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Andy K (10823 KP) rated Parasite (2019) in Movies
Nov 25, 2019
Truly unique filmmaking!
OK I'm going to do something a little different this time since this film is not playing in the UK until January I thought I read somewhere.
-Is it good? Yes
-Is it really good? Yes
-Is it great? Yes
-Is it one of the best movies of 2019? Can't ask me that since I don't go to the cinema often.
-Is it remarkable?...Yes
-Is it phenomenal? .................Yes
-Is it maybe a tad overrated? Yes if maybe only by its IMDb rating. It currently holds an IMDb rating as of this review date of 8.5 which is quite remarkable for any film. Not saying IMDb rating is everything, but when 8.5 is equal to films like Back to the Future, Terminator 2 and Psycho, I'll stick by a tad overrated at this point. I'm sure the rating will settle back down a bit once more people have seen, but pretty impressive as of now.
-Will it receive a lot of Academy Award nominations for 2019? Right now I will predict 7 including Foreign Film (obviously), some technicals, screenplay, director and Best Picture.
-Will it win Best Picture? Early Andy prediction probably not, but would have a shot at screenplay (other than Tarantino) or maybe director (or maybe Scorsese), but very early at this point to predict since I have not seen other films yet.
-Is it what you thought it would be? Not sure since I purposely tried to avoid knowing much going in. I had heard it was a good version of Us, or what people thought Us should be, so I was thinking horror and it isn't that at all. More comedy suspense thriller but hard to categorize.
Please let me know what you think once you see for yourself. Maybe I'll write about it again in a few months with more detail. Or shoot me a message if you wish to discuss further.
-Is it good? Yes
-Is it really good? Yes
-Is it great? Yes
-Is it one of the best movies of 2019? Can't ask me that since I don't go to the cinema often.
-Is it remarkable?...Yes
-Is it phenomenal? .................Yes
-Is it maybe a tad overrated? Yes if maybe only by its IMDb rating. It currently holds an IMDb rating as of this review date of 8.5 which is quite remarkable for any film. Not saying IMDb rating is everything, but when 8.5 is equal to films like Back to the Future, Terminator 2 and Psycho, I'll stick by a tad overrated at this point. I'm sure the rating will settle back down a bit once more people have seen, but pretty impressive as of now.
-Will it receive a lot of Academy Award nominations for 2019? Right now I will predict 7 including Foreign Film (obviously), some technicals, screenplay, director and Best Picture.
-Will it win Best Picture? Early Andy prediction probably not, but would have a shot at screenplay (other than Tarantino) or maybe director (or maybe Scorsese), but very early at this point to predict since I have not seen other films yet.
-Is it what you thought it would be? Not sure since I purposely tried to avoid knowing much going in. I had heard it was a good version of Us, or what people thought Us should be, so I was thinking horror and it isn't that at all. More comedy suspense thriller but hard to categorize.
Please let me know what you think once you see for yourself. Maybe I'll write about it again in a few months with more detail. Or shoot me a message if you wish to discuss further.
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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Shining Resonance Refrain in Video Games
Aug 14, 2019
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of JRPG’s, but I really don’t have any reasons why. Growing up I loved watching the Shogun Warrior feature length cartoons and I’m a huge fan of RPG’s in general, so you’d think they’d be right up my alley. I’ve tried and tried to figure out why I have such a hard time sinking into them, and while I have never completed a Final Fantasy game, I continue to buy them in the hopes that one of these days I’ll just get it. So, I’m probably not the first person that would come to mind to review a game like Shining Resonance Refrain, a game that was released exclusively in Japan on PS3 back in 2014. Yet here we are, 4 years later, with a version released for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch, with updated graphics and English voice acting.
Shining Resonance Refrain has you take on the role of a young man named Yuma who has been held captive and experimented on by the main antagonists of the game, the Lombardian Empire. Yuma possesses the soul of the Shining Dragon, the most powerful dragon in the land of Alfheim. The Lombardian Empire is attempting to gather all the souls of the long-forgotten dragons in an effort to break a stalemate between the waring countries of Astoria and the Lombardian Empire. The only thing standing in their way are Yuma, his dragon soul and a powerful set of weapons known as the Armonics.
