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Darren (1599 KP) rated The Invisible Man (1933) in Movies
Mar 2, 2020
Verdict: Classic
Story: The Invisible Man starts as the heavily bandaged man Dr Jack Griffin (Rains) stumbles through a snow storm to a tavern demanding a room to try and fix the problem he faces, the fact he is now invisible, which strikes fear into the tavern and town.
Dr Cranley (Travers) and Dr Kemp (Harrigan) are trying to figure out what happened to Jack, even though he has started to become insane with the side effects of becoming invisible, showing just how dangerous he has become.
Thoughts on The Invisible Man
Characters – Dr Jack Griffin has become invisible after performing an experiment on himself, he covers himself up not to scare people, making himself look like an injured man, as he tries to find a cure, only it makes him act crazier become a psycho that is willing to kill to escape. Flora is the partner of Jack’s who is trying to make sure he is safe, getting worried believing he will still having good in him. Dr Kemp is one of the scientists that gets caught up in the middle of trying to help Jack and being scared of what he could be, unlike Dr Cranley that knows more of the secrets of the substance he has been using.
Performances – Claude Rains is haunting and disturbing in the leading role, he shows how easily he can snap and how desperate he has been to fix himself. Elsewhere the cast are strong, most reacting to the action more than anything else.
Story – The story follows a man that has become invisible and is desperately trying to recover from his experiment, which has caused him to get more aggressive towards people in life, causing the locals to go in search for him to get stop him. This is an interesting story that shows how people will come together to solve a problem and will be left in fear of the unexplained. While the story might show a villainous figure, it would have been nice to see the science behind what caused what happened, only this might have been difficult to achieve for the time this was made. This is a story that does show hunting for what can’t be seen is interesting to see.
Horror/Sci-Fi – The horror comes from the shock value of seeing Jack without the bandages for the first time and just what he could get up to without being seen, while the sci-fi side of the film does show us just how the unexplained could become terrifying.
Settings – The film does use the settings to show how Jack can go into hiding, or where he could go for answers.
Special Effects – The effects are amazing for the time, when we see the unbandaging sequence it is truly shocking to see.
Scene of the Movie – Jack shows us beneath the bandages.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – We don’t learn enough of the science.
Final Thoughts – This is a true classic of cinema, bringing us one of the first horror icons in the genre in the 1930s and is a film you need to check out.
Overall: Horror Classic.
Story: The Invisible Man starts as the heavily bandaged man Dr Jack Griffin (Rains) stumbles through a snow storm to a tavern demanding a room to try and fix the problem he faces, the fact he is now invisible, which strikes fear into the tavern and town.
Dr Cranley (Travers) and Dr Kemp (Harrigan) are trying to figure out what happened to Jack, even though he has started to become insane with the side effects of becoming invisible, showing just how dangerous he has become.
Thoughts on The Invisible Man
Characters – Dr Jack Griffin has become invisible after performing an experiment on himself, he covers himself up not to scare people, making himself look like an injured man, as he tries to find a cure, only it makes him act crazier become a psycho that is willing to kill to escape. Flora is the partner of Jack’s who is trying to make sure he is safe, getting worried believing he will still having good in him. Dr Kemp is one of the scientists that gets caught up in the middle of trying to help Jack and being scared of what he could be, unlike Dr Cranley that knows more of the secrets of the substance he has been using.
Performances – Claude Rains is haunting and disturbing in the leading role, he shows how easily he can snap and how desperate he has been to fix himself. Elsewhere the cast are strong, most reacting to the action more than anything else.
Story – The story follows a man that has become invisible and is desperately trying to recover from his experiment, which has caused him to get more aggressive towards people in life, causing the locals to go in search for him to get stop him. This is an interesting story that shows how people will come together to solve a problem and will be left in fear of the unexplained. While the story might show a villainous figure, it would have been nice to see the science behind what caused what happened, only this might have been difficult to achieve for the time this was made. This is a story that does show hunting for what can’t be seen is interesting to see.
Horror/Sci-Fi – The horror comes from the shock value of seeing Jack without the bandages for the first time and just what he could get up to without being seen, while the sci-fi side of the film does show us just how the unexplained could become terrifying.
Settings – The film does use the settings to show how Jack can go into hiding, or where he could go for answers.
Special Effects – The effects are amazing for the time, when we see the unbandaging sequence it is truly shocking to see.
Scene of the Movie – Jack shows us beneath the bandages.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – We don’t learn enough of the science.
Final Thoughts – This is a true classic of cinema, bringing us one of the first horror icons in the genre in the 1930s and is a film you need to check out.
Overall: Horror Classic.
JT (287 KP) rated Buried (2010) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
Shot with a low budget and entirely in one location (inside Paul’s coffin), Buried is a very intense and gripping movie, which plays on the age-old human fear of being buried alive and takes it to whole new levels.
