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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
The fourth chapter in the phenomenally popular Mission Impossible series has arrived in theaters and jump starts the franchise with a dynamic ensemble cast and a bold mix of action and adventure with a touch of comedy thrown in.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol opens with a daring escape from a Russian prison followed shortly thereafter by an infiltration of the Kremlin and subsequent explosion on the famed Russian landmark.
Tom Cruise returns as agent Ethan Hunt and is joined by Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton. Shortly after the explosion at the Kremlin, tensions between the United States and Russia are at an all-time high. As a result, the president initiates Ghost Protocol, which effectively shuts down the Impossible Mission Force and eliminates many of their resources. As a result, Ethan and his team must take on an unsanctioned mission that will take them from Russia to Dubai to Mumbai in a race against time to not only clear the IMF from being blamed for the bombing, but to stop a deranged criminal from using stolen Russian launch codes to unleash a nuclear strike upon America.
Ethan and his team bring all manner of weapons and technology to bear against the enemy and while the action sequences are intense and the best in the series to date, they don’t overshadow the human element of the film as each character has a back story which helped endear them to the audience. Unlike previous films in the series, the plot is not as convoluted and hard to follow and director Brad Bird, making his live-action directing debut, does a fantastic job of pacing the film, never once letting it drag or become boring.
Pegg and Renner are fantastic additions to the series as Renner brings a sense of humanity to his role as analyst Brandt. Pegg gets a share of comedic lines and moments but is not there simply to provide comic relief, convincingly deadly serious when the action becomes hot and heavy. Patton holds her own with the guys and proves she is more than just a pretty face as her fight scene in a high-rise with an assassin is as intense as any action fan could want with a fantastic finale.
Cruise goes all-out in his performance and performs many of the film’s stunts himself, quite a few of them shriek-inducing, judging by the reaction of the ladies in the audience. While Ethan spends a lot of time running in the film, he also spends a lot of time fighting and it was very nice to see him share some of the responsibility for the film’s action scenes with his ensemble cast. I believe that the ensemble works so well that the studio should keep this team together for future installments in the series. The team has a winning formula that reinvigorates the series giving us what I believe is the best film in the series to date.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol opens with a daring escape from a Russian prison followed shortly thereafter by an infiltration of the Kremlin and subsequent explosion on the famed Russian landmark.
Tom Cruise returns as agent Ethan Hunt and is joined by Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton. Shortly after the explosion at the Kremlin, tensions between the United States and Russia are at an all-time high. As a result, the president initiates Ghost Protocol, which effectively shuts down the Impossible Mission Force and eliminates many of their resources. As a result, Ethan and his team must take on an unsanctioned mission that will take them from Russia to Dubai to Mumbai in a race against time to not only clear the IMF from being blamed for the bombing, but to stop a deranged criminal from using stolen Russian launch codes to unleash a nuclear strike upon America.
Ethan and his team bring all manner of weapons and technology to bear against the enemy and while the action sequences are intense and the best in the series to date, they don’t overshadow the human element of the film as each character has a back story which helped endear them to the audience. Unlike previous films in the series, the plot is not as convoluted and hard to follow and director Brad Bird, making his live-action directing debut, does a fantastic job of pacing the film, never once letting it drag or become boring.
Pegg and Renner are fantastic additions to the series as Renner brings a sense of humanity to his role as analyst Brandt. Pegg gets a share of comedic lines and moments but is not there simply to provide comic relief, convincingly deadly serious when the action becomes hot and heavy. Patton holds her own with the guys and proves she is more than just a pretty face as her fight scene in a high-rise with an assassin is as intense as any action fan could want with a fantastic finale.
Cruise goes all-out in his performance and performs many of the film’s stunts himself, quite a few of them shriek-inducing, judging by the reaction of the ladies in the audience. While Ethan spends a lot of time running in the film, he also spends a lot of time fighting and it was very nice to see him share some of the responsibility for the film’s action scenes with his ensemble cast. I believe that the ensemble works so well that the studio should keep this team together for future installments in the series. The team has a winning formula that reinvigorates the series giving us what I believe is the best film in the series to date.
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Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated Picture the Dead in Books
Apr 27, 2018
When Jennie's fiancé dies in war and only his brother, Quinn, comes home, Jennie is heartbroken. She soon learns there is more to Will's death than she thought. She is haunted by his ghost, and by the mysteries left unanswered. Piece by piece she begins to uncover his secrets… and at the same time starts to fall in love with Quinn. But there is always more to a story when there are ghosts involved.
