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Indivisible
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
As a former military brat, I love to read anything about the military. As a long time fan of Travis Thrasher's this book was a double bonus for me. I loved every second of this 5 star worthy novelization of true events.

PTSD is a very real, very scary thing for many folks. This story is about that. I felt every emotion of Heather and Darren as if it was my own. Every pain filled moment, every tear filled scene was my own. That is powerful when a novelization can do that to me. The beautiful story of Heather and Darren become a part of me and I won't soon forget them.

If you are looking to read a book that will fill you with hope, understanding, mercy and faith, then grab this book now. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I imagine it will be just as powerful as this book is. Five stars just doesn't seem like enough praises for this. Hats off to Travis Trasher for creating a beautiful, emotion filled novelization of Darren and Heather's story.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and was under not obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
  
Taxi Driver (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
1976 | Thriller
Easily, one of the most iconic movies of all time. Legendary Martin Scorsese's 1976 classic tells the tale of Travis Bickle, played to perfection by Robert De Niro, isolated in New York, struggling to maintain his sanity in a place he subconsciously does not belong in. The film explores themes of loneliness in a way that is sympathetic and haunting at the same time, a beautiful contradiction. As an introvert who has struggled with loneliness my whole life, this movie affects me like no other. But aside from all the deep stuff within the film, it's extremely well directed and brilliantly written, led by the career defining performance of De Niro. One of the most compelling narratives I've ever experienced in film. The atmosphere is also a definite highlight in this film, as it adds that layer of tension that only gets more prevalent as the movie progresses. Without a doubt, it's my favorite movie of all time and I can't recommend it enough. If you're a movie buff and love movies that challenge you and give you an in depth look at such an intriguing concept, do yourself a favor and watch this movie, then add it to your collection and buy it.
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Joji Presents: The Extravaganza (2020) in Movies

Nov 27, 2020 (Updated Nov 27, 2020)  
Joji Presents: The Extravaganza (2020)
Joji Presents: The Extravaganza (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Music
Not as good as Hair Cake. In seriousness, as someone who firmly believes that FIlthy Frank was perhaps the single greatest online entertainer who ever lived - something this casual was always going to seem like a downgrade for me as opposed to his former persona's caustic, over-the-top antics. But I also really enjoy Joji and feel he's similarly unique in a different way - one of which I dig quite a lot. Ballads 1 and Nectar have some *banger* songs on them that I regularly put on repeat so I was fully ready to have fun with this. But what was marketed as a dark spin on a circus stage performance meets a lite version of The Eric Andre Show ended up being a rather low-energy, repetitive slog that stretches at barely over an hour. I'm still not even sure what the point of this was, the only half-inspired bit was Run (and maybe Sanctuary yet it seemed so telegraphed) but other than that it's a collection of confusingly samey (though never bad) live renditions of songs that you get no benefit of seeing performed here as opposed to hearing/seeing them on the albums or music videos. Joji's downtrodden, walking broken heart persona (which - by the way - I love) tries to mix with this high-energy would-be attention grabber and truthfully it doesn't work or come even close to justifying the ticket price. The costumes and songs are still rock-solid even though two or three of them just feel like the same track. It makes me happy to see George's newfound success in something he's so passionate about, but this was a misfire imo. Alas, not even Joji performing Tick Tock as a 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘔𝘦 minion can save it. God-tier ending, though - why wasn't the whole thing more like that?
  
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Girls Trip (2017)
Girls Trip (2017)
2017 | Comedy, Drama
I love films like this next one. Girls Trip looked like so much fun every time I saw I clip that it was definitely going to be on the list. So here's the Red Band trailer for you...

The Flossy Posse haven't seen each other for five years, somewhere along the way, life happened. But that's about to change. Ryan Pierce is the keynote speaker at this year's Essence Music Festival, and she's getting the gang back together for a long overdue reunion.

While Ryan has great things to look forward to in her career, everything isn't all smooth sailing, and the same goes for the others, although no one wants to admit it. Can they find their old spark again and set themselves on the right path before the partying ends?..

This film made me sad... oh, it wasn't a sad movie, it made me sad that I've never had a group of girls to dance off with. These four lovely ladies really worked well off each other. And hey, if you fancy setting the internet trolls off... I think they would make an excellent front line for the next Ghostbusters movie. Just saying.

Seriously though, this film was really funny. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, and you'll do it along to some fantastic music.
  
