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My Way West: Real Kids Traveling the Oregon and California Trails
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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
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated 22 July (2018) in Movies
Oct 22, 2018 (Updated Oct 22, 2018)
Good Direction (1 more)
Well Acted
An Important, If Terrifying Recent Tragedy
22 July is a Netflix film directed by Paul Greengrass about a brutal 2011 terrorist attack in Oslo.
This film is hard to watch.
I'm a guy that loves gory action flicks and intense horror movies, but something like this is far more disturbing to me. The film is so well made on a technical level, that at some points it actually feels like you are watching the real life massacre play out, which to me felt a little bit too real. Thankfully, I have never been affected by an act of terrorism, nor has anyone that I know, but if I had, I'm not sure how I would feel about someone making a movie like this retelling the trauma that those people went through.
I appreciate that this is an important event in recent history and shouldn't be something that is easily forgotten, but the brutal realism of this film is hard to stomach at times. It really puts you in the shoes of the victims and let's you imagine the terror and crippling fear that they must have felt.
The actor that plays the perpetrator of the attack, Anders Behring Breivik, (played by Anders Danielsen Lie,) has to be commended. He was so believable in the role that I ended up getting really angry every time that he appeared in a scene. I don't even want to know what an actor has to do to get into that headspace, but he put in an absolutely sublime performance as a deplorable scumbag.
The other standout role was Jonas Strand Gravli as Viljar Hanssen, one of the victims of the attack. He is the audience's main conduit into this horrific event and he is brilliant throughout the film.
The main criticism that I have is that we are shown this horrific attack in brutal detail and the aftermath of the event, with no real purpose. I am not sure what the point of this movie was other than to retell a gut wrenching, terrifying story of a real life terrorist attack. I guess, if you were to do some reaching, you could say that the fact that the film has no point echoes the fact that this brutal act of mass violence also had no point and sometimes these horrific things just happen with no real reason.
Overall, this is a very well made movie. It is full of heavy emotions and will make you think about the nature of the human mind. This is if you can get through it though, the movie is very hard to watch and I can see a good amount of folks turning off because they can't handle it, which I can totally understand.
This film is hard to watch.
I'm a guy that loves gory action flicks and intense horror movies, but something like this is far more disturbing to me. The film is so well made on a technical level, that at some points it actually feels like you are watching the real life massacre play out, which to me felt a little bit too real. Thankfully, I have never been affected by an act of terrorism, nor has anyone that I know, but if I had, I'm not sure how I would feel about someone making a movie like this retelling the trauma that those people went through.
I appreciate that this is an important event in recent history and shouldn't be something that is easily forgotten, but the brutal realism of this film is hard to stomach at times. It really puts you in the shoes of the victims and let's you imagine the terror and crippling fear that they must have felt.
The actor that plays the perpetrator of the attack, Anders Behring Breivik, (played by Anders Danielsen Lie,) has to be commended. He was so believable in the role that I ended up getting really angry every time that he appeared in a scene. I don't even want to know what an actor has to do to get into that headspace, but he put in an absolutely sublime performance as a deplorable scumbag.
The other standout role was Jonas Strand Gravli as Viljar Hanssen, one of the victims of the attack. He is the audience's main conduit into this horrific event and he is brilliant throughout the film.
The main criticism that I have is that we are shown this horrific attack in brutal detail and the aftermath of the event, with no real purpose. I am not sure what the point of this movie was other than to retell a gut wrenching, terrifying story of a real life terrorist attack. I guess, if you were to do some reaching, you could say that the fact that the film has no point echoes the fact that this brutal act of mass violence also had no point and sometimes these horrific things just happen with no real reason.
Overall, this is a very well made movie. It is full of heavy emotions and will make you think about the nature of the human mind. This is if you can get through it though, the movie is very hard to watch and I can see a good amount of folks turning off because they can't handle it, which I can totally understand.
Alison Pink (7 KP) rated Deadly in Books
Jan 15, 2018
This book tells a fictional account of real life events that center around Typhoid Mary. It is based on the actual life of Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant living in New York City in the early 1900s. Mary worked as a cook for a number of wealthy families in the area while she was a healthy carrier of the typhoid bacteria. She would spread the disease to the families she worked for, even killing some of them. The thing is Mary didn't know she carried the disease...she had never even had symptoms.
The main character, Pruedence, is a 17 year old girl who leaves school to accept a job with the Dept of Health & Sanitation. It is written as a series of journal writings she makes & tells the story through her musings. She gets swept into the case & it ignites in her a passion for medicine & figuring out how the body works. Prudence makes the story. Without her character struggles this book would be forgettable. It's redeeming quality is the fact that you want to see her reach her dream.