Picture the Dead had a lot of thought put into it. The mysteries presented and the way they were unearthed were fabulous—there were questions and surprises and answers that I didn't expect all the way up to the last page.
I liked Jennie, though I didn't like Quinn at all, even after she grew to love him. I had never met Will, since he was dead in the beginning of the story, but by the end of the book I felt I knew why Jennie had loved him.
I will say that the ending didn't have nearly enough closure for me, and I am left feeling slightly confused, though satisfied by how all the events played out.
The illustrations were very good, although I had a very hard time reading what was written on them. Hopefully in the finished copy of the book the words will be easier to read.
Content/recommendation: clean, mild language. Ages 13+
Picture the Dead had a lot of thought put into it. The mysteries presented and the way they were unearthed were fabulous—there were questions and surprises and answers that I didn't expect all the way up to the last page.
I liked Jennie, though I didn't like Quinn at all, even after she grew to love him. I had never met Will, since he was dead in the beginning of the story, but by the end of the book I felt I knew why Jennie had loved him.
I will say that the ending didn't have nearly enough closure for me, and I am left feeling slightly confused, though satisfied by how all the events played out.
The illustrations were very good, although I had a very hard time reading what was written on them. Hopefully in the finished copy of the book the words will be easier to read.
Content/recommendation: clean, mild language. Ages 13+
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Triple Frontier (2019) in Movies
Apr 4, 2019 (Updated Apr 4, 2019)
Felt Kinda Pointless...
When I saw the trailer for Triple Frontier, I was reminded of the extremely fun recent Ghost Recon game, Wildlands and I was also reminded of the surprisingly brilliant Sicario sequel, Day Of The Solado. Unfortunately the movie lives up to neither of those other properties and is instead a middle of the road, hollow way to waste 2 hours.
The cast were a big selling point here for me, I am a fan of every single one of the 5 lead actors in this thing and they all did a pretty great job. The problem was the material that they were working with; a generic bland script and mediocre at best action scenes.
The whole thing just felt unremarkable and forgettable throughout and I kept waiting for it to kick into high gear and get good, unfortunately I am still waiting. That is the worst thing about this film, is that it isn't anything offensively bad and it's not good or even memorable either, it's just meh for it's entirety.
Overall, you can give this one a skip, unless you are a die hard fan of any of the main cast. The way that the plot wraps up in the end makes the whole drawn-out, pretty dull adventure that we have just been on feel extremely pointless and leaves the viewer feeling unfulfilled as the credits roll.
The cast were a big selling point here for me, I am a fan of every single one of the 5 lead actors in this thing and they all did a pretty great job. The problem was the material that they were working with; a generic bland script and mediocre at best action scenes.
The whole thing just felt unremarkable and forgettable throughout and I kept waiting for it to kick into high gear and get good, unfortunately I am still waiting. That is the worst thing about this film, is that it isn't anything offensively bad and it's not good or even memorable either, it's just meh for it's entirety.
Overall, you can give this one a skip, unless you are a die hard fan of any of the main cast. The way that the plot wraps up in the end makes the whole drawn-out, pretty dull adventure that we have just been on feel extremely pointless and leaves the viewer feeling unfulfilled as the credits roll.
Ghost Owl is a story of Mariah Easter. Will she find out about her potential and learn about herself? She seems to struggle with her gift. I love the fact that Nacy show us a way into the afterlife and that maybe we are all reincarnate or we move through space and different dimensions of space.
Is everything an illusion or is it something as we see what want to make or see what we want to see? Is life as we see it or is what we think it is. Could it be that there are different parts of world that we can travel to any dimensions we want to and choose to live in the dimension where were born or do want to go higher. Is there nothing in this world, we do not exist. We are in body to experience that lifetime but then shred it and go to another life or travel somewhere else.
As we travel though Mariah Journey, is death even real? Nancy has you guessing and trying to believe that maybe we come back and travel to dimension and live there. It just us making that choice. Are what we pass to the next life and experience higher. Mariah meets someone and what about this new gift and maybe smell she or essence she got. What tribe is part of and why? We learn some of this as we read about Mariah Easter and her journey.
Is everything an illusion or is it something as we see what want to make or see what we want to see? Is life as we see it or is what we think it is. Could it be that there are different parts of world that we can travel to any dimensions we want to and choose to live in the dimension where were born or do want to go higher. Is there nothing in this world, we do not exist. We are in body to experience that lifetime but then shred it and go to another life or travel somewhere else.
