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Mortal Kombat (2021)
Mortal Kombat (2021)
2021 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Potentially, I'm one of the only people to have enjoyed Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Admittedly it was a long time ago that I saw it, but I remember good memories of it.

I'm going to skip over the extended synopsis, firstly because the short one sums it up, and secondly because if I put much more in it the whole plot will be ruined.

While I watched the film I was generally entertained, but when I came out there were some points that festered in my brain a bit. And those thoughts seem to have been reflected in podcasts and reviews I've come across.

This is probably exactly what you'd expect from A] a video game film and B] a Mortal Kombat film... it's both good and bad in varying degrees.

What is sad about this review is that I can't really tell you anything good about it... or just anything about it at all. Everything was instantly forgettable. I can tell you the woman from The Meg & Black Water Abyss is in it (because of course I can). I can tell you that there are bad guys fighting the good guys... or the less bad guys...

Effects, there are some of those too. Vague recollections of them being okay. I could certainly embrace the fantasy angle and forgive some things.

At this point I'd like to apologise for such a half arsed review, but it does perfectly illustrate the film... waffle with no real purpose. Although actually, the film does have a purpose. To set up for a sequel. Because some random comic violence and odd powers are generally entertaining.

As a sign off for this review, I would like to say sorry for this trash (the review and the film). I just think it perfectly sums up how I felt about this film: I've wasted your time, you'll never get it back, but I've (hopefully) given you some brief moments of entertainment. But on the plus side, if you've read this review before seeing the film then I might have saved you the 1 hour and 50 minutes (oh my god, I don't even know how I sat through that) of viewing time.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/08/mortal-kombat-movie-review.html
  
An Unrivaled Off Season (Hockey Ever After #3.5)
An Unrivaled Off Season (Hockey Ever After #3.5)
Morgan James, Ashlyn Kane | 2024 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
perfect for these two!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.


This is book 3.5 in the Hockey Ever After series, and you MUST read book 3, Unrivaled, before you read this one. This is a continuation of Max and Grady's story. The other books are not necessary though, but they are all 4 and 5 star reads.


What this is, is an immediate pick up from Unrivaled and the summer that Max and Grady spent at Max's home in New Bruinswick. (I have no clue where that is, in relation to Florida or California, but I know its north and colder that those two places!)


Both men are wanting to ask THE QUESTION, but neither man can figure out how best to do it and what follows is a wonderful 100 odd pages of them getting up the courage and spitting the darn question out. But things keep happening and the question comes, finally, at the most perfect time!


These guys love each other, and they make no bones about it! I loved that the smexy times is again fade to grey, maybe even to black, but hey! I don't care! Yes I usually like the smexier times, but I'm big enough and ugly enough to admit that it's not always necessary and these guys do fade to grey perfectly!


I loved the way these two integrated into each others lives, homes, and hearts. They are quite devious in gettting what they want, and I loved that neither one really realsied what the other was doing!


It's got laugh out loud moments (or in my case, a croak cos I have a raging sore throat!) It's got so much love. It's got guys from book 1, Gabe and Dante, playing a huge part. It's got some emotional bits, mostly when Max and Grady are having the internal conversations with themselves about asking the question, but it's not heavy. It's a lighthearted read and it was the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday morning.


I don't ususally give such short reads 5 stars, since I almost ALWAY want more, but this one??


5 full and shiny stars!


*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Hotel Artemis (2018)
Hotel Artemis (2018)
2018 | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
This review is probably a little unfair in that I actually managed to fall asleep for the last 20 minutes of it! It was a very hot cinema, very comfortable seating and the end of a very long week for me, so not my fault. Who am I kidding, I'm just an old aged lightweight!

Anyway, the year is 2028, we're in Los Angeles and there is currently rioting on the streets. In among all of this, Jodie Foster is running Hotel Artemis, an emergency hospital and recuperation area where criminals who have paid for membership can go to get patched up. Dave Bautista is her assistant, he's basically Drax the hospital porter.

A small number of criminals are already recuperating in the hotel and are soon joined by a couple of guys fresh off a job and in need of medical attention. Unknowingly though, one of the guys has stolen something he shouldn't have done, a pen vault containing some very previous gems...

What I saw of the movie was a bit of a slow burn. It's all very John Wick, but without the action, and nowhere near as good. However, you just know that the action is coming and everything is building up to it. Unfortunately though, that's where I checked out for a while, and I can't tell you how annoyed I was when I woke up again, 2 minutes from the end!
  
Ghosts of Winter (Grey Areas #2)
Ghosts of Winter (Grey Areas #2)
Brad Carl | 2015 | Crime, Romance, Thriller
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Following his flight from Gable, Iowa after getting inadvertently involved in a drug war, Barrett Grayson is determined to stay on the run from the FBI. However some bad news from home makes him re-evaluate his actions. Back in Gable the fallout from the fateful night of Chum's party continues with the local police and DEA determined to track down the missing drugs and the cartel prepared to stop at nothing to get hold of them instead. Meanwhile Claire can't shake thoughts of 'Henry Fields' from her head.

