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Identity (2003)

7.7 (28 Ratings) Rate It

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Identity is a daring new thriller from director James Mangold, (the writer/director of Girl,...

Kathleen Hanna recommended One, Two by Sister Nancy in Music (curated)

One, Two by Sister Nancy

1982 | Reggae

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Album Favorite

"I got really into reggae music in high school. Her vocals, her phrasing, everything taught me so much about how to put emphasis on different syllables, the way to punctuate things, making something sound extremely effortless when it wasn't. She's having fun and goofing around but I know that it takes a lot of work to make it sound like that. That was something that really appealed to me, wanting things to sound alive, effortless and fun while still touching on heavy issues. She just has a fucking great voice, as a singer she's just inspirational. I hadn't started doing anything yet, that was before college, I probably didn't own the album to be honest, I just taped stuff off the radio. I couldn't afford to buy a lot of records and my parents never had a lot of records. We'd buy singles at this place called Roxy Maxis for 99 cents. I taped all of the stuff on cassette so I'm sorry that I didn't pay for it."

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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Journey To The West: Conquering the Demons (2014) in Movies

Sep 21, 2020

Transcendent. A purified gonzo spectacle with enough madcap panache to measure on the Richter scale. Stephen Chow really is the *fucking* man, like if Ang Lee in the early aughts did enough acid to choke out a small village. Like all of Chow's work, it's got it all: riveting emotion, uproarious comedy, zany action, stellar production, and less than zero visible self consciousness to speak on. Exactly what these movies oughta be - plays with space like a champ and stages itself like an old school cult classic with a heavy emphasis on rubberlike physicality and Rube Goldberg-esque setpieces brought lovingly into the modern era, then injected with numerous hallucinogens. A gigantic Buddha bitch slaps the entire planet in this (literally). Have some issues with underwriting in its core relationship, and a bit too loose of pacing near the end; but it whips itself into shape enough to hardly notice too much. Balances silly with serious really formidably. The tectonic, slapstick partner piece to the blood-gushing, limb-loathing 𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯.

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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Chopper (2001) in Movies

Sep 19, 2020 (Updated Nov 26, 2020)

Chopper (2001)

2001 | Drama, Mystery

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Coincidentally have mostly the exact same issues with this as I do with 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯 (rut in the middle, a bit too conservative with the weird style-heavy moments, etc.), but Eric Bana in this *smokes* Tom Hardy in that. Dude is a straight up machete, it's a crime that practically no films he's in let him use his natural accent because he thickens it up here to a riotous degree. While this does offer up a pretty complex portrait of a legit nuthouse-ready man who repeatedly wants something so bad until he finally gets it, it sadly doesn't offer up too much in the way of nuance as opposed to other crime movies of the genre. The two things it consistently has going for it are Bana's ripper performance and Dominik's sleazoid visual overload that resembles a seedy adult goods store past midnight meets intense vodka vision. Fortunately paired with the handful of honestly shocking moments, that does happen to be enough. Still feels slow even at 90 minutes, however.

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The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated Christopher: A Tale of Seduction in Books

Oct 7, 2020

Burnett's debut novel introduces us to us a most interesting protagonist - B. K. Troop - a heavy set, less than aesthetic, aging homosexual man who becomes obsessed with the title character. Christopher is young, handsome, naive and painfully straight. Despite the seemingly hopeless situation, B.K. believes that he can still turn the boy into a conquest by taking advantage of his delicate situation. Christopher is a freshly divorced English teacher who has run away from the pain of losing his ex and suffering his overbearing mother has put him through, in order to write his long suppressed novel. Burnett takes us on a bumpy ride as the relationship develops and changes throughout the year 1984. This character-driven story pulls the reader in, as we start out disgusted and then fascinated by the workings of B.K's mind and his less than savory tactics to reach his goal. Burnett uses the flamboyance of his narrator's personality to embellish his prose with quips and high-brow remarks, making it not only an intelligent read, but one that sparkles with wit and humor.

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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Venom (2018) in Movies

Jul 11, 2019

Venom (2018)

2018 | Action, Sci-Fi

7.4

(151 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

It's... Ok, I guess...

There's not really much to say about Venom to be honest. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, it just sort of exists.

It's a pretty by the numbers origin film, that veers fairly sharply from the comics due to there being zero Spider-Man.
If you've seen the trailer, then you know the plot. There are no surprises (with the exception of an extremely on the nose tease for future installments near the end).
No one in the cast seems to be too bothered that they are there either, with the exception of Tom Hardy, who does a pretty sterling job of playing Eddie Brock - the dialogue between him and Venom is pretty entertaining throughout.

Surprising absolutely no one, the films climaxes in a CGI heavy face off, with both parties being dark grey in colour - making for a pretty bland showdown.

Venoms ok, worth a watch, even if it's just the one time - the Marvel nerd in me just really wishes that these characters were under the same MCU umbrella (one day... One day)