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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Life of the Party (2018) in Movies

Jul 8, 2019

Deanna (Melissa McCarthy) has spent the past 21 years being a dedicated wife and mother. Her and her husband Dan (Matt Walsh) have delivered their only daughter, Maddie (Molly Gordon) to their alma mater for her Senior year at college. As Deanna and Dan leave to what she thinks is their romantic trip to Italy, Dan breaks the information that 1. He wants a divorce and 2. He has been seeing Marcie (Julie Bowen) for a while and is in love with her. In a tailspin, Deanna retreats to her parents Mike and Sandy (Stephen Root and Jacki Weaver, respectively)feeling upended and lost.
While recovering from the emotional bomb, her best friend Christine (Maya Rudolph as that BFF who says all things unedited and is SO VERY Ride or Die) helps to pull her (and the audience) out of the dark depths with the best drunk racquetball sideline ever. The chemistry between McCarthy and Rudolph feels like two naturals riffing off with each other. Their interchanges throughout the film had me snort-laughing throughout.

Deanna decides that since she did not graduate with her degree due to motherhood and Dan, it’s an opportunity to finish and pursue her dream of being an archaeologist. Dee registers and lets her daughter know of the huge changes happening. Dee can come off as a Pollyanna to a degree, but it is her can do, positive attitude that eventually helps her ride out the rollercoaster for her senior year.
Once she is entrenched in the school year, her daughter’s friends bring her into their circle and forces her to life the college life instead of only studying all the time. She meets the very handsome Jack ( Luke Benward) a much younger man, teaching him the finer arts of canoodling of a more experienced kind.
The film is cleverly written and produced by McCarthy and Ben Falcone (her husband) at the helm directing this movie. Melissa, is brilliant at giving us wonderfully unexpected physical comedy with fantastic comic timing. The cast, have given us an enjoyable movie that is a heartily, welcomed respite.

Life of the Party is a fun Girls Night Out.

Kudos

Dillon Jacoby-Rankin (202 KP) rated Everdell in Tabletop Games

Jan 18, 2020

Everdell

2018 | City Building

8.8

(9 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

Components (6 more)

Quality

Price

Game is expandable in future

Replayability

Theme

Artwork

Small text on special event cards because the card themselves are already small. (1 more)

Time can be alot if you have to teach new players.

My Favorite Game!

This game is hands down my favorite. Let's start there.

Players 1-4 Expands to 5-6 with future expansion
Ages 14+
Time 40-80 minutes. Definitely longer with more players especially if they are new to the game or worker placement in general. I played with 4 players and it took easily 150 minutes. Not complaining just with teaching and all it took longer than expected.
Components: These are full 3d pieces made of various materials. They all feel wonderful to hold and play with making collecting them for the game very satisfying.
Quality: The game is amazing in general and you can see the work that was put into the game. It was kick-started but you can tell there was a passion behind the game.
Price: The quality is worth it. And if you were ever unsure. Get the higher priced edition if possible. It will have more features like I believe metal coins for victory points as well as other content that are not in the base game like workers and cards for the solo game variant.
Expandable: The game has Pearlbrooke already out as well as 2 other Expansions being funded and at least a fourth one in the works because I read that they will not make a big box to put everything in, until the line is complete. And no big box yet. So a fourth expansion the look forward to for sure.
Replayability: Easily replayable as forest locations and special event cards will be different every time you play especially if you add some of the Expansions to your base game.
Theme: The idea of little woodland creatures collecting resources and building their own tiny cities is absolutely adorable and makes this game 100 times for fun and cute for me.
Artwork: The cards and board are fanominal. The art is so nice and cute.

Kudos

Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Twenty-One Truths About Love in Books

Mar 19, 2020

Dan Mayrock is an obsessive list maker who has quit his job as a teacher and opened a bookstore. But now he's in financial trouble and afraid to tell his wife, Jill. Jill was previously married and Dan feels he can never quite live up to Jill's late husband. And then, Jill gets pregnant. Now Dan feels even more pressure to be the best he can be for Jill.

The shtick of this book is that it's told entirely in list form. No dialogue, no narrative, nothing. Just lists. It did wear a little thin at times, but it was an interesting way to learn about someone's life. You learn about Dan's finances, feelings, and amazingly, a lot about his past.

For me, what really got me about this book is that I just couldn't warm to Dan. I think most people find this book heartwarming and cute, but I found him--and it--annoying and whiny. He doesn't want to tell his wife about his financial problems with the store, so he concocts some ridiculous scheme to "help" the family instead. It was just too much for me. Man up, tell your wife, and take responsibility for your actions. I didn't find it cute, and if I was his wife, I would have kicked him to the curb.

It's a shame, because a lot of the book was filled with really funny and spot-on observations about life. I especially loved Dan's ruminations on teaching and meetings. They were incredibly true to life. There are a lot of humorous and touching moments in this book, but I could never really push past the fact that he was a spineless liar.

"'Let's start off with an icebreaker' are words no human being has ever wanted to hear."

Overall, I enjoyed pieces of this book, but found myself skimming others. I liked the idea of it, but could never warm to Dan and since the whole book was his lists and life, it was hard to enjoy without liking him. I need a book from the POV of his older Bingo buddy, Bill. Now he was a cool dude.