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The Accountant (2016)
The Accountant (2016)
2016 | Drama
9
7.5 (36 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: The Accountant starts as we see Christian Wolff at a young age struggling to deal with autism but with the correct tuition Christian (Affleck) has turned his math savant skills to help small town people manage their accounts. He is distant from people but always helps those who need it.

On the other side of the story we meet head of the treasury department Ray King (Simmons) who blackmails a young agent Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson) into investigating this mysterious accountant that has been working with the biggest names on the terrorists list, that accountant is Christian under an alter-ego.

Christian’s latest accountancy job is sorting 15 years of accounts for Lamar Black (Lithgow) Living Robotics company that have been working on defence contracts. While Christian gets on with his latest job we see how Brax (Bernthal) goes about cleaning up other questionable actions from the bankers. While Christian must deal with the junior accountant Dana Cummings (Kendrick) being too talkative for his own liking.

As the story continues to unfold we continue to learn just how dangerous Christian really is and what his bigger plan is. As Brax cleans up what Christian discovers his desperate need for completion explodes but what he discovers could expose the fraud going on.

The Accountant is one of the most complete action thrillers of recent years. The story does borrow elements from recent ideas with myself seeing a mix of John Wick and Dexter going on throughout. Where this story stand head and shoulders above most other films is the way the whole story gets completed. Another huge plus point for this film is that every character gets a full development and we see their story arc go full circle.

Ben Affleck gives a brilliant performance in this leading role where we get to see him have the full emotionless character that is intense to level most action character could only wish for. Jon Bernthal continues to shine through supporting roles in films after his time on television. J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson work excellently together again with a perfect story arc to their character. The only negative in this film I found was the character Dana just feels added to the story while this doesn’t mean Kendrick is bad it was the character didn’t quite fit the full story.

This is easily one of the films of the year that I can fully expect everyone to enjoy and even at over two hours long you barely notice the time being used in this film.

 

Overall: Brutal action, story with heart and perfect story telling throughout.

https://moviesreview101.com/2016/12/12/the-accountant-2016/
  
They Both Die At The End
They Both Die At The End
Adam Silvera | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.0 (22 Ratings)
Book Rating
Stop and imagine for just one minute what it would be like if you received a phone call telling you that you were going to die within the next 24 hours. How would you live your last 24 hours? Would you have a funeral with your family and friends so that you have a chance to say goodbye, or would you try and make a new friend going through the same thing you were so that you don’t have to be alone on your last day on this planet? This is exactly what happens to both Rufus and Mateo.
Rufus is outgoing and not afraid to stand up for himself. He’s had a pretty crappy few years but he’s managed to make friends with the other kids in his foster home. They have become his family. He gets the call that everyone dreads informing him that he’s going to die today. He decides to download the Last Friend app so that he can get paired up with someone to spend his last 24 hours with.
Mateo is a quiet and somewhat sheltered teenager who has been living on his own since his dad is currently in a coma. He gets the call that he is going to die today and he is instantly terrified to leave his apartment. He quickly decides that he doesn’t want to die alone, so he downloads the Last Friend App in hopes that he will come out of his shell on his last day.
Mateo and Rufus meet through the Last Friend App and have an amazingly memorable final 24 hours together. The bring about change in each other that they never thought was possible.
These characters are so easy to relate to and its so hard not to love them. I couldn’t help but laugh with them and cheer for them, and though I did everything in my power not to cry with them I couldn’t stop myself from crying crocodile tears over their trials and tribulations. This story is about growing, changing as a person and allowing yourself to love and be loved in the wake of great adversity.
They Both Die at the End is the first book I’ve read by Adam Silvera, and I can’t wait to read more. Silvera has a way with words that can suck the air from your lungs, bring you to your knees and in the next sentence completely revive you. After turning the final page of this book and wiping the tears from my eyes I closed the book with a new found appreciation for the life I have and the awareness that it can all be taken away in a moment.
  
