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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2371 KP) rated Hell on Wheels (An Odelia Grey Mystery, #9) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
Odelia and her husband Greg are attending a quad rugby tournament when a friend of theirs is accused of killing a jerk on the opposing team. Meanwhile, Odelia’s boss Mike Steel is acting strangely after being beat up while out of town.
Between the two stories, this book is always moving forward. I found both of them intriguing and never wanted to put the book down. The sub-plot with Steel provides us with some great laughs. The characters are as well-developed and charming as ever, which adds to the fun.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2014/11/book-review-hell-on-wheels-by-sue-ann.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Between the two stories, this book is always moving forward. I found both of them intriguing and never wanted to put the book down. The sub-plot with Steel provides us with some great laughs. The characters are as well-developed and charming as ever, which adds to the fun.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2014/11/book-review-hell-on-wheels-by-sue-ann.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Last Samurai (2003) in Movies
Feb 12, 2018
Troubled Civil War veteran Tom Cruise goes off to Japan to train their new modern-style army just after the Meiji restoration; winds up being allowed to become a samurai despite not quite meeting the minimum height requirement.
Clearly wants to be a lavish Dances With Wolves-style epic drama; works well enough as a historical adventure with some well-staged action sequences, but not quite as moving or powerful as it would really like. Every Japanese person I know who's seen this movie seems to think it's supposed to be a hilarious deadpan comedy. Someone should tell Cruise it's bad manners to organise a kamikaze charge and not die alongside everyone else.
Clearly wants to be a lavish Dances With Wolves-style epic drama; works well enough as a historical adventure with some well-staged action sequences, but not quite as moving or powerful as it would really like. Every Japanese person I know who's seen this movie seems to think it's supposed to be a hilarious deadpan comedy. Someone should tell Cruise it's bad manners to organise a kamikaze charge and not die alongside everyone else.
Clare Parrott (294 KP) rated Seeing Red (Hearts and Minds, #3) in Books
Feb 13, 2018
Book 3 of the series and I would recommend that you read the previous books before starting this as it is not stand alone. It's written well, a little confusing as I don't know who all the characters are as I've not read any others in the series. Not much happens in the book, Meg marries Seth mainly to show the media she's moving on with her Life after Spike and then Meg and Seth decide to give the sham marriage a go. The End. Really, that's it! Could really have done with a little more action in the book for me as I found it boring in the end and couldn't wait to finish it.
Lou Grande (148 KP) rated Marie's Room in Video Games
Jun 12, 2018
Kind of like Life is Strange, Marie's Room is the story of two girls--just without any of the supernatural elements. You move around (get this) Marie's room and piece together the events that happened twenty years before. The gameplay involves adjusting your sight with your mouse and moving with your keyboard, but it's surprisingly fluid. The goal is to complete Marie's journal by finding all the clues around her room. The soundtrack is awesome and included in the DLC on Steam. It's approximately an hour of gameplay, but it's a free game. There are no save options, as it's meant to be played in one session. It's a neat little visual story.
Dork_knight74 (881 KP) rated The Revenant (2015) in Movies
Dec 8, 2018
Bleh
I'm not a big DeCaprio fan and this movie didn't change that(though he eas barely recognizable in this film). It was a decent enough story but so slow moving it was hard to stay awake throughout. I don't think it would've mattered who the star was, though. This movie was just weakly made. It included a lot of unnecessary material that really didn't do much for the overall tale. It tried to be "deep" with the music but the characters were just very two dimensional. I think the story could've been told so much better with some better directing/ editing/writing. The cinematography was pretty good but overall this one is not worth a watch.
Cumberland (1142 KP) rated Beautifully Broken (2018) in Movies
Aug 30, 2018
It'll make you cry
This is a religious based movie, but I think anyone would enjoy it. While the religious beliefs of the main characters play an important role in the movie many of the underlying themes stand out drastically. This movie also deals with moving forward after a tragedy, and being aware of ones own privilege. Even though each of the three families live drastically different lives they all had struggles that they had to overcome. Watching each family connect with one another and overcome challenges made this an overall enjoyable movie. This movie also shows that the world is truly a small place, with many of the events being almost unbelievable.
David McK (3569 KP) rated Deathwish (Cal Leandros, #4) in Books
Jan 30, 2019
Fourth book in Rob(yn) Thurman's Cal Leandros series, I found this one to be both slower moving and harder to get into than the previous novels in the series.
This, I believe, is also the first book in which Thurman splits the narration between the two brothers: the problem with that being, as another reviewer rightly pointed out, that both brothers 'sound' exactly the same, meaning that (quite often) it's easy to get confused about who is narrating! Would have worked better if each of the brothers had their own tone more than they do, rather than sound like clones of each other (which they are emphatically described as being not) ...
This, I believe, is also the first book in which Thurman splits the narration between the two brothers: the problem with that being, as another reviewer rightly pointed out, that both brothers 'sound' exactly the same, meaning that (quite often) it's easy to get confused about who is narrating! Would have worked better if each of the brothers had their own tone more than they do, rather than sound like clones of each other (which they are emphatically described as being not) ...
Otway93 (580 KP) rated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) in Movies
Oct 21, 2019
Storyline (1 more)
CGI
Enjoyable, but unoriginal.
Contains spoilers, click to show
The film is described as an adventure to save the island from a volcano, but it soon turns into exactly the same as the first Jurassic World film: genetic engineering, made-up dinosaur out of control etc.
The cast is good, Chris Pratt is excellent as ever, but unfortunately he is the only redeeming feature.
The story, as mentioned, is dull and a repeat of the first Jurassic World, but another disappointment is the use of CGI. Somehow, 25 years after the original Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs have become less realistic, moving down from high quality animatronics to average quality CGI, taking away all the charm.
The cast is good, Chris Pratt is excellent as ever, but unfortunately he is the only redeeming feature.
The story, as mentioned, is dull and a repeat of the first Jurassic World, but another disappointment is the use of CGI. Somehow, 25 years after the original Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs have become less realistic, moving down from high quality animatronics to average quality CGI, taking away all the charm.
The Lawsons bought a house before the boom and are now sitting ‘asset rich’ in a leafy London suburb. Fi Lawson arrives home one afternoon to find her house has been sold and new people are moving in. Her estranged husband Bram has disappeared, and she is facing this chaos alone. Candlish opens with this almost farcical beginning and pulls you into the story. Things take a darker turn when Fi starts to relay her situation on a popular radio podcast. This timeline is spliced between paragraphs of a letter from Bram. As both sides of the story unfold and both characters think they know all the facts, this novel is an interesting twist on domestic noir. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Jeremy King (346 KP) rated Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) in Movies
Jul 8, 2019
Just remember 143
This documentary is about a man i watched all the time when i was a child. I have learned many life lessons from him. I have showed my own children some of his shows. I this reminds me you have to talk to kids as a kid. If you grew up watching him or have kids watch it and learn why he was a great teacher. I found it very moving documentary.
And when you watch it you will learn why the header to this is 143.
Now if you know song sing it with me
A beautiful day for a neighbor
Could you be mine?
Would you be mine?
And when you watch it you will learn why the header to this is 143.
Now if you know song sing it with me
A beautiful day for a neighbor
Could you be mine?
Would you be mine?