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Lee (2222 KP) rated Assassination Nation (2018) in Movies
Nov 13, 2018 (Updated Nov 13, 2018)
Characters aren't interesting, memorable or believable (3 more)
Badly edited
Poor use of music
Trying too hard to be edgy/shocking
Really, really bad
Assassination Nation really, really wants to shock you. At the beginning, it even gives out a warning, listing out all the offensive and shocking things coming up, along with a very quick clip of them all, that's how cool and edgy it thinks it is. It's all parties and social media, the girls are all bitches, the boys are all idiots. And it's all held together with bad editing, loud jarring music and a nonsensical plot. Maybe I'm just too old but I found it more annoying than shocking.
So, I think what they did with this movie is start at the end and then try and work backwards. They had this really cool idea of four schoolgirls, all standing there dressed in red, armed with guns and swords, ready to take on a town of crazy people wearing masks, and then they tried to come up with a way of getting to that point. The answer comes in the form of hacking, exposing everyone's data so that mob mentality ensues.
The hacking begins with some more prominent figures. The local mayor has all his private, kinky photos released and ends up publicly committing suicide. Then the local principal, a kind family man, has all of his messages and photos exposed. He has photos of his 6 year old daughter taking a bath, so he's branded a paedophile, obviously. The next logical step? Form a large crazed mob, demanding his resignation and terrorising his family by smashing his front door down. It's shocking right? Right? No. No, it's all just annoying nonsense.
Ok, so we've got the whole town acting like they're in a Purge movie, now how do we get the girls to start getting involved with guns and stuff. Well, let's have their data exposed too - nudes, details of the married man they've been texting. Then let's get somebody to falsely accuse one of girls of doing all the hacking so that the whole town hates them and is either trying to arrest them or kill them. And then the girls come across a stash of guns and knives laid out on the floor. There you go, job done, that's our movie.
To be fair, at that point the movie does improve in quality, but it's too little too late. There isn't a single interesting or memorable character in the whole thing, nothing to make you care or believe in anything you're seeing. And as I mentioned earlier, the whole thing is a complete mess. Pointless split screen scenes, dull voiceover narration, dramatic music that doesn't match the scene it's in. Character reactions, actions and interactions that are just complete nonsense. Officially one of the worst movies I've seen this year.
So, I think what they did with this movie is start at the end and then try and work backwards. They had this really cool idea of four schoolgirls, all standing there dressed in red, armed with guns and swords, ready to take on a town of crazy people wearing masks, and then they tried to come up with a way of getting to that point. The answer comes in the form of hacking, exposing everyone's data so that mob mentality ensues.
The hacking begins with some more prominent figures. The local mayor has all his private, kinky photos released and ends up publicly committing suicide. Then the local principal, a kind family man, has all of his messages and photos exposed. He has photos of his 6 year old daughter taking a bath, so he's branded a paedophile, obviously. The next logical step? Form a large crazed mob, demanding his resignation and terrorising his family by smashing his front door down. It's shocking right? Right? No. No, it's all just annoying nonsense.
Ok, so we've got the whole town acting like they're in a Purge movie, now how do we get the girls to start getting involved with guns and stuff. Well, let's have their data exposed too - nudes, details of the married man they've been texting. Then let's get somebody to falsely accuse one of girls of doing all the hacking so that the whole town hates them and is either trying to arrest them or kill them. And then the girls come across a stash of guns and knives laid out on the floor. There you go, job done, that's our movie.
To be fair, at that point the movie does improve in quality, but it's too little too late. There isn't a single interesting or memorable character in the whole thing, nothing to make you care or believe in anything you're seeing. And as I mentioned earlier, the whole thing is a complete mess. Pointless split screen scenes, dull voiceover narration, dramatic music that doesn't match the scene it's in. Character reactions, actions and interactions that are just complete nonsense. Officially one of the worst movies I've seen this year.
