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The Fifth Letter
Book
A fun vacation game turns destructive, exposing dark secrets, deeply buried grudges, and a shocking...
BookwormLea (3034 KP) rated Annabelle Comes Home (2019) in Movies
Jun 24, 2020
Contains spoilers, click to show
I love the Conjuring series. I find it fascinating. I'm a little obsessed with Ed and Lorraine Warren so I watch anything to do with the universe. After the second Conjuring film, this is my favourite. It takes a lot for a horror to scare me and though it wasn't terrifying it made me jump a lot! That feeling like you're on a rollercoaster dipping down! I love it!!!!
It's set after the Conjuring (or inbetween depending on your source) after the Warren's have the doll secured in their occult museum. Mary Ellen is babysitting Judy, the Warren's daughter (who we learnt in the Conjuring shares her mothers gift) and her friend Danielle, distraught from the death of her father, pays a visit. The events after are pretty much all her fault. I kind of hate her for it despite understanding her reasoning. While the other films focus mainly on the demon Valek or the Annabelle doll demon (with the exception of the many spirits in the first conjuring) this film has a lot of the other never before mentioned spirits that the real Ed and Lorraine have written about. The White Lady, the Samurai, the Black Shuck. I was actually concerned for how they would portray the Werewolf after such disasters as teen wold or an American Werewolf in London but was happily suprised that they made it work quite well. Of course there is a semi happy ending and all is well, Judy gets her birthday and some friends and Danielle has closure but I'm very much looking forward to the third Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Released this year hopefully!!!!!
It's set after the Conjuring (or inbetween depending on your source) after the Warren's have the doll secured in their occult museum. Mary Ellen is babysitting Judy, the Warren's daughter (who we learnt in the Conjuring shares her mothers gift) and her friend Danielle, distraught from the death of her father, pays a visit. The events after are pretty much all her fault. I kind of hate her for it despite understanding her reasoning. While the other films focus mainly on the demon Valek or the Annabelle doll demon (with the exception of the many spirits in the first conjuring) this film has a lot of the other never before mentioned spirits that the real Ed and Lorraine have written about. The White Lady, the Samurai, the Black Shuck. I was actually concerned for how they would portray the Werewolf after such disasters as teen wold or an American Werewolf in London but was happily suprised that they made it work quite well. Of course there is a semi happy ending and all is well, Judy gets her birthday and some friends and Danielle has closure but I'm very much looking forward to the third Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Released this year hopefully!!!!!
The Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Anti-Semitism and the Conspiracy of Silence
Book
From the 1950s through the 1990s, antisemitism everywhere seemed to be on the wane. But as Neil...
City on a Grid: How New York Became New York
Book
You either love it or hate it, but nothing says New York like the street grid of Manhattan. Created...
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated See No Evil (2006) in Movies
Feb 21, 2021
See No Evil is a whole big mixed bag of average. The first 20-25 minutes are abhorrently terrible. It manages to tick every mid-00s horror clichΓ© in its opening scene. It introduces all of its eye rollingly awful characters with edgy freeze frames and name cards.
Beyond the opening third, the whole film is riddled with seizure inducing quick zoom edits, and music video quality effects, and the whole runtime is draped in a durgy shit-shaded sepia tone. The characters never become remotely likable and suffer through the cringey dialogue without any sort of reprieve, and the worst one of the bunch even survives to the end credits, which is deeply upsetting.
Despite all of this however, I don't completely hate it. The gore for one is pretty solid, and looks mostly practical which is a huge bonus considering the era (and if you completely ignore the gratuitous spaffing of atrocious CGI during the final sequence). Glenn Jacobs, better known as WWE's Kane, cuts an imposing figure as the brutal as fuck villain, and I enjoyed the plots obvious homage to Friday the 13th. It's also mercifully clocks in just shy of 90 minutes, which makes it ideal for a quick dose of bloody horror if that's what you're after.
There are a huge amount of piss poor elements to See No Evil but it's certainly not the worst slasher out there. It's very typical of it's time, so it delivers exactly what you would expect and is definitely the best WWE produced film I've seen - the other being Leprechaun Origins, so not exactly a huge feat, but hey, let's take the wins where we can...
Beyond the opening third, the whole film is riddled with seizure inducing quick zoom edits, and music video quality effects, and the whole runtime is draped in a durgy shit-shaded sepia tone. The characters never become remotely likable and suffer through the cringey dialogue without any sort of reprieve, and the worst one of the bunch even survives to the end credits, which is deeply upsetting.