As we travel though Mariah Journey, is death even real? Nancy has you guessing and trying to believe that maybe we come back and travel to dimension and live there. It just us making that choice. Are what we pass to the next life and experience higher. Mariah meets someone and what about this new gift and maybe smell she or essence she got. What tribe is part of and why? We learn some of this as we read about Mariah Easter and her journey.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Power Rangers (2017) in Movies
Feb 10, 2018 (Updated Feb 10, 2018)
Mmm, Doughnuts
I had no idea I'd been waiting all my life for a film which combined juvenile sci-fi, plastic karate, diversity-friendly teen angst, industrial levels of product placement for Krispy Kreme, and jokes about jerking off bulls, but it turned out that I was and here it is.
A bunch of high school kids discover magic medallions that turn them into (basically) action figures, tasked with stopping the evil Rita Repulsa from locating a mystical crystal hidden in a vital location somewhere on Earth (the vital location may or may not be connected to selling a range of delicious fried-dough confectionary), helped by the ghost of an ancient alien hero (the producers must have some juicy dirt on Bryan Cranston and have blackmailed him into appearing).
Now, the high school kids are all played by actors who are clearly in their 20s, the tone is all over the place (to put it mildly), and long before the end it has quietly transformed itself into a massive advert for toys, but this is still a weirdly diverting and undeniably fun film, mainly because - underneath all the complete nonsense - the script is solid and no-one seems to be taking it too seriously. All right, much of it makes no sense at all, but it does so in a rather charming way. The finest kind of bad movie. Best line - Bryan Cranston: 'Have you ever morphed before?' Black Power Ranger: 'Only in the shower.'
A bunch of high school kids discover magic medallions that turn them into (basically) action figures, tasked with stopping the evil Rita Repulsa from locating a mystical crystal hidden in a vital location somewhere on Earth (the vital location may or may not be connected to selling a range of delicious fried-dough confectionary), helped by the ghost of an ancient alien hero (the producers must have some juicy dirt on Bryan Cranston and have blackmailed him into appearing).
Now, the high school kids are all played by actors who are clearly in their 20s, the tone is all over the place (to put it mildly), and long before the end it has quietly transformed itself into a massive advert for toys, but this is still a weirdly diverting and undeniably fun film, mainly because - underneath all the complete nonsense - the script is solid and no-one seems to be taking it too seriously. All right, much of it makes no sense at all, but it does so in a rather charming way. The finest kind of bad movie. Best line - Bryan Cranston: 'Have you ever morphed before?' Black Power Ranger: 'Only in the shower.'
Nicole Hadley (380 KP) rated Strange, Unusual, Gross & Cool Animals (An Animal Planet Book) in Books
Jun 18, 2018
Animal Planet: Strange, Unusual, Gross & Cool Animals by Animal Planet & Charles Gingham has a wide range of interesting things to read and learn about of animals. The book is divided in four parts, Strange, Unusual, Gross, and Cool. The book has wonderful and abundant pictures.
There are more than 200 photographs in this book that is divided into four different focuses: “Galleries” to explore a theme, “Featured Creature” to spotlight particular extraordinary animals, “Creature Collections” with groups of animals to compare and contrast, and “Macroview,” showing tiny details.
The featured animals are just amazing, and include the blobfish, the deep sea octopod, the ghost octopus, the red-lipped batfish, banded gila monster, and as you can tell by the names, a host of unusual creatures. On all of these pages, you learn astounding facts about what makes these animals so unusual.
The book includes a glossary, annotated links to find out more, and an index. I really appreciate that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of books benefits the principal partners of R.O.A.R. (Reach Out. Act. Respond) - Animal Planet’s project to help make the world a better place for animals.
I highly recommend this book for animal aficionados, both child and adult. It is a book that allows readers to learn about animals and spark interest to continue learning.
I received this book from Time Inc. Books and Animal Planet via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
There are more than 200 photographs in this book that is divided into four different focuses: “Galleries” to explore a theme, “Featured Creature” to spotlight particular extraordinary animals, “Creature Collections” with groups of animals to compare and contrast, and “Macroview,” showing tiny details.
The featured animals are just amazing, and include the blobfish, the deep sea octopod, the ghost octopus, the red-lipped batfish, banded gila monster, and as you can tell by the names, a host of unusual creatures. On all of these pages, you learn astounding facts about what makes these animals so unusual.
The book includes a glossary, annotated links to find out more, and an index. I really appreciate that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of books benefits the principal partners of R.O.A.R. (Reach Out. Act. Respond) - Animal Planet’s project to help make the world a better place for animals.
I highly recommend this book for animal aficionados, both child and adult. It is a book that allows readers to learn about animals and spark interest to continue learning.
I received this book from Time Inc. Books and Animal Planet via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.