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The Beach Boys (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) - Wouldn't It Be Nice -Lyric Video

  
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
2018 | Action, Animation, Sci-Fi
New take on an old favourite (0 more)
Should have been done sooner (0 more)
Nice refreshing direction
I never read the blurb before going to see this because I wanted to be surprised and this film did not disappoint.

Take what you know about Spider-Man and put it to one side because this comes at it in a totally original way.

From the very outset this is one trippy, fast paced well thought up movie, it came from the minds who brought you the brilliant 21 jump street and the excellent Lego movie I speak of Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

I loved everything about this movie from the animation, which was part movie , part graphic novel, good balance of action and story

the soundtrack fits it with the bouncy non stop visuals. I have had the soundtrack playing non stop ever since there is just something so catchy about it, I know some only work in the context of the film but this works outside it which is great. Some familiar names you may know are Nicki Minaj, Jayden Smith and Post Malone.

The voice acting is brilliant as something birthed by Marvel I wouldn’t expect anything less, see below for the link to actors featured, the directors were Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey and Bob Persichetti , they took the vision Phil and Chris had and brought it to life in a new and refreshing way.

I would definitely recommend this if you are a Spider-Man fan or even if your new to him, with laugh out loud moments and genuinely touching times this is a brilliant twist on what I know as Spider-Man.
  
Two of my favourite things combined together: YouTube and reading!

The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire is just jam-packed with everything a fan could want. Stories, photos, illustrations, quizzes, trivia... There is so much going on!

Of course, the boys talk about their show on Radio 1, and all the opportunities that arose from the job - such as meeting One Direction. They also share their school experiences, their trip to Japan, and a rather unbelievable tale about what happened in Vegas...

As well as all their personal memories and journals, Dan and Phil talk about how they began their YouTube careers, and give advice to those wanting to go into the same profession. There's even a handy generator for video ideas!

All out favourite characters are mentioned, with Jessica, Becky, Dil Howlter, Simon the shrimp and Phil's lion having their own pages. Oh, and a double-page spread of Phil's hamster-breeding experiences.

And yes, there is fan-fiction. Phil Lester's tale, The Hand, features Harry Styles in a rather unexpected manner... And Dan's The Urge is, unsurprisingly, rather strange and dark. They are surprisingly nice reads in themselves!

Everything sounds as if the boys are reading aloud to you, as they've managed to capture their own voices in text. It's honestly just like watching one of their videos!

Here are some of the many visual pages in the book:

 [Visit www.bookmarkedreading.wordpress.com for the review featuring images.]
 
There are deep moments, weird moments, helpful moments, funny moments. I would definitely recommend that any fans of AmazingPhil and Danisnotonfire read this! I'm going to give it 4 stars, as I really enjoyed it!

BookMarked
  
The Hangover Part III (2013)
The Hangover Part III (2013)
2013 | Comedy
When “The Hangover” came out in 2009 it did so with modest expectations. Few critics expected it to become a box office smash much less the highest grossing R rated comedy of its time. Naturally a sequel followed and despite mixed reviews, “The Hangover 2” reaped in millions and vaulted over the original in terms of earnings. So, it was no surprise when “The Hangover 3” was announced and that the cast and writer/director Todd Phillips would be back again for the further adventures of The Wolfpack.

The films starts with dysfunctional Alan (Zach Galifianakis), creating a spectacular mess and being his usual spoiled and oblivious self though the consequences which have tragic ramifications. His friends Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), and Doug (Justin Bartha), decide that an intervention is needed and convince a reluctant Alan to get some help from a clinic in Arizona.

En route, the group is run off the road which results in Doug being held hostage by a criminal (John Goodman) who wants to use the group to bring in insane criminal Leslie Chow (ken Jeong). The group is told they have three days to find Chow and save Doug. It turns out Alan is the only one to have any contact with Chow since he was incarcerated. The guys soon find themselves in Tijuana hatching a desperate attempt to capture and return the demented Chow.

Naturally things do not go as planned and despite their best intentions the group only makes matters worse and sets a chain of events into action which bring them full circle in a race against time to save Doug.

This time out the film has ramped down the gross out humor of the first films aside for one epic scene following the credits. The film has some chuckles along the way but lacks the jaw dropping shock humor that defined the previous films. I spent the majority of the film enjoying the cast but waiting for the big comedic payoff to arrive which sadly did not come until the after-credits scene.

