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Darren (1599 KP) rated Crank (2006) in Movies

Oct 31, 2019  
Crank (2006)
Crank (2006)
2006 | Action, Comedy, Mystery
5
7.1 (15 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Characters – Chev Chelios somehow survives his mile high fall from the first film, he is given a new artificial heart which he must keep charged or he will die, he goes in search of his own heart which will see him go against another gang in LA, Eve now knows about Chev’s career, she has become a stripper and will supporting him trying to get his heart back. Doc Miles will do everything he can to help Chev giving him advice on how to keep his heart going. Venus is the brother of Kaylo who goes on to help Chev to get revenge for his own brother’s death. We have more gangs that are working against Chev this time, some return others are new.

Performances – Jason Statham does what he can with the leading role, he handles the action with ease, only he just doesn’t reach the same levels as before, this does affect the rest of the cast who do struggle to make an impact in this film.

Story – The story does follow the next chapter of Chev’s life, the one after he should have died, only for him to get a new chance which sees him needing to race against time to get his own heart back. This side is simple enough at does work for what the film is doing, Chev take on endless amounts of enemies, the problem here with the story is that we dive too much into the side characters of what is going on and end up getting too many completely random scenes which just seem offensive on too many levels. This story does end up becoming messy and just has one of the worst scripts out there.

Action/Crime – The action does try to become bigger, only for it to be shot in a style which doesn’t make it easy to connect. The criminal world does feel bigger, but now everything does seem more personal rather gang controlled.

Settings – The film remains set in LA which does continue to show the crazy gangs that are meant to operate in this city.

Special Effects – The effects do feel like they are being more ambitious, only for some to be so farfetched they only seem to make things look confusing, including an insulting looking Godzilla like fight.


Scene of the Movie – Final showdown.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Godzilla like fight.

Final Thoughts – This is a wildly over the top sequel which only ends up becoming too much to handle for the crazy nature of everything going on.

Overall: Too wild.
  
Flight 7500 (TBD)
Flight 7500 (TBD)
TBD | Horror
5
5.3 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Characters – Chev Chelios somehow survives his mile high fall from the first film, he is given a new artificial heart which he must keep charged or he will die, he goes in search of his own heart which will see him go against another gang in LA, Eve now knows about Chev’s career, she has become a stripper and will supporting him trying to get his heart back. Doc Miles will do everything he can to help Chev giving him advice on how to keep his heart going. Venus is the brother of Kaylo who goes on to help Chev to get revenge for his own brother’s death. We have more gangs that are working against Chev this time, some return others are new.

Performances – Jason Statham does what he can with the leading role, he handles the action with ease, only he just doesn’t reach the same levels as before, this does affect the rest of the cast who do struggle to make an impact in this film.

Story – The story does follow the next chapter of Chev’s life, the one after he should have died, only for him to get a new chance which sees him needing to race against time to get his own heart back. This side is simple enough at does work for what the film is doing, Chev take on endless amounts of enemies, the problem here with the story is that we dive too much into the side characters of what is going on and end up getting too many completely random scenes which just seem offensive on too many levels. This story does end up becoming messy and just has one of the worst scripts out there.

Action/Crime – The action does try to become bigger, only for it to be shot in a style which doesn’t make it easy to connect. The criminal world does feel bigger, but now everything does seem more personal rather gang controlled.

Settings – The film remains set in LA which does continue to show the crazy gangs that are meant to operate in this city.

Special Effects – The effects do feel like they are being more ambitious, only for some to be so farfetched they only seem to make things look confusing, including an insulting looking Godzilla like fight.


Scene of the Movie – Final showdown.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Godzilla like fight.

Final Thoughts – This is a wildly over the top sequel which only ends up becoming too much to handle for the crazy nature of everything going on.

Overall: Too wild.
  
The Midnight Man (2016)
The Midnight Man (2016)
2016 | Horror
7
6.3 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Characters – Chev Chelios somehow survives his mile high fall from the first film, he is given a new artificial heart which he must keep charged or he will die, he goes in search of his own heart which will see him go against another gang in LA, Eve now knows about Chev’s career, she has become a stripper and will supporting him trying to get his heart back. Doc Miles will do everything he can to help Chev giving him advice on how to keep his heart going. Venus is the brother of Kaylo who goes on to help Chev to get revenge for his own brother’s death. We have more gangs that are working against Chev this time, some return others are new.

