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Andy K (10823 KP) rated Hobo With a Shotgun (2011) in Movies

Aug 31, 2019

One Shell at a Time...

Somewhere between Peter Jackson's Dead Alive (Braindead) and maybe a Troma or Roger Corman classic B movies lies Hobo With A Shotgun.

You have to be in the right mood to watch a movie like this. Watching cool practical effects means everything was performed on the set without the use of separate visual or CGI effects. These were obviously used exclusively back in the day before ILM and the many CGI effect groups which exist today. I still feel generally speaking they are more realistic and don't take you out of a scene like bad CGI does.

Your friendly neighborhood hobo gets fed up with the local town's hoodlum brothers and their father owning the police and generally making life miserable for everyone so he decides to take the law into his own hands and dispense his own quick justice. while he is at it, he also removes other scum from the Earth including pedophile Santas and convenience store bandits.

He befriends the girl toy of one of the hoodlums and she becomes his sort of partner in crime when she is not getting sawed into and generally degraded in every way.

When I was looking through IMDb at the career of now the late Rutger Hauer, I was amazed on how many truly bad movies or most I had never heard of he had done in his career. Not saying he was the best actor, but he did have screen presence (especially in Blade Runner) which not every actor has.

He will be missed.

Kudos

Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated Sabotage (2014) in Movies

Sep 17, 2019

Sabotage (2014)

2014 | Action, Mystery

5.8

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating

The cast, across the board (1 more)

The action

Nearly all of the characters are unlikeable, in spite of the actors' best efforts (0 more)

A more thoughtful, if forgettable, Arnold

Schwarzenegger and company are a DEA strike team who take ten million dollars from the cartel in a raid, except that it's not there when they go back to get it. After an investigation fails to find enough evidence to prove they're guilty they're returned to active duty, but someone starts taking them down one by one....

This film was.... okay is probably the best word. It's kinda forgettable despite a stellar cast, several of whom I typically try to see regardless of what they're doing, all turning in excellent performances. Arnold in particular gets to actually act instead of just blowing everyone away, which is a nice change. Which isn't to say there isn't action - there is, and a lot of it, gritty and gory not in the exaggerated Tarentino style but more brutally realistic. There's torture too, which is legitimately uncomfortable to watch even with the extra remove of watching a character watch the video of it. It's just that the story is a bit predictable (though the darker take on Breacher and the ending seen in the deleted scenes would have been more interesting and less predictable, I wouldn't have liked it), and despite excellent performances from stellar actors the characters are all completely unlikeable, which is a bit of a problem when they're dropping like flies and you don't really care. Bottom line: I'm not sorry I borrowed it from the library, but I don't think I'll be watching it again.

Kudos

Caffeinated Fae (464 KP) rated The Necromancer's Prison in Books

Aug 19, 2019

The Necromancer's Prison

Alec Whitesell, Craig Bonacorsi | 2019 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Daring adventure with realistic teens

**I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review**

I will admit I was a little hesitant to read this book. Science fiction and I have a love-hate relationship. I tend to get bored if the book is too logical, so it's always a gamble for me. Luckily, this book was right up my alley. It's science fiction that verges on the cusp of fantasy. It's logical, but it doesn't get bogged down by too much logic which I appreciated.

The Necromancer's Prison is a daring adventure book that is sure to keep you turning the page. I loved seeing the interaction between the main characters, and I loved the bickering & comradery they had as well. Each character was there for a reason, and I liked that they acted like teenagers. They had a great connection to each other, and even as an adult, I could connect with them.

Something else that I loved about this book is the plot and how fast-paced it was. Once I got into the story, I devoured it. The plot was intricate and engaging. It also had some twists & turns, which kept me guessing as to what was going to happen next. Though I will admit, the present tense threw me for a loop. It took me a bit to get into the book, but once I got into the meat of the book, I enjoyed it.

All in all, this book left me satisfied, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series. I recommend this book to anyone that wants a quick-paced science fiction that verges on fantasy.