Search
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
Contains spoilers, click to show
I would like to start by saying that I have, at the time of writing this, never seen any of the previous ‘The Fast and The Furious’ films and my knowledge of the franchise is; Film 1 - some people steel some cars, Film 2 – more cars get stolen, Film 3 racing in Japan, then apparently they get weird so I wasn’t total sure what I was getting into but hay any film that has an evil cyborg going up against two action hero’s has to be good. Doesn’t it?
Of course it does. I’m not going to pretend that ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ is a massive cinematic masterpiece but you it knows what it is, a ‘no brainier’ action film that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The plot is, of course simple and ridiculous, to stop the technological enhanced Brixton from getting a virus that can wipe out most of the people on earth Hattie injects it into herself. Hobbs & Shaw are hired to get Hattie and the virus back. Hobbs and Shaw don’t like each other having met before in one of the previous films and Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham play this brilliantly, bouncing insults off each other though out most of the film.
The film does have a slight serious theme as the subject of family is tackled but this only helps the flow of the film.
The only side effect of not seeing any of the other films was that I was unsure if Brixton had been in any of them before, there was a backstory between him and Shaw but I couldn’t tell if it did refer to something seen before or if it was just for this film. There was also a second bad guy who mentioned that Hobbs didn’t remember him but it was never reviled who this was and as neither of these points impact on the film they do not take away any of the enjoyment.
So If you like easy going action films with car chases and explosions this film is for you.
Of course it does. I’m not going to pretend that ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ is a massive cinematic masterpiece but you it knows what it is, a ‘no brainier’ action film that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The plot is, of course simple and ridiculous, to stop the technological enhanced Brixton from getting a virus that can wipe out most of the people on earth Hattie injects it into herself. Hobbs & Shaw are hired to get Hattie and the virus back. Hobbs and Shaw don’t like each other having met before in one of the previous films and Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham play this brilliantly, bouncing insults off each other though out most of the film.
The film does have a slight serious theme as the subject of family is tackled but this only helps the flow of the film.
The only side effect of not seeing any of the other films was that I was unsure if Brixton had been in any of them before, there was a backstory between him and Shaw but I couldn’t tell if it did refer to something seen before or if it was just for this film. There was also a second bad guy who mentioned that Hobbs didn’t remember him but it was never reviled who this was and as neither of these points impact on the film they do not take away any of the enjoyment.
So If you like easy going action films with car chases and explosions this film is for you.
Darren (1599 KP) rated Refuge (2013) in Movies
Sep 26, 2019
Characters – The characters focus on a family, Jack the father, the man that will do everything to keep his family safe, even if it means taking risks by saving strangers, he doesn’t back down from enemies or threats, but is forced into decisions he doesn’t want to make. Nell is the wife and mother, we don’t really learn too much about her though, she falls in the woman being protected circle. Birdie is the daughter that doesn’t fully understand the world and wants to just be a child in this world. Kyle is one of the people that Jack has saved in the past.
Performances – The performances from the cast are great throughout, we feel their bleak outlook on the life they are living which is what we want to see, the final act shows them at their best too.
Story – The story here follows a family in a post-apocalyptic world where the biggest threats marauders and the virus that has wiped out most of the world. This is a bleak story that helps show us just how desperate the world now is and not having any sort of zombie side to everything giving us the only enemy the human one. This keeps everything simple because it is all we need, even though it does follow the typical mistakes being made by the characters.
Thriller – This does try to keep us on the edge of our seats about whether our characters will survive and what is next in line for them.
Settings – The film keeps us in the bleak locations from start to finish, they show where people will survive and keeps us away from the big city.
Scene of the Movie – The break in.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Just shot them.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the best looking bleak virus outbreak movies, it does have questionable character decisions but that does add to the drama.
Overall: Simple and effective.
Performances – The performances from the cast are great throughout, we feel their bleak outlook on the life they are living which is what we want to see, the final act shows them at their best too.
Story – The story here follows a family in a post-apocalyptic world where the biggest threats marauders and the virus that has wiped out most of the world. This is a bleak story that helps show us just how desperate the world now is and not having any sort of zombie side to everything giving us the only enemy the human one. This keeps everything simple because it is all we need, even though it does follow the typical mistakes being made by the characters.