Brumpolarbears (22 KP) rated The Hobbit in Tabletop Games
Jun 18, 2019
Delving into Middle-Earth
As Middle Earth fever prepares to take hold once again with talk of a Lord of the Rings inspired TV show, I thought it might be time to take the adventures of Bilbo into the living room in the form of The Hobbit Board Game.
Gathering four of my best companions to join me on the adventure, we settled down for an evening of troll slaying and dragon fighting.
Based on the J.R.R Tolkien book as opposed to the film releases, The Hobbit is a game for 2-5 players which utilises a scorecard system rather than individual player pieces. The aim of the game, kill Smaug and find the treasure – simple enough surely?
When opening the box we were pleasantly surprised by the level of detail of the board as well as some rather beautifully illustrated dwarf cards. A lot of work had gone into these which is why we were a bit surprised by the Bilbo and Smaug figures which were plastic and painted red
Having laid out all of the pieces we then tackled the game instructions, which actually took as long as Bilbo’s journey to the Lonely Mountain. Having passed the instructions around we decided to just play the game and when we came to a segment we weren’t sure about, we would refer back. Despite the initial hiatus, The Hobbit is a rather enjoyable game, however not for unseasoned gamers.
The game is split into four adventures. Players must level up their initiative, cunning, and strength in order to battle goblins, fight wolves and escape elves before confronting Smaug himself. On the way, players will also collect gems which is ultimately the aim of the game as the player with the most is declared the winner at the end.
Each adventure comes with a series of adventure cards which break down into Gifts, Abilities and Travelcards. Gift cards present players with attribute benefits; Abilities assist players with battles; and Travelcards move Bilbo along his adventure. When encountering a battle, players must roll five dice in order to match certain conditions before moving on. Should the conditions not be met, players must draw a Dragon card, which incurs penalties and may result in Smaug moving across the board. Should Smaug reach Laketown, the game is over and the player with the most gems is declared the winner.
Having played the game with four other players we did actually have fun once we got into it and overcame the rather confusing rules. My best advice would be to have someone read the instructions before you and your friends sit down together as it can eat into the evening.
Gathering four of my best companions to join me on the adventure, we settled down for an evening of troll slaying and dragon fighting.
Based on the J.R.R Tolkien book as opposed to the film releases, The Hobbit is a game for 2-5 players which utilises a scorecard system rather than individual player pieces. The aim of the game, kill Smaug and find the treasure – simple enough surely?
When opening the box we were pleasantly surprised by the level of detail of the board as well as some rather beautifully illustrated dwarf cards. A lot of work had gone into these which is why we were a bit surprised by the Bilbo and Smaug figures which were plastic and painted red
Having laid out all of the pieces we then tackled the game instructions, which actually took as long as Bilbo’s journey to the Lonely Mountain. Having passed the instructions around we decided to just play the game and when we came to a segment we weren’t sure about, we would refer back. Despite the initial hiatus, The Hobbit is a rather enjoyable game, however not for unseasoned gamers.
The game is split into four adventures. Players must level up their initiative, cunning, and strength in order to battle goblins, fight wolves and escape elves before confronting Smaug himself. On the way, players will also collect gems which is ultimately the aim of the game as the player with the most is declared the winner at the end.
Each adventure comes with a series of adventure cards which break down into Gifts, Abilities and Travelcards. Gift cards present players with attribute benefits; Abilities assist players with battles; and Travelcards move Bilbo along his adventure. When encountering a battle, players must roll five dice in order to match certain conditions before moving on. Should the conditions not be met, players must draw a Dragon card, which incurs penalties and may result in Smaug moving across the board. Should Smaug reach Laketown, the game is over and the player with the most gems is declared the winner.
Having played the game with four other players we did actually have fun once we got into it and overcame the rather confusing rules. My best advice would be to have someone read the instructions before you and your friends sit down together as it can eat into the evening.
<i>This eBook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review</i>
Everyone is constantly reminded to never judge a book by its cover. The book jacket designer of Steven Camden’s contemporary novel <i>Tape</i> has done an excellent job using colour and hand-rendered images to capture people’s attention; the story, however, remained rather dull in comparison.