The cast works well with the material but it does seem like they have run out of ideas and are going through the motions. The addition of Melissa McCarthy does add some nice moments to the film and does leave open some ideas should they decide to continue the series despite promising that this is the conclusion. In the end it is a nice enough diversion but for me was neither as enjoyable nor memorable as the previous efforts.

http://sknr.net/2013/05/24/the-hangover-iii/
  
The Ritual  (2017)
The Ritual (2017)
2017 | Horror
Contains spoilers, click to show
If you’re browsing Netflix for a horror movie, The Ritual is definitely one worth checking out. Set in a foreboding, heavily wooded landscape of the Swedish mountains, this horror film reminds viewers that maybe, just maybe you should think twice about taking that shortcut – because you know, clearly that horror movie trope hasn’t been done enough.

Nevermind that, though. Starting off with a group of friends discussing their next vacation, we soon learn which character is the biggest coward of the troupe – Luke, The Ritual‘s first bloodletting comes fairly early on. Unintentionally, Luke and Robert (Rafe Spall and Paul Reid, respectively) stumble upon a robbery whilst they are inside a liquor store. Luke, in a cowardly manner, retreats and in his endeavor to do so, hits a few bottles and makes a noise, alerting the robbers to Robert’s presence and thus resulting directly in Robert’s murder. The guilt eats at him later on, but during the entire fiasco, Luke makes no attempt to come to Robert’s aid; he only watches as his friend is brutally slaughtered. (Okay, that one might be a bit of a hyperbole compared to later scenes, but I digress.)

As a direct result of this incident, the remaining quartet, which consists of Hutch (Robert James-Collier), Phil (Arsher Ali), and Dom (Sam Troughton) in addition to Luke, decide to go hiking in memory of Robert – a trip they’d originally ridiculed him about in the earlier bar scene. And thus, we have the set up of The Ritual.

Plotwise, I felt The Ritual was fairly solid as far as cult movies go – if a bit overplayed. Group of guys goes on a trip. Someone gets injured. They try to take a shortcut back. Things go badly. Of course, there’s a bit more of an occult flavor to it, one that’s a bit more haunting in quality which is nice, but overall it’s nothing new. The difference here is it is something that is done well as opposed to half-assed.

When we get to characters though, the only one that’s even remotely likable in my opinion is Phil. The others are all self-centered assholes or, in Luke’s case, cowards. Dom’s got the luck of a bag of rocks tossed into a lake and told to float, and Hutch… we’ll leave it at that. Luke’s character, on the other hand, experiences major growth. Earlier in the film, we watch him suffer from the inability to act; by the end of the film he is forced into action: either he redeems himself, or he dies.

Another aspect of this film that I love is its absolutely breathtaking shots. I hate using adverbs that I’ve already used earlier in a review, but haunting is such an apt description of the shots taken of the Swedish forests and mountains that we see in The Ritual. Those scenes, coupled with the disturbing echoes of Luke’s guilt really have a way of balancing out the movie.
  
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Paige (277 KP) rated Shaun of the Dead (2004) in Movies

Dec 7, 2018 (Updated Dec 7, 2018)  
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
2004 | Comedy, Horror
Casting (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost). (3 more)
Prosthetic Makeup.
Irony.
Emotional Investment.
Shaun of the Dead (2004).
'Take car. Go to Mum's. Kill Phil. Grab Liz. Go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over. How's that for a slice of fried gold?'

Shaun of the Dead is a 'slice of fried gold,' with consistent irony throughout that contributes towards the comedic content, uncommon throughout differentiating zombie movies. 'Next time I see him, he's dead,' is an ironic quote from Shaun of the Dead (2004) that is also foreshadowing.

Progressing from this, the casting for Shaun of the Dead (2004) was exceptional. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have done alternative movies together, encompassing Hot Fuzz and The World's End. Their undeniable friendship contributes significantly towards their ability to collectively produce fantastic movie's, all of which have no fault.

Furthermore, the prosthetic makeup is also an imperative aspect to confer when deliberating the positive aspects of Shaun of the Dead (2004). When taking into consideration that this film was released in 2004, the prosthetic makeup was beyond expectation, with multiple scenes that are hard to watch attributable to the gore.

Comparable to this, an alternative aspect to confer when deliberating the positive aspects of Shaun of the Dead would be the emotional investment in each character. Shaun of the Dead (2004) makes evident an imperative moral; to not take those you love for granted. One of many subtle morals throughout Shaun of the Dead (2004), which subsequently contribute towards the emotional investment in each character, to be understood upon watching the movie.