Quests and exploration are key to moving the story along, with the main quests involving attempts to hinder the Lombardian Empire’s search for the remaining dragon souls. There are also side quests that help you earn money and experience for your characters. The quests are either your typical fetch type quests or the type where you go to this area, fight this major boss, and then return to the castle. The world is broken up into much smaller zones, representing numerous landmarks on the map. Traveling to a particular spot on the map means going from zone to zone until you reach your final destination. The zones are very small, so traveling between them isn’t a huge problem, but not being able to use fast-travel between the zones you have already explored means you will spend a lot of time going back and forth between your castle and your next quest. It isn’t a huge deal breaker in the game, but the areas aren’t always very interesting, and going back and forth amongst the same areas over and over can get old the further you get in the game.
Combat is a mixed bag as well. During your quests, you will encounter various creatures wandering the zones. The battles take place in real time and each character has a set of action points that are used for physical attacks and magic points used for your special abilities and “breaker” moves. As your character levels up, you gain access to different magical attacks, which you can swap out as you choose, but most of the time your battles are simply button mashing your way through them with little strategy involved. The battles are also extremely inconsistent, as battling the various creatures is almost too easy (even at standard difficulty) but battling the boss monsters is almost entirely too hard. There is a HUGE difficulty curve when fighting the boss monsters, to a point where I sometimes had to drop the difficulty to casual and still had to fight a boss 3-4 times to beat them. On standard difficulty, I’d typically give up after succumbing to the same boss repeatedly. Even in the later stages of the games the boss battles do not let up, but the normal battles are practically a cake walk.
In addition to your standard and magical attacks there is also a B.A.N.D special attack where you get additional powers depending on the character who initiates it. Some B.A.N.D attacks provide guaranteed hits, while others increase the damage of your magical attacks. On the left-hand side of the screen there is a bar with three levels that fills while you battle your way through the enemies. Each level increases the longevity that the B.A.N.D lasts, so it’s almost always preferable to save these special attacks for the boss battles. Yuma also has the ability to turn into the Shining Dragon who can release devastating attacks, however if your magic points drop too low the dragon goes into a berserker attack and will throw damage at friends and enemies alike. This is never good, so when playing as the Shining Dragon it’s key to turn back into Yuma before losing control.
Graphically the game is beautiful, and if anime or JRPG’s are your thing you will definitely appreciate the update to the original graphics. The graphics do stick closely to the standard JRPG tropes of ridiculously large weapons and warriors in short skirts, etc. so it looks like many of the other JRPGs on the market today. That’s not necessarily bad, it has just worn out its originality over the years. The sound can get extremely repetitive as well, especially in battle where your characters repeat the same catch phrases over and over again. Once again, that’s not to say that the sound is bad, but it gets old quickly. There are some other technical idiosyncrasies that were also particularly jarring. For example, if Yuma is killed in combat, you can run back to town with whichever character has taken over the “leader” role, but the minute you enter town, Yuma reappears as the controlling character. I get that he’s the main character and it doesn’t make much sense for the other characters to run around asking for quests, but his sudden reappearance even though you know he’s dead takes some getting used to.
So, is Shining Resonance Refrain a game that made me take another look at JRPGs? Well, yes and no if I’m being completely honest. It’s around 30+ hours for the main story and side quests and I’ll admit that the more time I spent with the game the more I enjoyed it. After about an hour of my mental block on JRPG games in general, I was able to get into the groove of things and power my way through it. That being said, I still felt the story was a little bit ridiculous and some of the characters really started to grate on my nerves. Even the main character Yuma tended to be a bit too wimpy for me. He can turn himself into the mightiest of dragons but doesn’t know if he can handle it, I often had the feeling that he should get over himself and embrace this incredible power. In the end, I really did enjoy it, once I overlooked a lot of it, and it actually did put me in the mood to go back and try one of the Final Fantasy games. I can’t say that Shining Resonance Refrain converted me to a diehard JRPG fan, but it certainly made me want to give them another try and that is a win in my book.