Performances – Jason Statham does what he can with the leading role, he handles the action with ease, only he just doesn’t reach the same levels as before, this does affect the rest of the cast who do struggle to make an impact in this film.

Story – The story does follow the next chapter of Chev’s life, the one after he should have died, only for him to get a new chance which sees him needing to race against time to get his own heart back. This side is simple enough at does work for what the film is doing, Chev take on endless amounts of enemies, the problem here with the story is that we dive too much into the side characters of what is going on and end up getting too many completely random scenes which just seem offensive on too many levels. This story does end up becoming messy and just has one of the worst scripts out there.

Action/Crime – The action does try to become bigger, only for it to be shot in a style which doesn’t make it easy to connect. The criminal world does feel bigger, but now everything does seem more personal rather gang controlled.

Settings – The film remains set in LA which does continue to show the crazy gangs that are meant to operate in this city.

Special Effects – The effects do feel like they are being more ambitious, only for some to be so farfetched they only seem to make things look confusing, including an insulting looking Godzilla like fight.


Scene of the Movie – Final showdown.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Godzilla like fight.

Final Thoughts – This is a wildly over the top sequel which only ends up becoming too much to handle for the crazy nature of everything going on.

Overall: Too wild.
  
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
2018 | Action, Family, Sci-Fi
Story: A Wrinkle in Time starts when a trouble high school student Meg (Reid) hasn’t given up hope on being reunited with her father Mr Murry (Pine) after his sudden disappearance. Meg has become closed off from the world with her adopted brother Charles Wallace (McCabe) noticing the change in her. Meg, Charles and Calvin (Miller) get visited by Mrs Whatsit (Witherspoon) that opens up the possibilities for answers.

Mrs Whatsit takes the three children on an adventure through the universe with Mrs Which (Winfrey) and Mrs Who (Kaling), who believe they can locate Mr Murry after his research has taken him across the universe unlike anyone in human history.

 

Thoughts on A Wrinkle in Time

 

Characters – Meg is an outsider teenage girl, daughter of two brilliant scientists, with her father disappeared for four years now. She went from the popular out going girl to the shy closed off one. she has never given up hope of finding her father, which does leave questions about her relationship with her mother, she gets a chance to find her father with the will she shows in her heart. Mrs Which leads the three light entities that can help Meg travel the universe to find her father, she isn’t just guiding Meg, but the newest member of the team Mrs Whatsit. Mrs Whatsit is the bubbly member of the light entities, she is on her first mission of guidance which does see her make mistakes along the way. Mrs Who is the third member of the team, she is always positive like the rest only she gets the least amount of time to do anything of the three. Mr Murry is the father that has gone missing, he is a brilliant scientist that has always believed in travel through the universe to be possible and has been searching for a way to achieve. Calvin is the high school friend of Meg that ends up on the journey, he wants to support her even when it shows his own weakness in the world.

Performances – Storm Reid is the highlight of the film which sees her going on the adventure to find her father, this is a disappointing as we do have a talent cast, only they just don’t seem to shine on the levels you would expect them to reach.

Story – The story here follows a teenage girl that gets to do on an adventure across the universe in search for her father through the powers of light entities. This is a story that has come from a popular novel and is meant to show the science behind potential travel through the universe and how the power is within us all. This is a story that just drags along, it doesn’t offer anything to the world we are entering. This story could have so much potential and ends up just glossing over too much, making it a hard watch.

Adventure/Fantasy/Sci-Fi – The adventure side of the film shows the journey that takes the children across the universe to see just where one’s father has gone, this does show us the fantasy elements of the film in the sci-fi universe we end up going along.

Settings – The film is set in a fictional land where the people can travel to unknown planets in the universe, each one has its own unique look.

Special Effects – The visual effects used to create the different worlds look beautiful, only they don’t seem to make anything feel as important to the story.


