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Sarah (7798 KP) rated Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) in Movies
Mar 9, 2019
Stays true to the book
This is by far the best adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel and aside from the hilarious Dracula: Dead and Loving It, there has never been a decent Dracula film since. The fact that it stays true to the novel is the best thing about this, there’s very little difference between this and the book and I’m so grateful about this. The effects are very old school and in parts a little bit cheesy and very dated watching it back now, but I think that’s part of the charm. It was made in the early 90s after all.
Gary Oldman does a fantastic performance and Anthony Hopkins too is wonderful as Van Helsing, and it’s these two that really make this film as good as it is. The rest of the cast range from good (Richard E Grant), unremarkable (Cary Elwes), to downright awful. And yes, I am talking about Keanu Reeves. I know he was a big star when this was made, but he really is a terrible actor. And he’s even worse when he’s trying to put on a horrendous English accent. I wish they’d have found a decent actor to play Harker, if they had I would’ve scored this a little higher!
Gary Oldman does a fantastic performance and Anthony Hopkins too is wonderful as Van Helsing, and it’s these two that really make this film as good as it is. The rest of the cast range from good (Richard E Grant), unremarkable (Cary Elwes), to downright awful. And yes, I am talking about Keanu Reeves. I know he was a big star when this was made, but he really is a terrible actor. And he’s even worse when he’s trying to put on a horrendous English accent. I wish they’d have found a decent actor to play Harker, if they had I would’ve scored this a little higher!
Awix (3310 KP) rated Power Profiles: A Mutants & Masterminds Sourcebook in Books
Mar 25, 2019 (Updated Mar 25, 2019)
Pretty much an essential supplement for anyone wanting to run M&M for more than a handful of sessions. Sooner or later you're going to want to go beyond the pregenerated characters and powers from the core book, and it's true that while the superpower rules in the book are comprehensive, they're potentially intimidating, too. There are a lot of power effects, and a lot of ways to modify them - the best way to duplicate a specific power from the comics isn't always clear.
That's where this book comes into its own: everything from Air Powers to Time Powers (and beyond) get their own chapter, each one containing a large selection of pre-worked out powers. For instance, how do you differentiate between throwing a fireball and a lightning bolt? Well, the fireball has an area effect, meaning it costs 50% more. Fun obscure powers include Internal Flora (incapacitate your enemies by disrupting the plant bacteria in their gut!) and Anatomical Split (fight crime by literally going to pieces!).
Some of the powers are a bit odd and a close eye from the GM is required, but this is always the case with M&M. Mostly this is very solid, fun stuff; just flipping through the book always generates new ideas for different characters.
That's where this book comes into its own: everything from Air Powers to Time Powers (and beyond) get their own chapter, each one containing a large selection of pre-worked out powers. For instance, how do you differentiate between throwing a fireball and a lightning bolt? Well, the fireball has an area effect, meaning it costs 50% more. Fun obscure powers include Internal Flora (incapacitate your enemies by disrupting the plant bacteria in their gut!) and Anatomical Split (fight crime by literally going to pieces!).
Some of the powers are a bit odd and a close eye from the GM is required, but this is always the case with M&M. Mostly this is very solid, fun stuff; just flipping through the book always generates new ideas for different characters.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Deluge (1933) in Movies
Apr 23, 2019 (Updated Apr 23, 2019)
Pre-Code apocalyptic disaster movie boldly goes where Roland Emmerich would follow several times; also manages to be almost definitively non-compliant with the Bechdel test. A series of unexplained disasters including floods and earthquakes destroy civilisation; in the aftermath resourceful lawyer Martin hooks up with plucky society girl Claire, little realising his wife and children survived the catastrophe. Then fate brings them all back together...
The destruction of New York is the most celebrated sequence in the movie, and it stands up relatively well as an example of practical effects in action, but it happens in the first quarter of the movie. Most of the rest of it is concerned with surprisingly familiar post-apocalyptic themes - people come together and struggle to rebuild, raiders prey on settlements, people question familiar moral standards, and so on. The film's gender politics are startling, to say the least: women appear to have no rights and are basically property (and then civilisation crumbles, ha ha). It is interesting and indicative that the film ends with the affirmation of the traditional moral order. Not exactly subtle or nuanced, and the acting is fairly robotic, but it's pacy and the story is an engaging one. An interesting movie that suggests things haven't changed as much as we sometimes think.
The destruction of New York is the most celebrated sequence in the movie, and it stands up relatively well as an example of practical effects in action, but it happens in the first quarter of the movie. Most of the rest of it is concerned with surprisingly familiar post-apocalyptic themes - people come together and struggle to rebuild, raiders prey on settlements, people question familiar moral standards, and so on. The film's gender politics are startling, to say the least: women appear to have no rights and are basically property (and then civilisation crumbles, ha ha). It is interesting and indicative that the film ends with the affirmation of the traditional moral order. Not exactly subtle or nuanced, and the acting is fairly robotic, but it's pacy and the story is an engaging one. An interesting movie that suggests things haven't changed as much as we sometimes think.
