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The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (1957)
The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (1957)
1957 | Action, International, Classics
7.8 (4 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The next one, I think we got to go to Bergman. We go to go to Seventh Seal. Seventh Seal just knocked me dead. On many levels, it’s such a simple film. You’ve got Mary and Joseph, the young people with their little traveling theater, and then you’ve got the knight. I think it was the way he dealt with the Middle Ages and intrigued me with Death there at playing chess. Those were images that just stuck in my head. It was funny. When I was doing Parnassus, I went back and looked at it, because I was trying to remind myself what Mary and Joseph and their little traveling theater was like. I had forgotten so much detail. That was just a really important film, and Max von Sydow was something… The first time I had seen basically a non-American actor at work. He looked different. He behaved differently. Because, you know, I grew up with Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Doris Day, Rock Hudson — shiny teeth and beautifully combed hair and all of that nonsense. Something profound was going on in that movie without pointing fingers at anything. It just did it. The squire — that was Gunnar Björnstrand, I think — was just a great character, the cynic in the midst of it all. I remember when he was talking, when he was in this church, and all the frescoes are there, and it’s just profound filmmaking."

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Noel Gallagher recommended The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths in Music (curated)

 
The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths
The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths
1986 | Rock

"Some people would say that The Smiths never really recorded one great album and that they were more of a singles band and I kind of see what they mean. I do really like Meat Is Murder, which is a weirdly psychedelic record with really long tracks. They really did the legwork with that album. But I remember before The Queen Is Dead came out it was an event… they were about to release their first album as a big band. I remember hearing the first single, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, and they had moved on. And then I got it and… the cover was awful… just a piece of shit. But then I played it and it starts with that sample: 'Oh take me back to dear old Blighty…' And it was, 'Fucking hell…' Just astonishing. One of the best openings to an album ever. And that’s before you get to ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. They could have had the photograph outside of Salford Lads Club as the front cover but then Morrissey is wearing a really daft jacket. It’s brown with black love hearts on it. Very strange. I remember seeing them on that tour when they came to the G-Mex. They came on stage to 'The Queen Is Dead' and Morrissey was carrying a placard that said, 'Two pale ales please'. He had a white blazer on and shades and, fuck me, he looked like Elvis."

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The Lighthouse (2019)
The Lighthouse (2019)
2019 | Drama, Horror

"I shamefully saw this study in maritime lunacy on one of those industry links that emit noxious gas from your computer if you dare to forward to anyone. I was about to do a joint interview with Robert Eggers for MovieMaker magazine, hence the link, and was pretty excited given how much I loved “The Witch.” “The Lighthouse” is unlike anything I’ve seen. Willem Dafoe reminded me a lot of a security guard I worked with at Trollope & Colls joinery in Reading many moons ago. It was that look in the eye from someone who saw too much of what was in their head. That’s something I instantly recognized and it brought me right back to the gates of that joinery. There were too many similarities — the pride in the job, the obsessive attention to detail, the authoritarian streak and the delusion. I got to reimagine my days archiving a room of architect’s drawings in a joinery as being stuck in a lighthouse with a flatulent Willem Dafoe. I adored the dialogue and I could listen to Dafoe and Pattinson endlessly if Mr. Eggers ever did any radio play spin-offs. There are elements of Harold Pinter and Herman Melville amongst a host of other touchstones I probably missed, but it’s a film steeped in its own logic. Its saline black & white photography is also moody enough to probably tempt Béla Tarr out of retirement."

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Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs: A Candle and a Promise
Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs: A Candle and a Promise
Deborah Donnelly | 2017 | History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
For me, it is always incredibly sad to read holocaust memoirs or any memoirs related to concentration camps. The amount of suffering it has brought to the innocent people, it is hard to comprehend.

The description of this book is pretty accurate. This book is a story of a poor polish- Jewish boy called Hank, and how he survived the Holocaust. The story starts with Hank’s childhood to post survival activities. After being taken to the concentration camp, Hank did not stay for long in one place, he was transported many times to different camps, and he shared the events he had to endure and people he met.

The book is accompanied by plenty of photos of different events, different concentration camps which Hank was transported to, and also pictures of Hank’s family. I loved the short chapters, and I finished this memoir in one sitting. For me it was gripping and I really wanted to find out what happened next after each chapter. So, to conclude, I am very happy that Hank had a chance to survive and shared his experiences with all the readers. It was a horrible period in human history, and I believe that it should not be left forgotten. So, if you into WWII books, give this book a go, it is a chilling read, filled with pain and sorrow, but it shows, that even in the worst of times, some people can still keep their kindness.
  
