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David McK (3633 KP) rated Skyscraper (2018) in Movies

Jul 30, 2019 (Updated Jun 16, 2024)  
Skyscraper (2018)
Skyscraper (2018)
2018 | Action
There's just something by the (ex)Wrestler named The Rock, and his films.

Big, dumb action films for the most part.

And that, in my book, is a good thing.

In this, he plays a former FBI agent who is now a security expert (following his disastrous last mission, which cost him a leg) who must now rescue his family from inside a burning building in Hong Kong - the Skyscraper of the title, and the highest building in the world - while the local police believe he is responsible for starting the fire (he is, of course, being framed for the same).

I only saw this on the small screen: I can only imagine what the various vertiginous stunts would have looked like on the big screen!
  
Veronica Mars (2014)
Veronica Mars (2014)
2014 | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Story: Veronica Mars starts as Veronica Mars (Bell) fills the fans of the show in with the last few years of her life after the television show finished and gave us first time viewers a chance to get a basic grip of who the main characters are going to be.

Veronica is now about to take her bar exam, but when her ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls (Dohring) is accused of killing his celebrity girlfriend, Veronica returns home to get to the bottom of the crime, re-living her private eye ways and catching up with old friends.

 

Thoughts on Veronica Mars

 

Characters – Veronica Mars is the former private eye that has moved on to study law only to learn a former friend has been accused of murder. The character gets to return to see old friends to see where they are in life now and how things have changed, in the biggest case of her life. Logan Echolls is the ex-boyfriend of Veronica that has been accused of murder, he needs her help to prove his innocence.

Performances – Kristen Bell made this role her own on television and now you can see her own enjoyment of returning to this role. Jason Bohring is solid enough in the role of the suspect. It would be fair to say the whole returning cast enjoyed coming back and it worked for the film.

Story – The story plays into the hands of the fans of the show wonderfully, the problem comes if you never saw the show, you will never understand the moments between characters in this movie. This isn’t a film for people that never saw the show, but it does bring our character back to her old role to see where friends are which is always a nice touch for popular shows.

Crime/Mystery – The crime mystery tone is everything the TV show kept up with the light-hearted comic tone of the movie, with plenty of mystery moments to keep us guessing.

Settings – The settings do help the fans of the original show that have returned to their favourite show, seeing all the places we saw their favourite characters.


Scene of the Movie – Reunion.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not knowing enough from the TV show.

Final Thoughts – This is a wonderful treat for the fans of the show, catching up with our favourite characters is something we all like to do and this is no different.

 

Overall: Good TV show to movie.
  
40x40

JT (287 KP) rated Insidious (2010) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020  
Insidious (2010)
Insidious (2010)
2010 | Horror
6
7.3 (23 Ratings)
Movie Rating
James Wan has all the talent but for some reason is unable to put the killer instinct into his films and finish them off like they should be. With the exception of being one of the founding members of the Saw franchise, his films to date haven’t quite lived up to the expectations we know he can and should be able to deliver on.

Wan returns with Leigh Whannell the creator and writer of Saw, with the pair looking to yet again scare everyone shitless with a haunted house tale, this time focussing on a young boy whose slipped into a coma and drifted into the outer realms called The Further.

When writing Insidious Whannell wanted to make sure that he avoided all the haunted house cliches, and he pretty much did that. What he failed to do though was script a stronger third act, something which might have brought this up on a par with Saw.

Dalton is the one in peril as he suddenly slips into a coma one morning, his mother Renai (Byrne) is then forced to spend time looking after her trio of kids all the while looking over her shoulder, as she hears one bump to the next occurring both in broad daylight and at night.

After some decent scares from the outset including the old “he’s behind you” and murmurings through the baby monitor the film was almost guilty of slipping into a farce as our protagonist Josh Lambert (Wilson) was forced to engage in some astro physics in order to save the day.

It was a real shame as up till that point you’d have spent most of the run time hiding under the covers, as Wan introduced one jolt after another, some more subtle than others but ultimately offering the same desired effect.

The introduction of Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) the Ghost hunter whose come to see what all the fuss is about is pretty much inevitable. Armed with the latest high tech equipment and a couple of geeks, the aptly named Specs and Tucker, provides much amusement as Rainier delivers the killer line “It’s not the house that’s haunted”.

