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Ross (3282 KP) rated Evil Genius in TV

Jun 4, 2018  
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
2018 | Documentary
8
7.5 (24 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Gripping insight into the minds of warped geniuses (0 more)
Unresolved issues/threads (0 more)
For fans of Making a Murderer
This 4-part series tells the story of the "pizza bomber", where a pizza delivery man walked into a bank with a bomb around his neck, walks off with a small amount of money, is cornered by police and eventually the bomb goes off, killing him.
This is told in great depth during the first episode, showing that "the victim" (?) appears to have been on a scavenger hunt that ended badly for him. The rest of the series then explores the people that the police and FBI linked to the crime and the evidence stacking up in the 10year case.
The series is as gripping as Making a Murderer, with as many oddball characters and unusual actions and events combining to form a very hard to solve case.
I quickly became angry that the authorities were more concerned with solving the bank robbery aspect than the murder, thereby assuming that what seemed to be a simple, mild-mannered man was involved in the crime.
A number of avenues and leads are introduced along the way (not to the same extent as Making a Murderer) and not all of these are closed off, leading to something of an anti-climax.
  
A Pizza My Heart
A Pizza My Heart
Teagan Hunter | 2019 | Contemporary, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
characters (1 more)
plot line
It's AMORE!
Holy moly! Teagan Hunter has done it again! She has managed to have me LOLing all over the place, gaining crazy stares from my family, and a few strangers! I absolutely loved the sass and wit she put into the characters.

Wren and Foster. Foster and Wren. Anyway you look at it, they are meant to be together! The sparks flew between them instantly and I held on for dear life, watching them together. I loved the way Foster had to work to show Wren she was more than just his best friend's kid sister. When the realization finally hit.....well, let's just say it was a hot slice of pizza for this reader!

Do I recommend this book? Abso-friggin-lutely. Do I want to keep it forever? Abso-friggin-lutely. Do I recommend eating it with pizza? No. If you do, you may choke from laughing often! With a beautiful heroine and a hot, sexy Hero that will melt your socks off, this is a 5 star worthy start to a fantastic new series from who I dubbed the Queen of RomCon. Well done, Hunter. Well done. Bring on the next!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2097 KP) rated Six Feet Deep Dish in Books

Dec 14, 2023 (Updated Dec 14, 2023)  
Six Feet Deep Dish
Six Feet Deep Dish
Mindy Quigley | 2022 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Delilah Finds Some Deep Trouble at Her Opening
Delilah O’Leary is delighted to be opening her new deep dish pizza restaurant in the resort town of Geneva Bay, Wisconsin. However, the day of her soft opening/grand opening party doesn’t go well. First, she gets into a fight with her fiancé, who is financing everything, and he storms out. Then, in the middle of the party, she sees her aunt standing over a dead body holding the murder weapon; a weapon she admits is hers. With the official opening on hold, can Delilah figure out what is really going on?

I’ll admit the first chapter had me a bit worried, giving us lots of background on the characters. But the data dumps didn’t last for long, and we soon had a great mystery on our hands. The plot had plenty of twists and didn’t fall into a familiar plot pattern, something the author pulled off well. The climax answered all my questions. Delilah might have been an annoying character in less capable hands, but I really liked her right off, and that only grew as I got further into the book. The rest of the regulars are great, and I already love the community that Delilah is building. The setting is charming, and I wish I could visit in person. All the talk about pizza made me crave it. If that’s you, too, you’ll be happy with the recipes at the end. This debut left me hungry for the next course.
  
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
2018 | Card Game, Party Game, Real-time
Fast paced (2 more)
Fun for family game night
Fun for a party game
Hands can hurt after slapping so many times (1 more)
Some people slap card too hard
Picked this up for my daughter. It is like Slap Jack, but you have to repeat taco, cat, goat, cheese, pizza in order as each player flips a card. If you flip the card that matches your word, everyone slaps the card pile, with the last person slapping taking the card pile. There are three action cards that require you to complete an action before you can slap the card. We had a lot of fun playing it for family game night, though our hands were all a little sore by the time we called it quits.
  
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Licorice Pizza (2021)
2021 |
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Disjointed
The films of Director Paul Thomas Anderson is a bit of an “acquired taste”, moviegoers generally fall into one of 2 camps. (1) those that LOVE what he does (and thinks he is one of the greatest Directors of All Time) and (2) those that don’t.

I thought I fell into the 2nd camp, but upon reviewing his portfolio of work for this review (HARD EIGHT, BOOGIE NIGHTS, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE and THERE WILL BE BLOOD), I realized that I pretty much liked whatever he had done, but with his last few films (THE MASTER, INHERENT VICE, THE PHANTOM THREAD) I am finding that “PTA” (as his fans call him) is becoming just a little too “artsy” and pretentious for my tastes. He has fallen too in love with his material - and artistic style - to objectively look at a film and realize that it needs to move along at a brisker pace.

Such is the case with his latest film, LICORICE PIZZA.

A memory of his youth, LICORICE PIZZA follows the relationship of a pair of mismatched young adults as they work their way through the early 1970’s in search of themselves and love.