Paul not only has to deal with thoughts of his almost imminent demise, but he also has to endure the psychological torment that comes with realising that your loved ones are in terrible danger and that the people whom your life depends upon don’t really care about your fate. This is the story of Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds), an American contractor working on an assignment in Iraq, who wakes up in something which looks like a makeshift wooden coffin, alone, and with no recollection of when and how he ended up there. All he remembers is that he and his colleagues were attacked by a group of Iraqi insurgents.
Understandably, he begins to panic, frantically trying to escape before realising that he won’t be able to do it on his own. Whoever buried him left a mobile phone, a lighter, a knife, a torch and some glow sticks in the coffin, and such items quickly become Paul’s connection to the outside world and his only hope of survival.
This situation is so exceptional (thankfully) that the film’s real challenge is to try and represent it as realistically as possible. What would you do? Would you let the nerves get the better of you, or would your will to live step in instead, and make you stay focused in trying to save yourself?
Ryan Reynolds does an excellent job in this, his Paul Conroy is human, desperate, scared, with no superhero pretence. The direction, by Rodrigo Cortes, is vivid, realistic, and makes good use of the limited space that the coffin setting allows to show; anxious people should try watching this anyway because, while it is undoubtedly claustrophobic, Paul’s determination to stay alive and the pull of wanting to know what’s going on outside keeps the mind occupied.
The voice of Hostage Work Group operator Dan Brenner (Robert Paterson) is possibly a little too “staged” and “actorish”, making it sound somewhat fake but also sinister, going to heighten the feeling of dread. Buried manages to be scary, tense, and yet ironic in representing the ignorance, incompetence and cowardice behind the behaviours of people we are supposed to trust in dangerous situations.
The whole film maintains a focused and realistic eye on the suffering of the protagonist – because we are supposed to feel what he feels, to be there with him in his fight for life- except maybe in a few moments when it slips into “mainstream”, cheap stratagems to reiterate that Paul is a good man who doesn’t deserve his fate (for example, when he calls his ill, senile mother who lives in a home and can’t even remember him).
Definitely best watched in a cinema screen rather than on DVD, this is a film which is very well done, and interesting; you will want to see what happens of Paul but also how his story is told from the confines of his coffin buried underground.
Paul not only has to deal with thoughts of his almost imminent demise, but he also has to endure the psychological torment that comes with realising that your loved ones are in terrible danger and that the people whom your life depends upon don’t really care about your fate. This is the story of Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds), an American contractor working on an assignment in Iraq, who wakes up in something which looks like a makeshift wooden coffin, alone, and with no recollection of when and how he ended up there. All he remembers is that he and his colleagues were attacked by a group of Iraqi insurgents.
Understandably, he begins to panic, frantically trying to escape before realising that he won’t be able to do it on his own. Whoever buried him left a mobile phone, a lighter, a knife, a torch and some glow sticks in the coffin, and such items quickly become Paul’s connection to the outside world and his only hope of survival.
This situation is so exceptional (thankfully) that the film’s real challenge is to try and represent it as realistically as possible. What would you do? Would you let the nerves get the better of you, or would your will to live step in instead, and make you stay focused in trying to save yourself?
Ryan Reynolds does an excellent job in this, his Paul Conroy is human, desperate, scared, with no superhero pretence. The direction, by Rodrigo Cortes, is vivid, realistic, and makes good use of the limited space that the coffin setting allows to show; anxious people should try watching this anyway because, while it is undoubtedly claustrophobic, Paul’s determination to stay alive and the pull of wanting to know what’s going on outside keeps the mind occupied.
The voice of Hostage Work Group operator Dan Brenner (Robert Paterson) is possibly a little too “staged” and “actorish”, making it sound somewhat fake but also sinister, going to heighten the feeling of dread. Buried manages to be scary, tense, and yet ironic in representing the ignorance, incompetence and cowardice behind the behaviours of people we are supposed to trust in dangerous situations.
The whole film maintains a focused and realistic eye on the suffering of the protagonist – because we are supposed to feel what he feels, to be there with him in his fight for life- except maybe in a few moments when it slips into “mainstream”, cheap stratagems to reiterate that Paul is a good man who doesn’t deserve his fate (for example, when he calls his ill, senile mother who lives in a home and can’t even remember him).
Definitely best watched in a cinema screen rather than on DVD, this is a film which is very well done, and interesting; you will want to see what happens of Paul but also how his story is told from the confines of his coffin buried underground.
Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated The Core Fulcrum in Books
Apr 6, 2020
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
The Core Fulcrum by Prashanti Talluri has multiple details that made me think it was largely inspired by Harry Potter. The school has rooms that move daily which were a big reminder of Harry Potter but there were multiple little things as well.
