Search
Search results
BookwormMama14 (18 KP) rated Love's Faithful Promise (Courage to Dream #3) in Books
Jan 2, 2019
With tears in my eyes and a smile on my face, I closed the pages of the final book in the Courage to Dream series. My heart is filled with warmth, yet filled with sadness that this series is now complete. I have enjoyed watching the O'Leary family grow in numbers and in love. Love's Faithful Promise begins in September 1922 and is a beautiful conclusion. Filled with trials and heartache, we see God's hand leading them closer together and closer to Him. I absolutely fell in love with Deirdre and Matthew...And Phoebe! Matthew carries so much guilt and unforgiveness towards himself that was so hard for me to witness. The compassion I felt for him was overwhelming. We are reminded though that we don't need to walk through the shadows of our past alone.
Oh I just love Deirdre and Matthew's journey of love! Keep your fan nearby. Because let me tell you...Their romance is so pure, passionate, precious, and sweet. But don't let my starry eyed, romance gushing fool you, this book gets INTENSE! I was literally sweating with anticipation right around page 281...trust me...you will know what I mean. Definitely put my stress ball "heart" I got from CFRR to good use (thank you Just Commonly).
Will you cry? Maybe. Will you want to smack some sense into people? Probably. Will you fall in love with Irish Meadows and the O'Leary clan? Without a doubt...Yes!!! Make sure you start your journey with the beginning of the series, Irish Meadows. Within these pages I pray you find hope and courage to live out the dreams the Lord has placed in your heart.
I received a free copy of Love's Faithful Promise in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
Oh I just love Deirdre and Matthew's journey of love! Keep your fan nearby. Because let me tell you...Their romance is so pure, passionate, precious, and sweet. But don't let my starry eyed, romance gushing fool you, this book gets INTENSE! I was literally sweating with anticipation right around page 281...trust me...you will know what I mean. Definitely put my stress ball "heart" I got from CFRR to good use (thank you Just Commonly).
Will you cry? Maybe. Will you want to smack some sense into people? Probably. Will you fall in love with Irish Meadows and the O'Leary clan? Without a doubt...Yes!!! Make sure you start your journey with the beginning of the series, Irish Meadows. Within these pages I pray you find hope and courage to live out the dreams the Lord has placed in your heart.
I received a free copy of Love's Faithful Promise in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Fluster Cluck in Video Games
Jun 19, 2019
One of the more interesting aspects of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One is that they have allowed many independent publishers to enjoy access to a mass audience in much the same way as Steam did for PC games.
When things like Playstion Plus are factored in in which subscribers are given free access to a series of games each month, and when you look at the price of such games being far lower than a studio release, there has been a rush of developers eager to get out there to the public.
One of the more interesting and humor laden games in this genre has arrived in the form of Fluster Cluck. The game offers a frantic and comedy based adventure where players can play against the system or in a 2vs 2 mode to gather resources for the Chikkinizer.
In a battle of corporate politics, players fly around maps in flying saucers to use their capture beams on cows, camels, and other objects, to transport them to the Chikkinizer for processing. The player with the biggest haul wins the round and then moves onto the next level where it all starts again.
Of course the other players will not go down without a fight and they fire their lasers at you as well as all manner of tricks at their disposal to take you out, distract you, your objectives, and so on.
It can take a few moments to get used to the controls as the left stick moves you and the right stick directs and fires your weapons but in no time flat you will be spinning around. I did have a bit of frustration with the requirement to win the round in order to move on as repeating rounds is never ideal when your getting a sense for the game. We also had some issues with the game not pairing with the Dualshock 4 one evening but that has not happened since and we have been able to play without issues.
The casual graphics and gameplay style are fun but do reflect the independent nature of the game but the developer Loot, knows the audience and infuses the game with as much fun as it can.
http://sknr.net/2014/10/21/fluster-cluck/
When things like Playstion Plus are factored in in which subscribers are given free access to a series of games each month, and when you look at the price of such games being far lower than a studio release, there has been a rush of developers eager to get out there to the public.
One of the more interesting and humor laden games in this genre has arrived in the form of Fluster Cluck. The game offers a frantic and comedy based adventure where players can play against the system or in a 2vs 2 mode to gather resources for the Chikkinizer.
In a battle of corporate politics, players fly around maps in flying saucers to use their capture beams on cows, camels, and other objects, to transport them to the Chikkinizer for processing. The player with the biggest haul wins the round and then moves onto the next level where it all starts again.
