Search
Search results
Where's My Water? Lite
Games and Entertainment
5.0
Rate It
App
Get the GAME OF THE YEAR award-winning puzzler! Help Swampy by guiding water to his broken shower....
Beginning Android 4
Book
Beginning Android 4 is an update to Beginning Android 3, originally written by Mark Murphy. It is...
EverRun - Legend of the Horse Guardians
Entertainment and Games
App
Run endlessly across beautiful lands with the eight horses of Everbloom! Budge Studios™...
Deus Ex: The Fall
Games
App
“DEUS EX: THE FALL IS MUST PLAY EXPERIENCE THAT NO iOS GAMER SHOULD MISS” - Slide to Play Deus...
Self-Control to Focus - Restrict Internet Overuse, Get Rid Of Online Game Addiction and Cyber Distraction
Productivity and Social Networking
App
Self-Control is based on my simple idea, that we can forget our password for a while to block...
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Hellboy (2019) in Movies
Apr 14, 2019
Oh...hell, no!
HELLBOY?!? HELL NO!
I would imagine that about 90% of my readership just got what they needed out of my review with that first line and have moved on. For the rest of you, I will now explain why this reboot of HELLBOY is now the "leader in the clubhouse" for worst picture of 2019.
I was pleasantly surprised by the 2004 Guillermo del Toro helmed and written HELLBOY and was even more surprised by how good the del Toro written and helmed HELLBOY II: THE GOLD ARMY (2008) was. I think that this was because there was a driving force - and vision - from a true auteur and was a perfect combination of material and artistic staff - including Ron Perlman in the title role.
This version of HELLBOY has none of that. No vision, no driving force and a "B" performance by David Harbour in the title role. It feels like what it is - a cash grab. I blame the studio who produced this film - Summit Entertainment - for "going on the cheap" on this one.
First off, they tapped a "B Movie" Director, Neil Marshall to Direct this thing. He is known for such artistic successes as DOOMSDAY and THE DESCENT - horror flicks that were heavy on gore, short on characters and plot - and that is what he brought to this film. Why worry about characters, plot or any kind of engaging features (including Special FX) when you can show, yet again, a body getting torn apart and blood spurting all over the screen.
The studio also skimped on the performers. Instead of Perlman, Selma Blair, John Hurt and Doug Jones you get David Harbour, Daniel Dae Kim, Mila Jovovich and a sleep-walking, just give me my paycheck, Ian McShane. It's like watching the "road company" of a Broadway show. While the actors are game (with the notable exception of McShane), they are "B picture" actors, much like the Director.
And...much like the special FX. I knew, going in, that the early word on this film was not good, but that never stops me. I like to make up my own mind, so I thought I'd "pony up" for the IMAX experience to, at least, see the CGI and FX on as large a screen with as good a sound system as possible. I shouldn't have bothered, for the CGI and FX were mediocre (at best) and all the big screen and sound did was emphasize how low quality the CGI was.
And...finally...the pacing of this film is problematic, at best. This is certainly a film that was written and edited within an inch of it's life for the "short attention span" audience of today. The prevailing theory was "why linger on a plot or a character or a moment when we can quick cut to another body getting pulled in two and watch a plume of blood spurt out in a giant arc)."
There are 2 scenes in the end credits to set up the next film(s) in this series. Films that I seriously doubt will be made. If they are, I hope they pump some more money into the budget and get a creative team with some artistic vision.
A swing and a miss.
Letter Grade: C (and I'm being generous)
4 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
I would imagine that about 90% of my readership just got what they needed out of my review with that first line and have moved on. For the rest of you, I will now explain why this reboot of HELLBOY is now the "leader in the clubhouse" for worst picture of 2019.
I was pleasantly surprised by the 2004 Guillermo del Toro helmed and written HELLBOY and was even more surprised by how good the del Toro written and helmed HELLBOY II: THE GOLD ARMY (2008) was. I think that this was because there was a driving force - and vision - from a true auteur and was a perfect combination of material and artistic staff - including Ron Perlman in the title role.
This version of HELLBOY has none of that. No vision, no driving force and a "B" performance by David Harbour in the title role. It feels like what it is - a cash grab. I blame the studio who produced this film - Summit Entertainment - for "going on the cheap" on this one.
First off, they tapped a "B Movie" Director, Neil Marshall to Direct this thing. He is known for such artistic successes as DOOMSDAY and THE DESCENT - horror flicks that were heavy on gore, short on characters and plot - and that is what he brought to this film. Why worry about characters, plot or any kind of engaging features (including Special FX) when you can show, yet again, a body getting torn apart and blood spurting all over the screen.
