Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (410)

Content

Southern Gothic by Tyminski

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Album Watch

Tyminski will release Southern Gothic October 20 on Mercury Records Nashville. All 13 tracks on the...

country pop

My Way West: Real Kids Traveling the Oregon and California Trails

Elizabeth Goss

9.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

For kids who want to learn about what life was like on the Oregon and California Trails between...

Picture Books Children HIstory American History Oregon Trails Califorina Trails

Awix (3310 KP) rated No Escape (2015) in Movies

Mar 26, 2018 (Updated Mar 26, 2018)

No Escape (2015)

2015 | Drama, Thriller

6.9

(13 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Technically competent suspense-thriller can't help coming across as a little bit suspect in the signals it's sending (also, title may not be strictly accurate). Nice American family go to a country which looks like Thailand but definitely isn't, dearie me no, and find themselves imperilled by a native uprising triggered by the Prime Minister's new water works. Can they escape before Pierce Brosnan starts singing again?

As I say, solidly put together, and if nothing else Lake Bell's performance is pretty much immaculate - but you have to wonder if the film's depiction of Asian countries isn't defamatory, or at least scare-mongering. It's not surprising this film was banned in some parts of Asia. There's a lot of bafflegab about the hordes of machete-wielding psychos being locals upset about globalisation, but c'mon, guys, this is clearly a film inspired by fears of radical Islamist terrorism, and as such it seems to be presenting every person in Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, etc, as a potential psychopathic killer. For something which is basically second-cousin to a zombie movie, it takes itself terribly seriously; a bit too seriously given how implausible the plot rapidly becomes. Perks up a bit when Brosnan is on screen (not often enough), but is this kind of subject matter really the stuff of such broad entertainment? As a thriller this is okay, but a point knocked off for the dubious subtext.

Kudos

Ross (3284 KP) rated You Die When You Die in Books

Jan 21, 2020

You Die When You Die

Angus Watson | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Fantastic witty pre-historic Viking / Native American fantasy

This is the alternative-reality story of the Hardworkers, a small clan of Viking descendants in pre-Columbian North America. A mentally-damaged young boy in the clan has a premonition that the village will be attacked and they should head west. When the village is indeed attacked by natives (who themselves had a premonition of these Vikings ending the world), the clan quickly up-sticks and head off.
There follows a brilliant, exciting, funny story of this small clan with mixed abilities (some well trained warriors, some powerful yet cowardly warlocks, some useless wastes of space) travelling across North America, hunted by the magically-enhanced warriors sent to end them, and meeting numerous clans and tribes along the way.
The wonderful merging of plausible pre-history America and a more familiar fantasy setting (prophecies, evil empires, warriors) results in this superb story. The dialogue is witty and funny, the world is familiar yet strange enough to make you think, and the action sequences are fantastically narrated, often from different viewpoints.
The characters are all very well crafted and unique, and their interactions and conflicts really spur this story on.
I would urge anyone keen on fantasy to read this book. While the cover, and title, may suggest it is a brutal slobberknocker of a book, it is actually very clever, funny and thrilling.
I cannot wait to jump in to the next book in this trilogy. Wootah!!!