Of course the other players will not go down without a fight and they fire their lasers at you as well as all manner of tricks at their disposal to take you out, distract you, your objectives, and so on.
It can take a few moments to get used to the controls as the left stick moves you and the right stick directs and fires your weapons but in no time flat you will be spinning around. I did have a bit of frustration with the requirement to win the round in order to move on as repeating rounds is never ideal when your getting a sense for the game. We also had some issues with the game not pairing with the Dualshock 4 one evening but that has not happened since and we have been able to play without issues.
The casual graphics and gameplay style are fun but do reflect the independent nature of the game but the developer Loot, knows the audience and infuses the game with as much fun as it can.
http://sknr.net/2014/10/21/fluster-cluck/
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Ghost Stories in Tabletop Games
Jul 28, 2020 (Updated Jul 30, 2020)
The Gameplay (4 more)
The Strategy
Replay Value
Thinking Ten Steps Ahead
The Concept
Hard (2 more)
Luck of the dice
The cruse dice
Spooky Scary Ghosts
I learned about this game through Dice Tower reviews, Rahdo runthrough and BoardGameGeek. And it looked really good. A cooperative game in which the players protect the village from incarnations of the lord of hell – Wu-Feng – and his legions of ghosts before they haunt a town and recover the ashes that will allow him to return to life. That sounded really intresting and unquite. So i bought it and its a excellent game. Let me talk more about it..
Gameplay:
Each Player represents a Taoist monk working together with the others to fight off waves of ghosts.
The players, using teamwork, will have to exorcise the ghosts that appear during the course of the game. At the beginning of his turn, a player brings a ghost into play and places it on a free spot, and more than one can come in at the same time. The ghosts all have abilities of their own – some affecting the Taoists and their powers, some causing the active player to roll the curse die for a random effect, and others haunting the villager tiles and blocking that tile's special action. On his turn, a Taoist can move on a tile in order to exorcise adjacent ghosts or to benefit from the villager living on the tile, providing it is not haunted. Each tile of the village allows the players to benefit from a different bonus. With the cemetery, for example, Taoists can bring a dead Taoist back to life, while the herbalist allows to recover spent Tao tokens, etc. It will also be possible to get traps or move ghosts or unhaunt other village tiles.
To exorcise a ghost, the Taoist rolls three Tao dice with different colors: red, blue, green, yellow, black, and white. If the result of the roll matches the color(s) of the ghost or incarnation of Wu-Feng, the exorcism succeeds. The white result is a wild color that can be used as any color. For example, to exorcise a green ghost with 3 resistance, you need to roll three green, three white, or a combination of both. If your die rolls fall short, you can also use Tao tokens that match the color in addition to your roll. You may choose to use these after your roll. Taoists gain these tokens by using certain village tiles or by exorcising certain ghosts. One of the Taoists has a power that allows him to receive such a token once per turn.
To win, the players must defeat the incarnation of Wu-Feng, a boss who arrives at the end of the game. There are also harder difficulty levels that add more incarnations of Wu-Feng, in which to win, you must defeat all of them.
There are many more ways to lose, however. The players lose if three of the village's tiles are haunted, if the draw pile is emptied while the incarnation of Wu-Feng is still in play, or if all the priests are dead.
It is hard game but the strategy to this game is excellent cause you have to think about your moves and what to do next. That and the clock is ticking down to one of the ten Wu-Feng Minions. Also if 3 village spaces get crushed than you lose. Also the luck of the dice and the cards. The strategy is ten fold. Its hard but a excellent game and a must play game. Buy it if you havent already cause its a must. If you want to learn more or see a runthrough of the game go to BoardGameGeek, Rahdo Runthroughs or Dice Tower Reviews.
Gameplay:
Each Player represents a Taoist monk working together with the others to fight off waves of ghosts.
The players, using teamwork, will have to exorcise the ghosts that appear during the course of the game. At the beginning of his turn, a player brings a ghost into play and places it on a free spot, and more than one can come in at the same time. The ghosts all have abilities of their own – some affecting the Taoists and their powers, some causing the active player to roll the curse die for a random effect, and others haunting the villager tiles and blocking that tile's special action. On his turn, a Taoist can move on a tile in order to exorcise adjacent ghosts or to benefit from the villager living on the tile, providing it is not haunted. Each tile of the village allows the players to benefit from a different bonus. With the cemetery, for example, Taoists can bring a dead Taoist back to life, while the herbalist allows to recover spent Tao tokens, etc. It will also be possible to get traps or move ghosts or unhaunt other village tiles.