To conclude, Shaun of the Dead (2004) is a contributor towards the extensive amount of zombie movies released. However, it is an innovative, unique zombie movie, integrating comedic content and irony, whilst maintaining the high quality of prosthetic makeup and emotional investment you would expect from a movie depicting the prospective end of the world.
  
No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith by Motorhead
No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith by Motorhead
1981 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When I first this record I thought, ""What's wrong with the singer's voice?"" The second time I heard it I thought, ""Fuck, that guy looks like he's a savage killer!"" By the third time I'd heard it and seen the video, I thought, ""I like these guys…"" You need the right amount of exposure to these kinds of possibilities. People have certain prejudices against certain bands based on how they look but unless you're open-minded, you never know what you're missing out on. On top of the actual music, Motörhead embodied a lifestyle too. If you looked at Phil 'Philthy Animal' Taylor, may his soul rest in peace, he looked like a punk. He was the embodiment of cool. The only other guy who ever had that for me was when Chris Cornell had long hair! You just thought, ""That guy has got it going on."" Looking at Lemmy, who looked like a badass biker, and then Fast Eddie's darkness, Motörhead was all so cool. People ask me so often to comment on Lemmy's death and I always try to switch it to a comment on his life. How about we celebrate his existence? I saw a picture of him the other day and I found myself just staring and missing him a lot. Lemmy never hurt anyone or anything as far as I know. He never had to back up that dangerous attitude with anything else, like some of the things you're seeing on the internet just now with people shouting offensive things from the stage. That's an interesting breed of frontman and Lemmy was never like that. He knew who he was. It's hard when you can't understand when someone you know is gone. They're here, then they're gone and it's final. One of the most important lessons in that is to love people that are important to you and just be nice to people. You never know how long they'll be around."

Source
  
A Haunting In Cawdor (2016)
A Haunting In Cawdor (2016)
2016 | Horror
7
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: A Haunting in Cawdor starts as Vivian Miller (Young) who has been serving out her jail sentence where she ends up getting sent to help at the Cawdor Barn Theatre after a string of good behaviour. The plan along with other criminals is to help restore and put on a show for eccentric failed actor Lawrence O’Neill (Elwes). He wants to put on a show of Macbeth with all of the cast getting different roles each night. Vivian starts hearing strange goings on around the camp but it isn’t long before Lawrence learns that she has had a very twisted past and could be dangerous. As the play continues to be prepared the secrets keep coming out and so does the ghosts haunting the theatre, can they be laid to rest?

A Haunting in Cawdor gives us a horror thriller that shows us having to follow the traditional ghost haunting to try and help uncover what really happened to them. We get to put this situation with young offenders just about to be released where out lead has her own problems. While everything is built up nicely even if slightly slow we get to see what really happened before learning the complete truth. For me there isn’t enough focus on the tragic story and we are left with a good ending even if it just sort of happens.

 

Actor Review

 

Cary Elwes: Lawrence O’Neill is the theatre director who is giving these young offenders a chance to give back for their crimes. He is putting together a new performance of Macbeth only he has a past with the play that puts everyone at risk. Cary is good in this role but you would expect that from him.lary

Shelby Young: Vivian Miller is one of the offenders who is given a chance in this theatre production and clean-up work. She starts to become paranoid which is a side effect she has been having for years leading us to wonder just what is real. She gets the lead in the play making her the victim of the ghost haunting the play. Shelby is good in this leading horror role.vivian

Michael Welch: Roddy is a young man that keeps turning up in Vivian’s life, he tries to make her more relaxed about where she finds herself having claimed to have spent time there too. Michael is menacing but we never see enough of him.roddy

Alexandria DeBerry: Jeanette is the former member of the theatre who appeared in one of the recording that Vivian watched but she is also haunting the new residents of the theatre. Alexandria much like Michal just isn’t involved as much as we would like.

Support Cast: A Haunting in Cawdor has a supporting cast that all are part of the camp, we have the typical characters you would expect to see there without any really standing out.

Director Review: Phil Wurtzel – Phil gives us a nice horror that slow builds to an ending we kind of see coming.

 

Horror: A Haunting in Cawdor has a couple of good if not easy jump scares.

Thriller: A Haunting in Cawdor does keep us wondering to where it will end up going.

Settings: A Haunting in Cawdor uses the setting well putting our characters in an isolated location with a past tragic event.
Special Effects: A Haunting in Cawdor has good effects when needed without using them too much.