Snowball and Goldie are two kittens that have just started the fifth grade. Like the school's humans are used to there are classes that everyone has to take an optional class. It is one of these optional classes that Snowball, Goldie, and some of their friends choose that sends them on an amazing and scary adventure. They all choose to take part in the class called “Curiosity Kills the Cat”, but so does their class bully Hisky.
In this class, after passing a test they learn of the Core Fulcrum. They learn that the Core Fulcrum is a powerful artifact that is responsible for all the cat’s extraordinary abilities. The problem is that the Core Fulcrum is missing and that could cause major issues for all cats unless it is found soon. Their solution is to enlist the help of kittens in school to join the dangerous search for this all-important item. Can they find it before it it's too late and the rats figure out how to use it?
I like how it acknowledges how cats essentially got their independence from humans (although I can’t help but wonder what happened to the people). It was also interesting how the casts and rats have created separate kingdoms from each other and even seem to war with each other to some extent. Honestly things like the snakes that bite their tails to function as seat belts just seemed a bit farfetched, along with busses that seem to be living animals at the same time (or maybe just created to mimic animal abilities, I am not sure). Then there was how the cats were in harnesses to practice for their version of the Olympics yet they were going through tunnels without getting tangled and finishing in around fifteen seconds seemed unrealistic even for cats.
This is a children's book all the way. I don’t think may people past middle school would be all that interested in it or find it very enjoyable. It may even be questionable for some middle school readers. It all depends on how well a reader can accept the strangeness of this book. I rate this book 2 out of 4. This is because the base story is good but the details just felt awkward. I just don’t think anyone but younger readers are going to be into it. I could be wrong though.
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Snowball and Goldie are two kittens that have just started the fifth grade. Like the school's humans are used to there are classes that everyone has to take an optional class. It is one of these optional classes that Snowball, Goldie, and some of their friends choose that sends them on an amazing and scary adventure. They all choose to take part in the class called “Curiosity Kills the Cat”, but so does their class bully Hisky.
In this class, after passing a test they learn of the Core Fulcrum. They learn that the Core Fulcrum is a powerful artifact that is responsible for all the cat’s extraordinary abilities. The problem is that the Core Fulcrum is missing and that could cause major issues for all cats unless it is found soon. Their solution is to enlist the help of kittens in school to join the dangerous search for this all-important item. Can they find it before it it's too late and the rats figure out how to use it?
I like how it acknowledges how cats essentially got their independence from humans (although I can’t help but wonder what happened to the people). It was also interesting how the casts and rats have created separate kingdoms from each other and even seem to war with each other to some extent. Honestly things like the snakes that bite their tails to function as seat belts just seemed a bit farfetched, along with busses that seem to be living animals at the same time (or maybe just created to mimic animal abilities, I am not sure). Then there was how the cats were in harnesses to practice for their version of the Olympics yet they were going through tunnels without getting tangled and finishing in around fifteen seconds seemed unrealistic even for cats.
This is a children's book all the way. I don’t think may people past middle school would be all that interested in it or find it very enjoyable. It may even be questionable for some middle school readers. It all depends on how well a reader can accept the strangeness of this book. I rate this book 2 out of 4. This is because the base story is good but the details just felt awkward. I just don’t think anyone but younger readers are going to be into it. I could be wrong though.
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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Maze Runner (2014) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
Kids have one heck of an imagination, and “The Maze Runner” gives off the impression that is exactly where its plot came from. The film is an adaption of the first book in the young adult sci-fi series written by James Dashner.
In the film, the action starts right out of the gate with a boy in a cage being delivered up to a strange place. Upon his arrival, he encounters a group of boys, each of which arrived in the same way. The boys created a sort of primitive community in a beautiful green glade. Each boy is assigned a specific role in order to contribute to their survival. None of them are able to remember where they came from or their life before arriving.
The plot quickly begins to revolve around the boys who have been deemed maze runners. The glade in which the community resides is surrounded, or I should say enclosed, by a gigantic stone maze. The maze runners run through the maze trying to find out more about it in order to eventually escape. But, the maze is unsolvable because it changes shape each day and is too dangerous to stay in overnight.
The main protagonist Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) quickly interjects himself into the maze runner role, against the wishes of the community. But it isn’t long until he proves himself capable of the role when he becomes the first boy to kill what they call a “griever.” His arrival marks the beginning of new hope for the boys’ escape. At this point, one must wonder why none of the boys had ever killed a “griever” before the arrival of Thomas.
The “grievers” are cyborg spiders residing within the maze. They are the main threat keeping the boys confined to the glade, and they come off as an incredibly hokey aspect of the film. However, this may be really enjoyable for fans of corny science fiction.
I have not had a chance to read the series myself, but something tells me details were left out of the film which would have brought the quality of the plot up a level.