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
2016 | Action, Sci-Fi
Batfleck (1 more)
It's every comic fan's childhood dream
Sloppy editing (2 more)
Bad performances
Poor script
A Whole Mess Of Awesome
Contains spoilers, click to show
Okay, if you are reading this I assume you have at least read a few other reviews of the movie, as it is all that anyone is talking about online at the minute, so what is left to say I hear you ask? Well first off I’ll give you some context, for the last three years I have been reading and collecting comics to an obsessive level and it is due to this movie. I have always been a superhero fan (especially Batman,) and I had read some comics in the past, but when this movie was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013, (3 years ago!!) I was so hyped and I decided that I had to read the comic that this film was taking inspiration from. So I went to my local A1 Comics and bought The Dark Knight Returns, which underwhelmed me but that’s another story. Since then I have become a huge comic book fan and that is thanks to this movie. Seriously what was not to like here, it would have been so difficult to get this wrong, it’s Batman fighting Superman, how amazing is it that this actually happened? And yet they still managed to fuck it up…

Do you read? You will. And then realise how superior the comic that this is based on is to the actual movie itself, (and I’m not even a massive fan of the comic.)

I saw 10 Cloverfield Lane last week and while that movie wasn’t perfect, what made that a great movie is exactly what makes BvS a subpar movie. 10CL had a small team of people working on a restrictive budget, so every aspect of the movie was scrutinised and perfected to make up the end product and that attention to detail really paid off. BvS had a huge budget and a massive team of people working on it and I think that is what gives the movie it’s unfocused and sloppy feel. The script is a mess, there are clearly scenes cut, the editing is jarring, not all of the performances were up to scratch and while the imagery and visuals are incredible, the best way to describe this movie is all style and no substance. I like Zack Snyder, I love his Watchmen movie, I like 300 and I enjoyed Man of Steel, but I can’t help but feel that this is his fault. His decision to make years of comic book stories into one two and a half hour movie honestly baffles me. The events of this movie should have taken place over at least three movies, which I will discuss more in the spoiler section of this review, so stick around for that if you have seen the movie already. This movie really is all over the place and the pace and tone are random at best and if you have seen the trailers then you have essentially seen the movie. Let’s talk about the best part of the movie, which is quite easily Ben Affleck’s Batman and Jeremy Irons’ Alfred. Seeing the two characters and their chemistry are worth the ticket price of the film alone. This is probably the most faithful to the source material Batman that we have had on the big screen to date, except for one pretty major change. Batman in DoJ is pretty much Punisher in a cowl. During the Batmobile chase (which was really fucking awesome by the way,) he questionably kills some goons. I mean, some of them could have survived like, if they had Wolverine’s healing powers I guess? But then there is that badass warehouse scene that we see in the trailers and during that he near enough shoots some guys himself. If you can get over this and see this as an alternate version of Batman you should be able to appreciate Affleck’s performance though, which by the way is amazing, he knocks it out of the park. I would have liked some kind of reference to it, even a scene where he discusses breaking his code with Alfred, just a few lines would have made me get on board with this version of the character a lot quicker. Critics have been calling Henry Cavil’s Superman performance wooden, but I think that is too harsh, he is perfectly serviceable but he isn’t going to be praised for his memorable performance either. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is badass, my only complaint is that she isn’t in the movie enough as Wonder Woman. Jesse Eisenberg is the stand out worst performance in the movie. It isn’t necessarily a bad performance, it just does not fit that character at all. He was truly miscast here, if they had cast him as Riddler in the Batman solo movie and he put in this performance I would be praising him like mad. Lex Luthor shouldn’t be crazy on a surface level, he should be a respectable businessman and an intellectual force to be reckoned with and he will go out of his way to ensure that this is what everyone sees him as, it is only ever the people closest to him that that he allows to see him crack. He certainly shouldn’t be making strange noises and gestures like someone with OCD or a mental issue. Also Doomsday is silly and is just shoehorned in at the end for the sake of giving the trinity and enemy to battle against.

Do you pee? You will. After sitting though near three hours of this garbage.

So to give my overall opinion before I get into spoilers, I will say that I enjoyed this movie better than Man of Steel, but only slightly and I dislike it for a lot of the same reasons. Just like Man of Steel there are parts of this movie that I adored and parts that I hated. Mixed emotions is an understatement. In my mind any movie above a 7 is a great movie and unfortunately I can’t call this a great movie. I fully believe that everyone should see this movie and form their own opinion, especially since reactions have been so mixed, but I felt that it simply didn’t live up to the hype that it set for itself and I feel like Zack Snyder may be doing more harm than good setting up the DCU. 6.5/10.