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Josh Burns (166 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Wraith in Video Games

Jun 21, 2019  
Wraith
Wraith
2017 | Horror, Shooter
Be Horror waveshooter
Wraith is a horror wave shooter. Now the thing with wave shooters is, that there are a TON of them on all VR platforms. They all have their own little things that make them stand out, but you only need to own so many before they get redundant. To its credit, Wraith has quite a few unique elements:
1: the wraiths make no sound as they approach, so unlike every other VR wave shooter, you can't hear them come up behind you.
2: when you switch magazines in you gun, any rounds that were still in it are lost, they don't magically stay like most games.
3: you have an in the moment shop that comes in the form of a sort of tablet wrist thing. You can't pause, you have to look and choose what to buy on the fly with enemies incoming. In the shop thete are flashlight batteries, different guns, ammo, armor and laser sight batteries.
4: There are 4 maps, which are very atmospheric even if two of them are similar but they are endless. Sadly there is no story, not scores to beat, no grinding...nothing.
5: There are only 3 character models for enemies. They look great! but there are only 3.
6: The one neat thing about the endless aspect, is that the longer you play, the darker it gets making you rely more and more on your flashlight.
Overall it's not bad, the silent enemies can scare the shit out of you if you turn around to find them right in your face. You use the Move controllers if you perfer smaller weapons like pistols, uzis, sawed off shotguns, and the Aim Controller if you prefer rifles and shotguns etc. It has a great atmosphere, everything tracks well. The problem is, with only being a survival mode and so few enemy types, there just isn't a lot of reason to pick this up when nearly half of the vr games are wave shooters it seems like. I also found that once I got into a rythm with an assault rifle, bouncing between ammo, armor and flashlight batteries, I migt have never died. I let myself after twenty some waves because I was kind of bored. So overall, it's cheap and not bad to mess around with this time of year. Maybe a good pass the headset game if you stick to the move controllers, thus eliminating the assault rifle. There are better wave shooters but there aren't many that are horror themed (actually I only know of one and I'll be covering it). On the positive the latest patch cleared all bugs and states that it makes visual adjustments allowing for future expansion. So maybe it will grow into something more.
  
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Luce (2019) in Movies

Oct 30, 2019  
Luce (2019)
Luce (2019)
2019 | Drama
Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is the perfect student. Captain of the high school track team, a passionate member of the school debating society, a great writer and a polite, grown-up young man that just seems too good to be true. Luce was adopted at the age of 9 from war-torn Eritrea by white couple Amy (Naomi Watts) and Peter (Tim Roth, sporting a pretty dodgy American accent). Following years of therapy and the devoted efforts of Amy and Peter, he seems to have successfully put his horrific and traumatic childhood behind him, embracing his future in America.

But then one day, Luce's history teacher, Harriet Wilson (Octavia Spencer) becomes disturbed by a recent assignment that Luce has submitted. The purpose of the assignment was to write an essay in the style and thinking of a historical figure of their choosing - an idea which Luce seems to have embraced a little too passionately with his choice of Frantz Fanon, a black philosopher who was highly supportive of violent revolution. At the same time, a search of Luce's locker reveals some highly explosive fireworks, and Harriet is worried to the point where she calls Amy into the school in order to discuss her concerns.

The assignment, and the fireworks discovery, leads to a series of conflicts among all of the main characters. Luce remains polite and calm throughout, claiming that he was merely doing what was asked of him for the assignment. He states that his locker is shared with friends, so the fireworks must belong to one of them. Tensions are also high between Luce’s parents, seemingly regarding some lingering resentment they have about the fact that Luce is not their biological child. Meanwhile, Harriet is involved in a series of cool, calm stand offs with Luce, each of them believing that there is more to the other than meets the eye.

There are a lot of times during Luce where motivations and actions of characters aren’t very clear. A number of tense moments occur along the way too, in order to try and ramp up the tension, including the introduction of Harriet’s mentally ill sister, horrible racist graffiti on Harriet’s house and accusations of sexual assault. You never know who to trust or what to think, and it all feels as though it’s building towards something big.

Unfortunately though, that’s not the case, and it all just kind of fizzles out towards the end. It’s clear that the filmmakers are more interested in delivering undertones of privilege and prejudice throughout, promoting more questions than they provide answers, and that’s not for me. Overall a pretty solid movie, let down in its delivery towards the end.
  
