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The Snail and the Whale
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Book
"How I long to sail!" said the tiny snail. One little snail longs to see the world and hitches a...
Not Otherwise Specified
Book
From the award-winning author of Break and Teeth comes a raw and honest exploration of complicated...
Young adult LGBTQ
Darren (1599 KP) rated Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (AVP 2) (2007) in Movies
Jun 20, 2019
Story: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem starts by picking up where the last film ended with the alien causing havoc on the predator ship, forcing it into crashing into small town America. With the alien causing havoc killing everybody or anything that gets in its way, we get to meet the town’s people who we must care about, bad boy just returned to town Dallas (Pasquale), returning solider Kelly (Aylesworth), her family Tim (Trammell) daughter Molly (Gade) sheriff Morales (Ortiz), troubled teenager Ricky (Lewis) and his crush Jesse (Hager).
As the people of the town go about their daily lives, the predators are preparing to clean up the mess left in this small town but will they make it before the aliens cause too much damage or can they face a new threat in a predator-alien hybrid.
Thoughts on Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Characters/Performance – Dallas is the bad boy rebel who just happens to return to town the same day the crash happens. Kelly is the returning solider who is dealing with the idea that her young daughter has lost her connection with her while she was away but now must use her skills to save her daughter. Morales is the sheriff and old running buddy of Dallas who has put his bad boy ways behind him. Ricky gives us the high school dynamics with his crush on the beautiful Jesse who has an arsehole boyfriend.
Performance wise, well this is one of the negatives, Pasquale does struggle in the leading role, while it is partly down to writing and performance because Reiko doesn’t reach the levels of an alien trend setting strong leading ladies. The rest of the performances are largely forgettable with Hager clearly hired for her look.
Story – The pure story is in parts very interesting, we know how deadly the aliens are and after last time we know the predators place in the battle. We know aliens will kill anybody which this film isn’t afraid to play on and we also see the swarm mentality which is caused with the aliens spreading. With these parts all in place this film does still end up coming off messy in places though because the humans are written so badly with the final pay off feeling flat.
Action/Horror/Sci-Fi – The action is mindless and a lot is in too darker location so you can’t see what is happening with the horror side working in places but not in all scenes it needs to, with the sci-fi elements coming from building for the next part of the franchise which never happened.
Settings – Moving the action to a small town ups the stakes in the film, which also gives us a chance to see how deadly the aliens can be spreading through a population. This gives us a chance to get a large body count but also characters we don’t know anything about.
Special Effects – Most of the effects are good it is the lighting which hinders this film in places.
Final Thoughts – This is a great idea for a sequel but it has problems all over it, mostly coming from badly executed action sequences that have large jump cuts, no lighting for those scenes and horribly written human character.
https://moviesreview101.com/2017/11/19/aliens-vs-predator-requiem-2007/
As the people of the town go about their daily lives, the predators are preparing to clean up the mess left in this small town but will they make it before the aliens cause too much damage or can they face a new threat in a predator-alien hybrid.
Thoughts on Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Characters/Performance – Dallas is the bad boy rebel who just happens to return to town the same day the crash happens. Kelly is the returning solider who is dealing with the idea that her young daughter has lost her connection with her while she was away but now must use her skills to save her daughter. Morales is the sheriff and old running buddy of Dallas who has put his bad boy ways behind him. Ricky gives us the high school dynamics with his crush on the beautiful Jesse who has an arsehole boyfriend.
Performance wise, well this is one of the negatives, Pasquale does struggle in the leading role, while it is partly down to writing and performance because Reiko doesn’t reach the levels of an alien trend setting strong leading ladies. The rest of the performances are largely forgettable with Hager clearly hired for her look.
Story – The pure story is in parts very interesting, we know how deadly the aliens are and after last time we know the predators place in the battle. We know aliens will kill anybody which this film isn’t afraid to play on and we also see the swarm mentality which is caused with the aliens spreading. With these parts all in place this film does still end up coming off messy in places though because the humans are written so badly with the final pay off feeling flat.
Action/Horror/Sci-Fi – The action is mindless and a lot is in too darker location so you can’t see what is happening with the horror side working in places but not in all scenes it needs to, with the sci-fi elements coming from building for the next part of the franchise which never happened.
Settings – Moving the action to a small town ups the stakes in the film, which also gives us a chance to see how deadly the aliens can be spreading through a population. This gives us a chance to get a large body count but also characters we don’t know anything about.
Special Effects – Most of the effects are good it is the lighting which hinders this film in places.