What I liked: Unique Characters, General feel of combat
What I liked less: Inconsistent difficulty, Repetitive phrases and sound effects
Shining Resonance Refrain has you take on the role of a young man named Yuma who has been held captive and experimented on by the main antagonists of the game, the Lombardian Empire. Yuma possesses the soul of the Shining Dragon, the most powerful dragon in the land of Alfheim. The Lombardian Empire is attempting to gather all the souls of the long-forgotten dragons in an effort to break a stalemate between the waring countries of Astoria and the Lombardian Empire. The only thing standing in their way are Yuma, his dragon soul and a powerful set of weapons known as the Armonics.
Quests and exploration are key to moving the story along, with the main quests involving attempts to hinder the Lombardian Empire’s search for the remaining dragon souls. There are also side quests that help you earn money and experience for your characters. The quests are either your typical fetch type quests or the type where you go to this area, fight this major boss, and then return to the castle. The world is broken up into much smaller zones, representing numerous landmarks on the map. Traveling to a particular spot on the map means going from zone to zone until you reach your final destination. The zones are very small, so traveling between them isn’t a huge problem, but not being able to use fast-travel between the zones you have already explored means you will spend a lot of time going back and forth between your castle and your next quest. It isn’t a huge deal breaker in the game, but the areas aren’t always very interesting, and going back and forth amongst the same areas over and over can get old the further you get in the game.
Combat is a mixed bag as well. During your quests, you will encounter various creatures wandering the zones. The battles take place in real time and each character has a set of action points that are used for physical attacks and magic points used for your special abilities and “breaker” moves. As your character levels up, you gain access to different magical attacks, which you can swap out as you choose, but most of the time your battles are simply button mashing your way through them with little strategy involved. The battles are also extremely inconsistent, as battling the various creatures is almost too easy (even at standard difficulty) but battling the boss monsters is almost entirely too hard. There is a HUGE difficulty curve when fighting the boss monsters, to a point where I sometimes had to drop the difficulty to casual and still had to fight a boss 3-4 times to beat them. On standard difficulty, I’d typically give up after succumbing to the same boss repeatedly. Even in the later stages of the games the boss battles do not let up, but the normal battles are practically a cake walk.
In addition to your standard and magical attacks there is also a B.A.N.D special attack where you get additional powers depending on the character who initiates it. Some B.A.N.D attacks provide guaranteed hits, while others increase the damage of your magical attacks. On the left-hand side of the screen there is a bar with three levels that fills while you battle your way through the enemies. Each level increases the longevity that the B.A.N.D lasts, so it’s almost always preferable to save these special attacks for the boss battles. Yuma also has the ability to turn into the Shining Dragon who can release devastating attacks, however if your magic points drop too low the dragon goes into a berserker attack and will throw damage at friends and enemies alike. This is never good, so when playing as the Shining Dragon it’s key to turn back into Yuma before losing control.
Graphically the game is beautiful, and if anime or JRPG’s are your thing you will definitely appreciate the update to the original graphics. The graphics do stick closely to the standard JRPG tropes of ridiculously large weapons and warriors in short skirts, etc. so it looks like many of the other JRPGs on the market today. That’s not necessarily bad, it has just worn out its originality over the years. The sound can get extremely repetitive as well, especially in battle where your characters repeat the same catch phrases over and over again. Once again, that’s not to say that the sound is bad, but it gets old quickly. There are some other technical idiosyncrasies that were also particularly jarring. For example, if Yuma is killed in combat, you can run back to town with whichever character has taken over the “leader” role, but the minute you enter town, Yuma reappears as the controlling character. I get that he’s the main character and it doesn’t make much sense for the other characters to run around asking for quests, but his sudden reappearance even though you know he’s dead takes some getting used to.