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Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Doctor Sleep (2019) in Movies

Nov 3, 2019 (Updated Nov 4, 2019)  
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
2019 | Horror
Love or Death
Doctor Sleep is a perfect companion piece to The Shining giving us more insite to the story it told while being carful not to stand on its toes. A chilling film that creates such a great atmosphere by using a great score and tight direction to keep you on edge and unnerved with shivers down your spine. This accompanied with a grim, cold, errie visual style and lingering slow camera pans you have a film that echos the original in some respects but feels very current too. Cinematography is also gorgeous with vast haunting establishing shots, dim lit rooms, cold fog drenched roads and lonely lights lost in the darkness. But what i found truly facinating is the continuous theme of life and death here which had me gripped/wanting to explore the film deeper and more intricatly with every scene. Every single life is precious and the film depicts how many of us seem to just take that for granted, waste it, live it alone, abuse it or spend it hung up on the past or on extream circumstances choose to take it from another without care or thought to what value that persons precence in the world held. Its all very powerful, deeply saddening and thought provoking stuff which gives the film its own soul rather than echoing the shining. Theres a lot to say about how we view death too these days, be it when its from natural causes or murder we all just seem to have in a way become desensitized to it or in a rush to forget and move on. Child trauma, grievence and the torment plus the dangers of locking things up and trying to forget can bring are also facinatingly explored also.
Characters are all so likable and we spend a good chunk of time with all (including the menacing and creepily intimidating villains) which I thought was really nice and this helps create great attachment meaning that when a death hits you really feel the impact of the loss adding poweful emotion and a small amount of grievence to each one (and adds to the running theme of all life being important and death being something everyone fears/cant escape). Acting is great especially with the new cast replicating old characters from the shining. Doctor sleep also gets nostalgia right using parts of the shining respectfuly and tastfully rather than just simply replicating them for a cheap cash grab, instead choosing to intrigate them as crucial parts of the plot. All in all this movie unnerved me, engrosed and provoked me making me think more on the subject of death the journey we all take towards and how we should all pay more care and give more thought to the ones we let go.
  
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JT (287 KP) rated The Grey (2012) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020  
The Grey (2012)
The Grey (2012)
2012 | Action, Drama
8
7.0 (15 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Director Joe Carnahan has a popular back catalogue. One that is considered his best to date is Narc. Of course he helmed the bat shit crazy, guns-a-blazing Smokin Aces and who could forget for a minute the over the top and some what bonkers reboot of The A-Team.

Here, Carnahan teams up with Liam Neeson once again, although it was very nearly Bradley Cooper, but we’re glad that Neeson got the gig! Neeson plays Ottway, a crack shot with a rifle whose job it is is to keep the many oil drilling workers off the menu from the local four legged carnivores.

When the plane transporting the crew back from the end of season crashes in Alaskan no man’s land, Neeson must battle the elements and inhospitable terrain to find safety – while at the same time avoiding a rather pissed off pack of hungry wolves. If there is anyone you’d want by your side in this type of situation (Bear Grylls not present) it’s Nesson. With a few choice words for his new found friends “nobody’s going to find us….and if we don’t move we’re all fucked!” They abandon what little is left of the plane and set out into the wilderness.

This is clearly not the best idea, and it’s not long before the group are picked off one by one as the race to safety intensifies. With the Alpha male calling the shots wolf side, it’s Neeson doing the same for the humans, as he battles with his own issues as well as those around him. A few nights opening up round the fire and you realise that these men have a significant reason to want to get home alive.

Neeson is level headed and cool, but then put into a situation like this you have to be. The film, lacking in any visual landscape must use the survivors to really build the story, and Carnahan delivers enough tension to the audience to keep them on a knife edge.

The action is integrated well into the emotional side of the plot and that makes the film all the more enjoyable, as by the end you feel for each and everyone of those guys. The scenes are a little more believable, no tanks shooting down planes here. Although we do wonder if Carnahan took inspiration from Cliffhanger for one particular scene.

The Grey packs an intense punch all the way through and it will play on the heart strings as well. Neeson is the stand-out but has a solid supporting cast who don’t let him carry the burden all the way through till the end.
  
Superbad (2007)
Superbad (2007)
2007 | Comedy
Hilarious From Start to Finish
Two best friends go on an adventure to get alcohol for the last big party of high school.

