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Slides & Ladders
Games and Education
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Nothing says ‘quality time’ like playing a family board game with your kids. ‘Slides &...
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6.5
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(from goodreads.com) In the tradition of Good in Bed and The Assistants comes a funny and smart...
Scott Tostik (389 KP) rated The Burning (1981) in Movies
Jun 21, 2017
Amazing SFX by Tom Savini (2 more)
One of the best camp slashers
A great killer before the likes of Jason, Myers and Freddy
Welcome to Camp... Oh who gives a shit... Let's get on with the killing
This has got to be one of my favorite and top 5 first watch in a relationship films of all time.
Not for the squeamish at all. The Burning has some of the best post CGI kill effects... And personally I love practical effects, nothing destroys a good beheading like digitized blood flying around out of sync with the body dropping.
Effects Master Tom Savini was fresh off the original Friday the 13th when he landed this flick.
A few years into the past the kids of a summer camp decide to pull a prank on the asshole caretaker involving a skull all dolled up with maggots, worms and burning eyes for effect. They sneak it into his dilapidated cabin, where he is sleeping off a drunk, and proceed to bang on his windows shaking him awake and scaring the hell out of hum. In his flailing fear he knocks the skull onto a pile of blankets and his hanging curtains and the whole place goes up in flames... As does he... His name is Cropsey... And he is engulfed in fire. The kids run like hell to get away as Cropsey flies out the door, rolls down a hill and ends up in the lake. Now I'm no doctor, never claim to be and certainly have never played one on tv, but in my imagination dirty lake water and freshly burnt skin do not a good combination make.
We skip ahead a few years and Cropsey is released from the hospital and goes into the downtown core of wherever the hell he is, searching for something. Wearing a trenchcoat and an old fedora over his scars. He picks up a hooker and goes to her place. She gets him to take off his clothes and recoils in horror. He grabs a pair of scissors and exacts revenge.
Without giving more away. You can see where this is going. A slash and gash festival unlike anything is about to follow. Starring a few familiar faces such as Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, Short Circut's Fisher Stevens and a young Holly Hunter in what I imagine was their first big breaks in film. This movie offers the viewer a glimpse of things to come in the slasher sub-genre of horror.
It's worth it alone of the scene in the canoe... What is that you may ask... Watch The damned movie and find out...lol
Not for the squeamish at all. The Burning has some of the best post CGI kill effects... And personally I love practical effects, nothing destroys a good beheading like digitized blood flying around out of sync with the body dropping.
Effects Master Tom Savini was fresh off the original Friday the 13th when he landed this flick.
A few years into the past the kids of a summer camp decide to pull a prank on the asshole caretaker involving a skull all dolled up with maggots, worms and burning eyes for effect. They sneak it into his dilapidated cabin, where he is sleeping off a drunk, and proceed to bang on his windows shaking him awake and scaring the hell out of hum. In his flailing fear he knocks the skull onto a pile of blankets and his hanging curtains and the whole place goes up in flames... As does he... His name is Cropsey... And he is engulfed in fire. The kids run like hell to get away as Cropsey flies out the door, rolls down a hill and ends up in the lake. Now I'm no doctor, never claim to be and certainly have never played one on tv, but in my imagination dirty lake water and freshly burnt skin do not a good combination make.
We skip ahead a few years and Cropsey is released from the hospital and goes into the downtown core of wherever the hell he is, searching for something. Wearing a trenchcoat and an old fedora over his scars. He picks up a hooker and goes to her place. She gets him to take off his clothes and recoils in horror. He grabs a pair of scissors and exacts revenge.
Without giving more away. You can see where this is going. A slash and gash festival unlike anything is about to follow. Starring a few familiar faces such as Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, Short Circut's Fisher Stevens and a young Holly Hunter in what I imagine was their first big breaks in film. This movie offers the viewer a glimpse of things to come in the slasher sub-genre of horror.
It's worth it alone of the scene in the canoe... What is that you may ask... Watch The damned movie and find out...lol
Mr. Potato Head: School Rush
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#1 Kids App in over 20 countries! #1 Book App in over 60 countries! Are you ready for a...
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021) in Movies
Jul 25, 2021
Script this time appeals to both Kids and Adults (1 more)
Gleeson, Byrne and Oyelowo are great together
This bunny has legs
I appreciate I'm over 2 months late in seeing "Peter Rabbit 2". But the grandkids were staying for the weekend and wanted to see it again!
Positives:
- This time the movie manages - "Paddington 2" style - to find a good balance between slapstick jokes that appeal to the target younger audience (my grandkids were roaring at certain bits) and the 'dragalong' adult audience. Some of these are gorgeously surreal - like the skiing badger in the Alps as a "university prank". It certainly passes the "6 laugh" test for a comedy, and generated a couple of good guffaws (the Austin Powers landing in the Aston Martin and the subsequent take-off was one for me).