Final Thoughts – This is a great idea for a sequel but it has problems all over it, mostly coming from badly executed action sequences that have large jump cuts, no lighting for those scenes and horribly written human character.
https://moviesreview101.com/2017/11/19/aliens-vs-predator-requiem-2007/
RC
Royal City: Next of Kin: Volume 1
10.0
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In his most ambitious and most personal project to date, JEFF LEMIRE spins the captivating and...
Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea
9.0
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Hazel Bly used to have the perfect family. But when a kayaking trip goes horribly wrong, Mum is...
magical (1 more)
tender
Jess Winters and her mother, Maud, arrive in the small town of Sycamore, Arizona hoping to start afresh: Maud is recently divorced from Jess' father and both are reeling from the event in different ways. Maud copes by sleeping most of the day away, but a restless teenage Jess wanders the town, searching for peace. Eventually she finds a friendship with Dani Newell, the local "smart kid" at the high school, and her boyfriend, Paul, the son of Jess' employer, Iris. Maybe, just maybe, Jess thinks, she could be happy here.
Flash forward nearly twenty years, when a new resident to town, another restless spirit, stumbles upon some bones in the local dried up lake. Residents immediately fear they belong to Jess, who disappeared shortly before Christmas: a young seventeen-year-old who was never seen again.
Oh, this is a magical book. I felt an immediate attachment to Jess from the first opening chapter. I was connected to her as a child of divorce, as someone who once had that urge to wander, who shared that restlessness as an adolescent. You quickly find that Chancellor has the power to create such real characters, who draw you in from the start.
The book--and the story of Jess--unfolds in snatches and snippets of these characters. Each chapter is told by a different inhabitant of Sycamore, and we get reminiscences and memories of their past, telling more about what happened with Jess, as well as their current life. We also get chapters of Jess' time as a sixteen-and seventeen-year-old in the town. In a way, it is as if we are being caught up backwards sometimes. I was captivated by the oddly suspenseful way they each tell stories from different times and varying viewpoints. It's an interesting (and effective) technique. You are piecing together a mystery, yet also reading a beautiful novel of interwoven characters.
One of the most amazing things about this novel is that for each different point of view, for each character, they have their own voice. Chancellor captures each one in their own unique way: the different way they speak. Some chapters are told in a distinctive sort of format and more. Every one has their own personality. It allows the characters--and the entire town--to really come to life so easily as you read. You can picture this entire small town and its inhabitants so clearly because of her beautiful, clear writing. It's just such a powerful book and so well-written.
There's a sweet tenderness to this book that I cannot truly describe. It really touched me. It's not always an easy read, or a happy one, but it's a lovely book in many ways. It's wonderfully written, surprisingly suspenseful, and a heartbreaking but amazing journey. I highly recommend it.
Flash forward nearly twenty years, when a new resident to town, another restless spirit, stumbles upon some bones in the local dried up lake. Residents immediately fear they belong to Jess, who disappeared shortly before Christmas: a young seventeen-year-old who was never seen again.
Oh, this is a magical book. I felt an immediate attachment to Jess from the first opening chapter. I was connected to her as a child of divorce, as someone who once had that urge to wander, who shared that restlessness as an adolescent. You quickly find that Chancellor has the power to create such real characters, who draw you in from the start.
The book--and the story of Jess--unfolds in snatches and snippets of these characters. Each chapter is told by a different inhabitant of Sycamore, and we get reminiscences and memories of their past, telling more about what happened with Jess, as well as their current life. We also get chapters of Jess' time as a sixteen-and seventeen-year-old in the town. In a way, it is as if we are being caught up backwards sometimes. I was captivated by the oddly suspenseful way they each tell stories from different times and varying viewpoints. It's an interesting (and effective) technique. You are piecing together a mystery, yet also reading a beautiful novel of interwoven characters.
One of the most amazing things about this novel is that for each different point of view, for each character, they have their own voice. Chancellor captures each one in their own unique way: the different way they speak. Some chapters are told in a distinctive sort of format and more. Every one has their own personality. It allows the characters--and the entire town--to really come to life so easily as you read. You can picture this entire small town and its inhabitants so clearly because of her beautiful, clear writing. It's just such a powerful book and so well-written.