Scene of the Movie – Understand other people’s problems from behind closed doors.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – This story just doesn’t become interesting.

Final Thoughts – This is a film that had so much potential only to fall so short, it has an amazing cast that just don’t get a chance to shine, the story just doesn’t get us going like it should do.

 

Overall: Disappointing.

https://moviesreview101.com/2019/06/13/a-wrinkle-in-time-2018/
  
BI
Blood, Ink & Fire
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>This eBook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review </i>

Imagine a world without books… In this dystopian novel by Ashley Mansour, that is exactly what the world is like. <i>Blood, Ink & Fire</i> is set in the future where not only are books non-existent, it is illegal to know how to read. Noelle Hartley has grown up in the United Vales of Fell, where a computer controls what she hears, sees and feels by showing her a constant stream of artificial images. But, Noelle knows she is different. Unlike her parents she is able to question the meanings of the pictures, and when a rebellious group hacks into the system, forcing words onto their screens, Noelle is able to read them.

With the help of her blind friend, John, Noelle and her grandfather escape from this controlling society and find people living on the outside who are against what Fell is doing to humanity. Noelle learns facts about her grandfather’s past that she could never have imagined as well as discovering secrets about herself. Noelle is a reader and is told by members of the past generations that it is not true that all the books were destroyed. There are nine volumes hidden in various locations, which when brought together will become the key to unlock the knowledge that has been banned for so long. It is Noelle’s job to find them.

It is scary how plausible this post-literacy world is. Mansour includes three quotes before the beginning of the novel from the years 1987, 2008 and 2014 that put forward fears that books and our ability to read is becoming less important with the advancement of the internet. Humanity is becoming less intelligent and more controlled by what they see on their computers. Brains do not need to think as much as the answers are all online. Even whilst reading the narrative, there are aspects that are frighteningly familiar. The idea of a continuous stream of images is similar to current social medias such as Tumblr and Pinterest, where users feel compelled to scroll through the entire feed to view all of the latest posts.

There is however a part of this novel that is entirely fiction and would be impossible to ever occur. One of the characters is a bit of an enigma, a piece of the past inhabiting a human body. Literacy personified. This causes the storyline to be less credible, thus readers will view this as a piece of fiction (which it is) and be less likely to take the warning about the Internet changing people’s brains to heart.

<i>Blood, Ink & Fire</i> is a really fascinating story that is exciting from start to finish. It is full of clever ideas, making it unique from other books in this genre. It is also evident that Mansour undertook a vast amount of research, particularly of Shakespeare’s plays, as there was a reference to the playwright and his work in nearly every chapter, from character names to plots. Those familiar with Shakespeare will benefit from these allusions as they make the narrative flow effectively from beginning to end. It is, however, possible to read and enjoy without any prior knowledge of Shakespeare – you may even learn something new from reading this book.

I highly recommend <i>Blood, Ink & Fire</i> to book lovers and dystopian fiction fans. It feels similar in style to <i>The Darkest Minds</i> trilogy by Alexander Bracken, and with series such as <i>The Hunger Games</i> and <i>Divergent</i> being brought to the big screen, this new young adult book is bound to be popular. This was Ashley Mansour’s debut novel and I am keen to discover what she will write next.
  
Thicker Than Water (Redwater Demons #1)
Thicker Than Water (Redwater Demons #1)
Ellie Roth | 2024 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
freaking loved this book!
Independent reviewer for GRR, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This book, right here, is what I love MOST about reviewing. I come across a blurb that I love the sound of, by an author that is new to me, and the book blows me away! I freaking LOVED this book!

Julian is a demon hunter. His latest job finds himself adopted by the demon he was sent to kill. But she's just a little girl, and he cannot. He then finds said toddler kidnapped from him, and a demon contacts him, to share custody! (I'm sorry, but that really did make me chuckle!) But as Cassius and JJ bond over Desi, pieces are being moved on the cheesboard, and it's not very clear who will come out on top.

Like I said, freaking loved this book!