- In the first movie, James Corden's voicing of Peter Rabbit tended to grate with me enormously. Here he gamely plays up to that, accepting that he is a bit of a "marmite" character with a lot of people. It's a fine comic moment.
- Rose Byrne and Domnhall Gleeson make a cute and watchable couple. (Rose Byrne could read the phone directory for me). They are well supported here by David Oyelowo ("Don't look into his eyes") who is the least villainous villain in any movie in recent memory! Also fun are trying to spot the guest voice artistes who include Margot Robbie, Sia, Elizabeth Debicki, Sam Neill, Lennie James and Hayley Atwell.
Negatives:
- A few of the jokes don't quite land (a one-note cockeral story, for example, is overplayed).
- As I've been doing some Supporting Artist work recently, I've become obsessed with observing Extras and the continuity of Extras in shots. There are a few inconsistencies in the mix on this one!
Summary Thoughts: It's fair to say (although I never actually wrote a full review for it) that I was NOT a fan of the original Peter Rabbit movie from 2018. Corden grated; there was not enough for adult viewers and some of the included scenes were highly questionable: try explaining to a three-year-old why Peter was stabbing a dead old man in the eye with his finger! I've avoided watching it again on the TV like the plague.
This sequel was, I thought, much better, being entertaining for both kids and adults. I wonder if I now watched the first movie I might find it, in hindsight, more palatable? Perhaps I will give it a try sometime.
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on t'interweb, Facebook or Tiktok. Thanks.)
Positives:
- This time the movie manages - "Paddington 2" style - to find a good balance between slapstick jokes that appeal to the target younger audience (my grandkids were roaring at certain bits) and the 'dragalong' adult audience. Some of these are gorgeously surreal - like the skiing badger in the Alps as a "university prank". It certainly passes the "6 laugh" test for a comedy, and generated a couple of good guffaws (the Austin Powers landing in the Aston Martin and the subsequent take-off was one for me).
- In the first movie, James Corden's voicing of Peter Rabbit tended to grate with me enormously. Here he gamely plays up to that, accepting that he is a bit of a "marmite" character with a lot of people. It's a fine comic moment.
- Rose Byrne and Domnhall Gleeson make a cute and watchable couple. (Rose Byrne could read the phone directory for me). They are well supported here by David Oyelowo ("Don't look into his eyes") who is the least villainous villain in any movie in recent memory! Also fun are trying to spot the guest voice artistes who include Margot Robbie, Sia, Elizabeth Debicki, Sam Neill, Lennie James and Hayley Atwell.
Negatives:
- A few of the jokes don't quite land (a one-note cockeral story, for example, is overplayed).
- As I've been doing some Supporting Artist work recently, I've become obsessed with observing Extras and the continuity of Extras in shots. There are a few inconsistencies in the mix on this one!
Summary Thoughts: It's fair to say (although I never actually wrote a full review for it) that I was NOT a fan of the original Peter Rabbit movie from 2018. Corden grated; there was not enough for adult viewers and some of the included scenes were highly questionable: try explaining to a three-year-old why Peter was stabbing a dead old man in the eye with his finger! I've avoided watching it again on the TV like the plague.
This sequel was, I thought, much better, being entertaining for both kids and adults. I wonder if I now watched the first movie I might find it, in hindsight, more palatable? Perhaps I will give it a try sometime.
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on t'interweb, Facebook or Tiktok. Thanks.)
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Joy (2015) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Robert De Niro (Rudy, Joy’s father),
Bradley Cooper (Neil Walker, Joy’s eventual boss), Edgar Ramirez (Tony,
Joy’s ex-husband), Isabella Rossellini (Trudy, Rudy’s girlfriend), Diane
Ladd (Mimi, Joy’s grandmother), Virginia Madsen (Terry, Joys mother),
and Elisabeth Röhm (Peggy, Joys half-sister)
Also making appearances that were notable to me were Susan Lucci as
Danica, a character seen on the TV soap opera that Joys mother Terry is
constantly watching, and Melissa Rivers, playing her mother Joan Rivers
on the TV channel QVC.
David O. Russel wrote, directed and produced the film, bringing the
headliners back for yet another go ‘round, after the successes of Silver
Linings Playbook and American Hustle.
Joy is a divorced mother of 2, living in a house with her Grandmother
Mimi, who she adores, her mother, who practically never leaves her room,
her 2 kids, and her ex-husband in the basement. Shortly after the film
begins, her father Rudy also moves into the basement.
Joy struggles through her life every day, never quite able to get ahead,
and always just barely making ends meet. Her grandmother has big dreams
for her and insists that Joy will “rise above” and “make something” of
her life, but Joy struggles to have faith, and indeed, to even begin to
figure out how to go about such a seeming monumental task.