Ross (3284 KP) rated The Mummy (2017) in Movies
Mar 6, 2018 (Updated Mar 6, 2018)
I never fall asleep during films. I fell asleep.
The script and overall plot of this movie did not warrant big name actors like Cruise and Crowe. If anything, I think they played their parts badly and stopped a mediocre script from achieving the levels of mediocrity as a film. Cruise no longer has the charisma to play the cheeky, loveable rogue that this film needed (someone like hmmm Brendan Fraser) - that's not just saying what was needed to make it a decent remake of the "original", but what was needed for this script.
The plot relied on a number of stupid, illogical decisions by the main characters, and a lot of special effects. The aspects of the plot and the Mummy's mission which differed from the Fraser version were not well enough developed or explained to fully embed them in the plot - really, she just fancied Cruise?!
And the plot relied on too many coincidences, the discovery of the crusaders' tomb and the Mummy's tomb being almost exactly at the same time?! Really?!
And finally, the notion that there could be an area of London that is as-yet undiscovered and not covered in graffiti, human faeces and broken bottles is frankly ludicrous.
The plot relied on a number of stupid, illogical decisions by the main characters, and a lot of special effects. The aspects of the plot and the Mummy's mission which differed from the Fraser version were not well enough developed or explained to fully embed them in the plot - really, she just fancied Cruise?!
And the plot relied on too many coincidences, the discovery of the crusaders' tomb and the Mummy's tomb being almost exactly at the same time?! Really?!
And finally, the notion that there could be an area of London that is as-yet undiscovered and not covered in graffiti, human faeces and broken bottles is frankly ludicrous.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dawn of the Dead (1978) in Movies
Mar 12, 2018
The big daddy of modern zombie movies builds on the micro-budget charms of Romero's own Night of the Living Dead to create its own sub-genre. World is gripped by zombopocalypse; survivors flee the city in search of refuge, come across a vast mall filled with provisions (also many luxury items). They decide to stay and fortify the place, but is this really wise...?
Few films depict society on the verge of collapse quite as convincingly as this one; the relatively low budget just makes the scale of Romero's achievement more impressive. The film plays with gory B-movie tropes with cheery abandon, and you're seldom more than a few minutes away from the next grisly set-piece, but its ability to quietly engage with more serious and mature themes is also striking. Romero seems equally in love with having zombies' heads blasted off their shoulders and making serious points about the toxic effects of consumerism and the human predilection for unchecked violence. Even the parts of the film which feel a little primitive are still somehow just right for it, and couldn't really be improved upon. One of those virtually perfect films; the reason the scale goes up to 10.
Few films depict society on the verge of collapse quite as convincingly as this one; the relatively low budget just makes the scale of Romero's achievement more impressive. The film plays with gory B-movie tropes with cheery abandon, and you're seldom more than a few minutes away from the next grisly set-piece, but its ability to quietly engage with more serious and mature themes is also striking. Romero seems equally in love with having zombies' heads blasted off their shoulders and making serious points about the toxic effects of consumerism and the human predilection for unchecked violence. Even the parts of the film which feel a little primitive are still somehow just right for it, and couldn't really be improved upon. One of those virtually perfect films; the reason the scale goes up to 10.
Gail (4 KP) rated This is Me. in Books
Jun 4, 2018
The story is centered on Chloe and Rogan. A human girl and her assist. The gray area between appropriate and inappropriate. C.E. Wilson toed that line and said forget your right this is my world and love is love. This is Me was a great read. I enjoyed the way the author weaved in and out of the two relationships.
Rogan struggled through the whole book trying to understand emotions that were not programmed into his system. Things that only humans should feel. I know he isn’t real but he is HOT. The piercings the tattoos yummy. I wasn’t a big fan of Chloe. She was a little pushover. She let gossip and the voices of others sway her.
C.E. Wilson wrote about discrimination and it’s effects on all people. Just because someone is different from you doesn’t mean they should be treated with less respect. It’s 2016 and people still are discriminated against because of religion, sexual orientation, color and appearance. We are one and we just need to LOVE each other. Thank you C.E. Wilson for writing a story that showed that with love you could do anything. Well with the help of a lot of friends too.
Rogan struggled through the whole book trying to understand emotions that were not programmed into his system. Things that only humans should feel. I know he isn’t real but he is HOT. The piercings the tattoos yummy. I wasn’t a big fan of Chloe. She was a little pushover. She let gossip and the voices of others sway her.
