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Tomb Raider Definitive Edition
8.4
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Video Game
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square...
Tomb Raider Definitive Edition
Ross (3284 KP) rated The Rage of Dragons in Books
May 21, 2020
Good Africa-inspired fantasy but nothing original
This book takes place in alternative version of pre-historic Africa. The Omehi race were seeking to escape turmoil in their homeland and have invaded a nearby land. They have historically used their magical and strategic advantages to keep the more savage natives, who have significant numerical advantages, at bay.
The story follows the development and move into manhood of one of the lower social classes of the Omehi.
Tau is nothing special, one of the lower classes and only mediocre with a sword. He is hoping to get into the army and find himself so badly injured he can be honourably discharged and have the social standing to ask his love to marry him.
However, early on in his testing for acceptance into the army, he wins a fight with a pathetic noble and his father is subsequently murdered for justice.
The story then follows Tau's travels and training in order to be accepted on his own merit. He is quickly accepted into an experimental set of trainees and his development picks up a gear, thought he keeps hidden his secret desire to kill those nobles responsible for his father's death. Through mixing with magic and extreme training, Tau becomes a force to be reckoned with, but is still to pick the right side to fight against.
The writing style is good, however a number of made-up (I presume) terms are used throughout the book, and it can be quite hard to determine what they mean and who they refer to. This covers the different ranks of the armies, so can largely be ignored, but it is a little jarring for the reader.
The pacing was all over the place. It was slow to get moving, and when it did it quickly ground to a halt again, as we suffered through days and weeks of training. While this was generally for the benefit of the overall story as a whole, it did take some effort to get through. If this was a film, it would have needed a montage for sure.
The plot itself starts fairly basic - one man out for revenge against people he can't possibly beat and using this as motivation to better himself. However the final quarter of the book brings in another aspect and the book significantly improves for that.
The story follows the development and move into manhood of one of the lower social classes of the Omehi.
Tau is nothing special, one of the lower classes and only mediocre with a sword. He is hoping to get into the army and find himself so badly injured he can be honourably discharged and have the social standing to ask his love to marry him.
However, early on in his testing for acceptance into the army, he wins a fight with a pathetic noble and his father is subsequently murdered for justice.
The story then follows Tau's travels and training in order to be accepted on his own merit. He is quickly accepted into an experimental set of trainees and his development picks up a gear, thought he keeps hidden his secret desire to kill those nobles responsible for his father's death. Through mixing with magic and extreme training, Tau becomes a force to be reckoned with, but is still to pick the right side to fight against.
The writing style is good, however a number of made-up (I presume) terms are used throughout the book, and it can be quite hard to determine what they mean and who they refer to. This covers the different ranks of the armies, so can largely be ignored, but it is a little jarring for the reader.
The pacing was all over the place. It was slow to get moving, and when it did it quickly ground to a halt again, as we suffered through days and weeks of training. While this was generally for the benefit of the overall story as a whole, it did take some effort to get through. If this was a film, it would have needed a montage for sure.
The plot itself starts fairly basic - one man out for revenge against people he can't possibly beat and using this as motivation to better himself. However the final quarter of the book brings in another aspect and the book significantly improves for that.
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Final Destination (2000) in Movies
Aug 10, 2019 (Updated Oct 25, 2019)
Final Destination is certainly a product of it's time. Releasing in the year 2000, it arrived amidst a wave of popular teen movies such as such as American Pie, Dude Where's My Car etc.
FD plays out like one of those films, but with gory death scenes thrown in - it's a winning formula that saw it perform nicely at the box office.
The premise is nice and simple - the main character (in this case, Alex Browning) experiences a premonition of an imminent horrible accident. He manages to avoid said accident, along with a handful of others, thus cheating death.
As the movie progresses, death comes for the survivors one by one, in ridiculously grisly ways as they desperately try to figure out how to escape deaths grip.
There are several reasons why I really don't mind Final Destination. For a start, it's nice to have a horror movie where the villain is a almost a force of nature, rather than a physical boogeyman.
It makes for some pretty inventive death scenes.
I also enjoyed just how silly it is. There are some corny one liners whilst you sit there in anticipation of what ridiculous thing is going to happen next. It's pure popcorn horror.
It's not particularly scary, and even though it has its moments, it's a pretty average watch.
It's certainly not deserving of standing side by side with the big boys of horror, but you could also do a lot worse.
Also it's got Tony Todd in it, and just who doesn't love that scary MF.
FD plays out like one of those films, but with gory death scenes thrown in - it's a winning formula that saw it perform nicely at the box office.
The premise is nice and simple - the main character (in this case, Alex Browning) experiences a premonition of an imminent horrible accident. He manages to avoid said accident, along with a handful of others, thus cheating death.
As the movie progresses, death comes for the survivors one by one, in ridiculously grisly ways as they desperately try to figure out how to escape deaths grip.
There are several reasons why I really don't mind Final Destination. For a start, it's nice to have a horror movie where the villain is a almost a force of nature, rather than a physical boogeyman.
It makes for some pretty inventive death scenes.