To exorcise a ghost, the Taoist rolls three Tao dice with different colors: red, blue, green, yellow, black, and white. If the result of the roll matches the color(s) of the ghost or incarnation of Wu-Feng, the exorcism succeeds. The white result is a wild color that can be used as any color. For example, to exorcise a green ghost with 3 resistance, you need to roll three green, three white, or a combination of both. If your die rolls fall short, you can also use Tao tokens that match the color in addition to your roll. You may choose to use these after your roll. Taoists gain these tokens by using certain village tiles or by exorcising certain ghosts. One of the Taoists has a power that allows him to receive such a token once per turn.
To win, the players must defeat the incarnation of Wu-Feng, a boss who arrives at the end of the game. There are also harder difficulty levels that add more incarnations of Wu-Feng, in which to win, you must defeat all of them.
There are many more ways to lose, however. The players lose if three of the village's tiles are haunted, if the draw pile is emptied while the incarnation of Wu-Feng is still in play, or if all the priests are dead.
It is hard game but the strategy to this game is excellent cause you have to think about your moves and what to do next. That and the clock is ticking down to one of the ten Wu-Feng Minions. Also if 3 village spaces get crushed than you lose. Also the luck of the dice and the cards. The strategy is ten fold. Its hard but a excellent game and a must play game. Buy it if you havent already cause its a must. If you want to learn more or see a runthrough of the game go to BoardGameGeek, Rahdo Runthroughs or Dice Tower Reviews.
Hazel (1853 KP) rated Hostage Three in Books
Dec 17, 2018
<i>I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.</i>
<i>Hostage Three</i> is the second literary thriller by Carnegie Shortlisted Nick Lake. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about reading this book after having read Lake’s first literary thriller, <i>In Darkness</i>, which, although well written, was rather hard going and, at times, boring. However I really enjoyed <i>Hostage Three</i>. Maybe it helped having a narrator I could relate to more, or maybe it was because the narrative was not shared between two major different time periods as <i>In Darkness</i> was. Whatever the reason, it was good.
The narrative jumps straight in to something happening in 2008 on the coast of Eyl, Puntland, Somalia. Seventeen-year-old Amy Fields is on a yacht, there are pirates; it appears someone is about to be killed. End of part one. What has happened? What is going to happen? Begin part two, three and a half months earlier. From this moment on Amy narrates what has happened in the lead up to the initial insight given and what happened afterwards. The reader learns more about Amy, her father and his wife, Sarah, who Amy constantly refers to as ‘the stepmother’, which gives an indication of their tense relationship. Throughout the book there are also flashbacks to what happened to Amy’s real mother, a sufferer of severe OCD, and the events that caused Amy to become the rebellious teenager she is portrayed as at the beginning of the novel.
Amy and her family end up travelling the world on a private yacht only to get taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean. To begin with it is clear that the Fields family and yacht crew are the goodies and the pirates the baddies, however Amy begins to develop a complicated, secret relationship with one of the pirates, Farouz. The reader discovers the pirates’ motives, well at least Farouz’s motives, behind the hostage situation. Things begin to look less black and white, less good versus bad. And everything, of course, becomes more complex once romance is thrown into the mix.
<i>Hostage Three</i> is well worth a read. Lake writes really well and keeps the reader engaged. It is as if Amy is talking to the reader the entire time. Once you get used to the unconventional use of punctuation (no speech marks) it will become fast paced and you will be torn between wanting to read it all in one go and wanting to slow down to prevent it from ending too soon!
<i>Hostage Three</i> is the second literary thriller by Carnegie Shortlisted Nick Lake. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about reading this book after having read Lake’s first literary thriller, <i>In Darkness</i>, which, although well written, was rather hard going and, at times, boring. However I really enjoyed <i>Hostage Three</i>. Maybe it helped having a narrator I could relate to more, or maybe it was because the narrative was not shared between two major different time periods as <i>In Darkness</i> was. Whatever the reason, it was good.
The narrative jumps straight in to something happening in 2008 on the coast of Eyl, Puntland, Somalia. Seventeen-year-old Amy Fields is on a yacht, there are pirates; it appears someone is about to be killed. End of part one. What has happened? What is going to happen? Begin part two, three and a half months earlier. From this moment on Amy narrates what has happened in the lead up to the initial insight given and what happened afterwards. The reader learns more about Amy, her father and his wife, Sarah, who Amy constantly refers to as ‘the stepmother’, which gives an indication of their tense relationship. Throughout the book there are also flashbacks to what happened to Amy’s real mother, a sufferer of severe OCD, and the events that caused Amy to become the rebellious teenager she is portrayed as at the beginning of the novel.