Suggestion: A Haunting in Cawdor is one for the horror fans to try. (Horror Fans Try)

 

Best Part: Hauntings all come off nicely.

Worst Part: Too much on the camp atmosphere.

 

Believability: No

Chances of Tears: No

Chances of Sequel: Yes

Post Credits Scene: No

Similar Too: The Gallows

 

Oscar Chances: No

Budget: $1.2 Million

Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes

Tagline: Recent parolee tortured by the curse of Macbeth

 

Overall: Tidy horror that has good scares around the rehabilitation idea behind the film.

https://moviesreview101.com/2016/02/15/movie-reviews-101-midnight-horror-a-haunting-in-cawbor-2015/
  
Here Come the Warm Jets by Brian Eno
Here Come the Warm Jets by Brian Eno
1974 | Rock
9.0 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I heard this for the first time at some point in the mid-90s and it had a big impact. For something so old, it sounded more like the future than anything being released then. It was hard to find on LP, but my friend John McKeown had a copy that I would borrow or listen to round at his. Eventually I bought a CD player so I could get it on reissue, as it took me years to find the vinyl. I reckon Eno was frustrated in Roxy Music. There didn't seem to be enough room for his experimentation or ego. You feel that he's running wild with pent up ideas in the way George Harrison did on All Things Must Pass. Although the sound is unconventional and experimental, it doesn't feel over-considered or precious in the way that many contemporary prog LPs do. It's spontaneous and quite thuggish at points. 'Blank Frank' sounds like he's wearing out the strings with a scrubbing brush. It's beautifully constructed as an LP. The songs are distinct and can stand alone, but there are wee passages of sound that link them together and the songs often overlap into each other, moving effortlessly between moods and musical conventions, melody and abstract noise. One moment 'Cindy Tells Me' sounds almost like it could be on the soundtrack of Grease (despite the lyric of rich girls confused by their new freedoms leaving their Hotpoints to rust in their kitchenettes), then you're in the dark, foreboding gloom of 'Driving Me Backwards' - ""kids like me have got to be craaaaaazzzzzyyyyy"" - what he does to his voice at that point will always sends a great shudder through me. I love his vocal delivery. It's very English and of that time - I hear it in Kevin Ayers, Robyn Hitchcock, Bid of The Monochrome Set and Syd Barrett, but none of the English singers around now seem to sing like that. What happened? Did that accent die out? There's a lovely send-up of the other Brian in 'Dead Finks Don't Talk' where he slips into a lecherous deep croon. It's heavily layered throughout, but it sounds like he didn't listen to himself as he double-tracked it. The phrasing and exaggerated vibratos don't often match which adds to the unnerving sense of panic which can suddenly drop to an intimate murmur. Eno has such a huge and recognisable persona, but not as a lyricist. There are some incredible lines on here: ""send for an ambulance or an accident investigator…""; ""Juanita and Juan/ Very clever with maracas…""; ""By this time time I got to looking for a kind of substitute/ I can't tell you quite how, except that it rhymes with dissolute…""; ""Meet my relations/ All of them/ Grinning like facepacks…"" the imagery is vivid, unsettling and direct. That's from a guy who pretty much abandoned writing lyrics shortly afterwards. Like Hunky Dory, this LP bridges two distinct parts of a career. There's still a Roxy flavour (Phil Manzanera is all over it), but songs like 'On Some Faraway Beach' point towards his ambient sound of the later 70s. It's a fleeting moment, never to be repeated. Well, except for on Taking Tiger Mountain. Maybe that's what makes this moment so great. He could have made another fourteen records with this template, all of which I'm sure would have had virtue. But he didn't. When we recorded our first LP, I played it to Tore Johansson [producer] and said I wanted it to sound like this. It didn't turn out that way, but it definitely had an impact on the session. We asked Eno to produce our second LP. He sent us a nice letter saying he couldn't do it, but that his daughter was a big fan of the band... Looking back I realise that it was the Eno who made this LP I was asking to produce. He's a smart guy and probably spotted that straight away."

Source
  
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
Solo? So-so.
When the whole Disney “broaden out the Star Wars universe” thing was first mooted I was NOT enthusiastic about the prospect. Then, in Christmas 2016 “Rogue One” burst onto our screens as a breath of fresh air, and I thought “OK, I can be wrong!”. But even jolted by that pleasant surprise, I always thought that the second proposed diversion off the main hyperspace highway into “Radiator Springs” – a Han Solo back-story flick – might fall short. It just didn’t float my boat.