I also enjoyed just how silly it is. There are some corny one liners whilst you sit there in anticipation of what ridiculous thing is going to happen next. It's pure popcorn horror.
It's not particularly scary, and even though it has its moments, it's a pretty average watch.
It's certainly not deserving of standing side by side with the big boys of horror, but you could also do a lot worse.
Also it's got Tony Todd in it, and just who doesn't love that scary MF.
Mount!
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In Jilly Cooper's latest, raciest novel, Rupert Campbell-Black takes centre stage in the cut-throat...
Hers, Unbroken (Hers #2)
9.0
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Book
Chase Decker wants to be enslaved. Holly Danek wants to set him free. Is it possible for both of...
Adult Science_Fiction Romance
Gareth von Kallenbach (977 KP) rated Winter's Tale (2014) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
“Winter’s Tale”, starring Colin Farrell (Peter Lake), Jessica Brown Findlay (Beverly Penn), Russell Crowe (Pearly Soames), William Hurt (Isaac Penn), Jennifer Connelly (Virginia Gamely) and Will Smith (The Judge) is a fantastic love story, although the beginning was a little slow. It did help define the three different timelines involved in the plot
After a brief scene set in 1895, where we see a set of parents put their baby in a model ship, lower him down into the Hudson River and set him afloat, the timeline jumps to 1916. In this timeline we meet Peter Lake and Pearly Soames for the first time, and are drawn into their story of good versus evil. As Pearly hunts for Peter, in order to destroy him, Peter is assisted by a beautiful white horse named Athansor. The horse is absolutely stunning and along with the incredible use of light throughout the movie, it is possibly one of the most memorable things about the film. The stallion is the guardian angel of the adult Peter – and he flies! The CGI was seamless and beautiful.
As Peter tries again and again to escape Pearly, he ends up meeting Beverly who is ill with consumption. Of course, it’s a love story and they fall in love. Farrell and Penn’s portrayal of their characters’ romance was so poignant, you will need to have tissues on hand. Throughout the movie a voiceover says “inside each of us is a miracle, a miracle intended for one person alone.” The plot twists connected to that statement were just enough to keep me guessing – often incorrectly.
It was a total and complete shock to see Will Smith play an antagonist so well. Russell Crowe was great as Pearly, very believable as a demon obsessed with getting his way and wreaking vengeance on someone who he saw as having “done him wrong.”
When the storyline jumped to present day New York, 2014, the imagery of the lights and stars helped with the transition but the magic of the film seemed to disappear afterwards. While the last third of the movie was not hard to follow, it was still a bit hard to understand its point right away. I definitely felt like the movie lost some momentum after the jump to present day. In the end, it just felt like there was something missing – possibly left in the editing room. Maybe we’ll find it on the DVD extras.
I would give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars.
After a brief scene set in 1895, where we see a set of parents put their baby in a model ship, lower him down into the Hudson River and set him afloat, the timeline jumps to 1916. In this timeline we meet Peter Lake and Pearly Soames for the first time, and are drawn into their story of good versus evil. As Pearly hunts for Peter, in order to destroy him, Peter is assisted by a beautiful white horse named Athansor. The horse is absolutely stunning and along with the incredible use of light throughout the movie, it is possibly one of the most memorable things about the film. The stallion is the guardian angel of the adult Peter – and he flies! The CGI was seamless and beautiful.
As Peter tries again and again to escape Pearly, he ends up meeting Beverly who is ill with consumption. Of course, it’s a love story and they fall in love. Farrell and Penn’s portrayal of their characters’ romance was so poignant, you will need to have tissues on hand. Throughout the movie a voiceover says “inside each of us is a miracle, a miracle intended for one person alone.” The plot twists connected to that statement were just enough to keep me guessing – often incorrectly.
It was a total and complete shock to see Will Smith play an antagonist so well. Russell Crowe was great as Pearly, very believable as a demon obsessed with getting his way and wreaking vengeance on someone who he saw as having “done him wrong.”
When the storyline jumped to present day New York, 2014, the imagery of the lights and stars helped with the transition but the magic of the film seemed to disappear afterwards. While the last third of the movie was not hard to follow, it was still a bit hard to understand its point right away. I definitely felt like the movie lost some momentum after the jump to present day. In the end, it just felt like there was something missing – possibly left in the editing room. Maybe we’ll find it on the DVD extras.
I would give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars.
JT (287 KP) rated Headhunters (2012) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
Roger Brown (Hennie) has it all, a gorgeous wife a beautiful house and lots of money. As a headhunter for a recruitment company he supplements this lifestyle by stealing rare and expensive paintings and replacing them with perfect copies.
At his wife Diana’s art gallery he is introduced to Clas (Coster-Waldau) who he lines up for a potential job with a big client. When Roger discovers that Clas is in possession of a rare painting he takes the opportunity to steal it, not realizing however that his actions will be traced back to him.
It’s clear that Roger’s flamboyant lifestyle and trophy wife is compensation for his own inferiority complex, as he explains in the opening monologue of the film. Filled with paranoia he soon believes that Clas is out to kill him, either for stealing the painting or to get rid of him so Clas can have Diana for his own.