So, is Shining Resonance Refrain a game that made me take another look at JRPGs? Well, yes and no if I’m being completely honest. It’s around 30+ hours for the main story and side quests and I’ll admit that the more time I spent with the game the more I enjoyed it. After about an hour of my mental block on JRPG games in general, I was able to get into the groove of things and power my way through it. That being said, I still felt the story was a little bit ridiculous and some of the characters really started to grate on my nerves. Even the main character Yuma tended to be a bit too wimpy for me. He can turn himself into the mightiest of dragons but doesn’t know if he can handle it, I often had the feeling that he should get over himself and embrace this incredible power. In the end, I really did enjoy it, once I overlooked a lot of it, and it actually did put me in the mood to go back and try one of the Final Fantasy games. I can’t say that Shining Resonance Refrain converted me to a diehard JRPG fan, but it certainly made me want to give them another try and that is a win in my book.
What I liked: Unique Characters, General feel of combat
What I liked less: Inconsistent difficulty, Repetitive phrases and sound effects
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I am most familiar with the tale of the Phantom of the Opera from the musical of that name. It is likely different from the book by Gaston Leroux. I havent read the original novel that inspired the opera and RoseBlood itself in years. As a result, I am sure that I miss some nods to the original or nuances that people more familiar with the story will understand.
Our main character, Rune has a unique relationship with music. Certain works, usually arias written for women, speak to her and make their home in her soul. Upon hearing the soaring notes, she is immediately overtaken by the need to sing and expel the music. When she was younger and her father accompanied her on the violin, those moments were glorious but they did not last. Her father became ill and then died, leaving her with no accompaniment and the music began to cage her. No longer could she just release the notes inside her, but they took something with them and left her feeling ill. If the piece spoke to her she had no choice but let it overwhelm her vocal cords and release.
The Phantom lives in his classic dark dwelling beneath the school, which was once an opera house. He travels the underground river via a boat, has various neglected instruments strewn about and is friendly with a red swan. Just your normal phantom behavior. Pretty early on, we learn that who we first believe to be this iteration of the phantom is not the one from the book and are introduced to the Phantom himself. The Phantom is Thorns guardian and teacher, although he has been sickly lately and Thorn has been taking care of him.
There is an interesting addition in this version of auras and chakras. Rune, Thorn and the Phantom are able to see the music as it fills the air with colour. The Phantom even taught Thorn how to harness that auric energy from emotions, and the even more powerful music, to do things like manipulating feelings and thoughts. Together, Thorn and the Phantom plan to alienate Rune from her teachers and classmates until she discovers the lair surrenders to the darkness and they hope she gives up her music to them.
Runes first day at RoseBlood does not go exactly as she hoped, but her new friend and peer advisor, Sunny introduces her to Jackson Reynolds. My immediate feelings about the two were that they were playing this retelling's version of Meg and Raoul, whether that is, in fact, true you shall have to discover by reading the book. Her relationship with her Phantom parallels that of the original, as he helps her to calm the music inside her.
Although the author provides reasoning later on for their immediate connection and trust, it still feels like insta-love. To know someone for only a short while and frequently consider abandoning or betraying everything youve ever known and believed in for the past decade. That is intense and not something people could just easily give up on whether it is the right way or not.
While I did enjoy this book, I probably would not go out and purchase a copy for myself. In order to make this the next chapter of the Phantom of the Opera, rather than a re-telling the author added some different aspects to the story that were not in the original. I am not entirely sure how I feel about this change it was interesting but as I was reading I didnt feel or believe that it was as well thought out as it should have been. I think that the idea of the story was a lot more intriguing than the actual execution of it ended up being.
After the conclusion of the book, there is a note from the author that describes what inspired her to write this version of the story. It shows where she got each of her ideas and the amount of thought that went into them. As I stated before, I see the merit of each addition (and admire the research that went into them) but it just seemed to be a little too much added and it became unwieldy.
Our main character, Rune has a unique relationship with music. Certain works, usually arias written for women, speak to her and make their home in her soul. Upon hearing the soaring notes, she is immediately overtaken by the need to sing and expel the music. When she was younger and her father accompanied her on the violin, those moments were glorious but they did not last. Her father became ill and then died, leaving her with no accompaniment and the music began to cage her. No longer could she just release the notes inside her, but they took something with them and left her feeling ill. If the piece spoke to her she had no choice but let it overwhelm her vocal cords and release.