Despite all of this however, I don't completely hate it. The gore for one is pretty solid, and looks mostly practical which is a huge bonus considering the era (and if you completely ignore the gratuitous spaffing of atrocious CGI during the final sequence). Glenn Jacobs, better known as WWE's Kane, cuts an imposing figure as the brutal as fuck villain, and I enjoyed the plots obvious homage to Friday the 13th. It's also mercifully clocks in just shy of 90 minutes, which makes it ideal for a quick dose of bloody horror if that's what you're after.
There are a huge amount of piss poor elements to See No Evil but it's certainly not the worst slasher out there. It's very typical of it's time, so it delivers exactly what you would expect and is definitely the best WWE produced film I've seen - the other being Leprechaun Origins, so not exactly a huge feat, but hey, let's take the wins where we can...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Hidden (Shadowed Wings #1) in Books
Nov 11, 2020
188 of 200
Kindle
The Hidden (Shadowed Wings Book 1)
By Ivy Asher
am a latent wolf shifter.
Or so I thought.
Then life as I knew it changed in a flashβor more accurately, an electrocution.
Iβve woken up in a strange place, surrounded by strange people who hate me. Theyβre in the middle of a war, and I look like I belong on the wrong side of it.
If thatβs not enough to qualify as a really bad day, I now have wings and a strange animal to figure out, because it turns out that thereβs not a damn latent thing about me.
If I want to live, I have to prove that Iβm not the spy Iβm accused of being. Then I need to figure out how the fuck to get back home before all hell breaks loose. Too bad my animal has zero interest in working with me unless it has to do with the two hot assholes that lead this rebel group.
Iβm on my own, in a place Iβve never even heard of, with threats I donβt know how to defeat. And lucky me, I might as well have a rotisserie chicken living inside of me for all the help my newly discovered gryphon is.
Perfect. Just fucking perfect.
Well Iβve never read a Gryphon shifter books before and I really enjoyed it. I can see where Falon could possibly become unlikable but I thought she was brilliant just on the edge of sassy but not too much that itβs over done! The men need some work the Neanderthals!! Looking forward to seeing what the Avowed bring!
Kindle
The Hidden (Shadowed Wings Book 1)
By Ivy Asher
am a latent wolf shifter.
Or so I thought.
Then life as I knew it changed in a flashβor more accurately, an electrocution.
Iβve woken up in a strange place, surrounded by strange people who hate me. Theyβre in the middle of a war, and I look like I belong on the wrong side of it.
If thatβs not enough to qualify as a really bad day, I now have wings and a strange animal to figure out, because it turns out that thereβs not a damn latent thing about me.
If I want to live, I have to prove that Iβm not the spy Iβm accused of being. Then I need to figure out how the fuck to get back home before all hell breaks loose. Too bad my animal has zero interest in working with me unless it has to do with the two hot assholes that lead this rebel group.
Iβm on my own, in a place Iβve never even heard of, with threats I donβt know how to defeat. And lucky me, I might as well have a rotisserie chicken living inside of me for all the help my newly discovered gryphon is.
Perfect. Just fucking perfect.
Well Iβve never read a Gryphon shifter books before and I really enjoyed it. I can see where Falon could possibly become unlikable but I thought she was brilliant just on the edge of sassy but not too much that itβs over done! The men need some work the Neanderthals!! Looking forward to seeing what the Avowed bring!