Add into that proposition the decision to give the film initially to “The Lego Movie” directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (why Disney? why?); them trying to forge it as a ‘comedy’; them falling horribly short and being fired by Disney; Disney bringing Ron Howard (“Inferno“, “Rush“) in to try to salvage the project; and Howard reportedly re-shooting 75% of the film and you have the makings of a turkey of galactic proportions.

With all that being said, I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. But that’s off a very low base of expectation.

As you might guess, we go back to see Han… just Han… as a delinquent youth trying to keep his head above water under the thrall of the Fagin-like Lady Proxima (who – no pun intended – keeps her head under the water for most of the time). He is desperate to pull off a con that’s lucrative enough that it will get him and his girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke, “Me Before You“; “Terminator: Genisys“; “Game of Thrones”) off-planet and into a free life. Things don’t go to plan though and Han – now Han Solo – finds himself a trooper of the Galactic Empire. He links up with fellow rogues Beckett (Woody Harrelson, “War for the Planet of the Apes“; “Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri“), Val (Thandie Newton, “Westworld”, “2012”), Rio (voiced by Jon Favreau, “Spider-Man: Homecoming“; “Iron Man Three“) and their assertive and rebellious droid L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a get-rich-or-die mission for vicious gang-boss Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany, “Avengers: Infinity War“).

The film has its moments for sure:

There are some nice background touches: an army recruitment video plays to the sound of John William’s empire march (played I am assured by my more musical wife in a major key to sound more uplifting and positive!);
Han’s first meeting with that famous walking carpet (played by Joonas Suotamo) is memorable, as is the introduction to that “card player, gambler and scoundrel” Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover, “The Martian“, “Spider-Man: Homecoming“): all flamboyance, self-regard and well-dressed ego;
solo2
Never count your money while you’re sitting at the table. Lando Calrissian played by Donald Glover putting his ship (you probably haven’t heard of it) on the line. (Source: Lucasfilm).
the character of L3-37 is an excellent addition to the saga, forcefully demanding equality for droids: I would have liked to have seen much more of her;
there is a nice twist on the Greedo/Han “who shot first” debate;
production design and special effects are up to standard for a Star Wars film, and I enjoyed John Powell’s score, incorporating a new ‘young Han’ theme from John Williams himself;
and Erin Kellyman (in here movie debut) is just breathtaking and strikingly brilliant as the be-freckled renegade Enfys Nest.
But overall it’s all a bit disjointed and jumbled, probably as befits its growing pains. We are introduced to Solo within five seconds of the film’s opening….. BAM! No exquisite ‘reveal’ as we saw with River Phoenix in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. I found this disconcerting and it took me ten minutes to get into the film as a result.

When it gets going it rather tries too hard to join up more Star Wars dots than it needs to. “Rogue One” did that exceedingly well, but that was because it needed to as ‘Episode 3.5’. Here there are visual and verbal references everywhere as the screenwriters (Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan) desperately try to knit their story into the canon. As an example, the action moves to the mines of Kessel at one point. Kessel? Kessel? Wasn’t that a throwaway C3PO line from the “A New Hope” about being “smashed to who knows what” in said mines?. So obviously, in the WHOLE GALAXY that’s where the story leads us, with the local lingo for the hyperspace fuel McGuffin at the heart of the plot being “spice”! It’s all a bit too trite for my liking.

And while a key protagonist appearing near the end of the film (no spoilers) is both a startling surprise and great fun, don’t get me started on the timeline implications…. (see the spoiler section below the trailer for more).

Alden Ehrenreich, who was just brilliant in “Hail Caesar” (“Was that it t’WERRRE so simple“) for me barely makes it past bland in the lead role. One of the defining characteristics of Harrison Ford’s Solo was his swagger and bravado and unfortunately Ehrenreich barely rates a three out of ten on the scale. I also found the chemistry with Emelia Clarke to be lukewarm. Clarke still seems to be struggling to make a significant breakthrough to the big screen…. “Me Before You” still seems to be her high water mark so far. Here she has a key and complex role, but comes over as just plain unconvincing and “meh”.

Ron Howard has clearly done a good job in buffing up a poisoned chalice so it can at least share space on the Star Wars shelf without being laughed out of the Cantina. Perhaps with a more coordinated and thought-through run-up to a Solo sequel (more Enfys Nest please!) this offshoot might have legs.