The main character, Pruedence, is a 17 year old girl who leaves school to accept a job with the Dept of Health & Sanitation. It is written as a series of journal writings she makes & tells the story through her musings. She gets swept into the case & it ignites in her a passion for medicine & figuring out how the body works. Prudence makes the story. Without her character struggles this book would be forgettable. It's redeeming quality is the fact that you want to see her reach her dream.
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Orange is the New Black - Season 1 in TV
Aug 3, 2017
The range of different characters (2 more)
The cast are all great
The writing is sharp and witty
Life on the inside is different
My girlfriend was actually the one to talk me into trying this show and I am so glad she did. This first season is great. The storyline is engaging, the characters are instantly memorable and the writing is fast and razor sharp. This is another high quality show produced by Netflix and at this point their track record shows more hits than misses. The strange thing though, and the only thing that stops me from scoring this show a 10, is the main character, Piper Chapman.
She is obnoxious, self absorbed and consistently dislikeable and I don't get why. The show is based on a book written by real life prison inmate Piper Kerman. Why would she show herself to be an insensitive, irritating idiot? This isn't the actors fault though, Taylor Schilling does a good job with what she is given, but Piper as a character is genuinely the worst thing about the show.
She is obnoxious, self absorbed and consistently dislikeable and I don't get why. The show is based on a book written by real life prison inmate Piper Kerman. Why would she show herself to be an insensitive, irritating idiot? This isn't the actors fault though, Taylor Schilling does a good job with what she is given, but Piper as a character is genuinely the worst thing about the show.
ClareR (5789 KP) rated The Immortalists in Books
May 6, 2018
Do we have a choice or is it all dates?
Starting in 1969, four siblings visit a fortune teller who tells them the exact day that they will each die. This is about how they decide to live their lives knowing that date. Each pet of the book follows a separate sibling, starting with the one who dies the youngest. Each subsequent part takes up after the previous sibling dies.
I really liked this: I liked how the author describes their lives and decisions. I felt that it made them more human and not just another story. I like these family dramas though, and the chance to peek into someone else’s life.
This is definitely not a fantasy or science fiction book though. I did think there was a possibility that it might be when I first read the synopsis, but it’s definitely set in our world. AIDS, depression, obsession, OCD: these people have real life struggles.
It wasn’t always a comfortable read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I really liked this: I liked how the author describes their lives and decisions. I felt that it made them more human and not just another story. I like these family dramas though, and the chance to peek into someone else’s life.
This is definitely not a fantasy or science fiction book though. I did think there was a possibility that it might be when I first read the synopsis, but it’s definitely set in our world. AIDS, depression, obsession, OCD: these people have real life struggles.
It wasn’t always a comfortable read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Andy K (10823 KP) rated Birth (2004) in Movies
Feb 10, 2019
Interesting but disappointing
The director of Under the Skin shows us an interesting dynamic play out when a ten year old boy enters the scene while a wealthy man is engaged to a woman who had lost her husband 10 years earlier.
The young boy claims to be her dead husband come back to life in this small body. The young man wants to reenter the woman's life and wants her not to marry her current beau. The woman starts to struggle with her feelings, especially the ones she thought she had put behind her and she has to make some difficult choices.
The film is interesting and well acted by Nicole Kidman, but I feel the payoff was not that fulfilling and some scenes were sort of scrapped together with no real point.
There were a few awkward scenes between Nicole Kidman and the young boy which made me cringe in my seat a little which were kind of hard to watch.
A little disappointed.
The young boy claims to be her dead husband come back to life in this small body. The young man wants to reenter the woman's life and wants her not to marry her current beau. The woman starts to struggle with her feelings, especially the ones she thought she had put behind her and she has to make some difficult choices.
The film is interesting and well acted by Nicole Kidman, but I feel the payoff was not that fulfilling and some scenes were sort of scrapped together with no real point.
There were a few awkward scenes between Nicole Kidman and the young boy which made me cringe in my seat a little which were kind of hard to watch.
A little disappointed.
Andy K (10823 KP) rated The Shootist (1976) in Movies
May 4, 2019
The final film starring John Wayne
Who knew that John Wayne's final film would star "The Duke" opposite Ron Howard? Also great performances by Lauren Bacall and James Stewart.
An notorious aging gunslinger learns he has inoperable cancer and decides to try and live out his final days in peace. Unfortunately, not to be as elements from his past come back to haunt him or just won't let him enjoy his final moments. He befriends a widow and her son as he rents a room from them. He wants to tie up some loose ends in his life before his time on Earth ends.
Still being a John Wayne novice, I thought his performance here was miraculous. He showed his usual toughness and charisma, but also real heart and vulnerability at times. You could see he felt remorse for some of his past actions and wanted to atone for them; however, life had other obstacles for him to overcome and to draw his relationships to their conclusion.