The novel is split into two time periods, twenty years apart. In 2013, Ameliah is struggling to cope with the sudden loss of her mother, and shortly after her father, whilst she moves in with her Nan. In the spare bedroom lies a mammoth job of boxes to sort out containing all of her parents’ belongings. Ameliah first discovers an ancient boom box along with a large collection of music tapes. Amongst these is an unlabeled one, and when she plays it she can hear a young boy talking to her – he also says her mother’s name, “Eve”.
Twenty years earlier it is 1993 and thirteen-year-old Ryan is keeping a verbal diary as he records himself talking to his mother who has unfortunately passed away. His father has remarried and Ryan also has to struggle to live with stepbrother Nathan who seems to be determined to create a scene at every given opportunity. On a day out with his best friend Liam, he meets an Irish girl named Eve who he instantly falls in love with, but is devastated to learn that she will be returning home to Ireland soon.
It is clear from the beginning that Ryan and the voice on Ameliah’s tape are one and the same person; but the question is how are they connected? The connection is emphasized by the similarities in the lives of these two youngsters. Ryan meets a girl… Ameliah meets a boy… They both have to learn to deal with certain people being in their lives. For Ryan that is Nathan but for Ameliah that is a stranger who turns up one day claiming that he was a friend of her father.
After a while the storyline becomes predictable, and despite suspecting a plot twist, there is not one. The characters come across as a bit childish and annoying, which makes them difficult to relate to - although that may not be an issue with younger readers. Twelve and thirteen are far too young to be thinking about romantic relationships, especially for a boy in the early nineties: a flaw in the storyline.
Camden has done well to reduce the potential confusion of changing from one character and decade to another by using two different typefaces, so there is no issue there. But, overall it was rather disappointing. It was a great idea for a narrative with so much potential, however it fell flat and dreary through the writing.
Everyone is constantly reminded to never judge a book by its cover. The book jacket designer of Steven Camden’s contemporary novel <i>Tape</i> has done an excellent job using colour and hand-rendered images to capture people’s attention; the story, however, remained rather dull in comparison.
The novel is split into two time periods, twenty years apart. In 2013, Ameliah is struggling to cope with the sudden loss of her mother, and shortly after her father, whilst she moves in with her Nan. In the spare bedroom lies a mammoth job of boxes to sort out containing all of her parents’ belongings. Ameliah first discovers an ancient boom box along with a large collection of music tapes. Amongst these is an unlabeled one, and when she plays it she can hear a young boy talking to her – he also says her mother’s name, “Eve”.
Twenty years earlier it is 1993 and thirteen-year-old Ryan is keeping a verbal diary as he records himself talking to his mother who has unfortunately passed away. His father has remarried and Ryan also has to struggle to live with stepbrother Nathan who seems to be determined to create a scene at every given opportunity. On a day out with his best friend Liam, he meets an Irish girl named Eve who he instantly falls in love with, but is devastated to learn that she will be returning home to Ireland soon.
It is clear from the beginning that Ryan and the voice on Ameliah’s tape are one and the same person; but the question is how are they connected? The connection is emphasized by the similarities in the lives of these two youngsters. Ryan meets a girl… Ameliah meets a boy… They both have to learn to deal with certain people being in their lives. For Ryan that is Nathan but for Ameliah that is a stranger who turns up one day claiming that he was a friend of her father.
After a while the storyline becomes predictable, and despite suspecting a plot twist, there is not one. The characters come across as a bit childish and annoying, which makes them difficult to relate to - although that may not be an issue with younger readers. Twelve and thirteen are far too young to be thinking about romantic relationships, especially for a boy in the early nineties: a flaw in the storyline.
Camden has done well to reduce the potential confusion of changing from one character and decade to another by using two different typefaces, so there is no issue there. But, overall it was rather disappointing. It was a great idea for a narrative with so much potential, however it fell flat and dreary through the writing.
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Lee (2222 KP) Nov 13, 2018
Kevin Phillipson (10072 KP) Nov 13, 2018