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The Strain - Season 4
7.2
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A mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism ravages the...
Bridge to Terabithia
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Jess Aarons' greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in his grade. He's been practicing all...
Pretty Little Liars
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As time has passed since Alison, then the queen bee of the bunch, went missing. Spencer, Aria, Hanna...
Kim Newman recommended The Most Dangerous Game (1932) in Movies (curated)
Debbiereadsbook (1110 KP) rated The Alpha Heir (Kingdom of Askara #2) in Books
Feb 2, 2020
Stunning follow up to book one!
*Audible purchase, Jan 2020*
This is book two in the series, and you don't NEED to have read/listened to book one, The Alpha King, but personally I would recommend you do. It will give you a better picture of this world, how things currently work, and how things begin to change.
Caleb has been kept away from everything and everyone but humans and his tormentors for 6 years. Faced with his death at the hands of the leader of the human rebels seems a fitting end to his miserable exsistence. Taegan, however, when realising WHO Caleb is to the current Alpha, doesn't kill him, but takes him captive as a ransom for the missing children. There follows a huge learning curve for both Caleb and Taegan, and when they realise what the children were taken for, Caleb knows he must give himself up to save them. Taegan isn't too keen on that idea, especially since Caleb has stolen his heart.
While The Alpha King was a stunning 5 star listen, I think THIS one is my favourite of the two. But then again, I have The Alpha Prince on my list to be listened to, so I might change my mind again!
Caleb and Taegan's relationship grows, at a steady rate through the book, and I loved how that sort of developed for both of them. There wasn't really that *MINE* moment you get with wolves, and I loved that. Well CALEB (being the wolf) doesn't get it, but Taegan has a dawning realisation early on that there may be something between them, but being human he can't voice it. It takes another, much older wolf, to explain to Taegan what is happening and what it means. I loved that part that Silas (Cyrus? maybe, sorry, I listened and I wasn't quite sure!) played in the whole book, and they way things played out for Taegan and him.
While there is some talk of the new Alpha King, Luca only pops up right near the end, and so does his best friend, Sam. But it's really a brief visit, just enough for Caleb to thoroughly and amusingly embarass himself! It will be interesting to see who pops up in the next book.
Joel Leslie continues to narrate and apart from Silas/Cyrus thing, I LOVED the narration again. It's my only comment, really, and that's not really Leslie's fault, it's just my shitty hearing!
The voices for each character are SPOT on though! When you start the listen to the descriptions of the characters, as they start to tell their story, you build a picture, and then Leslie puts a voice to them, and it blows your picture out the window, because Leslie's voices for Caleb and Taegan fit so much better than the ones I originally heard!
I had no trouble with the emotions these men gave out, and no trouble with the multi person conversations. I loved that Leslie is able to allow me to enjoy listening to books, even as my hearing gets worse. There are few who can, to be honest, keep my fully, totally and utterly engaged. Of course, Leslie reading the words of Victoria Sue help a great deal!
I look forward to listening to book 3, The Alpha Prince, which is next up on my list.
5 stars for the book
5 stars for the narration
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
This is book two in the series, and you don't NEED to have read/listened to book one, The Alpha King, but personally I would recommend you do. It will give you a better picture of this world, how things currently work, and how things begin to change.
Caleb has been kept away from everything and everyone but humans and his tormentors for 6 years. Faced with his death at the hands of the leader of the human rebels seems a fitting end to his miserable exsistence. Taegan, however, when realising WHO Caleb is to the current Alpha, doesn't kill him, but takes him captive as a ransom for the missing children. There follows a huge learning curve for both Caleb and Taegan, and when they realise what the children were taken for, Caleb knows he must give himself up to save them. Taegan isn't too keen on that idea, especially since Caleb has stolen his heart.
While The Alpha King was a stunning 5 star listen, I think THIS one is my favourite of the two. But then again, I have The Alpha Prince on my list to be listened to, so I might change my mind again!
Caleb and Taegan's relationship grows, at a steady rate through the book, and I loved how that sort of developed for both of them. There wasn't really that *MINE* moment you get with wolves, and I loved that. Well CALEB (being the wolf) doesn't get it, but Taegan has a dawning realisation early on that there may be something between them, but being human he can't voice it. It takes another, much older wolf, to explain to Taegan what is happening and what it means. I loved that part that Silas (Cyrus? maybe, sorry, I listened and I wasn't quite sure!) played in the whole book, and they way things played out for Taegan and him.
While there is some talk of the new Alpha King, Luca only pops up right near the end, and so does his best friend, Sam. But it's really a brief visit, just enough for Caleb to thoroughly and amusingly embarass himself! It will be interesting to see who pops up in the next book.
