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Steve Fearon (84 KP) rated Hostile (2017) in Movies

Nov 7, 2018

Hostile (2017)

2017 | Thriller

5.3

(6 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Claustraphobic (1 more)

Good ramping up of tension

Side plot is tenuous, and a bit cliched (0 more)

Here in my car, I feel safest of all...

An interesting if not overly original premise, Hostile tells the post apocalyptic tale of a woman in the desert, trapped and injured under her overturned vehicle, whilst being stalked by a mutant creature.

It does a decent job of creating a world and setting for a modest budget, and though its attempts to avoid showing too much for financial reasons are a little transparent at times.

The film oscillates between the post apocalyptic and the pre-catastrophe, and the performances of the main cast are good enough to maintain interest even when going though the largely melodramatic character building of the contemporary setting.

It is ultimately reminiscent of movies like open water, 47 feet under, and even some episodes of the Walking Dead, with the stranded survivor having to survive whilst essentially trapped in one location.

It is a slow burn movie, and very character based, so you spend a lot of time with our protagonist, who was a little cliched, and hard to like most of the time, but a decent enough performance that you can get through the more dialogue heavy parts.

A decent film, and at only 80 minutes, not a huge investment of your time, so might be worth a look if you like your survival movies a bit wasteland-y.

Kudos

Sarah Betts (103 KP) rated New Moon (Twilight, #2) in Books

Dec 30, 2019

New Moon (Twilight, #2)

Stephenie Meyer | 2006 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)

6.9

(85 Ratings)

Book Rating

I remember this book being a lot worse. I was actually pleasantly surprised when, on reading it again, I felt some empathy for Bella.

Here's the story:

Bella and Edward are happy, lalala. Jasper freaks out at her birthday and Edward decides this would be a great time to desert Bella and tell her he doesn't love her anymore. The thing here, is...I understand the motivation, and it kinda makes sense, but it was executed so bady, you have to wonder if Edward actually <i>loves</i> Bella or is just toying with her emotions.

Bella ends up transferring her codependence on Jacob and trying dangerous things so she can hear Edward's voice in her head. Now, in my opinion, this book would have been much better if Edward and Bella were presented as mentally unstable and emotionally damaged, because that's how they come across.

As much as I have been unimpressed with Meyer's writing in the past, the scenes depicting Bella's depression were pretty much on target, and in a way almost painful to read.

I still don't get the swooning over Edward thing. I'm just not that impressed with him. He spent the first book alternately growling, sneering, and laughing at Bella. It makes me want to lock him in a room with Stefan Salvatore and see who whines the most.

To recap: this book would be amazing if it had different characters who acted competely differently. As it stands, it's just "okay".

Kudos

Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated the Xbox 360 version of Red Dead Redemption in Video Games

Feb 24, 2020

Red Dead Redemption

2010 | Action/Adventure

8.4

(23 Ratings)

Video Game Rating Watch

Game's control & mechanics (0 more)

too much desert (yeah I know) (0 more)

Grand theft old west

With the release of Red dead redemption 2 and plenty of praising the game received I decided to give this a go.
Although the game's story suffered the old "do this or your family gets it" story it was dealt with nicely.

Playing as a character who's trying to leave his criminal past behind (again, another rinse & recycle) the plot does include some nice closure to the protagonists past & some interesting characters to sell plenty of side quests through the 'stranger' options.

A vast open world experience with some fantastic detail was a nice input, but I felt that although it's set in the old west, definitely should have had more areas to visit/explore, as it lacked this, it did at times feel empty (through personal experience).

The short relationships between the characters felt unnecessary which if hadn't have happened would have made up for this rather empty sand box.

Definitely not a bad experience overall, but was happy with the main plots ending not having the "villain" explain in mind numbing detail why as it was fairly obvious but was also quite a weak ending at that, would've been better to have a shoot out before being caught off guard.

Still, I recommend this to anyone with a GTA addiction (that's why I'm recommending it to my brother).