The studio also skimped on the performers. Instead of Perlman, Selma Blair, John Hurt and Doug Jones you get David Harbour, Daniel Dae Kim, Mila Jovovich and a sleep-walking, just give me my paycheck, Ian McShane. It's like watching the "road company" of a Broadway show. While the actors are game (with the notable exception of McShane), they are "B picture" actors, much like the Director.
And...much like the special FX. I knew, going in, that the early word on this film was not good, but that never stops me. I like to make up my own mind, so I thought I'd "pony up" for the IMAX experience to, at least, see the CGI and FX on as large a screen with as good a sound system as possible. I shouldn't have bothered, for the CGI and FX were mediocre (at best) and all the big screen and sound did was emphasize how low quality the CGI was.
And...finally...the pacing of this film is problematic, at best. This is certainly a film that was written and edited within an inch of it's life for the "short attention span" audience of today. The prevailing theory was "why linger on a plot or a character or a moment when we can quick cut to another body getting pulled in two and watch a plume of blood spurt out in a giant arc)."
There are 2 scenes in the end credits to set up the next film(s) in this series. Films that I seriously doubt will be made. If they are, I hope they pump some more money into the budget and get a creative team with some artistic vision.
A swing and a miss.
Letter Grade: C (and I'm being generous)
4 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Nobody (2021) in Movies
Jul 10, 2021
Having been out of the trailer game for a while this one managed to sneak up on me. It looked intriguing enough.
Hutch has a humdrum life. Work, home, sleep, repeat. When that monotony is broken by criminals, his past comes back to mix things up a bit.
This film is short and sweet, I was shocked to come out of the cinema to something that passed for sunlight. At just over an hour and a half it packs an action-filled punch. It does love a montage, which helps its length. I thought I'd get bored of them, but no, each time summed up the scenes well and really gave the non-action great pace to keep up with the actiony bits.
I loved the experience of seeing this in the cinema, the reactions were really entertaining. The air was filled with sharp intakes of breath and winces accompanied by laughter. It was a joyful bit of viewing. (Apart from the three women in front of me, for the second film in a row, who spoke "spoilers" out loud during the screening. They were obvious, and I could see them coming, but that wasn't really the point.)
Bob Odenkirk is one of those actors I recognise, but generally wouldn't be able to identify from anything specific. (Apart from the dad in Little Women.) That for me was worked really well as it's exactly what matched the character, Hutch needs to be forgettably memorable, and the pairing worked really well. His reactions to the violence added that underlying menace that really won me over. And I'm not going to lie, my reaction to my house is the same as his.
Christopher Lloyd was a pleasant surprise in the cast, and I wasn't disappointed with his scenes. Pure ridiculous joy. Could he have done with more to do? Maybe. Was I bothered that he didn't get it? Not really, it just made for a wonderful addition.
Seeing it jump around locations a nice touch, and it used confined spaces particularly well. The bus scene had me ducking and weaving along with the fighting. There were moments though where I wanted to see a little more of what was happening in some of those spaces though. There were some very elaborate setups but we seemed to be left with unanswered questions. The same goes for a couple of the other bits of the film, and while the intrigue sufficed for some, it didn't carry through to all of them.
Nobody proved to be an entertaining action film, John Wick for the "regular" person. It didn't get me so hyped that I was buzzing and couldn't sleep, it got me to the verbalising the action with every gut punch point... and I'm here for it. Can't fault it... apart from it not having more Christopher Lloyd action scenes.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/07/nobody-movie-review.html
Hutch has a humdrum life. Work, home, sleep, repeat. When that monotony is broken by criminals, his past comes back to mix things up a bit.
This film is short and sweet, I was shocked to come out of the cinema to something that passed for sunlight. At just over an hour and a half it packs an action-filled punch. It does love a montage, which helps its length. I thought I'd get bored of them, but no, each time summed up the scenes well and really gave the non-action great pace to keep up with the actiony bits.
I loved the experience of seeing this in the cinema, the reactions were really entertaining. The air was filled with sharp intakes of breath and winces accompanied by laughter. It was a joyful bit of viewing. (Apart from the three women in front of me, for the second film in a row, who spoke "spoilers" out loud during the screening. They were obvious, and I could see them coming, but that wasn't really the point.)
Bob Odenkirk is one of those actors I recognise, but generally wouldn't be able to identify from anything specific. (Apart from the dad in Little Women.) That for me was worked really well as it's exactly what matched the character, Hutch needs to be forgettably memorable, and the pairing worked really well. His reactions to the violence added that underlying menace that really won me over. And I'm not going to lie, my reaction to my house is the same as his.