Amy and her family end up travelling the world on a private yacht only to get taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean. To begin with it is clear that the Fields family and yacht crew are the goodies and the pirates the baddies, however Amy begins to develop a complicated, secret relationship with one of the pirates, Farouz. The reader discovers the pirates’ motives, well at least Farouz’s motives, behind the hostage situation. Things begin to look less black and white, less good versus bad. And everything, of course, becomes more complex once romance is thrown into the mix.
<i>Hostage Three</i> is well worth a read. Lake writes really well and keeps the reader engaged. It is as if Amy is talking to the reader the entire time. Once you get used to the unconventional use of punctuation (no speech marks) it will become fast paced and you will be torn between wanting to read it all in one go and wanting to slow down to prevent it from ending too soon!
Connor Sheffield (293 KP) created a post
May 21, 2017 (Updated May 21, 2017)
MaryAnn (14 KP) rated A Song of Home: A Novel of the Swing Era (Pearl Spence #3) in Books
Mar 5, 2019
A Song of Home is the third novel in the Pearl Spence series In this novel we find Pearl living in Bliss with her father and Ray, leaving the thoughts of Red River Oklahoma and her mama far behind her.
Pearl settles into a new routine of school, helping Aunt Carrie at the farm, hanging out with Ray or getting lost in a good book and then Opal shows her how to dance. But things change when Mama comes home unexpectedly and pregnant! It isn’t the happy return that Pearl had wished for.
This is a delightful story of the great depression and the swing era. In this novel deals with a couple of issues; one is forgiveness and the other is the racial conflict that was happening at that time.
This book teaches us to reach out with love and to treat others as we would want to be treated; whether we are poor, the color of our skin or the choices we have made in life.
The author has an ability to bring the characters to life and make you feel like you are right there amongst the characters. Ms. Finkbeiner has done a brilliant job bringing the characters to life. I love how she writes the story through Pearl's eyes and makes us realize that our actions have consequences, our children watch what we do and how we react.
A very good book and a great ending to this series. This novel can be read alone by itself, but I highly recommend that the whole series be read.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Pearl settles into a new routine of school, helping Aunt Carrie at the farm, hanging out with Ray or getting lost in a good book and then Opal shows her how to dance. But things change when Mama comes home unexpectedly and pregnant! It isn’t the happy return that Pearl had wished for.
This is a delightful story of the great depression and the swing era. In this novel deals with a couple of issues; one is forgiveness and the other is the racial conflict that was happening at that time.
This book teaches us to reach out with love and to treat others as we would want to be treated; whether we are poor, the color of our skin or the choices we have made in life.
The author has an ability to bring the characters to life and make you feel like you are right there amongst the characters. Ms. Finkbeiner has done a brilliant job bringing the characters to life. I love how she writes the story through Pearl's eyes and makes us realize that our actions have consequences, our children watch what we do and how we react.
A very good book and a great ending to this series. This novel can be read alone by itself, but I highly recommend that the whole series be read.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated The Music Man: Other Dimensions in Books
Feb 11, 2020
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
Before you read this review I just want to mention that I do like the idea behind this book and do not want to discourage anyone from reading it. This was just my personal opinion as all my reviews are.
The Music Man: Other Dimensions by Moonyani Write picks up directly where the previous one left off. It has the same writing style as the previous one for those who enjoyed that. However, at the time of my writing this the book could still use some work (although keep in mind I am just a reader and not an editor).
This second book welcomes back The Music Man (Cornelius), Jimmy, and his friends at a boarding school for the musically gifted. At first, Jimmy believes all the previous events are just a dream but he soon pins down Cornelius, who just happens to be a teacher at his school and learns the truth. The bad news is Hornsbury and the witches have returned in the other dimension and are trying to steal the other Jimmy’s talents and take over the world.
Before Jimmy and his friends can stop Hornsbury and save everyone they must complete a few other tasks. The first of these tasks is to save Chris from his possession and return the book he stole to its rightful owner, Priala. Priala is a powerful witch and on the side of good who has agreed to help stop Hornsbury so long as she gets her spellbook back first. They also want to help Phillip regain his human form and free all those already possessed by Hornsbury. Sadly all seems lost when both Jimmy’s and Cornelius’s girlfriend are captured by Honsbury. It then becomes a race against the clock to stop him before it is too late.