Thriller – This does try to keep us on the edge of our seats about whether our characters will survive and what is next in line for them.
Settings – The film keeps us in the bleak locations from start to finish, they show where people will survive and keeps us away from the big city.
Scene of the Movie – The break in.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Just shot them.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the best looking bleak virus outbreak movies, it does have questionable character decisions but that does add to the drama.
Overall: Simple and effective.
Darren (1599 KP) rated Swiss Family Robinson (1960) in Movies
Sep 26, 2019
Characters – The characters focus on a family, Jack the father, the man that will do everything to keep his family safe, even if it means taking risks by saving strangers, he doesn’t back down from enemies or threats, but is forced into decisions he doesn’t want to make. Nell is the wife and mother, we don’t really learn too much about her though, she falls in the woman being protected circle. Birdie is the daughter that doesn’t fully understand the world and wants to just be a child in this world. Kyle is one of the people that Jack has saved in the past.
Performances – The performances from the cast are great throughout, we feel their bleak outlook on the life they are living which is what we want to see, the final act shows them at their best too.
Story – The story here follows a family in a post-apocalyptic world where the biggest threats marauders and the virus that has wiped out most of the world. This is a bleak story that helps show us just how desperate the world now is and not having any sort of zombie side to everything giving us the only enemy the human one. This keeps everything simple because it is all we need, even though it does follow the typical mistakes being made by the characters.
Thriller – This does try to keep us on the edge of our seats about whether our characters will survive and what is next in line for them.
Settings – The film keeps us in the bleak locations from start to finish, they show where people will survive and keeps us away from the big city.
Scene of the Movie – The break in.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Just shot them.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the best looking bleak virus outbreak movies, it does have questionable character decisions but that does add to the drama.
Overall: Simple and effective.
Performances – The performances from the cast are great throughout, we feel their bleak outlook on the life they are living which is what we want to see, the final act shows them at their best too.
Story – The story here follows a family in a post-apocalyptic world where the biggest threats marauders and the virus that has wiped out most of the world. This is a bleak story that helps show us just how desperate the world now is and not having any sort of zombie side to everything giving us the only enemy the human one. This keeps everything simple because it is all we need, even though it does follow the typical mistakes being made by the characters.
Thriller – This does try to keep us on the edge of our seats about whether our characters will survive and what is next in line for them.
Settings – The film keeps us in the bleak locations from start to finish, they show where people will survive and keeps us away from the big city.
Scene of the Movie – The break in.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Just shot them.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the best looking bleak virus outbreak movies, it does have questionable character decisions but that does add to the drama.
Overall: Simple and effective.
Hazel (2934 KP) rated Ravage (Ravaged World Trilogy #2) in Books
Sep 28, 2019
I just love a good horror book every now and then as it enables me to put all believability aside and just go along for the ride ... this one did the job and is another great story from Iain Rob Wright. Despite it being the second in the series ("Sea Sick" being the first), it can easily be read as a standalone.
I don't read an awful lot of zombie apocalypse books so don't have anything to compare this one with which, I think, is probably a good thing as I had no expectations but I was a lover of The Walking Dead and I do think this is similar in it's plot, i.e. a band of survivors coming up against hordes of the living dead and various miscreants in society where no one is safe and anyone can meet their end at any time regardless of their importance.
There is your usual set of characters in this book from the nice to the downright nasty some of which are more developed than others which I think is out of necessity as there are many of them. The various settings are perfect and "normal", the writing is set at a good pace and is easy to read. There are, as you would expect, many scenes of peril and death with a good smattering of blood and gore (not always due to the zombies) but also more tender moments that provided some relief and softness in what would otherwise be a bleak read.
I felt the addition of "The Path of Infection" at the end was excellent and provided an explanation as to how the virus spread from when it came ashore to reaching one of the main characters, Nick, and it makes you think just how easily this could happen in the real world with any virus or infection such as flu, Ebola, etc.
Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read and now I'm off to read "Savage", the last in the series.
I don't read an awful lot of zombie apocalypse books so don't have anything to compare this one with which, I think, is probably a good thing as I had no expectations but I was a lover of The Walking Dead and I do think this is similar in it's plot, i.e. a band of survivors coming up against hordes of the living dead and various miscreants in society where no one is safe and anyone can meet their end at any time regardless of their importance.