This film is a series of scenes stitched together to tell a story and the problem with it is that it made this film seem disjointed. The central “get together already” love story of the main 2 characters is supposed to be the through-line of the film, but when this through-line breaks (as it often does here) it is detrimental to the flow of the story.

Based, loosely, on the real-life exploits of PTA’s friend, Producer Gary Goetzman, LICORICE PIZZA stars Cooper Hoffman (son of Phillip Seymour Hoffman) as Gary Valentine and Alana Haim (of the Sister Act Musical Group HAIM) as Alana as they have an on-again/off-again friendship that SHOULD BE a romance, but isn’t (kind of like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY). They circumnavigate circa 1973 Los Angeles running into fictionalized portrayals of famous people like Producer Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper) and Film Actor Jack Holden (Sean Penn) an amalgamation of William Holden and Steve McQueen.

The central performances of Hoffman and Haim are competent enough, but never rises to anything more than that, which pulls this film down for one or the other of them is in every scene . The various actors doing extended cameos (like Cooper and Penn) seem to be having fun chewing up the scenery, but they are acting in a completely different style of film than Hoffman and Haim are and our 2 leads don’t stand a chance of standing out compared to these over-the-top performances.

Blame for all of this needs to be laid on Anderson (Oscar Nominated for his Direction in this film). He tried to give us a “slice of life” nostalgia piece like AMERICAN GRAFFITI or ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, but he just doesn’t pull it off.

An Oscar Nominee for Best Picture, LICORICE PIZZA seems to be riding the wave of nostalgia both for the times depicted - and the artist who put this film on the screen - but it just isn’t that good of a film.

Letter Grade B- (for Cooper’s and Penn’s scenes in this)

6 stars (out of 10) and you can take this to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
The Killing Death (2008)
The Killing Death (2008)
2008 |
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: The Killing Death starts when two detectives Frank (Dangerfield) who is about to retire and Jimmy (Trubiak) who is on his first case, must figure out the connection between a string of murders, with the suspect Chicago Phil (Reimer) committing a string of murders around town, each suspect is introduced to give him a fresh kill.

The closer the detectives get to solving the case, the increased number of bodies that keep turning up, can they solve the case before it is too late.

Thoughts on The Killing Death

Characters – Frank is an aging detective that has always finished his cases, he is about to retire and now he wants to finish this last case before he goes, Jimmy is the rookie working his first case, he is learning from Frank too, proving he needs to solve the case to make it. Chicago Phil is a pizza delivery guy that has a habit of killing his clients, he is trying to make a perfect pizza along the way.

Performances – This is a hard film to criticise because of the fact it is micro budget, the problem with the acting comes from the fact that nothing feels natural in how things are delivered.

Story – The story here follows two detectives trying to solve the case of a serial killer in their town. The outside of this story seems simple and one that could be enjoyed, only for it to come up very short in delivery, the killer and weapon of choice does seem to become random, even though we have a couple of scenes where it is clear choice, the detectives seem to just be making up their own story to make the case easy to close and apart from investigating the case, they never seen to search for answers. For a micro-budget story this does do what it needs to by laying out the format, only it just doesn’t come close to becoming easy to enjoy.

Comedy/Horror – The comedy in this film does come from how awkward the two detectives are when it comes to communication, it is very hard to see these jokes coming off. The horror is only around the kills, which are meant to show a serial killer at work.

Settings – The film uses the different houses that could have a pizza delivery as the main locations, which work for the film.

Special Effects – The effects for a micro budget are the strongest part of the film, they show how certain things can work in films.


Scene of the Movie – Take it easy.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Most of the comedy.

Final Thoughts – This is a micro budget film that does try to give us something original even though it does miss for the most part on comedy, it is a film that looks like the people behind it enjoyed making.

Overall: Sometimes you just need to enjoy what you do.
  
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AyL (16 KP) rated Evil Genius in TV

Jan 7, 2019  
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
2018 | Documentary
9
7.5 (24 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
An explosive documentary and must-watch for true crime lovers
Content:
A man casually walks into a bank, with a bomb strapped to his neck and demands money. He gets caught on the parking lot after leaving the bank but he never makes it into a police car. 44 minutes after the first 911 call about the robbery and the bomb, the device around the mans neck detonates and kills him, all documented by CCTV and the Police. The man is Brian Wells, a pizza delivery man from this area. The documentary investigates the events around the murder of Brian Wells in Pennsylvania in 2003, which also became known as the „Pizza-Bomber“ Case.

Review:
If you are looking for a casual show to watch while playing candy crush on your phone, this is not the documentary for you, because things become complicated quick, with loads of suspects, different crime scenes and a lot of different stories that are told.
To really enjoy this documentary, you have to give it your full focus so you catch all the minute details. It’s like working the crime scene yourself. The documentary is not for the faint hearted. It shows the original CCTV footage of Brian Wells death!