I enjoyed how the students from our dimension and those from the other dimension interacted with each other. It was interesting to see how the friendships formed almost instantly between many of them. Of course, the surprise at the end was nice, although it mirrored the ending of the first book. The amount of repetition is this book was a major issue for me and made it extremely hard to read. To be honest I got bored with it quickly. The story is slow to make progress and it seems like there are character descriptions thrown in at random which interrupts the flow of the story. It could be the format that I received this book in but yet again there were few paragraphs and almost every sentence started a completely new line.
This book is ideal for children as I found nothing inappropriate in it. It might be a bit on the long side for some younger readers but making one chapter at a time a reading goal should help with that issue. I rate this book 1 out of 4. Unfortunately, I found this book to be way too repetitive and slow to be enjoyable. In contrast, the big battle at the end that everything was leading up to was over so quickly that it didn’t create any tension or excitement. I do not like doing this but in this book’s current condition I can not recommend it.
https://nightreaderreviews.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nightreaderreviews
https://smashbomb.com/nightreader
The Music Man: Other Dimensions by Moonyani Write picks up directly where the previous one left off. It has the same writing style as the previous one for those who enjoyed that. However, at the time of my writing this the book could still use some work (although keep in mind I am just a reader and not an editor).
This second book welcomes back The Music Man (Cornelius), Jimmy, and his friends at a boarding school for the musically gifted. At first, Jimmy believes all the previous events are just a dream but he soon pins down Cornelius, who just happens to be a teacher at his school and learns the truth. The bad news is Hornsbury and the witches have returned in the other dimension and are trying to steal the other Jimmy’s talents and take over the world.
Before Jimmy and his friends can stop Hornsbury and save everyone they must complete a few other tasks. The first of these tasks is to save Chris from his possession and return the book he stole to its rightful owner, Priala. Priala is a powerful witch and on the side of good who has agreed to help stop Hornsbury so long as she gets her spellbook back first. They also want to help Phillip regain his human form and free all those already possessed by Hornsbury. Sadly all seems lost when both Jimmy’s and Cornelius’s girlfriend are captured by Honsbury. It then becomes a race against the clock to stop him before it is too late.
I enjoyed how the students from our dimension and those from the other dimension interacted with each other. It was interesting to see how the friendships formed almost instantly between many of them. Of course, the surprise at the end was nice, although it mirrored the ending of the first book. The amount of repetition is this book was a major issue for me and made it extremely hard to read. To be honest I got bored with it quickly. The story is slow to make progress and it seems like there are character descriptions thrown in at random which interrupts the flow of the story. It could be the format that I received this book in but yet again there were few paragraphs and almost every sentence started a completely new line.
This book is ideal for children as I found nothing inappropriate in it. It might be a bit on the long side for some younger readers but making one chapter at a time a reading goal should help with that issue. I rate this book 1 out of 4. Unfortunately, I found this book to be way too repetitive and slow to be enjoyable. In contrast, the big battle at the end that everything was leading up to was over so quickly that it didn’t create any tension or excitement. I do not like doing this but in this book’s current condition I can not recommend it.
https://nightreaderreviews.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nightreaderreviews
https://smashbomb.com/nightreader
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated The Outfit (2022) in Movies
Jul 1, 2022
Smart, Intelligent and Understated
So much of the success or failure of a film at the Cineplex Box Office depends on the marketing of the film and the timing of it’s release. In the case of the wonderful crime drama THE OUTFIT (who’s release was buried in late January/early February 2022), the marketing did it no favors.
And that’s too bad, for this Mark Rylance film - which could easily be a stage play - is an intriguing SMART cat and mouse drama between some mob types and their tailor.
Yes, their tailor.
Rylance stars as Leonard, a tailor (he prefers to be called a “cutter”), who has a shop in Chicago in the 1950’s, THE OUTFIT tells the tale of said cutter who’s business is booming thanks to patronage of local gangsters (the titular OUTFIT) who not only frequent his shop for suits, but also to use it as a place to make “drops”. The intrigue of this film comes when “things get real” for THE OUTFIT and they use Leonard’s shop as a hideout. Leonard must outsmart the outfit - and their foes - if he hopes to survive the night.
It’s a smart premise made all the more interesting by the understated performance by Rylance who, once again, shows that his genial demeanor is disguising a very intelligent and fast-working brain. It is another in a long string of strong performances by Rylance (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in 2015’s BRIDGE OF SPIES).