Joel Leslie continues to narrate and apart from Silas/Cyrus thing, I LOVED the narration again. It's my only comment, really, and that's not really Leslie's fault, it's just my shitty hearing!
The voices for each character are SPOT on though! When you start the listen to the descriptions of the characters, as they start to tell their story, you build a picture, and then Leslie puts a voice to them, and it blows your picture out the window, because Leslie's voices for Caleb and Taegan fit so much better than the ones I originally heard!
I had no trouble with the emotions these men gave out, and no trouble with the multi person conversations. I loved that Leslie is able to allow me to enjoy listening to books, even as my hearing gets worse. There are few who can, to be honest, keep my fully, totally and utterly engaged. Of course, Leslie reading the words of Victoria Sue help a great deal!
I look forward to listening to book 3, The Alpha Prince, which is next up on my list.
5 stars for the book
5 stars for the narration
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Most Dangerous Game (1932) in Movies
Mar 25, 2020
(Can't see that movie about people being hunted for entertainment as all the cinemas are shut, so went for this instead (the daddy of the genre).) Much mimicked pulp adventure movie. Big-game hunter survives a shipwreck but pitches up on the private island of an insane Russian aristo who hunts people for sport.
Slots very nicely into the development of early-30s genre cinema - the premise vaguely recalls Dracula, while many of the key personnel would go on to make King Kong the following year. Still stands up well as an adventure movie in many ways; above average script, some rousing set pieces, and an enjoyably extravagant performance from Leslie Banks as the bad guy. The short running time does count against it though (the hunt only gets underway in the final third of the movie). One of the progenitors of the modern action blockbuster, and a fine movie in its own right.
Slots very nicely into the development of early-30s genre cinema - the premise vaguely recalls Dracula, while many of the key personnel would go on to make King Kong the following year. Still stands up well as an adventure movie in many ways; above average script, some rousing set pieces, and an enjoyably extravagant performance from Leslie Banks as the bad guy. The short running time does count against it though (the hunt only gets underway in the final third of the movie). One of the progenitors of the modern action blockbuster, and a fine movie in its own right.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Creepshow (1982) in Movies
Sep 27, 2019
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
Creepshow- is a very great movie, with its five short stories that are really horrorfyed and terrorfyed. Each one of them are scary.
The Plot: A compendium of five short but terrifying tales contained within a single full-length feature, this film conjures scares from traditional bogeymen and portents of doom. In one story, a monster escapes from its holding cell. Another focuses on a husband (Leslie Nielsen) with a creative way of getting back at his cheating wife. Other stories concern a rural man (Stephen King) and a visitor from outer space, and a homeowner (E.G. Marshall) with huge bug problems and a boozing corpse.
The film consists of five short stories: "Father's Day", "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", "Something to Tide You Over", "The Crate" and "They're Creeping Up on You!" Two of these stories were adapted from King's short stories, with the film bookended by prologue and epilogue scenes featuring a young boy named Billy (played by King's son, Joe), who is punished by his father for reading horror comics.
The film was adapted into an actual comic book of the same name soon after the film's release, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, (of Heavy Metal and Warren magazines fame), an artist fittingly influenced by the 1950s E.C. Comics.
It is a very great movie and i would highly reccordmend it.
The Plot: A compendium of five short but terrifying tales contained within a single full-length feature, this film conjures scares from traditional bogeymen and portents of doom. In one story, a monster escapes from its holding cell. Another focuses on a husband (Leslie Nielsen) with a creative way of getting back at his cheating wife. Other stories concern a rural man (Stephen King) and a visitor from outer space, and a homeowner (E.G. Marshall) with huge bug problems and a boozing corpse.
The film consists of five short stories: "Father's Day", "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", "Something to Tide You Over", "The Crate" and "They're Creeping Up on You!" Two of these stories were adapted from King's short stories, with the film bookended by prologue and epilogue scenes featuring a young boy named Billy (played by King's son, Joe), who is punished by his father for reading horror comics.
The film was adapted into an actual comic book of the same name soon after the film's release, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, (of Heavy Metal and Warren magazines fame), an artist fittingly influenced by the 1950s E.C. Comics.
It is a very great movie and i would highly reccordmend it.
Boundary Objects and Beyond: Working with Leigh Star
Adele E. Clarke, Geoffrey C. Bowker, Stefan Timmermans and Ellen Balka
Book
Susan Leigh Star (1954--2010) was one of the most influential science studies scholars of the last...