The story follows Joy and her family through somewhat ridiculous
scenarios, and while it was acted well by Jennifer Lawrence, De Niro,
and most of the rest of the cast, I had a hard time really getting into
the film.
I kept finding myself wondering why Joys family wasn’t more supportive
and why they all, with the exception of her Mimi and her ex-husband,
seemed to be more trying to bring her down and keep her down, than
giving her a boost and a push up. I always have liked Robert De Niro,
but in this film found myself seriously disliking him. I suppose that
speaks to his ability as an actor and being able to portray a role in
which he is “supposed to be” less than 100% likeable.
Jennifer Lawrence as Joy shows tenaciousness, grit and a will to succeed
and “rise above”, at least once she gets to the point in the film where
she has “HAD ENOUGH” of being walked on and disregarded, and plays the
part wonderfully.
I kept hoping to like the movie better, but sadly, also kept waiting for
it to GET better.
Bradley Cooper (Neil Walker, Joy’s eventual boss), Edgar Ramirez (Tony,
Joy’s ex-husband), Isabella Rossellini (Trudy, Rudy’s girlfriend), Diane
Ladd (Mimi, Joy’s grandmother), Virginia Madsen (Terry, Joys mother),
and Elisabeth Röhm (Peggy, Joys half-sister)
Also making appearances that were notable to me were Susan Lucci as
Danica, a character seen on the TV soap opera that Joys mother Terry is
constantly watching, and Melissa Rivers, playing her mother Joan Rivers
on the TV channel QVC.
David O. Russel wrote, directed and produced the film, bringing the
headliners back for yet another go ‘round, after the successes of Silver
Linings Playbook and American Hustle.
Joy is a divorced mother of 2, living in a house with her Grandmother
Mimi, who she adores, her mother, who practically never leaves her room,
her 2 kids, and her ex-husband in the basement. Shortly after the film
begins, her father Rudy also moves into the basement.
Joy struggles through her life every day, never quite able to get ahead,
and always just barely making ends meet. Her grandmother has big dreams
for her and insists that Joy will “rise above” and “make something” of
her life, but Joy struggles to have faith, and indeed, to even begin to
figure out how to go about such a seeming monumental task.
The story follows Joy and her family through somewhat ridiculous
scenarios, and while it was acted well by Jennifer Lawrence, De Niro,
and most of the rest of the cast, I had a hard time really getting into
the film.
I kept finding myself wondering why Joys family wasn’t more supportive
and why they all, with the exception of her Mimi and her ex-husband,
seemed to be more trying to bring her down and keep her down, than
giving her a boost and a push up. I always have liked Robert De Niro,
but in this film found myself seriously disliking him. I suppose that
speaks to his ability as an actor and being able to portray a role in
which he is “supposed to be” less than 100% likeable.
Jennifer Lawrence as Joy shows tenaciousness, grit and a will to succeed
and “rise above”, at least once she gets to the point in the film where
she has “HAD ENOUGH” of being walked on and disregarded, and plays the
part wonderfully.
I kept hoping to like the movie better, but sadly, also kept waiting for
it to GET better.
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Cloak & Dagger in TV
Aug 10, 2018
While I'm a massive fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I never really seem to get on so well with the Marvel TV shows. I get bored, frustrated or just run out of patience with the TV format, with Luke Cage being my longest run so far at 8 episodes. I decided to give Cloak and Dagger a shot, knowing absolutely nothing about about it, and with low expectations after reading the synopsis. I was pleasantly surprised.
The show begins with two young children, following very different lives. Tandy is returning from a ballet class in the back of her fathers car, Tyrone hanging out with his older brother and a gang of boys looking to steal a car radio. As Tyrone and his brother flee from the cops and Tandy and her father are crossing a bridge, fate leads them down a similar path. A drilling platform off the coast of New Orleans explodes, sending the car crashing into the ocean, and causing one of the cops chasing the boys to panic, shooting Tyrones brother dead while Tyrone escapes into the ocean. Unfortunately, Tandy's father doesn't make it, and both Tandy and Tyrone are suddenly caught in a mysterious wave of energy which ripples out from the collapsing platform.
8 years later and both kids are alive and still leading very different lives. They begin to discover that they have abilities, although it's not clear for much of the season exactly what those abilities are and how well they can be used. Tandy can generate bright white daggers from her hands and Tyrone can teleport randomly. Also, when Tandy touches somebody, she can see their hopes. When Tyrone touches somebody, he can see their fears. It all seems a bit pointless for a while, so luckily for us the rest of the story, along with the supporting cast, is all pretty strong. Tandy is investigating Roxxon, the company responsible for the exploding platform. Her father also worked for Roxxon, who seem determined to tarnish his good name and do anything possible to cover up whatever it is they're up to. Meanwhile Tyrone is out to see the cop who shot his brother, and was never punished for it, finally brought to justice.