Very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.
An notorious aging gunslinger learns he has inoperable cancer and decides to try and live out his final days in peace. Unfortunately, not to be as elements from his past come back to haunt him or just won't let him enjoy his final moments. He befriends a widow and her son as he rents a room from them. He wants to tie up some loose ends in his life before his time on Earth ends.
Still being a John Wayne novice, I thought his performance here was miraculous. He showed his usual toughness and charisma, but also real heart and vulnerability at times. You could see he felt remorse for some of his past actions and wanted to atone for them; however, life had other obstacles for him to overcome and to draw his relationships to their conclusion.
Very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.
Kristin (149 KP) rated Pandora's Succession (Ridley Fox & Nita Parris #1) in Books
Dec 7, 2018
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
Fox is trying his best to have a normal life, but the bad guys just keep coming. Seconds from handing in his resignation letter, all hell breaks loose, and a virus found frozen in a glacier is set loose. This virus is wanted by several individuals for horrible purposes, and it's up to Fox to try and stop it from getting into the wrong hands, causing the end of the world as we know it.
I can definitely say that this novel held my interest all the way through. The characters are great, the premise is one that (horrifyingly) could happen in this day and age, and the pacing was superb. I will admit that I got a little confused trying to keep up with who was working for who, who was double-crossing who, etc., but that's how these things go in real life!! The ending is fantastic, and I'm certainly going to add the next one to my TBR list. Great job!
4 1/2 stars
Fox is trying his best to have a normal life, but the bad guys just keep coming. Seconds from handing in his resignation letter, all hell breaks loose, and a virus found frozen in a glacier is set loose. This virus is wanted by several individuals for horrible purposes, and it's up to Fox to try and stop it from getting into the wrong hands, causing the end of the world as we know it.
I can definitely say that this novel held my interest all the way through. The characters are great, the premise is one that (horrifyingly) could happen in this day and age, and the pacing was superb. I will admit that I got a little confused trying to keep up with who was working for who, who was double-crossing who, etc., but that's how these things go in real life!! The ending is fantastic, and I'm certainly going to add the next one to my TBR list. Great job!
4 1/2 stars
Sarah (7799 KP) rated Love...and Sleepless Nights in Books
Aug 13, 2018
Fun and lighthearted
Whilst Nick Spalding will never win any literary prizes for this series of books, he really does well to sum up real life situations and emotions. The writing is good but what really makes this story entertaining is the characters. Laura and Jamie are a very relatable couple and their diary/blog entries are so down to earth and realistic. I doubt anyone could read this book (or any others in the series) and not find a handful of comments, thoughts or situations that they’ve experienced in their own life. This story is also pretty funny and I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions.
It may not be the most thought provoking or insightful of reads, but this is a great fun and lighthearted story that is refreshingly short - I finished it in less than 2 hours so it’s one you can easily get through. One I’d recommend trying if you’re stuck with a fairly long commute - I may leave books 3 and 4 for my next long distance train journey for work!
It may not be the most thought provoking or insightful of reads, but this is a great fun and lighthearted story that is refreshingly short - I finished it in less than 2 hours so it’s one you can easily get through. One I’d recommend trying if you’re stuck with a fairly long commute - I may leave books 3 and 4 for my next long distance train journey for work!
Graham and Morgyn are wandering souls who meet at a weekend long concert in the hills. They quickly realize they also have a circle of friends who know each other pulling their worlds a little closer.
Trails of Love is a fall quick story with no real angst in the storyline. Both come from big families and have their own agendas in life to forward their successes. They fit together pretty well and have little rearranging of life and/or goals to make a relationship work.
Story reads well and pretty seamlessly, but one issue and had me grating my teeth was Morgyn's nickname of "Cracker" for Graham. It just didn't work for me at all and I groaned everytime I read it. That being said, the rest of the story was well written, not a knock me off my seat story but sweet and romantic. I received an advance copy without expectation for review, any and all opinions expressed are my own. This continuation of the Bradens and Mongomerys series is well worth the read.
Trails of Love is a fall quick story with no real angst in the storyline. Both come from big families and have their own agendas in life to forward their successes. They fit together pretty well and have little rearranging of life and/or goals to make a relationship work.
Story reads well and pretty seamlessly, but one issue and had me grating my teeth was Morgyn's nickname of "Cracker" for Graham. It just didn't work for me at all and I groaned everytime I read it. That being said, the rest of the story was well written, not a knock me off my seat story but sweet and romantic. I received an advance copy without expectation for review, any and all opinions expressed are my own. This continuation of the Bradens and Mongomerys series is well worth the read.