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JT (287 KP) rated Escape From L.A. (1996) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020  
Escape From L.A. (1996)
Escape From L.A. (1996)
1996 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
2
6.6 (25 Ratings)
Movie Rating
John Carpenter’s offering into the world of sequels couldn’t have been worse. Kurt Russell said he had a desire to play Snake Plissken once again and to be honest I wished he hadn’t bothered.

I had a hard enough time to muster the energy to watch this, and even more to award it a one star rating. I have made my way through bad films over the years but this one really takes the title. After Carpenter’s engrossing and dark Escape from New York hit screens in 1981 a sequel was always going to be on the cards, but maybe they waited too long for it.

The plot is similar to the first, Plissken is yet again asked to save the day despite being injected with a virus that will kill him in within nine hours, although giving him ample time to save the day. This time he has to enter L.A. now separated from America after an earthquake and where the worst of the worst are sent, there he must retrieve a black box containing controls to a super weapon.

I had a hard enough time to muster the energy to watch this, and even more to award it a one star rating

What really wound me up about this film were the most shoddy special effects ever! When you take into consideration that this came out at a similar time to the very excellent Independence Day whose CGI effects were second to none for the time, there was no comparison.

You have to wonder what Carpenter’s budget of $50,000,0000 went towards, Plissken’s underwater entry into L.A. is hilarious and is even worth the watch just for that alone.

The addition of a few more well known characters do manage to brighten the proceedings, such as Steve Buscemi as Map to the Stars Eddie and Bruce Campbell as Surgeon General of Beverly Hills, but they do very little to save this from being a complete disaster.

Russell allegedly wrote the ending to this, and to be honest it shows. If you were a fan of the first then I would leave this one well alone!
  
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Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Overlord (2018) in Movies

Jul 3, 2020 (Updated Oct 29, 2020)  
Overlord (2018)
Overlord (2018)
2018 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
8
7.5 (33 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Rated-R Horror movie, lots of action, lots of gore, diverse group of characters/cast. (0 more)
the movie wound up too over the top for me, at least towards the very end (0 more)
Over The Top Action Horror Gorefest - 8/10
Overlord is a action/horror movie directed by Julius Avery, and written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith. Produced by J. J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber through Bad Robot Productions, it's R rating, action, and gore carry it past where so many PG-13 horror movies fall short. I really enjoyed this movie despite the familiarity of feeling like a movie version of Call of Duty's Nazi Zombies.


The night before D-day a squad of paratroopers are tasked with destroying a German radio tower in an occupied French village. Before they can reach their target their plane is shot down and they are left with a ragtag group of survivors: Private First Class Ed Boyce (Jovan Adepo), and Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell) among others. Also starring John Magaro, Iain De Caestecker, Jacob Anderson, and Dominic Applewhite. While traveling they find a French woman, Chloe (Matthilde Ollivier) who leads them to her home in the village where she lives with her little brother. Boyce is ordered to look for survivors at a rendezvous point and while avoiding detection, has no choice but to infiltrate the base to hide from soldiers. While using the base as a means of escape and avoid capture he learns the Nazis are submitting p.o.w.s and villagers to horrendous experiments involving a mysterious liquid.


While no character came off as exclusively entertaining to me, I felt the film did well in conveying the difficulty of a diverse group being forced to work with each other for their survival. I also felt the casting was successful, although the lead didn't fall into the usual "soldier" archetype, the others did, but rounded off the group in a good way. The casts' chemistry was good, their roles were believable plus the special effects and gore were awesome. Like I said 8/10, almost a 9, but I felt it suspended disbelief too much at the end and was a little "too" over the top.


  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2206 KP) rated Christmas Cocoa Murder in Books

Sep 26, 2019  
Christmas Cocoa Murder
Christmas Cocoa Murder
Carlene O'Connor, Maddie Day, Alex Erickson | 2019 | Mystery
10
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Snuggle Up for this Christmas Novella Collection
Kensington has released another Christmas novella collection, this time featuring three authors that haven’t been featured before. All three stories feature hot cocoa is some capacity. Up first is “Christmas Cocoa Murder” by Carlene O’Connor, which takes place in an Irish village leading up to Christmas. Her series main character, Siobhan O’Sullivan, is just a couple of weeks away from joining the police force, but she gets pulled in early when the village’s Santa’s stunt at the annual panto goes horribly wrong and he’s found floating in a dunk tank filled with hot cocoa. Next, we get “Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse” by Maddie Day. Robbie Jordan, the star of the Country Store Mysteries, is looking forward to a quiet Christmas, but first she must figure out what happened to Jed Greenburg who was found dead while out walking a dog and drinking some of Robbie’s special hot chocolate mix. Finally, comes “Death by Hot Cocoa” by Alex Erickson. Krissy Hancock, his main character, has been talked into doing a Christmas themed escape room, but when she and the rest of the participants finish the first part, they find themselves locked in a second room with the body of their host next to a puddle of hot chocolate.

All three of these stories are fun. The only series I read regularly is Maddie Day’s, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying all of them. The plots are all wonderfully constructed and perfect for the shorter novella format. I did feel a little lost with some of the series regular characters in the first story, but that’s to be expected since I haven’t read the series before. However, it didn’t hamper my overall enjoyment at all. The main characters all come to life in the stories, and the suspects are just as vivid. Each story is filled with Christmas detail that will put you in the holiday spirit no matter what time of year you read them. A couple of the stories even feature some recipes, including two different versions of hot chocolate. So, make yourself a cup of hot chocolate (or maybe not given the theme of this book) and snuggle up and enjoy.