It’s a simple game of cat and mouse between Roger and Clas that escalates into epic proportions as Roger goes on the run. Clas is extremely cool and calculated in his approach and toys with Roger, it’s a film that will keep you on the edge of your seat, tension that foreign film is seemingly well known for.
It’s adapted from the Jo Nesbø novel of the same name, and to be honest once Roger goes on the run it turns from thriller to black comedy and back again in an instant. Some scenes have shock value, others will turn your head away from the screen no sooner look at it but it’s all good fun.
Roger is put through the wringer as he’s slowly hunted down, avoiding capture by hiding in human faeces, trying to escape on the slowest form of transport imaginable and driven off the end of a cliff. At the end of all this the sympathy for Roger is overwhelming.
It’s a comically engaging film with twists and turns, gruesome in parts which you won’t expect.
At his wife Diana’s art gallery he is introduced to Clas (Coster-Waldau) who he lines up for a potential job with a big client. When Roger discovers that Clas is in possession of a rare painting he takes the opportunity to steal it, not realizing however that his actions will be traced back to him.
It’s clear that Roger’s flamboyant lifestyle and trophy wife is compensation for his own inferiority complex, as he explains in the opening monologue of the film. Filled with paranoia he soon believes that Clas is out to kill him, either for stealing the painting or to get rid of him so Clas can have Diana for his own.
It’s a simple game of cat and mouse between Roger and Clas that escalates into epic proportions as Roger goes on the run. Clas is extremely cool and calculated in his approach and toys with Roger, it’s a film that will keep you on the edge of your seat, tension that foreign film is seemingly well known for.
It’s adapted from the Jo Nesbø novel of the same name, and to be honest once Roger goes on the run it turns from thriller to black comedy and back again in an instant. Some scenes have shock value, others will turn your head away from the screen no sooner look at it but it’s all good fun.
Roger is put through the wringer as he’s slowly hunted down, avoiding capture by hiding in human faeces, trying to escape on the slowest form of transport imaginable and driven off the end of a cliff. At the end of all this the sympathy for Roger is overwhelming.
It’s a comically engaging film with twists and turns, gruesome in parts which you won’t expect.
Amplified Network Marketing with David T.S. Wood
Podcast
David Wood is a renowned and respected Network Marketing / MLM expert who has personally trained...
The Nowhere Man
Book
That rare thing, a sequel which is better than the original, The Nowhere Man is a thrilling,...
ClareR (5674 KP) rated The Vanishing Half in Books
Jul 8, 2020
I read The Mothers, Brit Bennett’s first book, and loved it. So when this popped up on NetGalley, I knew I had to request it, and I was so pleased when I was given the opportunity to read it.
It’s a story about secrets, lies and reinvention - the sacrifices someone has to make in order to get the life they want. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Stella and Desirée Vignes are identical twin sisters, brought up in a small southern town, where all the inhabitants are black people who could pass for white people if they wanted to (which a very dangerous thing to try and do at the time the story is set).
The twins escape together, and then Stella leaves Desirée. Stella discovers that she can pass as white, and marries a wealthy white man, who knows nothing of her origins. Desirée marries a black man who beats her, and so she escapes back to her mother with her dark skinned daughter, Jude. Jude is never accepted in Desirée’s home town of Mallard, and so she leaves to go to university as soon as she is able to.
This is where Jude’s life unwittingly intersects with that of Stella’s daughter, and secrets that have been kept for so long, are brought out into the open.
I loved everything about this book. The characters and their motivations, the storyline, the way the book was written - everything! I could see why Stella did what she did, and how she felt trapped by her choices, and it’s a great example of how prejudice and racism works in the USA - and potentially here in the UK as well.
I really do highly recommend this book. It’s such a great story that kept me engaged from start to finish. I have to admit to reading it slower to make it last longer - it’s a book that I’ll be recommending to my friends, that’s for sure!
It’s a story about secrets, lies and reinvention - the sacrifices someone has to make in order to get the life they want. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Stella and Desirée Vignes are identical twin sisters, brought up in a small southern town, where all the inhabitants are black people who could pass for white people if they wanted to (which a very dangerous thing to try and do at the time the story is set).
The twins escape together, and then Stella leaves Desirée. Stella discovers that she can pass as white, and marries a wealthy white man, who knows nothing of her origins. Desirée marries a black man who beats her, and so she escapes back to her mother with her dark skinned daughter, Jude. Jude is never accepted in Desirée’s home town of Mallard, and so she leaves to go to university as soon as she is able to.
This is where Jude’s life unwittingly intersects with that of Stella’s daughter, and secrets that have been kept for so long, are brought out into the open.
I loved everything about this book. The characters and their motivations, the storyline, the way the book was written - everything! I could see why Stella did what she did, and how she felt trapped by her choices, and it’s a great example of how prejudice and racism works in the USA - and potentially here in the UK as well.
I really do highly recommend this book. It’s such a great story that kept me engaged from start to finish. I have to admit to reading it slower to make it last longer - it’s a book that I’ll be recommending to my friends, that’s for sure!