggle, and it really is my being greedy, but I know short books come with some restrictions. Only Tyler has a say, in the third person. I would have loved to hear from Blaze and Rocky, I really would.

But the best bit?? The best bit for me was, that although this has steamy and smexy times between all three of them, the main event is absolutely faded to black! Yes, I know I like my books on the smexy side, but I loved that we don't get down and dirty with the guys, just the assuming aftermath!

Chad White narrates. I've not listened to him before, and I really enjoyed the voices he does for all three men. Blaze is super Alpha male, and Rocky, is kinda simple sounding but really isn't and Tyler fits right between the two. I loved all the voices, really and White's reading voice is deep and even and I had no trouble keeping up.

I'd like to listen to more read by White, but also, I'd like to read more of Hunt. My first of his, and I'd like to read something a bit longer, with a more indepth story.

4 stars for the book
4 stars for the narration
4 stars overall.

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
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Hazel (2934 KP) rated My Lovely Wife in Books

Apr 6, 2019  
My Lovely Wife
My Lovely Wife
Samantha Downing | 2019 | Thriller
8
8.2 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
A gem of a read
This book is like nothing I have read before ... in a good way of course but I am slightly worried that I may be moving onto the dark side of normal! Why? you may ask - just read this book and you'll understand!

What we have here is an absolute gem of a read that had me hooked from the start. I won't go into the plot as I don't want to give anything away but will describe it as being edgy, dark, twisted, engrossing, disturbingly entertaining and totally unique. The characters are just excellent but more than that, they are frighteningly believable and rarely do I find myself feeling so wrong about liking and rooting for someone so disturbed but scarily normal!

The writing is crisp and effective and easy to read with excellent pacing; great suspense and twists leave you reading way too late into the night in anticipation of what the heck is going to happen next.

I can't believe this is a debut and I am waiting on tenterhooks for Samantha Downing's next book and I only hope it's as disturbingly good as this one. On her website, she says that she wants to "tell stories that make people walk into walls"; I think she did with this one.

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin UK - Michael Joseph, and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
  
Willy's Wonderland (2021)
Willy's Wonderland (2021)
2021 | Horror, Thriller
7
6.7 (13 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I can safely say that I got exactly what I expected from Willy's Wonderland, a schlocky as hell B-Movie horror that manifests Nicolas Cage going toe-to-toe with a host of murderous animatronic mascots, set to a music score of synth heavy electronica/children's party jingles. Is it silly and dumb? Yes. Does it have annoying and unlikable teenage human characters who are there just to die horribly? Also yes. Is it entertaining as fuck? Most definitely.

Cage's silent protagonist feels like the role that his career has been leading up to all these years. He has his very own corner of the zeitgeist at this point, and is just running with it, happily poking fun at himself whilst managing to be undeniably badass, whether it be the Mad Max-esque opening, tearing the robots to shreds with his bare hands, or him furiously dancing whilst playing pinball. Whenever he's on screen, he steals all the focus, without uttering a word. It's so ridiculous and enjoyable, that it renders the half-baked plot a moot point.
The animatronics themselves look pretty decent for the most part, and there's some solid gore here and there. It's the kind of gore that will make you burst out laughing, but in a good way.

Willy's Wonderland is far from a perfect experience, but it is what it is, and never tries to be anything more, and therefore succeeds in what it's trying to achieve.