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Black Swan Collected Tales, Books 1-6
10.0
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Included are: Book 1, My Familiar Stranger: The Vampire Hunters. (Nominated for best paranormal...
Paranormal Romance Series
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Seventh Son (2015) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
After a two-year delay, Seventh Son has finally reached the big screen, and it will leave you conflicted.
Seventh Son is brought to us by director Sergey Bodrov. Originally set for a February 2013 release, the film had complicated distribution arrangements between Legendary and Warner Brothers, which kept causing delays.
Jeff Bridges plays one of the title characters: Master John Gregory. He is the last of an order of peacekeeper knights, which once used to be a thousand strong. All of these knights are seventh sons of seventh sons, and are self-tasked with keeping the evil creatures of the world at bay.
The movie starts off with a young Gregory completing a prison cell for an unknown woman. Years later, the prisoner, a draconic beast, breaks out and attacks a nearby town, specifically targeting the aged Knight and his apprentice (Kit Harington — Jon Snow from Game of Thrones). This recently released evil is Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), the queen of witches.
During the battle, Harington’s brief existence in this film is brought to an end, causing Gregory to seek out another apprentice. This search leads him to young Thomas Ward (Ben Barnes). After Ward goes through some sad goodbyes with his family, he and Gregory set out to take down the Witch Queen before the blood moon sets.
His training would normally take 10 years, but they only have a week.
Put simply, this movie was very fragmented. It isn’t a good movie, but it isn’t a bad one either. It has reasonable special effects and decent fight scenes.
There is plenty of star power: Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Kit Harington, Djimon Hounsou (one of my favorites), and Jason Scott Lee.
Jeff Bridges missed the mark on his character. It’s one thing to be disgruntled and war-torn with a curious sense of humor, but it’s something quite different to be outright silly.
There were no explanations. How did the order come about? Why seventh sons of seventh sons? How did Gregory KNOW there was a seventh son at that house? How did the war start? Why is Gregory the last? Why wasn’t there more about Gregory’s relationship with Malkin? Why did the skeleton in the armor attack Tom? Why do the swords hum? Where did the stone come from? Why was it powerful? Why anything, really? The story has no depth, failing to explain the “why” of any of its lore. There were only statements of fact, which confuses viewers and prevents them from becoming emotionally anchored to the story.
I simply didn’t care about the characters. The film was disorganized and rushed. Perhaps it would have been better served as two films, or a longer film, or even a mini series.
Seventh Son had the potential to be so much more. A combination of poor writing and bad direction made the movie lackluster to me and all three of my companions.
The actors delivered many campy one-liners, and the chuckles they drew from the crowd were quite unintentional.
If you are a fan of high fantasy, it’s probably worth seeing, but wait for it to arrive on Netflix and use it as background entertainment
Seventh Son is brought to us by director Sergey Bodrov. Originally set for a February 2013 release, the film had complicated distribution arrangements between Legendary and Warner Brothers, which kept causing delays.
Jeff Bridges plays one of the title characters: Master John Gregory. He is the last of an order of peacekeeper knights, which once used to be a thousand strong. All of these knights are seventh sons of seventh sons, and are self-tasked with keeping the evil creatures of the world at bay.
The movie starts off with a young Gregory completing a prison cell for an unknown woman. Years later, the prisoner, a draconic beast, breaks out and attacks a nearby town, specifically targeting the aged Knight and his apprentice (Kit Harington — Jon Snow from Game of Thrones). This recently released evil is Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), the queen of witches.
During the battle, Harington’s brief existence in this film is brought to an end, causing Gregory to seek out another apprentice. This search leads him to young Thomas Ward (Ben Barnes). After Ward goes through some sad goodbyes with his family, he and Gregory set out to take down the Witch Queen before the blood moon sets.
His training would normally take 10 years, but they only have a week.
Put simply, this movie was very fragmented. It isn’t a good movie, but it isn’t a bad one either. It has reasonable special effects and decent fight scenes.
There is plenty of star power: Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Kit Harington, Djimon Hounsou (one of my favorites), and Jason Scott Lee.
Jeff Bridges missed the mark on his character. It’s one thing to be disgruntled and war-torn with a curious sense of humor, but it’s something quite different to be outright silly.