I loved the jump straight in for JJ and Desi. I loved the gentle way we are told about this world and the people and demons in it. The world building is excellent, and I could keep up and follow what was being thrown at me at all times. Cass and JJ have redefined the SLOW BUILD! I love the gradual way the attraction builds between these two. It's slow and subtle, and one of them thinks/says something and its "say what now??" SOme funny moments, too.

It's violent in places. JJ bears the brunt of that but not all is on page. MUCH is implied. I liked that we don't get it all, but we get some clues as to how bad it really was.

While JJ and Cass have a slow build, when we get to the main event?? Totally fade to grey and I freaking LOVED THAT TOO!! I'm big enough to admit, I like my books on the steamy side, and I'm also big enough to admit that not all books nned to be explicit. I loved that this one was not.

Betrayal of the highest order is painful for JJ, but Cass comes to the rescue, in his true form. And I loved that there was no indication that demons in this world had another form! There is some indication who might be next, at the end of this one with a bit of the next book. Actually, it gives you the next TWO books, I hope!

This is a new to me author, at the start of a new series. Two questions I ask myself when I read new authors and starts of series: will I read more by this author?? And will I continue the series. My answers to both questions is a HELL FREAKING YES!!

I can't fault this, I really cannot.

5 full and oh-so shiny stars!

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
The Heart of Everton Inn (Betwixt the Sea and Shore, #2)
The Heart of Everton Inn (Betwixt the Sea and Shore, #2)
Claire Kohler | 2022 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Return to the Orkney Islands and the Selkies as the story continues...
THE HEART OF EVERTON INN is the second book in the Betwixt the Sea and Shore series and it runs concurrently alongside book one. This means that you will see things through Adaira's eyes as they happen to Briony or any of the other villagers. You will also see things that happened with Adaira that you didn't see before.

This series is so well-researched, it shines through every scene. I love the village characters, the scenery, the relationships. It's all so clearly defined and makes for a gripping read.

Adaira and John have their ups and downs as they try to have a relationship but it seems as though the world is against them. Even though there is an age gap, it is clear that these two will fit together if only they are allowed.

This was a brilliant addition to the series but it does end on a cliffhanger, so just consider yourself forewarned. I can't wait to see what happens next. Definitely recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
2020 | Adventure, Fantasy
Not such a wonder
Contains spoilers, click to show
There are some good scenes in WW84. The beginning scene, followed by the mall scene, both great scenes. The highway scene, the invisible jet scene, very cool. But scenes don't make a movie. Well, they do, but you know what I mean. A few good scenes doesn't make a movie good. The movie is very slow, badly paced & the story, quite frankly, stinks.
Again, Wonder Woman is pitted against a villain that is boring. He is played very well by the Mandolorian, Pedro Pascal. But the character is weak. We also have Kristen Wiig as the Cheetah, I guess. She's just an 80s chick until the very end, when she is turned into a cheetah woman & we're "treated" to a CGI fight, that is so dark & so badly directed, you'll struggle to see anything going on or get a good look at Cheetah, except for the bad make-up job on Wiig's face. Speaking of Wiig, she's okay, but nothing special.
I know I'm in the minority, but I don't find Gal Gadot a very good Wonder Woman. She's pretty, she kicks ass, but her acting is not very good. The character is dull. And I find the way her accent is there one minute & gone the next annoying. I laughed out loud when she tells the guy at the end that she likes his Auschwitz (outfit). She's easily the weakest character in the film. And like the first movie, we're spending most of the time wanting to see Wonder Woman on screen instead of Diana.
Chris Pine is great, as always & the reverse "seeing new things" scenes as he's introduced to the 80s are as great as they were in the first movie when Diana is shown new things.
But the real problem of the film is the story. Wonder Woman saves the day by asking people to give up their wishes. Nice dream, but would never happen. We know the world is full of scumbags that would never give up power, or money or anything for anyone else. WW talks to us, the audience & makes a plea that would flop just as much as this film. Throw in the 2 & a half hour runtime, far too long and I found myself bored for most of it. Not every superhero movie has to be so long. And instead of spending time on character & story development, they wasted it on scenes that did nothing to advance the plot.
Oh, stay tuned for the mid-credit scene. It's okay & worth it.