There is your usual set of characters in this book from the nice to the downright nasty some of which are more developed than others which I think is out of necessity as there are many of them. The various settings are perfect and "normal", the writing is set at a good pace and is easy to read. There are, as you would expect, many scenes of peril and death with a good smattering of blood and gore (not always due to the zombies) but also more tender moments that provided some relief and softness in what would otherwise be a bleak read.
I felt the addition of "The Path of Infection" at the end was excellent and provided an explanation as to how the virus spread from when it came ashore to reaching one of the main characters, Nick, and it makes you think just how easily this could happen in the real world with any virus or infection such as flu, Ebola, etc.
Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read and now I'm off to read "Savage", the last in the series.
Alex Fletcher Complete Series Boxset 1 - 5
9.0
Rate It
Book
The Jakarta Pandemic (Book 1) Cases of a highly lethal virus appear in major cities around the...
David McK (3425 KP) rated Death Troopers (Star Wars) in Books
Jan 30, 2019
Take a classic Space Opera saga (Star Wars), add a soupcon of horror (Aliens), and a large dose of Zombies (Resident Evil), and what do you have?
This book.
The plot? An Imperial prison barge breaks down, and then comes across a seemingly abandoned Star Destroyer out in the wastes of space. It transpires that the Destroyer is not abandoned after all, and that it had been carrying out bio-weapon experiments ...
Definitely felt like the author was (heavily) inspired by the Resident Evil games/films: the Zombies are such not as the living dead back-to-life of Romero, but as a result of a engineered virus. The Aliens link I mentioned comes in on the 'set-on-prison-<s>planet</s>barge' setting, and I'm also not entirely sure why he felt the need to drop Han Solo and Chewbacca into the mix, unless that was just so you would know it is a Star Wars novel?
Not the best Extended Universe book.
This book.
The plot? An Imperial prison barge breaks down, and then comes across a seemingly abandoned Star Destroyer out in the wastes of space. It transpires that the Destroyer is not abandoned after all, and that it had been carrying out bio-weapon experiments ...
Definitely felt like the author was (heavily) inspired by the Resident Evil games/films: the Zombies are such not as the living dead back-to-life of Romero, but as a result of a engineered virus. The Aliens link I mentioned comes in on the 'set-on-prison-<s>planet</s>barge' setting, and I'm also not entirely sure why he felt the need to drop Han Solo and Chewbacca into the mix, unless that was just so you would know it is a Star Wars novel?
Not the best Extended Universe book.
Barry Newman (204 KP) rated Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) in Movies
Jan 28, 2020
I've only ever seen the first F&F movie , not being particularly interested in cars and put off by the prospect of 8 movies so its fair to say I went into this with fairly low expectations. Considering I am not really up on the characters back stories (I gather there has been some beef of some sort) I actually thought this was quite good fun. Its got nothing to do with the street racing origins of the series and is now more of a poor mans Mission Impossible. Some cobblers about a virus wiping out the planet and a surgically enhanced Idris Elba shouting allot is about the gist of it. All you need to know there is some quite entertaining switch your brain off action scenes and plenty of wisecracks and banter from Statham and Johnson to keep you entertained. You know its all bollocks but you just can't help but enjoy it.
Fatigue Solution: My Astonishing Journey from Medical Write-Off to Mountains and Marathons
Book
More than 20 years ago, Health Educator and veterinary surgeon Max Tuck approached collapse with...
The Delicate Dependancy
Book
They are cool to the touch and alluringly beautiful in their ageless youth. Their laughter seduces,...
Vampire Victorian Horror
AJaneClark (3975 KP) rated Sea Sick in Books
Sep 5, 2019
Groundhog? More like Groundzombie Day
Sent away to relax by work, British cop Jack is being punished after killing a drug dealer that murdered his “partner”. And punished he is indeed. Sent aboard a cruise ship heading around the Med, Jack believes he is going to read, drink and relax. However this is not the case. Jack finds himself faced by hundred of virus infected men, women and children who turn into ravenous, insane cannibals that want to tear people apart. Jack spends the day fighting for his life, trying to work out what’s going on, but then he’s caught! Just when he think he’s about to bite the bullet, Jack wakes up in his bed and the day starts again. This is a well written and well presented story. Pulls you in and entertains you. Not a massively long read but great for a nighttime story!