There were no explanations. How did the order come about? Why seventh sons of seventh sons? How did Gregory KNOW there was a seventh son at that house? How did the war start? Why is Gregory the last? Why wasn’t there more about Gregory’s relationship with Malkin? Why did the skeleton in the armor attack Tom? Why do the swords hum? Where did the stone come from? Why was it powerful? Why anything, really? The story has no depth, failing to explain the “why” of any of its lore. There were only statements of fact, which confuses viewers and prevents them from becoming emotionally anchored to the story.
I simply didn’t care about the characters. The film was disorganized and rushed. Perhaps it would have been better served as two films, or a longer film, or even a mini series.
Seventh Son had the potential to be so much more. A combination of poor writing and bad direction made the movie lackluster to me and all three of my companions.
The actors delivered many campy one-liners, and the chuckles they drew from the crowd were quite unintentional.
If you are a fan of high fantasy, it’s probably worth seeing, but wait for it to arrive on Netflix and use it as background entertainment
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Your Highness (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
For all you minotaur lovers out there, the movie Your Highness is the film for you. Not that the movie is about them but it has the most unique minotaur I have ever seen in a movie. Your Highness takes place long ago in a land far away in a kingdom that has two princes. The oldest and heir-to-the-throne is Prince Fabious (the fabulous James Franco). He is a prince’s prince, a knight’s knight, he enjoys protecting the innocent, he slays evil cyclops and other evil things that should be slayed.
The youngest is Prince Thadeous (film co-writer Danny McBride), he is a slacker’s slacker, a player’s player, he enjoys booze and other mind-altering stuff, he lays with easy maidens and…well, you get the point. Even though the two brothers are so very different they still love each other, even if Thadeous won’t admit it. So when Prince Fabious was to be married to the beautiful yet naive Belladonna (the enchanting Zooey Deschanel) he wanted none other than his younger brother to be his best man.
But fate had other plans and what should have been the happiest of wedding days was ruined when the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux) kidnaps Belladonna so he can produce an evil dragon offspring that he would use to rule the world. The two brothers vow to save her and kill Leezar. Ok, technically Thadeous is told by their father the King (Charles Dance) that either he goes with his older brother or he will be kicked out of the kingdom and it is Fabious who does the vowing. So they ride out with their most trusted knights and along the way they meet the Great Wize (not a typo) Wizard (voiced by Mario Torres. Jr.), the highly skilled fighter Isabel (played by a pretty intimidating Natalie Portman), the Minotaur (Brian Steele, a surprisingly fitting name), forest people (I loved the forest people!). Epic adventure and treachery ensue – dun dun dunn! Will they save Belladonna and the world? Will Thadeous become a respectable prince? Will the minotaur live happily ever after?
The movie is funny but the humor is on par with middle-school-aged male humor so approximately 80% of all adult males will probably find the movie funny and a lot of wives will be wondering why they married them. It also had some decent fight scenes sprinkled throughout the movie. I’ll be honest, there were a couple of scenes in the film that I wish I could un-see… the kind of stuff that never happened in any dice role-playing game that I have ever played.
Now I am sure we have all seen movies where one person’s performance was so well done that it made the other people’s performances seem lacking (whether they truly were or not). To me this movie fell victim to that problem. After all with people like Charles Dance, Natalie Portman, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Damian Lewis, who plays Boremont, one of the trusted Knights, it was bound to happen. Overall, a very entertaining and funny movie.
The youngest is Prince Thadeous (film co-writer Danny McBride), he is a slacker’s slacker, a player’s player, he enjoys booze and other mind-altering stuff, he lays with easy maidens and…well, you get the point. Even though the two brothers are so very different they still love each other, even if Thadeous won’t admit it. So when Prince Fabious was to be married to the beautiful yet naive Belladonna (the enchanting Zooey Deschanel) he wanted none other than his younger brother to be his best man.
But fate had other plans and what should have been the happiest of wedding days was ruined when the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux) kidnaps Belladonna so he can produce an evil dragon offspring that he would use to rule the world. The two brothers vow to save her and kill Leezar. Ok, technically Thadeous is told by their father the King (Charles Dance) that either he goes with his older brother or he will be kicked out of the kingdom and it is Fabious who does the vowing. So they ride out with their most trusted knights and along the way they meet the Great Wize (not a typo) Wizard (voiced by Mario Torres. Jr.), the highly skilled fighter Isabel (played by a pretty intimidating Natalie Portman), the Minotaur (Brian Steele, a surprisingly fitting name), forest people (I loved the forest people!). Epic adventure and treachery ensue – dun dun dunn! Will they save Belladonna and the world? Will Thadeous become a respectable prince? Will the minotaur live happily ever after?