The Phantom lives in his classic dark dwelling beneath the school, which was once an opera house. He travels the underground river via a boat, has various neglected instruments strewn about and is friendly with a red swan. Just your normal phantom behavior. Pretty early on, we learn that who we first believe to be this iteration of the phantom is not the one from the book and are introduced to the Phantom himself. The Phantom is Thorns guardian and teacher, although he has been sickly lately and Thorn has been taking care of him.
There is an interesting addition in this version of auras and chakras. Rune, Thorn and the Phantom are able to see the music as it fills the air with colour. The Phantom even taught Thorn how to harness that auric energy from emotions, and the even more powerful music, to do things like manipulating feelings and thoughts. Together, Thorn and the Phantom plan to alienate Rune from her teachers and classmates until she discovers the lair surrenders to the darkness and they hope she gives up her music to them.
Runes first day at RoseBlood does not go exactly as she hoped, but her new friend and peer advisor, Sunny introduces her to Jackson Reynolds. My immediate feelings about the two were that they were playing this retelling's version of Meg and Raoul, whether that is, in fact, true you shall have to discover by reading the book. Her relationship with her Phantom parallels that of the original, as he helps her to calm the music inside her.
Although the author provides reasoning later on for their immediate connection and trust, it still feels like insta-love. To know someone for only a short while and frequently consider abandoning or betraying everything youve ever known and believed in for the past decade. That is intense and not something people could just easily give up on whether it is the right way or not.
While I did enjoy this book, I probably would not go out and purchase a copy for myself. In order to make this the next chapter of the Phantom of the Opera, rather than a re-telling the author added some different aspects to the story that were not in the original. I am not entirely sure how I feel about this change it was interesting but as I was reading I didnt feel or believe that it was as well thought out as it should have been. I think that the idea of the story was a lot more intriguing than the actual execution of it ended up being.
After the conclusion of the book, there is a note from the author that describes what inspired her to write this version of the story. It shows where she got each of her ideas and the amount of thought that went into them. As I stated before, I see the merit of each addition (and admire the research that went into them) but it just seemed to be a little too much added and it became unwieldy.
Tim McGuire (301 KP) rated Stone (2010) in Movies
Jan 21, 2020
Old Movie Revisted: Stone. A movie I passed on a few times, because I thought, hmmm, a movie with Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, and Milla Jovovich, that I never heard of, it must be crap. Because that's snart. But anyways, turns out it was a pretty awesome flick. So, we got Jack (DeNiro), he listens to church radio, goes to church on sundays, talk to his pastor with personal issues, cheats on his wife, drinks heavily, and one time threatened to throw his own child out the second story window if his wife left him, in other words, a normal christian. Well he is a parole officer nearing retirement when he meets Stone (Norton) who is a convicted arsonist and approaching his eligible for parole date and ya gotta talk to Jack before you can go home. And really all Jack wants to hear is that, yes, you are responsible for your actions, blah blah blah. Does he??? Well he says he can hear god talking to him through sound, of course he mentions this after he mentions that he hasnt slept in quite some time and may be going crazy, or it could be god, Jack ain't having it. But then he starts getting calls from Stones' wife Lucetta (Jovovich) saying please let hubby out, he's changed his ways, and she misses him... She lets Jack know just how much she misses him all right. Will she use poor ol Jack to get Stone out of jail, or is it all just bullshit? I dug it. I felt they were all good at the characters they played which seemed different for each of them... Well has Milla done anything but fight Disney...err the Umbrella Corporation for the past 2 decades lolz. Filmbufftim on FB
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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated To Die For (Blair Mallory, #1) in Books
Feb 15, 2019
Hmm, I'm having a hard time describing how I feel about this book. I liked it enough, Blair was a decent character, but there was something (or things) missing. I'm not one of those who hate first person narratives (I really have no preference - both first and third person narratives are fine with me, as long as they work for the book), but for some reason it felt weird in this book and didn't quite work for me. Also, I don't know how I feel about Wyatt. His reason for leaving Blair two years ago was lame and I can't believe she let him off the hook so easily; not to mention he was rather one-dimensional. The mystery was hardly that and it seemed as if the author forgot all about someone trying to kill Blair until the end, deadline was near, and just added some cockamamie, loony-tune ending that was a total let down and came from left field. Not to mention, the whole someone-wants-to-kill-Blair thing was pushed aside for all the petty arguing and sex. Now I liked Blair giving Wyatt a hard time and all, but some of the stuff she said or did was overkill and the editor needed to trim a good fifty or so pages of it out of the book. It didn't help that going into the book, I thought it was a more serious romantic suspense, which is what I really wanted to read at the time.