The first book in this sage was good; this second is even better. Carl is a very talented author who can move seamlessly between emotional and romantic to crime drama without missing a beat. As with the first book, despite a large cast of characters each one is depicted with incredible realism.

The thrust of the saga is that black and white don't exist, that everyone has shades of grey and has to make decisions which may be compromising or morally questionable, and that is brought into sharp relief here with what would normally be 'good guys' and 'bad guys' both blurring a lot of lines and meeting in the middle.

Despite being the second in a sequence of four books this does have its own plot which moves to a satisfying conclusion but obviously leaves all the main players in place for the next book. Anyone who picks this up and reads it will not be disappointed.
  
The A-Team (2010)
The A-Team (2010)
2010 | Action
Leaden remake of the popular-in-the-80s-but-only-possible-to-enjoy-ironically-now TV action show. Unhinged special-forces unit the A-Team are framed for a crime they didn't commit, bust out of prison, try to clear their names by going to Germany. Where, you may be wondering, is the mom 'n' pop store being threatened by cheap gangsters the team are called in to protect? Where is Hannibal putting on a stupid disguise? Where is the bit where the bad guys lock them in a shed with a load of welding gear, allowing them to build an armoured car out of bits of old washing machine? Where is the scene where they spray 35,000 rounds of .223 ammunition at the bad guys, destroying everything in sight but leaving their targets miraculously unscathed? Friends, none of these things are here.

Instead it's almost as if the A-Team have wandered into a rather downbeat Mission: Impossible movie, or possibly one of the Bournes. You don't expect to have to wrestle with the plot of The A-Team but there's a confusing tangle of double-crosses and betrayals between military intelligence, the CIA and private security firms at the heart of this. Seems to fundamentally misunderstand the essential cheesy disposability of The A-Team by trying to make it feel like a serious drama. I wouldn't have thought it was possible: this manages to be both inauthentic to the original series and also bad.
  
40x40

Mark Arm recommended Teaching You The Fear by Really Red in Music (curated)

 
Teaching You The Fear by Really Red
Teaching You The Fear by Really Red
2015 | Alternative, Compilation, Punk, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Really Red are from Texas and they released Teaching You The Fear in 1981. My friend Smithy and I had a fanzine called Attack and that was one of the records that came through. Our first band Mr. Epp eventually played with them. There's a lot going on in that band for a so-called hardcore punk band. There was a lot of cool stuff coming out of Texas in the early 80s like Big Boys and The Dicks, a little later the Butthole Surfers. Really Red was quite a political band. So many political punk bands were really strident like Crass but in the wake of Maximumrocknroll fanzine many of them were 16-year-old kids spouting shit about stuff they didn't really understand. And who wants to take advice from someone with a very small worldview? Really Red were a little older, maybe five to eight years older than me, and I know this because Ronnie Bond eventually moved up to Seattle and I got to know him a little. Those guys were old enough that when The MC5 came through Houston in the early 70s they hung out with them. Really thoughtful guys but most importantly kick-ass songs. Kelly Younger was a really unique guitar player. They also referenced Nico and The Velvet Underground as well as political punk stuff. They just seemed a little broader than a lot of things that were happening at the time in the hardcore scene in particular."

Source
  
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
1992 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Cast,director,story (0 more)
Diamond heist goes bust
With one of the best assembled casts this story is amazing. The story of a group of guys who get different color code names and don't know each other are put together because of the set of skills to rob a diamond exchange. Through out the movie we learn of the individual stories of who they are and why they are picked. It would be impossible to ever remake this film because you can't get blood from a stone. The cast was just that great. I don't want to give away too too much because if you haven't seen it one slip ruins the movie
  
F(
Flight (The Crescent Chronicles, #1)
6
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
So as basic as the writing was this book was pretty good. Not the best but not horrible.

The only thing that threw me off was the main character.

I'm not a big fan of characters who constantly contradict themselves. Like one minute the main character was like "I'm swearing off men and im staying away from the guys who i find attractive." and the next shes like "oh i hope hes still interested in me."

Another flaw in the books was the lack of relationship depth.

Sure you can see the connection but it really didn't play out well enough to have me root for them.

All in all this book gets 3 stars.
  
WG
Winning Glory (GenTech Rebellion #1)
Ann Gimpel | 2015
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Winning glory by ann gimpel
reviewed by kaila for cbr

Wow, so this one I was kind of iffy about when I asked to read it, but wanted to give it a good try and it sounded interesting. I really enjoyed it.. the first like 10% went a little bit slow for me but then it picked up amazingly and everything got super interesting. The action, the love, the sadness and everything inbetween that happened had me up until 2am finishing reading it. Very good and I cannot wait to read the next ones. I am hoping there will be books for each of the ladies and the guys :) Very happy the author let me read it for review