Acting: 10
Michael Cera and Jonah Hill couldn’t have played their roles any better as best friends Evan and Seth. Cera is nerdy and lovable while Hill is a big ball of energy that plays macho but is really insecure. Their chemistry is perfect together and sets up perfect assists for awesome side characters like McLovin’ to shine.

Beginning: 10
Right from the first line of the movie, I got sucked in. The comedy hits you and doesn’t stop in the first ten minutes as Evan and Seth discuss what porn sites to subscribe to. It’s a perfect setup for what is to come.

Characters: 10
Evan and Seth are perfect together. You almost wonder if they aren’t best friends in real life. If there weren’t any other characters in the movie but the two of them, I still would have given this category a perfect score. Hilarious characters like Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Officers Slater and Michaels (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen) just add to the film’s overall enjoyment.

Cinematography/Visuals: 10

Conflict: 10

Entertainment Value: 10
In one scene, we find Seth making sex impresssions in home economics behind his cooking partner’s back while Evan looks on. This is just one of a number of scenes that make this movie ridiculously entertaining. It’s amazing how many crazy antics they get into in so few settings.

Memorability: 10
Evan and Seth are in such a rush to grow up, but towards the end of the movie, there is a scene where they are laying in sleeping bags like two little kids. It’s unique little touches like this that really make this movie strong and impactful. More than just a mere comedy, but also amazing at comedy, Superbad soars to great heights with scenes that stand the test of time.

Pace: 10

Plot: 10
Such a simple story made strong with great twists and turns. It never tries to be anything more than what it is, but it also manages to have layers nonetheless. It’s a great ride overall, and the epitomy of a “less is more” concept.

Resolution: 10
Loved how they tied everything together. Beautiful final ten minutes, just as quality as the start. Definitely leaves you with a feeling of fulfillment.

Overall: 100
As a screenwriter, a movie like Superbad is what I aspire to write. Not a comedy, but a movie that fires on all cylinders and maintains consistent, perfect timing. This is a movie I can watch repeatedly and it will never get old.
  
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Charlotte (184 KP) rated The Mistake in Books

Mar 20, 2021  
The Mistake
The Mistake
Mandy Swiftson | 2020 | Contemporary
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Although this is a review it will also serve as a letter to Mandy and any other person who has been in this or similar position.

Also this is trigger central with physical and emotional abuse, rape, bereavement, suicide attempts and self harm. If ANY of this affects you please seek help.

Let's start at the beginning.....yes maybe it was a mistake BUT remember you were being MANIPULATED. At the point you made that first 'mistake' he had already done the ground work, he'd slowly started controlling you and your environment......you didn't have a real choice.

He was a master of manipulation and deception, he already knew what words and phrases to use to get compliance........he had experience of it, he relished it. The guy had plausibility and knew how to create a good story....a believable one, well, multiple stories. The story to fool authorities, the story to fool family and friends, the story that became the script of your life.....this is NOT your fault! Whether due to generally being a trusting person or (for Mandy) being vulnerable from a previous bad relationship, you were taken advantage of.

Hope is a make or break feeling, meeting number 4 full of hope for things to get better was bittersweet. I don't have children but can only imagine what emotional trauma was caused from the very first moment of fear for the children. I take my hat off to all the survivors who steeled themselves and did what was necessary to protect their babies. Mandy did what was needed, not for her but her babies.....that's selflessness right there.

MB passing, for goodness sake! It's fluffing heartbreaking. Not going to lie I cried, for MB, for someone that deserved happiness but yet again was dealt a crap hand in life.
   Totally unimpressed with flakey bake, I won't say anything else as I'll just swear a lot.

I've actually met Mandy a few times. She came across as outspoken, independent and strong in person, as well as fun (She's serious about the changing hair colours).
    Having read this I have no doubt of the strength of this amazing woman. Followed for years by many demons yet still able to stand up and carry on, able to put into words, write a book, about things that most people wouldn't be capable of imagining let alone have touch their lives. A true inspiration.

I know how depression can creep up on you, stalk you, cloak itself so self doubt sets in......I also know how hard it is to ask for help but please ask, it's a lifesaver.

A story of freedom, survival, heartbreak, despair, hope and love as well as so much more.

This is a tissues and chocolate read from start to finish.