Rylance is joined on screen by some very good performances by Zoey Deutch (ZOMBIELAND DOUBLETAP), Johnny Flynn (EMMA), Stage Actor Simon Russell Beale (THE DEATH OF STALIN) and, most surprisingly, Dylan O’Brien (THE MAZE RUNNER). They bring a Broadway stage performance sense of style to this work - and it is absolutely the right approach to this material, for the entire film takes place inside Leonard’s tailor shop.
Credit for this must go to Director Graham Moore (THE IMITATION GAME) who wrote this film with Johnathan McClain. He has a firm grip on what he is attempting to do - and he does it well. He sets up the premise and the players well and then pays off the circumstances - sometimes surprisingly - in satisfying ways. It is a strong showing by Moore and I’ll be looking to see what he does next.
Intelligent, understated, stage-like, smart…no wonder the suits at Universal had no idea how to market it.
So, I’ll market/champion this film that perfectly casts Rylance. He is in almost every scene and it is his intense and interesting performance that will pull you into his shop - and into the world of the OUTFIT.
Check it out - you’ll be glad you did.
THE OUTFIT is streaming for free for those of you subscribed to PEACOCK and can be rented (or bought) on most of the major outlets for those types of things.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
And that’s too bad, for this Mark Rylance film - which could easily be a stage play - is an intriguing SMART cat and mouse drama between some mob types and their tailor.
Yes, their tailor.
Rylance stars as Leonard, a tailor (he prefers to be called a “cutter”), who has a shop in Chicago in the 1950’s, THE OUTFIT tells the tale of said cutter who’s business is booming thanks to patronage of local gangsters (the titular OUTFIT) who not only frequent his shop for suits, but also to use it as a place to make “drops”. The intrigue of this film comes when “things get real” for THE OUTFIT and they use Leonard’s shop as a hideout. Leonard must outsmart the outfit - and their foes - if he hopes to survive the night.
It’s a smart premise made all the more interesting by the understated performance by Rylance who, once again, shows that his genial demeanor is disguising a very intelligent and fast-working brain. It is another in a long string of strong performances by Rylance (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in 2015’s BRIDGE OF SPIES).
Rylance is joined on screen by some very good performances by Zoey Deutch (ZOMBIELAND DOUBLETAP), Johnny Flynn (EMMA), Stage Actor Simon Russell Beale (THE DEATH OF STALIN) and, most surprisingly, Dylan O’Brien (THE MAZE RUNNER). They bring a Broadway stage performance sense of style to this work - and it is absolutely the right approach to this material, for the entire film takes place inside Leonard’s tailor shop.
Credit for this must go to Director Graham Moore (THE IMITATION GAME) who wrote this film with Johnathan McClain. He has a firm grip on what he is attempting to do - and he does it well. He sets up the premise and the players well and then pays off the circumstances - sometimes surprisingly - in satisfying ways. It is a strong showing by Moore and I’ll be looking to see what he does next.
Intelligent, understated, stage-like, smart…no wonder the suits at Universal had no idea how to market it.
So, I’ll market/champion this film that perfectly casts Rylance. He is in almost every scene and it is his intense and interesting performance that will pull you into his shop - and into the world of the OUTFIT.
Check it out - you’ll be glad you did.
THE OUTFIT is streaming for free for those of you subscribed to PEACOCK and can be rented (or bought) on most of the major outlets for those types of things.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated Outland Exile: Book 1 of Old Men and Infidels in Books
Jan 9, 2020
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
Contains spoilers, click to show
Outland Exile Book 1: Old Men and Infidels by W. Clark Boutwell was very enjoyable to read after I got into it a bit. The book was somewhat confusing to start out but the author unfolds the story layer by layer to slowly explain the world that the main character lives in. The vocabulary in this book made me consult a dictionary a few different times to check words that were strange to me, an unusual occurrence for someone who reads frequently.
The main reason that it was hard for me to initially enjoy the book was because of the authors use of short phrases. These phrases made the reading feel choppy and prevented a nice even flow. I believe this was mainly a problem because it frequently took the immersion away from the story, and jarringly forced me back into the real world as I re-read a section to see if it made more sense. I feel that many readers enjoy the immersion in a fictional world when reading a good book, so this may be a bit of an issue for some.
W. Clark Boutwell also appears to have a very good education, possibly with a large focus on the English language. The reason that I think this might be the case is because of the vocabulary found in the book, some of which seemed unnecessary. Words such as “metaphoric” “adroitly” and “remonstrations” were used, much to my initial confusion. Then there was also “pantomimed”, “sere”, and “realpolitik” that had me searching for a dictionary. On top of the strange wording at times the author also used terms such as “snakelike” and “warlike” with frequency. The amount these words were used make them almost feel overused or like errors.