Do you see? You will. Or at least you better have seen it by now because I am about to spoil the shit out of the whole movie.

Like I said earlier, the events of the movie really should have been split across several movies and explored more rather than rushed through at a breakneck speed. We should have had a whole movie on Batman V Superman, the conflict ideals between them and the discussion of whether or not this world needs a Superman. Then we should have had a movie just based on the dawn of the justice league, with Batman and Superman eventually understanding each other and becoming friends and with way more scenes with Wonder Woman and a proper introduction to the other characters rather than the literal plot device USB stick we got in BvS. Then we should have had a few Justice League movies and once Superman was an established character within the universe, they should have killed him off then and did the Death and Return of Superman story, not in this one where Batman and Wonder Woman hardly know him and the public still don’t know whether he is good or bad. Also if Batman kills now, what reason is there for the Joker to still be alive? The whole point of their relationship is that Batman won’t kill Joker because of his code and Joker won’t kill Batman because he loves fighting him, but if Batman has no code and he has been Batman for years then he really should have killed Joker a long time ago. I did enjoy Batfleck and I am very much looking forward to his solo Batman movie, but BvS is rushed and sloppy. So I’ve said my piece, now let the fanboy hate commence.
  
You Must Not Miss
You Must Not Miss
Katrina Leno | Young Adult (YA)
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Characters, development, life lssues delt with (0 more)
Near (0 more)
LBYRpartners and The Novl gave me this arc in exchange for an honest review what follows is my thoughts and opinions

"Everybody has a reason to want to change their lives" -Magpie Lewis

Magpie has some of the best. We love stories of broken people and Magpie is a dark, hurt, twisted broken at the core person. After finding her father sleeping with her aunt, her drunk mother who can't even fend for her own well being and especially not Magpie's, her sister has moved away to college changed her number and never looked back, and losing her best friend you feel bad for Magpie very, very sad for her. Like any other teenager dealing with a host of big issues Magpie is dying to escape and one day she does, creating a world she controls. As the story continues you realize maybe you shouldn't have felt as bad for her as you originally had. Magpie starts to deal with her issues by shoving them into this new world and destroying them. She begins to do all the terrible and twisted things that have been done to her, much like a typical teenager may act out. This novel kept me interested and reading. Although, I felt a little bizarre about the new world it made sense that's how she chose to control things that were otherwise uncontrollable. I love how the novel ended feeling complete and tied up. I liked Magpie as a character and her new group of outcast friends after the terrible incident that lead her to lose her best friend. I was blown away by the topics covered in this novel and the way they were talked about from transgendered characters to sexual abuse were elegantly addressed. I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves a little sci-fi and contemporary mashups while dealing with grand scale issues.
  
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder
Joanne Fluke | 2021 | Mystery
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Murder in the Mayor’s Office
Easter is coming, and The Cookie Jar is awash in orders, keeping Hannah Swensen, her business partner Lisa, and the rest of their staff busy. But that doesn’t mean that Hannah doesn’t have time to help her sister Andrea when she calls in a panic. She’s just found Mayor Bascomb’s dead body in his office hours after having a very loud fight with him. The police wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t consider Andrea a suspect, so Hannah springs into action to figure out what really happened. Can she prove her sister is innocent?

I’ve been reading this long running series since the beginning, and I keep reading because I do enjoy catching up with the characters. If that is your reason for picking up the book, you’ll find they are as charming as always. I was pleased to see the soap opera of the previous few books has died down, and we see growth in a surprising direction in one character. Sadly, the love triangle is no closer to being resolved. The mystery is decent with enough suspects to keep us engaged. However, the focus is on the food. There is plenty of talk about food and how much the characters love what they are eating. With 24 new recipes for us to try, there is certainly plenty of new food to talk about. The dialogue is repetitious, an example of why realistic dialogue is better than real dialogue in a novel. While I still want to catch up with the characters, I find myself skimming the book instead of reading it closely. If you are like me and want to keep up with the characters, you’ll be glad you picked up this book. But if you haven’t started the series yet, you’ll want to go back to the beginning to find out why there are readers like me who still enjoy visiting the characters. And if you’ve given up on the series, you can safely skip this one.