The documentary includes interviews with people that worked on the cases, suspects and the family and friend of Brian Wells, which gives it a personal touch and makes it very attractive and fascinating to watch. It creates new questions in the viewers mind: Was Brian victim or perpetrator? Was the detonation an accident, murder or even suicide? And who is Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and what does this woman have to do with all of this?

Trey Borzillieri, director and narrator of the documentary, shows his quite intense research for this documentary which ended in a deeper relationship with one of the suspects.

Evil genius is fascinating to watch, it grabs you and takes you through all Episodes, leaving you wanting more. A must watch for true crime lovers!
  
30 Minutes or Less (2011)
30 Minutes or Less (2011)
2011 | Action, Comedy
You don’t have to be imaginative to envision the plot behind “30 Minutes or Less”, because this is a story that is wildly over told. Just listing the components make it clear that no inventive or unexpected plot devices were considered in the creation of this summer comedy. There is the pizza boy who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, a set of bumbling idiots who are planning a bank heist and even a girl who is oblivious to the longstanding affection of her brother’s best friend. But somehow even with this wildly over told plot the movie manages to be sporadically very funny.

“ 30 Minutes or Less” is, like so many of the big comedy hits of the last few years, a film that centers around well crafted honest yet crass dialogue between experienced comedic actors. Timing is critical to the success of the film and thankfully the actors in “30 Minutes or Less” are funny people who repeatedly manage to execute good lines.

The cast is the shining aspect of the film; a hodgepodge crew of comedians you likely already know. The best friend Chet is portrayed by the ever funny Aziz Ansari of Televisions’ “Parks and Recreation”. The bomb clad pizza boy Nick is played by Jesse Einsenberg who also starred in “The Social Network” and “Zombieland”. And this role is not a far cry from Einsenberg’s role in “Zombieland” aside from the lack of character development and on screen chemistry leading lady Kate, played by former TV “Greek” bad girl Dilshad Vadsaria.

The film is backed by a fun soundtrack of grooves that significantly assist in maintaining a quickened pace, even when the story is less than laughably slow. There are also a number of diverse yet comedic fight scenes that spot the film, from a juvenile slap fight to the use of a blow torch.

But the smattering of creative lines, sure to be repeated in excess by the post-emo generation, did not manage to hold up this film that unfortunately ran out of steam within “30 Minutes or Less”.
  
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Morgan Sheppard (926 KP) created a post

Mar 5, 2020  
Do you know the difference between Compliment and Complement? 🤣

Hannah and her best friend Jane complement each other perfectly. Hannah loves to tell jokes and Jane loves to laugh, so their personalities are very complementary. Meanwhile, Hannah likes to try different types of food and Jane likes to cook, so in this respect their characters also complement each other.

When Hannah tells a funny joke, Jane always compliments her. Likewise, when Jane prepares a delicious meal, Hannah compliments her too. Both girls' compliments are always very complimentary!

Once, Jane told Hannah that having her as a friend was almost like having a sister. Hannah said this was this nicest compliment she has ever received. Hannah returned the compliment, and told Jane that she complemented her perfectly.

The two girls are having a dinner tomorrow to celebrate their friendship. They are going to serve homemade pizza, which will be complemented by strawberry ice cream. They hope that their friends compliment the meal!

🤣😁

(https://www.really-learn-english.com/compliment-vs-complement.html)
     
<b><i>I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i></b>

Three Mages and a Margarita </em>is entertaining, funny and mythical (ha. ha. pun intended)</strong></h2>
There are books you can tell you'll love or hate right away from the synopsis right away, and ones you can't tell until you actually read the book. I LOVED <em>Three Mages and a Margarita</em> and can't wait for the sequel to come out so I can go back to the Mythic world.
<img class="aligncenter wp-image-10327 size-medium" src="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/317/2018/10/come-to-me-300x169.gif"; alt="come to me gif" width="300" height="169" />

<h3>Tori is funny and sassy</h3>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">Tori Dawson, the Server of Doom and Despair.
</blockquote>
Our main character Tori takes no bullshit - literally! She gets fired from all her jobs because she doesn't take crap from her guests. While Tori's actions in <em>Three Mages and a Margarita</em> are an exaggeration, it was funny and entertaining to read. I think the last time I laughed was <a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/american-panda-by-gloria-chao/"><em>American Panda</em> by Gloria Chao</a>.

<h3>The friendship is genuine, golden and #goals.</h3>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">"If you want pizza with pineapple on it, we'll have throw you out."
<p style="text-align: left;">I blinked, not entirely sure if he was joking, but Aaron laughed. "If she wants pineable, she can have it. You don't have to eat it."
"Its existence alone is an insult to all pizza."</blockquote>
The friendship between the three mages Tori meets is genuine, and I loved seeing the interactions between Aaron, Kai and Ezra. They're a close group but are also welcoming to Tori despite the rough beginning.

<h3>Fast-paced and full of action</h3>
I got through <em>Three Mages and a Margarita</em> in less than two days. Annette Marie's latest novel is full of humor, but it is also fast-paced and full of action. Whether the book will make you laugh out loud or worry over the characters, there is never a dull moment.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/three-mages-and-a-margarita-by-annette-marie/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>