The amazing plot-line of the story also offers a few different lessons that many people will have to learn in their lives. The first of these lessons is the fact that not everyone, including the government, is not always operating in your best interest. It shows that often the people who are considered to be higher-ups are more worried about themselves and their advancement than the ‘little people’ that they hurt along the way. The book also shows that a simple life is often happier than a technology-filled one, proving that the technology that is supposed to be bringing us together is also causing us to lose touch with other people at the same time. Finally, it brings to light an idea that some might find difficult to accept. That fact would be that not everything you grow up believing is necessarily the truth and that history is almost always written by the winners and the loser’s voice gets lost.
During the course of the story Malila, a Lieutenant for the Unity is sent out to Sunprairie Station with a group of bodyguards in order to repair the station. She then finds herself in the hands of Jesse Johnstone and making her way to Kentucky and stopping at a village across the Ohio River. It is here that she starts to learn just how lacking her life in the Unity was. She also learns just how much of a captive she was in her “free” Unity and how much of her supposed life there was all just an illusion.
What I liked best was watching Malila expand and grow as an individual. The author’s writing made me feel like I actually knew the characters. When tragedy struck I felt real worry and concern for them and did not want to stop reading until I knew what happened to them. On the other side, I least liked the fact that I almost gave up on reading the book early because of how slow and choppy the writing felt. The use of the obscure words made me believe there were multiple misspellings only to find that the words were just typically unused.
The target readers for this story would be young adults, starting at about high school aged and older. Concepts of pleasure sex and a few mentions of rape make this book unsuitable for most younger readers. With all of this being said I would give this book the rating 3 out of 4 because even with it being hard to get into the story was very enjoyable. The plot-line is strong and the life lessons the Malila learns are things that most people should probably learn at some point in their lives. I look forward to reading the rest of the series as it comes out.
The main reason that it was hard for me to initially enjoy the book was because of the authors use of short phrases. These phrases made the reading feel choppy and prevented a nice even flow. I believe this was mainly a problem because it frequently took the immersion away from the story, and jarringly forced me back into the real world as I re-read a section to see if it made more sense. I feel that many readers enjoy the immersion in a fictional world when reading a good book, so this may be a bit of an issue for some.
W. Clark Boutwell also appears to have a very good education, possibly with a large focus on the English language. The reason that I think this might be the case is because of the vocabulary found in the book, some of which seemed unnecessary. Words such as “metaphoric” “adroitly” and “remonstrations” were used, much to my initial confusion. Then there was also “pantomimed”, “sere”, and “realpolitik” that had me searching for a dictionary. On top of the strange wording at times the author also used terms such as “snakelike” and “warlike” with frequency. The amount these words were used make them almost feel overused or like errors.
The amazing plot-line of the story also offers a few different lessons that many people will have to learn in their lives. The first of these lessons is the fact that not everyone, including the government, is not always operating in your best interest. It shows that often the people who are considered to be higher-ups are more worried about themselves and their advancement than the ‘little people’ that they hurt along the way. The book also shows that a simple life is often happier than a technology-filled one, proving that the technology that is supposed to be bringing us together is also causing us to lose touch with other people at the same time. Finally, it brings to light an idea that some might find difficult to accept. That fact would be that not everything you grow up believing is necessarily the truth and that history is almost always written by the winners and the loser’s voice gets lost.
During the course of the story Malila, a Lieutenant for the Unity is sent out to Sunprairie Station with a group of bodyguards in order to repair the station. She then finds herself in the hands of Jesse Johnstone and making her way to Kentucky and stopping at a village across the Ohio River. It is here that she starts to learn just how lacking her life in the Unity was. She also learns just how much of a captive she was in her “free” Unity and how much of her supposed life there was all just an illusion.
What I liked best was watching Malila expand and grow as an individual. The author’s writing made me feel like I actually knew the characters. When tragedy struck I felt real worry and concern for them and did not want to stop reading until I knew what happened to them. On the other side, I least liked the fact that I almost gave up on reading the book early because of how slow and choppy the writing felt. The use of the obscure words made me believe there were multiple misspellings only to find that the words were just typically unused.
The target readers for this story would be young adults, starting at about high school aged and older. Concepts of pleasure sex and a few mentions of rape make this book unsuitable for most younger readers. With all of this being said I would give this book the rating 3 out of 4 because even with it being hard to get into the story was very enjoyable. The plot-line is strong and the life lessons the Malila learns are things that most people should probably learn at some point in their lives. I look forward to reading the rest of the series as it comes out.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition in Video Games
Jun 19, 2019
When I first learned that Dead Rising 3 would be coming to PC in an
Apocalypse edition, I was thrilled. I have not been one eager to jump on
the Xbox One bandwagon and prefer to play my games on PC.