Along the way, their paths cross, and it becomes clear that their powers are more effective when they're together. This all comes to a head in episode 7, where they both enter the mind of a man who has been in a comatose state since working on the drilling platform eight years ago. They must repeatedly relive the few minutes before the explosion until they can figure out what happened and how to stop it in order to free the man. It's the kind of plot I absolutely love, and one which gets used a lot in TV shows, most recently in the last season of Star Trek Discovery. I loved it then, and I loved it now.
While the season finale was a bit of a strange mish-mash, it didn't matter for me as I loved the rest of the season so much. A bit of a slow burn at times, but with a good story and characters to keep things moving nicely. Nice to know that season 2 has been given the go ahead too.
The show begins with two young children, following very different lives. Tandy is returning from a ballet class in the back of her fathers car, Tyrone hanging out with his older brother and a gang of boys looking to steal a car radio. As Tyrone and his brother flee from the cops and Tandy and her father are crossing a bridge, fate leads them down a similar path. A drilling platform off the coast of New Orleans explodes, sending the car crashing into the ocean, and causing one of the cops chasing the boys to panic, shooting Tyrones brother dead while Tyrone escapes into the ocean. Unfortunately, Tandy's father doesn't make it, and both Tandy and Tyrone are suddenly caught in a mysterious wave of energy which ripples out from the collapsing platform.
8 years later and both kids are alive and still leading very different lives. They begin to discover that they have abilities, although it's not clear for much of the season exactly what those abilities are and how well they can be used. Tandy can generate bright white daggers from her hands and Tyrone can teleport randomly. Also, when Tandy touches somebody, she can see their hopes. When Tyrone touches somebody, he can see their fears. It all seems a bit pointless for a while, so luckily for us the rest of the story, along with the supporting cast, is all pretty strong. Tandy is investigating Roxxon, the company responsible for the exploding platform. Her father also worked for Roxxon, who seem determined to tarnish his good name and do anything possible to cover up whatever it is they're up to. Meanwhile Tyrone is out to see the cop who shot his brother, and was never punished for it, finally brought to justice.
Along the way, their paths cross, and it becomes clear that their powers are more effective when they're together. This all comes to a head in episode 7, where they both enter the mind of a man who has been in a comatose state since working on the drilling platform eight years ago. They must repeatedly relive the few minutes before the explosion until they can figure out what happened and how to stop it in order to free the man. It's the kind of plot I absolutely love, and one which gets used a lot in TV shows, most recently in the last season of Star Trek Discovery. I loved it then, and I loved it now.
While the season finale was a bit of a strange mish-mash, it didn't matter for me as I loved the rest of the season so much. A bit of a slow burn at times, but with a good story and characters to keep things moving nicely. Nice to know that season 2 has been given the go ahead too.
Leigh J (71 KP) rated The Chill Factor (1973) in Movies
Nov 9, 2019
Contains spoilers, click to show
A group of friends are out Snowmobile racing when one has a critical accident. Out in the middle of nowhere in freezing conditions, 2 of the friends go to find help and stumble across a Cabin. The Cabin looks like it was once a Religious Camp but seems abandoned; it has an upside down cross of the mantle and is just very creepy in general. They ignore this and move their friend into the Cabin. Whilst looking around the Cabin they find a picture of some kids in the 1950's who attended when the place was a Camp. Below their picture there is a scroll that says "keep the beast in the field", which one of the friends alludes to the fact that "the beast" often references the Devil. They also discover a "Devil's Eye" board, similar to a Ouija Board and decide to use it. During this, one of the friends that went out for help is killed, one has a seizure and one woman is convinced they've let something evil in; further strengthened by the fact that one of friends finds an article about a Satanic Killer murdering people around that area. Soon enough the friends are getting picked off one by one by supernatural forces, yet the critically injured man is thriving. Could the Killer have returned to the Cabin? Or could this be the work of the Devil's Eye Board?
Chill Factor is one of those typically terrible 80's Horrors (made in 1989). It's slow burning and not in a good way, it feels more like a cheesy TV drama and the murders are substandard and really nothing at all that us Horror fans haven't seen a million times over. Also, it ends in a ridiculous Snowmobile race between Woman and evil... ludicrous.
Chill Factor is one of those typically terrible 80's Horrors (made in 1989). It's slow burning and not in a good way, it feels more like a cheesy TV drama and the murders are substandard and really nothing at all that us Horror fans haven't seen a million times over. Also, it ends in a ridiculous Snowmobile race between Woman and evil... ludicrous.
From a Storm to a Hurricane: Rory Storm & the Hurricanes
Book
Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were the top band in Liverpool between 1960 and 1962, bigger even than...