The movie is funny but the humor is on par with middle-school-aged male humor so approximately 80% of all adult males will probably find the movie funny and a lot of wives will be wondering why they married them. It also had some decent fight scenes sprinkled throughout the movie. I’ll be honest, there were a couple of scenes in the film that I wish I could un-see… the kind of stuff that never happened in any dice role-playing game that I have ever played.
Now I am sure we have all seen movies where one person’s performance was so well done that it made the other people’s performances seem lacking (whether they truly were or not). To me this movie fell victim to that problem. After all with people like Charles Dance, Natalie Portman, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Damian Lewis, who plays Boremont, one of the trusted Knights, it was bound to happen. Overall, a very entertaining and funny movie.
Rodney Barnes (472 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) in Movies
Mar 22, 2019 (Updated Mar 22, 2019)
Very Disappointed
Contains spoilers, click to show
I am one of the biggest Star Wars fans you would meet. I have been to theaters to see all movies. As a kid I saw A New Hope in the theater. The Last Jedi however was an abomination. What you have in this movie was a director that did whatever he wanted and hardly addressed anything in The Force Awakens; which now in my opinion is irrelevant.
In the old canon Luke was such an awesome powerful character and leader. Instead of that we get some crazy old guy who has lost connection with the force because his nephew has turned to the dark side (Hmmm A gifted force user turning to the dark side never heard this type of storyline before). The Knights of Ren was not addressed. Luke confining himself to an island and force projecting himself was just plain dumb to me (Hmmm a Jedi Master exiling himself...never heard that storyline before either). The revelation of Rey's parents was anti climatic. The Canto Byte scene was unnecessary. The the thing I was most disappointed in was when Snoke was killed. He was a character I was really interested in. I have heard the people that like this movie say most are mad because this movie was not a "fan service". That is inane reasoning because without fans you have nothing. If this was just another type of Sci fi movie it would have worked. As a Star Wars movie.....just plain bad
In the old canon Luke was such an awesome powerful character and leader. Instead of that we get some crazy old guy who has lost connection with the force because his nephew has turned to the dark side (Hmmm A gifted force user turning to the dark side never heard this type of storyline before). The Knights of Ren was not addressed. Luke confining himself to an island and force projecting himself was just plain dumb to me (Hmmm a Jedi Master exiling himself...never heard that storyline before either). The revelation of Rey's parents was anti climatic. The Canto Byte scene was unnecessary. The the thing I was most disappointed in was when Snoke was killed. He was a character I was really interested in. I have heard the people that like this movie say most are mad because this movie was not a "fan service". That is inane reasoning because without fans you have nothing. If this was just another type of Sci fi movie it would have worked. As a Star Wars movie.....just plain bad
Rodney Barnes (472 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) in Movies
Jan 2, 2020
Just Glad It's Done
Contains spoilers, click to show
End to the Skywalker saga? If you mean taking a Palpatine and making her a Skywalker in the last 10 seconds of this movie ....then yes. This was a decent movie. I will say that much. This whole 7,8 and 9 saga was such a disappointment. The Rise of Skywalker still succeeded in giving the same narrative. Kylo Ren turned back to the light and died saving Rey's life. Sound familiar??? Yes we got to see Lando but as it has been said numerous times, the biggest mistake is not having all the legacy characters on the screen at the same time. But I digress. I did not care for the Palpatine angle. Abrams had to make up some story to fix Johnson's dumb mistake of killing Snoke. Seeing the Knights of Ren was anti climatic. They could have been left out of the movie and you wouldn't have missed them. Then Rey being the granddaughter of Palpatine. That has been theorized since episode 7. No big reveal really. But she changes her name to Skywalker at the end of the movie. This is the bottom line for me....40 years from now....is Kylo Ren, Rey, Finn and Poe going to be as significant as Luke, Han, Leia and Vader were? NO...when you think Star Wars villain 40 years from now it's still going to be Darth Vader not Kylo Ren, unless they create one hell of a villain between now and then.
Henry the Liberal: Count of Champagne, 1127-1181
Book
Over the course of the twelfth century, the county of Champagne grew into one of the wealthiest and...