Having enjoyed the first two games in the series, I eagerly loaded up the
game and jumped into a casual co-op game where a fellow gamer and I worked
our way through levels teaming with hordes of the undead.
Like the other games in the series, I was able to use various vehicles to
run down and force my way through the hordes and of course, anything on
the very big and detailed maps can become a weapon, while there are guns,
grenades, swords, and traditional weapons, players will also find teddy
bears, hubcaps, laptops, bricks, and countless other goodies to ward off
being the main course at a Zombie Buffet.
Players will also be able to gather items and plans so they can easily
craft weapons such as a combination power saw and sledgehammer which makes
short work of all those in your path.
Like the previous games, missions are assigned and cut scenes are used to
move the story along as players often have to locate and return various
items for characters so they will do something for you in return that
allows you to advance.
Having played both in solo mode and with a flesh and blood player, I can
tell you that I greatly prefer having another player on hand as they can
help you fight, navigate, and survive, which is key as there is not always
a helpful amount of food or drink around to help you replenish lost
health.
Since players can only manage a few weapons at a time in their inventory
and Items do destruct after a certain amount of use, being on the lookout
for the next weapon is key as I have been in extended fights when my
options ran dry and I was forced to run.
Graphically the game is solid but not what I would call cutting edge. My
biggest issue with the game was that due to the huge and frequent hordes,
there were times when I lagged almost to a standstill which was not
something that helped enhance my enjoyment of the game.
That being said, the variety of gameplay and the story of the game that
clearly let you know the clock was ticking on your window for survival
really added a sense of urgency to the game.
I enjoyed the free form variety of the game such as taking a muscle car
and executing a flip off of a ramp into a wall of fire to take down a
Zombie that was clinging to the car. Some would call this overkill, but
that is simply how I roll.
From multiple game modes to plenty of in game options, Dead Rising 3 is
tons of fun, now if only they could do something about the in game lag, we
would really have a winner, as it is now, it is a good game that could
have been great on PC.
http://sknr.net/2014/09/15/dead-rising-3-apocalypse-edition/
Apocalypse edition, I was thrilled. I have not been one eager to jump on
the Xbox One bandwagon and prefer to play my games on PC.
Having enjoyed the first two games in the series, I eagerly loaded up the
game and jumped into a casual co-op game where a fellow gamer and I worked
our way through levels teaming with hordes of the undead.
Like the other games in the series, I was able to use various vehicles to
run down and force my way through the hordes and of course, anything on
the very big and detailed maps can become a weapon, while there are guns,
grenades, swords, and traditional weapons, players will also find teddy
bears, hubcaps, laptops, bricks, and countless other goodies to ward off
being the main course at a Zombie Buffet.
Players will also be able to gather items and plans so they can easily
craft weapons such as a combination power saw and sledgehammer which makes
short work of all those in your path.
Like the previous games, missions are assigned and cut scenes are used to
move the story along as players often have to locate and return various
items for characters so they will do something for you in return that
allows you to advance.
Having played both in solo mode and with a flesh and blood player, I can
tell you that I greatly prefer having another player on hand as they can
help you fight, navigate, and survive, which is key as there is not always
a helpful amount of food or drink around to help you replenish lost
health.
Since players can only manage a few weapons at a time in their inventory
and Items do destruct after a certain amount of use, being on the lookout
for the next weapon is key as I have been in extended fights when my
options ran dry and I was forced to run.
Graphically the game is solid but not what I would call cutting edge. My
biggest issue with the game was that due to the huge and frequent hordes,
there were times when I lagged almost to a standstill which was not
something that helped enhance my enjoyment of the game.
That being said, the variety of gameplay and the story of the game that
clearly let you know the clock was ticking on your window for survival
really added a sense of urgency to the game.
I enjoyed the free form variety of the game such as taking a muscle car
and executing a flip off of a ramp into a wall of fire to take down a
Zombie that was clinging to the car. Some would call this overkill, but
that is simply how I roll.
From multiple game modes to plenty of in game options, Dead Rising 3 is
tons of fun, now if only they could do something about the in game lag, we
would really have a winner, as it is now, it is a good game that could
have been great on PC.
http://sknr.net/2014/09/15/dead-rising-3-apocalypse-edition/