There's a sweet tenderness to this book that I cannot truly describe. It really touched me. It's not always an easy read, or a happy one, but it's a lovely book in many ways. It's wonderfully written, surprisingly suspenseful, and a heartbreaking but amazing journey. I highly recommend it.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2273 KP) rated The Broken Spine in Books
Jan 21, 2021
Uncovering Secrets to Keep Her Own
Tru Beckett is the assistant librarian in her small town. She’s always loved books, so when the town manager comes up with a plan to turn the library into a bookless “technology center,” she does the only thing she can think to do. She saves as many books as she can to set up in a secret bookroom in the library’s basement. She and her friends are almost done with their book rescue mission when the town manager is murdered, killed under a shelf of DVDs in the main library. The police are looking at Tru as a suspect, certain she is hiding something from them. But in order to keep her secret, and the books, safe, True has to find the real killer. Can she do it?
As a book lover, I immediately sympathized with Tru in her quest to save the books, and I love how that secret added an extra layer to her motivation to solve the murder. A couple of times, I thought the plot was slowing down, but then something would happen to jump start it again. The result was a book I never wanted to put down. I loved how everything came together at the end. The characters were all strong, even a couple who only had a few scenes. This is a strong, fun debut, and I can’t wait to visit Tru again.
As a book lover, I immediately sympathized with Tru in her quest to save the books, and I love how that secret added an extra layer to her motivation to solve the murder. A couple of times, I thought the plot was slowing down, but then something would happen to jump start it again. The result was a book I never wanted to put down. I loved how everything came together at the end. The characters were all strong, even a couple who only had a few scenes. This is a strong, fun debut, and I can’t wait to visit Tru again.
Beast (Six Stories, #4)
10.0
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A frozen girl A haunted town A deadly challenge Six Stories Which one is true? In the wake of...
Write Christmas
6.0
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“[A] heartwarming fantasy … Christmas enthusiasts will find this hits the spot.” ~Publishers...
Adult Contemporary Fantasy
Darren (1599 KP) rated Door in the Woods (2019) in Movies
Nov 7, 2019
Characters – Evelyn is the mother that is preparing to start her own internet business, she redecorates the random door they find and starts experiencing the events, she learns the truth and sets out to get help. Redd is the father that has moved here to start a new job hunt, he tries to help with the behavioural problems and joins Evelyn searching for the truth. Uriah is a pastor that has come to bless the house, he is turned to, to help deal with the hauntings knowing how to end the problems they are facing. Kane is the troublesome child that often finds himself getting into trouble at school, becoming the target of the sinister nature of the door.
Performances – When we look at the performances, we don’t have the strongest ones here, Jennifer Pierce Mathus and David Rees Snell do struggle to make us believe the situations and life they have lived with these characters, while CJ Jones is the standout performer in the film.
Story – The story here follows a family that are looking to start a new life in a small town only to find a door in the woods, inviting evil into their own home needing to get rid of it before it is too late. The start of this story is really good, with creepy elements of hauntings in the house, the problems start when the story tries to break out of following this trend and spends way too long with the final act that is more talking than anything thrilling, which is could have been. This is a story that could have become a lot deeper, but gets caught up in the middle of the two ideas and not using enough of the horror involved.
Thriller – The opening half of the film does offer plenty thrilling horror moments, only to spend more of the second half of the film trying to make up and discuss what has been happening.
Settings – The film uses the small town setting for everything to unfold, showing people can try to escape for a new life, but every small town has a secret.
Scene of the Movie – Background walking.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Would you really take that door home.
Final Thoughts – This is a film that has a lot of potential only to fall short in how everything unfolds.
Overall: Doesn’t hit the marks.
Performances – When we look at the performances, we don’t have the strongest ones here, Jennifer Pierce Mathus and David Rees Snell do struggle to make us believe the situations and life they have lived with these characters, while CJ Jones is the standout performer in the film.
Story – The story here follows a family that are looking to start a new life in a small town only to find a door in the woods, inviting evil into their own home needing to get rid of it before it is too late. The start of this story is really good, with creepy elements of hauntings in the house, the problems start when the story tries to break out of following this trend and spends way too long with the final act that is more talking than anything thrilling, which is could have been. This is a story that could have become a lot deeper, but gets caught up in the middle of the two ideas and not using enough of the horror involved.
Thriller – The opening half of the film does offer plenty thrilling horror moments, only to spend more of the second half of the film trying to make up and discuss what has been happening.
Settings – The film uses the small town setting for everything to unfold, showing people can try to escape for a new life, but every small town has a secret.
Scene of the Movie – Background walking.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Would you really take that door home.
Final Thoughts – This is a film that has a lot of potential only to fall short in how everything unfolds.
Overall: Doesn’t hit the marks.