Gene Simmons recommended Mellow Gold by Beck in Music (curated)
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Zombieland (2009) in Movies
Sep 19, 2020 (Updated Nov 26, 2020)
I hate to be a party pooper but this kind of sucked ass tbh, not nearly as cringe as 30 ππͺπ―πΆπ΅π¦π΄ π°π³ ππ¦π΄π΄ but cut from the exact same cloth of horribly aged 4chan-esque incel humor drudges as that one and many other comedies from this era which thankfully have died off at least a fair amount since then. What was once a revolutionary punch of action and comedy is now totally trite and mostly unfunny, I can count the amount of times I laughed on one hand (mostly thanks to Bill Murray's rightfully loved cameo). And all that is fine and dandy whatever, but did it have to look like ass too? I also find it endlessly ironic that the Eisenberg character - designed to be the most obnoxious one - easily comes off as the most tolerable out of this quartet of unlikable twats. When it isn't achingly boring it's misogynistic, not only forming this abrupt relationship which I just cannot buy solely to have these paper-thin women characters bend to the wills of and/or be in debt to the men - but the men also happen to be the only dynamic ones here, giving *them* the choice to save or not save these misdirected women in the end who couldn't just abandon their own plans to stay with them. At least it finally wakes up in the last 15 minutes with that pretty goddamn fun carnival setpiece but despite there being a flicker of an interesting premise here I'd just prefer to leave this dated "did it for teh lulz" 'humor' in 2009.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Changeland (2019) in Movies
Sep 19, 2020
An outright blast - a revitalizing, unfiltered tonic through-and-through. Would pair perfectly with ππ©π¦ ππ¦π€π³π¦π΅ ππͺπ§π¦ π°π§ ππ’ππ΅π¦π³ ππͺπ΅π΅πΊ (2013) in elite-tier escapism pieces that so vividly believe in the curative power of getting away and living in the moment. Definitely one of the most depressing movies to watch during the COVID-19 pandemic in that it features some of the most beautiful location cinematography I've ever seen, a fucking *smashing* soundtrack + Patrick Stump score, and an absolutely infectious sense of healing and bliss delivered through an affable cast who fit spotlessly together. Reminded me a lot of something like ππ³πͺπ―π€π¦ ππ·π’ππ’π―π€π©π¦ in the best way. Just people coming together and having a good time, impossible not to fall in love with - one of the ultimate hangout movies there ever was. Huge props to Seth Green, who this was an obvious passion project for. I can't lie and say that the story here is super compelling, it isn't really - it isn't bad by any means either, but it's effectively ππ’π³π₯π¦π― ππ΅π’π΅π¦ for people who don't hate themselves (minus the towering quirk). But it's clear he feels for this material so deeply that it shows through bigtime in the final product. What could have been some cheapoid DTV shrug instead comes across as a full-bodied experience because of the chemistry onscreen and belief in the picture. And of course I'm just a sucker for late-career Macaulay Culkin, who in this gets blind drunk into a Thai boxing ring wearing a pair of his signature bunny ears. Oh and also Randy Orton gives an inspirational speech. I loved this film deeply.
Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated Boot Camp (Rock War #2) in Books
Jun 24, 2019
So this is the sequel to Rock War by Robert Muchamore, which is the only other novel I've read by this author. I can't say I loved the first book, but I was intrigued to find out what happened next!
Twelve young bands have earned their big break, and are due to spend their summer in Rock War Manor as part of a new TV show. Among these contestants we have Brontobyte, Jet, and Industrial Scale Slaughter - all of whom we met in the previous novel.
The bands are put through vigorous training, before performing live and having to deal with the nosy media. There's also the added issue of tension among some contestants, such as Jay and his ex-band-mates. There are, of course, some more positive relationships going on too.
This book paints a rather realistic picture of life in the media, with all the ups and down that "fame" can bring. Not that I have any actual experience in this matter, of course.
My main problem with these books is how immature they feel. The language isn't simple, but it just somehow feels childish to me. Not to mention how most characters are a few years younger than me, and remind me of my first couple of years at secondary school.
Despite this, the story is pretty good, and I was really rather shocked by the ending. Again, I'm left wanting to know what happens next?
So although I don't love this book, I don't hate it, and I can see how some people could really enjoy it. So I think it deserves 3.5 stars.
Twelve young bands have earned their big break, and are due to spend their summer in Rock War Manor as part of a new TV show. Among these contestants we have Brontobyte, Jet, and Industrial Scale Slaughter - all of whom we met in the previous novel.
The bands are put through vigorous training, before performing live and having to deal with the nosy media. There's also the added issue of tension among some contestants, such as Jay and his ex-band-mates. There are, of course, some more positive relationships going on too.
This book paints a rather realistic picture of life in the media, with all the ups and down that "fame" can bring. Not that I have any actual experience in this matter, of course.
My main problem with these books is how immature they feel. The language isn't simple, but it just somehow feels childish to me. Not to mention how most characters are a few years younger than me, and remind me of my first couple of years at secondary school.
Despite this, the story is pretty good, and I was really rather shocked by the ending. Again, I'm left wanting to know what happens next?
So although I don't love this book, I don't hate it, and I can see how some people could really enjoy it. So I think it deserves 3.5 stars.