The film moves through the gears well, but it’s that annoyingly poor third act that ruins it for me. It does try and redeem itself with an all too predictable ending, those that have seen Wan and Whannel’s other film Dead Silence will know what I mean.

At the end of the day you feel all Wan had to do was hit the target, but this is just off to the right!
  
Sons of Thunder (Brothers in Arms Collection)
Sons of Thunder (Brothers in Arms Collection)
Susan May Warren | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Romance
2
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved the concept of Sons of Thunder. It had great potential and I’ve seen tons of five-star reviews for it. Sadly it didn’t meet my expectations.

I had a hard time reading it for a few reasons. One was the writing. It had a sort of funny style. It was as if short dramatic phrases were placed at the end of a paragraph, but the phrases were not dramatic in any way, nor were the necessary. It made the whole thing feel awkward. It was also hard to follow and I got confused a lot.

The second was the romance. I immediately saw and understood how Markos looked at Sofia. But their relationship jumped around from courteous to in-love to friends to not-talking, and I couldn’t understand where they actually stood or how they saw each other. It was like a whole first chunk of their relationship was missing from the book. There was no connection to the characters.

Third, I didn’t like the Chicago club stuff at all. It turned me off right away.

As I mentioned above I didn’t finish Sons of Thunder. There was nothing compelling me to continue, there wasn’t any plot, and the characters were beginning to aggravate me and I didn’t connect with them. I skipped to the very last page just to see what happened, and was not surprised to see that exactly what I thought would happen, did happen.

I was very disappointed by Sons of Thunder, especially considering all the five star reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. I really wish I had loved it, but I must share my 100% honest opinion. Please know that I and the few other readers who didn’t like it are the minority by a landslide. I hope you’ll consider other reviews before you make a decision.
  
I find I don't even really want to critique this book, so much as praise everything about it. The trauma that Alex endured in his accident was unbelievable, yet God decided he should live as a testament to God's miraculous power - and that is exactly what this book serves as. Furthermore, I also drew wisdom from the attitude of Alex's grandpa - that someone else is always in worse circumstances than I am, as well as the many excerpts from Kevin's pastor Robin Ricks, who provided a unique perspective filled with Biblical references.
The pictures in the middle of the book helped to give me a visual reference for what the Malarkey family endured, and the many quotes from others that were present as each event described in the book also helped to give a well-rounded view of all that was occurring.
What I loved most of all was how concerned Alex was that everyone realized that this was not about him, but about God. I find that I completely agree with one of the women in the book when she explained that she just could not feel sorry for this blessed boy. I also found it interesting that at one point Alex explained that he saw Don Piper in heaven, too, who wrote the book 90 Minutes in Heaven. Kevin showed the man's photo to Alex, to which Alex responded that he only saw him there for hour and half - so I will be reading that book next!
This book really was amazing to read. From everything I have learned about heaven from the Bible, I can't help but believe that the story this boy and his father tells is true. Reading about how each detail of their lives is watched over and taken care of with miraculous results can only give me hope in my own life and circumstances.
  
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
1984 | Comedy

"And then, my fourth one is a comedy, and I was torn between Some Like It Hot, which I love, but my vote went to Spinal Tap, which I thought was more contemporary. It made me feel such an old man, but… One of the things about Spinal Tap — I was doing a documentary [The Long Way Home] about Russian rock and roll in, I don’t know, the late ’80s or something like that, and it was about a Russian band coming — it was around Glasnost when they came across to America to make the record, and it was about Glasnost, and the co-production, as it were, saw the closing of the gap between East and West, as it were. That’s what it set out to be, but it turned out to be a disaster. Not the film, but the whole object of the enterprise, because it split the band up, and the Russian band never made another record. They were completely disoriented by being in the West and all that. So it was one of those documentaries where what you set out to do, you don’t do, and you do something else, which is usually better than what you were going to do. The point of the story is that I showed them Spinal Tap. They fell about, and they couldn’t speak a word of English, but they absolutely got it. It was just, again, the power of the humor and the power of the images, and all this kind of stuff. I mean, we were in common ground — they never understood a word of it, but they were just laughing as much I would laugh every time I saw it. That was a kind of interesting experience for me, to see how universal films can be."

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