Throne of Games: King Fergie, Lord Moyes and the Season of Grim Death
7.0
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Book
Summer is at an end in the 20 kingdoms and Sir Fergie, King of the House Manc, originally from a...
Lindsay (1706 KP) rated Beholden (The Fairest Maiden #1) in Books
Sep 22, 2020
Are you looking for a good clean romance for your teens or young adults? Well, Beholden is good for them. It deals with princes and knights. It also has a sweet story about beauty. What a way to have action and adventures. The heroes have to work together.
I enjoyed learning about the gem mines and the slaves. We get a bit of an evil queen and slavery. It seems it is a modern-day fairy tale of Cinderella. Jody does well with the plot and storyline. What a way to pull into the story. It keeps you wanting to turn the pages once the action starts to pick up.
The adventures begin to heighten up once Gabriella is released from the mines. Who will win? The princes are to do testing to see if they are worth the kingship. The princes are given a phrase that is different for each prince.
I wonder what each means and for that prince. Slave for all what can that mean. You will be trying to figure it out along with Vilmar. What is Gabriella's plan? Can Vilmar find the true meaning to Slave to all and find help from the slaves and Gabriella?
My rating for this book is 4.5 stars (Moons) on my rating system. Which make my rating system will have it marked 4 stars (Moons). This book good for teens and young adults. It got romance and fantasy. If your teen or young adult enjoy fairy tales, this book has it and more.
I enjoyed learning about the gem mines and the slaves. We get a bit of an evil queen and slavery. It seems it is a modern-day fairy tale of Cinderella. Jody does well with the plot and storyline. What a way to pull into the story. It keeps you wanting to turn the pages once the action starts to pick up.
The adventures begin to heighten up once Gabriella is released from the mines. Who will win? The princes are to do testing to see if they are worth the kingship. The princes are given a phrase that is different for each prince.
I wonder what each means and for that prince. Slave for all what can that mean. You will be trying to figure it out along with Vilmar. What is Gabriella's plan? Can Vilmar find the true meaning to Slave to all and find help from the slaves and Gabriella?
My rating for this book is 4.5 stars (Moons) on my rating system. Which make my rating system will have it marked 4 stars (Moons). This book good for teens and young adults. It got romance and fantasy. If your teen or young adult enjoy fairy tales, this book has it and more.
Zombicide: Black Plague
8.2
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Tabletop Game
Zombicide: Black Plague takes the zombie apocalypse into a fantastical medieval setting! The arcane...
Merissa (11800 KP) rated Black Hearted (Black Knights Inc: Reloaded #2) in Books
Oct 23, 2023
BLACK HEARTED is the second book in the Black Knights Inc: Reloaded series. I haven't read the first book in this series but I don't feel as though it impacted me greatly, although I do believe it would have been better if I had read it.
Sam thinks of Hannah as the thirteen-year-old little sister to his ex-girlfriend, not realising that she is now twenty-nine, with thoughts and dreams of her own. It doesn't help that most of those dreams revolve around Sam, the childhood crush she never grew out of. Hannah walks away at one time (presumably after the first book finishes) but some time down the line, she needs Sam's help. Hannah has been framed and is classed as a traitor. She goes to the one person she knows will help her.
I found this story to be both fast-paced and also slow-burn, as the multitude of events and miscommunications built up. Told from the third person, you hear from Sam and Hannah, but I loved the snippets from Eliza and Fisher. And the poetry quotes were exceedingly well chosen.
A story filled with terrorism, hacking, love, and miscommunication. If these things float your boat, then I can definitely recommend it.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Oct 23, 2023
Sam thinks of Hannah as the thirteen-year-old little sister to his ex-girlfriend, not realising that she is now twenty-nine, with thoughts and dreams of her own. It doesn't help that most of those dreams revolve around Sam, the childhood crush she never grew out of. Hannah walks away at one time (presumably after the first book finishes) but some time down the line, she needs Sam's help. Hannah has been framed and is classed as a traitor. She goes to the one person she knows will help her.
I found this story to be both fast-paced and also slow-burn, as the multitude of events and miscommunications built up. Told from the third person, you hear from Sam and Hannah, but I loved the snippets from Eliza and Fisher. And the poetry quotes were exceedingly well chosen.
A story filled with terrorism, hacking, love, and miscommunication. If these things float your boat, then I can definitely recommend it.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Oct 23, 2023