Pete Thompson (4339 KP) rated Coming 2 America (2021) in Movies
Mar 12, 2021
The film is just Eddie Murphy trying to recapture a hit by using 1 of his biggest hits from the 80s to do so. 1 of the so called jokes within the film is some of the characters mentioning about needless sequels to films that no one asked for. The only thing missing was the actor turning to the camera and give a nod and wink to the viewers. If that's the best Eddie and the team can come up with then no wonder he is making flop after flop.
The cardinal sin was casting Leslie f**king Jones like who can honestly think that useless sack of crap can improve a comedy film by just being another loud mouth Melissa McCarthy wannabe. She has zero talent as an actress or comedian. Surely someone involved with the casting had seen the god awful ghostbusters reboot.
Wesley Snipes must be in need of a cash injection to appear in the film. He put in the hammiest role of his career as a general that does a stupid walk in every scene he appears in but I guess this was a bit better than his direct to dvd films.
(spoiler ahead, not that you can really spoil the film)
I'd say the film is just semi rehash of the original about the prince finding his true love. I've kept it basic as that is all the film deserves. Watch the original its better.
The cardinal sin was casting Leslie f**king Jones like who can honestly think that useless sack of crap can improve a comedy film by just being another loud mouth Melissa McCarthy wannabe. She has zero talent as an actress or comedian. Surely someone involved with the casting had seen the god awful ghostbusters reboot.
Wesley Snipes must be in need of a cash injection to appear in the film. He put in the hammiest role of his career as a general that does a stupid walk in every scene he appears in but I guess this was a bit better than his direct to dvd films.
(spoiler ahead, not that you can really spoil the film)
I'd say the film is just semi rehash of the original about the prince finding his true love. I've kept it basic as that is all the film deserves. Watch the original its better.
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated One Night in Miami (2020) in Movies
Apr 15, 2021
Keeps the audience at arms length
The issue when adapting a stage play to the screen is that, often times, the subject matter and style of the script does not lend itself to being “opened up”, what is powerful when sitting in a theater with the actors performing the piece in front of you can often times be seen as “flat” when it jumps to the screen.
Such is the case with ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI the Major Motion Picture Directorial debut of Oscar Winning Actress Regina King and based on the stage play by Kemp Powers. This film/play fictionalizes the true story of 4 powerful African American legends that meet up in a hotel room, one night in Miami.
And…this film feels like 4 people sitting in a hotel room talking - and that’s the problem with it. What should be powerful dialogue (and, I’m sure, IS powerful when seen live on stage) just doesn’t translate well enough on the screen, so the film just sits there demanding we pay attention, while not inviting us in to do so.
Since this is a story about 4 people sitting around talking, the acting needs to take center stage and hold our attention and, quite frankly, it just does not. Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown and Leslie Odom, Jr. as Sam Cook are all “fine” in their roles, but they don’t rise above the script and direction. Odom gets an Oscar nod for his turn in this film, but I have to think that, maybe, it is as much for his turn in HAMILTON as it is in this film.
Only Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X shows a spark and draws an emotional response in this film and that might not be fair to the other actors for he has the flashier role with the most speeches.
The Direction by King and the Script by Kemp Powers (based on his stage play) has some moments, but never draws the audience in. It keeps everyone at arms length and doesn’t touch the soul.
The subject matter in this film is an important one, and depicts a pivotal time in American History, but other films do a better job of driving that point home by inviting the audience into the conversation.
Letter Grade: B-
6 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Such is the case with ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI the Major Motion Picture Directorial debut of Oscar Winning Actress Regina King and based on the stage play by Kemp Powers. This film/play fictionalizes the true story of 4 powerful African American legends that meet up in a hotel room, one night in Miami.
And…this film feels like 4 people sitting in a hotel room talking - and that’s the problem with it. What should be powerful dialogue (and, I’m sure, IS powerful when seen live on stage) just doesn’t translate well enough on the screen, so the film just sits there demanding we pay attention, while not inviting us in to do so.
Since this is a story about 4 people sitting around talking, the acting needs to take center stage and hold our attention and, quite frankly, it just does not. Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown and Leslie Odom, Jr. as Sam Cook are all “fine” in their roles, but they don’t rise above the script and direction. Odom gets an Oscar nod for his turn in this film, but I have to think that, maybe, it is as much for his turn in HAMILTON as it is in this film.
Only Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X shows a spark and draws an emotional response in this film and that might not be fair to the other actors for he has the flashier role with the most speeches.
The Direction by King and the Script by Kemp Powers (based on his stage play) has some moments, but never draws the audience in. It keeps everyone at arms length and doesn’t touch the soul.
The subject matter in this film is an important one, and depicts a pivotal time in American History, but other films do a better job of driving that point home by inviting the audience into the conversation.
Letter Grade: B-
6 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)