Pulse (2006)
Pulse (2006)
2006 | Horror, Mystery
Offensively awful, legitimately reprehensible filmmaking. I challenge anyone to find a worse American remake of Japanese horror than this. Not at all shocking how mercilessly they unceremoniously gutted the original of any sense of breadth, nuance, emotion, horror, intelligence, memorability, you know - all of that stuff that actually makes a half-decent horror film because apparently us dumb Yanks just couldn't handle any ounce of it... but by God did it have to look like moldy garbage too? This may be the worst looking film I've ever seen, whoever color-coded this to look like a chemical reaction between bleach and rotting flesh better have been blacklisted from working in the film industry since. I had to stop somewhere around the halfway point (which still felt like a goddamn century even though this barely touches 90 minutes with credits) because I felt physically ill from stomaching these shit visuals for that long. Of course it's ineptly acted, too. Is this what they thought the original meant? Some doltish technophobic lecture about how cell phones are as evil as murderous demons which also doesn't have a single milliliter of character to its name? The kind of stuff that could feasibly be used in torture chambers to get information out of people. So ironic that it kept the name, because it honestly doesn't have any pulse to speak of. Needed a trigger warning for pure stupidity.
  
All the Money in the World (2017)
All the Money in the World (2017)
2017 | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.



This is a difficult one to sum up. I managed to see this by the skin of my teeth, it flew out of the listings almost as quickly as it arrived. The trailer did the film a lot of good, there was enough intrigue and star quality to make it appeal. But I'm not sure it delivered what I was hoping for.

Plummer worked well as the formidable Getty. I'm not sure I could have seen Kevin Spacey playing the part, the initial casting seems truly bizarre. I can't help but wonder how much the reshooting affected the final product. For a week and a half of reshoots though you have to give them credit for the efficiency of it.

Even now I'm struggling to find things to say about this one. I was left bored and surprisingly unengaged. A terrible habit that I haven't actually done in about a year resurfaced during this film... when I'm bored and without anything to do I will sit and bite my nails, and about half way into this film I was fully aware that I was rapidly losing length on my nails.

The story is an interesting one but it never felt like it really made its way from being a two dimensional story.
  
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
2017 | Horror, Sci-Fi
Contains spoilers, click to show
A new Alien film is something I look forward too. They promised we would find out about xeno origins and see new strains. Plus, Ridley was directing, what could go wrong?
You could end up making a film that feels like a remake of the first film.

The set up to get us to the planet, crew interaction and things going badly wrong on the planet feels so familiar.

So the positives, Michael Fassbender is outstanding in his performance as Walter/David. He seriously acts rings round anybody else.
The score is fabulous and rich.
Danny McBride is also noteworthy for his performance.
Katherine Waterston is likeable but feels like trying to be Ripley but not.

Negatives the Xenos get very little screen time. I think were 45 mins+ in before we see one.
Billy Crudup is very unlikeable and his death barely made me care.
The origin story ending up been David created the xenos. I don't know this stuck in my craw a bit. I just feel vengeful synthetic created the ultimate organism is a bit of a let down.
After, the first film Scott said he expected other sequels to ask "where did the xeno come from?" question.

The problem is that question is difficult to give a satisfactory answer too. Like most fandom people have there own theories and in truth does it matter?

Covenant has big ideas, it just doesn't execute them all properly.
  
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Bethr1986 (305 KP) rated Strength Check (Dungeons and Dating #1) in Books

Aug 27, 2021 (Updated Aug 27, 2021)  
Strength Check (Dungeons and Dating #1)
Strength Check (Dungeons and Dating #1)
Katherine McIntyre | 2021 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
9
8.8 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Roxie is trying to run a successful business with her closest friends at the same time as trying to put back together her heart that has been torn to shreds.
Mel has moved states to get farther up the career ladder as well as far away as possible from her toxic ex who is not getting we are just friends.
When Roxie first sees Mel a fire starts to burn will it be extinguished or will the flames devour them both and give them both a sense of worth and the love they've both been missing out on?

This was just a gorgeously written story it really made my heart melt. The feelings that Roxie gets about herself, feels like I'm reading my own story the self doubt through years of abuse and put downs plays that heavily on her that she feels she has to destroy what she feels could be something good because she doesn't think she's worth it, it is absolutely heartbreaking!
I love that the friendship with Mel helps with her healing process and that they are both helping each other recover along with the friends who are as close a family.

It really does give you that warm fuzzy feeling. I did find myself shouting at Roxie a couple of times and Mel if I'm honest but it was worth the wait. Deffinatly recommend 4/5