Some of my petty annoyances with the book came fairly early on: I don't get why Blair (and/or the author) thought Jason Carson or Jenni Mallory rhymed. Now if his name was Jason Cayson, I'd understand, or Jenni Menni, but just because Jason and Carson both end with 'son,' it doesn't rhyme because it's the same thing. I don't know if I'm saying that right but oh well. My other thing was that Blair couldn't wear some underwear because the bra got ruined. Uh, okay. Now I like my undies to match but that wouldn't mean I'd never wear the underwear again because the bra that matched got ruined. That's just snobby and stupid. Yeah, I know, ridiculous things to find annoying in the book, but we all have something. LoL
After I finished the book and went to Amazon I saw that there's a sequel. I'm not sure if I'm up for another trip into Blair's mind or not, but if I come across it real cheap or someone gives it to me, I might read it. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book, I did, but I liked Blair up to a point, but when it got to around page 250, she was just a bit too much for a 378 page book. Maybe if we weren't in her head the whole time, or the book was shorter, I would have liked the book better.
Here's part of an Amazon review I liked:
'Wyatt had stayed away from his soulmate for two years and only came running with an engagement ring when he thought she had been murdered. How long would he have stayed away if nothing had happened to Blair? Also, Blair was supposedly only a 'dumb blonde' when it suited her. But I question the intelligence of anyone who thinks someone who cuts her brake line is just stupid and someone who shoots her with intent to kill is just a nitwit. I wonder if these things bothered anyone else. Still, these problems did not take too much away from my enjoyment of the book.'
Some of my petty annoyances with the book came fairly early on: I don't get why Blair (and/or the author) thought Jason Carson or Jenni Mallory rhymed. Now if his name was Jason Cayson, I'd understand, or Jenni Menni, but just because Jason and Carson both end with 'son,' it doesn't rhyme because it's the same thing. I don't know if I'm saying that right but oh well. My other thing was that Blair couldn't wear some underwear because the bra got ruined. Uh, okay. Now I like my undies to match but that wouldn't mean I'd never wear the underwear again because the bra that matched got ruined. That's just snobby and stupid. Yeah, I know, ridiculous things to find annoying in the book, but we all have something. LoL
After I finished the book and went to Amazon I saw that there's a sequel. I'm not sure if I'm up for another trip into Blair's mind or not, but if I come across it real cheap or someone gives it to me, I might read it. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book, I did, but I liked Blair up to a point, but when it got to around page 250, she was just a bit too much for a 378 page book. Maybe if we weren't in her head the whole time, or the book was shorter, I would have liked the book better.
Here's part of an Amazon review I liked:
'Wyatt had stayed away from his soulmate for two years and only came running with an engagement ring when he thought she had been murdered. How long would he have stayed away if nothing had happened to Blair? Also, Blair was supposedly only a 'dumb blonde' when it suited her. But I question the intelligence of anyone who thinks someone who cuts her brake line is just stupid and someone who shoots her with intent to kill is just a nitwit. I wonder if these things bothered anyone else. Still, these problems did not take too much away from my enjoyment of the book.'
Erika (17789 KP) Nov 25, 2019
Andy K (10823 KP) Nov 25, 2019