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The Longest Ride (2015)

7.2 (5 Ratings) Rate It

Movie

Ira Levinson is in trouble. At ninety-one years old, in poor health and alone in the world, he...

Elizabethan Espionage: Plotters and Spies in the Struggle Between Catholicism and the Crown

Patrick H. Martin

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

In the wake of the 1588 destruction of the Spanish Armada, English Catholics launched an ingenious...

Darren Hayman recommended I'm Nearly Famous by Cliff Richard in Music (curated)

I'm Nearly Famous by Cliff Richard

2001 | Rock

(0 Ratings)

Album Favorite

"I’m thinking a lot about both of my parents during this. They were both very ill with Coronavirus, and my dad recently passed away. My parents weren’t really into music, except that everyone bought LPs then because, well, you just did. There was nothing unusual about their taste; The Beatles, Sky and Elkie Brooks for my Dad; Cliff for my mum. A few years back, they wanted to be rid of their records; they had no use for them. “Don't you want them replaced? Get them on CD?” “No, we don't need them.” So now I’m the custodian of all these records. There is nothing wrong with Cliff Richard. Well, he’s a Tory, but apart from that, I will fight you. I’m Nearly Famous kicks off what I like to call ‘The Magnificent Seven’ series of albums that ends with Now You See Me, Now You Don’t. Together these behemoths of art redefine the parameters of music and leave a wake of destruction in their path. He can sing in tune AND in time. He is brilliant. There is something so welcoming about the sound of these records. It’s a period of high-end ‘fabuloso’ production, where everything is exquisite and perfectly placed. These albums sound like Patrick Bateman’s apartment in American Psycho. This album includes ‘Miss You Nights’. There are better songs, but humans haven't heard them."

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Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated The House (2017) in Movies

Sep 19, 2020 (Updated Sep 19, 2020)

The House (2017)

2017 | Comedy

5.7

(19 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Not a better movie than 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘰, but by far a better analogy between crime-soaked gambling and the bloody baseball bat of capitalism - as unintentional as I'm sure the allusion is here. Given how much of a dead horse the target of whitebread suburbia is even well through twenty-five years ago now, I'll give this some freshness points in the way it portrays the quest for fair financial stability in lieu of absurdly-gouged education prices, big banks, etc. by the warping of the upper-middle-class into an entire demographic forced to confront their own morals when they're encouraged into private crime upon the abject failure of their own government by way of goofy dark comedy. Starts off like your routine bland improvy entry into the 'haha raunchy families' trend and progressively becomes more and more doused in blood, blunt trauma, property damage, and general chaos that throws moron policemen, corrupt officeholders, and the inherent violence of America's economic system into the fire in its wake. Plus it's brisk (for fucking once with this genre good Lord) and has a ton of laughs even though I believe it still seems generally uninterested in its own plot in addition to criminally underutilizing both Ferrell and Poehler's talents together as well. The bit with Nick Kroll at the end was fucking gut-bustingly hilarious.

Kudos

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Saw II (2005) in Movies

Oct 3, 2020

Saw II (2005)

2005 | Horror, Mystery

6.7

(23 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Out of the slew of sequels that followed in the wake of the success of the first film, Saw II is easily the most watchable.

Everything is upped - more blood, more victims, more absurd traps for them to escape from - but it succeeds where the other sequels miserably failed, keeping it all fairly reigned in for the most part, assuring that the plot carries a substantial amount of intrigue, instead of getting buried under gratuitous torture.

We get to see more Tobin Bell this time around, which is certainly a good thing. His increased presence as antagonist Jigsaw is a high point of the movie. Donnie Wahlberg and Shawnee Smith have a little more to do in the franchise going forward, but the rest of the cast are hugely dull and forgettable, obvious cannon fodder for Jigsaws' games.

The various traps are imaginative without going overboard as well, and are effective - the pit of syringes, the pig carcasses, and especially the lockbox with wrist slicing blades, are all pretty memorable without throwing heaps of gore at the viewer.

Saw II is a half decent follow up to the great original. You could happily watch the first two and not bother with any of the others, and still be suitably satisfied, unless, like me, you're a glutton for punishment.