C.E. Wilson wrote about discrimination and it’s effects on all people. Just because someone is different from you doesn’t mean they should be treated with less respect. It’s 2016 and people still are discriminated against because of religion, sexual orientation, color and appearance. We are one and we just need to LOVE each other. Thank you C.E. Wilson for writing a story that showed that with love you could do anything. Well with the help of a lot of friends too.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dark Star (1974) in Movies
May 31, 2018
Massively influential spoof of overly-solemn and pretentious 60s sci-fi movies looks like what it is - a student movie blown up to feature proportions. John Carpenter was known to comment that the world's greatest student movie would still only be a pretty unimpressive 'real' film and there is an element of truth in this, for Dark Star is often slightly primitive, especially in its visual effects.
But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.
Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.
Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
Karica Truebenbach (156 KP) rated The Exorcist (1973) in Movies
Sep 27, 2018
A classic for a reason
This movie has everything a horror fan could want. Demons, possession, the never-not-scary backward walking down the staircase, and of course, head spinning. This story of a girl possessed and slowly being devoured by a demon is my favorite kind of horror because it doesn't make you scared for a second. It makes you scared for years. The kind of story where you feel like it could really happen so you go home and check your closets, under the beds, and your kids' foreheads for triple sixes.
Compared to what we have now, the visual aspect of the movie is not the cleanest, but that doesn't detract from the awesome makeup and other effects. Reagan's slow descent into hell is reflected in her appearance as her teeth blacken and her skin rots with lesions. She does something in the movie that still makes my skin crawl (crucifix scene, ugh) but that's how I can tell that the movie hit its mark, if I can think on it years later and still get the creeps. This is definitely something to add to your Halloween collection if you haven't already.
Compared to what we have now, the visual aspect of the movie is not the cleanest, but that doesn't detract from the awesome makeup and other effects. Reagan's slow descent into hell is reflected in her appearance as her teeth blacken and her skin rots with lesions. She does something in the movie that still makes my skin crawl (crucifix scene, ugh) but that's how I can tell that the movie hit its mark, if I can think on it years later and still get the creeps. This is definitely something to add to your Halloween collection if you haven't already.
Sarah (7798 KP) rated The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018) in Movies
Oct 3, 2018
Could've been so much more
I knew relatively nothing about this film but having been impressed by the recent Goosebumps films (not the new sequel), I had fairly high expectations. Sadly it didn't live up to them.
For me this film seemed to be nothing new. I was bored for the most of this and there were only a few parts that I really enjoyed. A lot of the humour and banter between the characters seemed a little too ott and forced and made me cringe more than it made me smile. The effects were alright and there were some truly creepy scenes, just not enough. Cate Blanchett probably saved this, as even Jack Black couldn't bring back the magic he had with RL Stine. And the evil warlock wasn't particularly scary or threatening, and the whole ending was lacking any sort of menacing terror or suspense.
I also spent the entire film thinking the kid was the one from Room (Jacob Tremblay), and wondering why on earth his acting was so bad. The kid was one of the problems in this, I won't lie and his crying was particularly horrendous. And then when the credits rolled I realised it wasn't him after all...
For me this film seemed to be nothing new. I was bored for the most of this and there were only a few parts that I really enjoyed. A lot of the humour and banter between the characters seemed a little too ott and forced and made me cringe more than it made me smile. The effects were alright and there were some truly creepy scenes, just not enough. Cate Blanchett probably saved this, as even Jack Black couldn't bring back the magic he had with RL Stine. And the evil warlock wasn't particularly scary or threatening, and the whole ending was lacking any sort of menacing terror or suspense.
I also spent the entire film thinking the kid was the one from Room (Jacob Tremblay), and wondering why on earth his acting was so bad. The kid was one of the problems in this, I won't lie and his crying was particularly horrendous. And then when the credits rolled I realised it wasn't him after all...
Bookapotamus (289 KP) rated Loot Time Podcast in Podcasts
Oct 9, 2018
Love the content - An 80s kids dream conversation!
So, I really enjoyed most of this - the content is awesome and the discussion is really thoughtful and thorough and different from most podcasts of this genre. I loved how it would bring up things from my childhood in the 80s. How things scared me (Ghostbusters 1 vs 2 - definitely 1 OMG!) And I love that they talk about not all the mainstream stuff - hell Bill & Ted!! I really like listening to Steven - he's solid, talks really well and is easy to follow. Kevin needs to jump in more with conversation... he does a lot of agreeing and sound effects (Yea. Right? HaHa!) it's a bit distracting (and kinda loud) and doesn't add much to the conversation (the Colossal ep specifically). Steven really does well running the conversations and his voice is pretty smooth and mellow which is why I think maybe it's just as simple as Kevin turning his mic down a bit?! I'm sure you guys will find your groove - and I look forward to seeing it happen!