Unfortunately, the plot is poorly developed in crucial areas which could have made the film great, had they been further developed. For example, the creators of the strange place and the robotic spiders are not given much depth. The lack of detail in this area is what gives the execution of the plot a make-believe feel. Perhaps this part of the plot is purposefully left open to lay the ground work for the rest of the series to be made into film.
All criticism aside, what makes “The Maze Runner” enjoyable is that it stems from a unique idea. It takes the audience on a new adventure. However, I would hardly say the film aims to please a young adult audience. Its execution seems tailored for tweens. It lacks any real graphic violence, staying well within its PG rating.
I give “Maze Runner” 3 out of 5 stars.
In the film, the action starts right out of the gate with a boy in a cage being delivered up to a strange place. Upon his arrival, he encounters a group of boys, each of which arrived in the same way. The boys created a sort of primitive community in a beautiful green glade. Each boy is assigned a specific role in order to contribute to their survival. None of them are able to remember where they came from or their life before arriving.
The plot quickly begins to revolve around the boys who have been deemed maze runners. The glade in which the community resides is surrounded, or I should say enclosed, by a gigantic stone maze. The maze runners run through the maze trying to find out more about it in order to eventually escape. But, the maze is unsolvable because it changes shape each day and is too dangerous to stay in overnight.
The main protagonist Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) quickly interjects himself into the maze runner role, against the wishes of the community. But it isn’t long until he proves himself capable of the role when he becomes the first boy to kill what they call a “griever.” His arrival marks the beginning of new hope for the boys’ escape. At this point, one must wonder why none of the boys had ever killed a “griever” before the arrival of Thomas.
The “grievers” are cyborg spiders residing within the maze. They are the main threat keeping the boys confined to the glade, and they come off as an incredibly hokey aspect of the film. However, this may be really enjoyable for fans of corny science fiction.
I have not had a chance to read the series myself, but something tells me details were left out of the film which would have brought the quality of the plot up a level.
Unfortunately, the plot is poorly developed in crucial areas which could have made the film great, had they been further developed. For example, the creators of the strange place and the robotic spiders are not given much depth. The lack of detail in this area is what gives the execution of the plot a make-believe feel. Perhaps this part of the plot is purposefully left open to lay the ground work for the rest of the series to be made into film.
All criticism aside, what makes “The Maze Runner” enjoyable is that it stems from a unique idea. It takes the audience on a new adventure. However, I would hardly say the film aims to please a young adult audience. Its execution seems tailored for tweens. It lacks any real graphic violence, staying well within its PG rating.
I give “Maze Runner” 3 out of 5 stars.
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) in Movies
Feb 14, 2020 (Updated Feb 15, 2020)
"ITS NO USE"
Sonic The Hedgehog openes up with a bunch of gold rings surrounding the studio logo while money sounds subtlety ding away in the background and from that moment alone it became obvious what this movie was going to be. One big fat soulless cash grab with only one goal in mind, entice your kids in and then quickly take your money. First of all this is a kids movie comparable to the likes of Alvin and the Chipmunks and just like that movie its not a good kids movie either. Now I like kids movies but Sonic decides to lure kids in with mundane things we have seen a million times in similar films like for instance the floss dance, fart jokes or mocking people by talking over them instead of using its own ideas or delivering fresh interesting content. Theres some very odd constant digs at Nintendo's Mario too which felt really unnecessary. Comedy wise none of its miserable attempts at humour are funny in the slightest either and before long its constant bombardment of strange jokes start to take their tole on your patience. Every single character here is sadly really unlikable too see we have the human characters who seem to have no individual personalities of thier own, lack emotions of any kind and also dont react to dangerous situations with any real sense of fear or shock. Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik combines Ace Ventura with The Riddler to make a character that just feels to loud & out of place compared to the robotic performances that everyone else gives. Then theres Sonic himself who is obsessive, anoying, childish, selfish, doesnt shut up and has an extremely short attention span too. So with no one to really sympathise/care about or root for the film better have some exciting action or a good story right? sadly not, theres just no thrills, no excitement, no energy and no heart here at all and definitely no love or passion for the source material. As a film its just plain dull (people were actually asleep and snoring in the seats next to me after just 30 minutes) as the film just runs out of ideas near the start and then resorts to repeating its best ines over and over again at a quick pace until it hits a wall. Did you like the Quicksilver sence from Xmen? dont worry Sonic copies it, how about the Transformers highway chase? dont worry Sonic copies it, what about The Fast and the Furious message about family? dont worry that in here too and thats another issue here, instead of making an original film for Sonic fans they have taken all the bits from films that have simply sold well squashed them into a ball and thrown them at a wall hoping they will stick. So heres the bottom line: Sonic is just another forgettable money maker nothing less nothing more more and just like the Garfield movie, Hop or The Smurfs will anyone be talking about it in a few months?? Naaaaaah
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