Christopher Lloyd was a pleasant surprise in the cast, and I wasn't disappointed with his scenes. Pure ridiculous joy. Could he have done with more to do? Maybe. Was I bothered that he didn't get it? Not really, it just made for a wonderful addition.
Seeing it jump around locations a nice touch, and it used confined spaces particularly well. The bus scene had me ducking and weaving along with the fighting. There were moments though where I wanted to see a little more of what was happening in some of those spaces though. There were some very elaborate setups but we seemed to be left with unanswered questions. The same goes for a couple of the other bits of the film, and while the intrigue sufficed for some, it didn't carry through to all of them.
Nobody proved to be an entertaining action film, John Wick for the "regular" person. It didn't get me so hyped that I was buzzing and couldn't sleep, it got me to the verbalising the action with every gut punch point... and I'm here for it. Can't fault it... apart from it not having more Christopher Lloyd action scenes.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/07/nobody-movie-review.html
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Games and Entertainment
7.0
Rate It
App
*IMPORTANT* The Amazing Spider-Man 2 requires an iPad 2 (or newer), iPhone 4s (or newer), or iPod...
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Ready Player Two in Books
Jan 11, 2021
What happened?!
Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t known this sequel even existed. My joy at finding out there was a sequel was scuppered a little after hearing some not very positive things about it, however I couldn’t not read this after absolutely loving Ready Player One. I was hoping the reviews I’d read were wrong... but unfortunately not.
Right from the start, something feels off about Ready Player Two. It feels a little too forced and the writing style seems rather stilted and basic. All of the pop culture references feel forced and don’t flow, and a lot feel like they’ve been shoehorned in without really contributing to the story (there was a reference to Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor which is great but felt out of place). There was also a lot of explanations that were entirely unnecessary - one example was the description and explanation of Rivendell, which occurred multiple times in the first 100 pages alone. I don’t remember the original being quite so laboured and pedantic when it comes to explaining all of the references. What’s strange though is that there’s also some very subtle references thrown in - a nod to Warden Norton from Shawshank was very much appreciated - and it made me wonder if these were subtle nods or a lack of originality.
The problem with this is that it’s sadly rather dull. The new quest, despite the dire and life threatening consequences, doesn’t come across as particularly exciting or intriguing. It doesn’t help that the quests to gain the seven shards vary from overly descriptive (describing every level of the Sega Ninja game was particularly tedious) to rushed and blink and you’ll miss it, and I just found myself unable to invest very much in the story. I did want to carry on reading, but I’m unsure if this was due to interest or wanting to get to the end and find out if it gets any better. The ending didn’t help either. Some of it was great, but the rest which I won’t reveal gets far too technically complicated and goes a little too sci-fi, even for a novel set in a virtual reality style world.
I really wanted this to be good and instead it was just very disappointing. Another case of an unnecessary sequel, to the point where it has made me want to re-read the original to see if I may have over-egged how good that was too, as I just can’t see how this can be so bad.
Right from the start, something feels off about Ready Player Two. It feels a little too forced and the writing style seems rather stilted and basic. All of the pop culture references feel forced and don’t flow, and a lot feel like they’ve been shoehorned in without really contributing to the story (there was a reference to Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor which is great but felt out of place). There was also a lot of explanations that were entirely unnecessary - one example was the description and explanation of Rivendell, which occurred multiple times in the first 100 pages alone. I don’t remember the original being quite so laboured and pedantic when it comes to explaining all of the references. What’s strange though is that there’s also some very subtle references thrown in - a nod to Warden Norton from Shawshank was very much appreciated - and it made me wonder if these were subtle nods or a lack of originality.
The problem with this is that it’s sadly rather dull. The new quest, despite the dire and life threatening consequences, doesn’t come across as particularly exciting or intriguing. It doesn’t help that the quests to gain the seven shards vary from overly descriptive (describing every level of the Sega Ninja game was particularly tedious) to rushed and blink and you’ll miss it, and I just found myself unable to invest very much in the story. I did want to carry on reading, but I’m unsure if this was due to interest or wanting to get to the end and find out if it gets any better. The ending didn’t help either. Some of it was great, but the rest which I won’t reveal gets far too technically complicated and goes a little too sci-fi, even for a novel set in a virtual reality style world.
I really wanted this to be good and instead it was just very disappointing. Another case of an unnecessary sequel, to the point where it has made me want to re-read the original to see if I may have over-egged how good that was too, as I just can’t see how this can be so bad.
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) Apr 15, 2019
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) Apr 16, 2019