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Awix (3310 KP) rated Die Hard (1988) in Movies
Dec 1, 2019
Over thirty years on, John McTiernan's superlative action movie continues to thrill and delight audiences, as well as become rightly acclaimed as one of the great Christmas films, guaranteed to warm the heart - at the end, the terrorists/criminals have been defeated, the McClanes have been reconciled, and Al the cop has rediscovered the joy of gunning people down in the street.
Strange to think that, contractually, the producers were initially obliged to offer the lead role to Frank Sinatra - in the end, the film shows what can happen when you take two actors with almost no track record in movies and invest a little trust in them: Bruce Willis' sweaty, frantic turn as the blue-collar McClane makes him a new kind of action hero, while Rickman's status as an exceptional thief is confirmed by the way he steals the movie. Good jokes, terrific action sequences, and a deceptively clever script: one of those films that will always be as great as you remember.
Strange to think that, contractually, the producers were initially obliged to offer the lead role to Frank Sinatra - in the end, the film shows what can happen when you take two actors with almost no track record in movies and invest a little trust in them: Bruce Willis' sweaty, frantic turn as the blue-collar McClane makes him a new kind of action hero, while Rickman's status as an exceptional thief is confirmed by the way he steals the movie. Good jokes, terrific action sequences, and a deceptively clever script: one of those films that will always be as great as you remember.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Land That Time Forgot (1975) in Movies
Dec 11, 2019
First of the Amicus-Kevin Connor-Doug McClure fantasy adventure films is an unexpectedly classy genre movie. A U-boat carrying a mix of British and German sailors (it's 1916, so tensions abound), led by a beefy American (McClure), pitches up in a lost world inhabited by the usual rubber dinosaurs and ape men.
Pulp, but superior pulp: good production values and unexpectedly thoughtful in places. Even the dinosaurs are a cut above (the pterodactyls still leave a bit to be desired). The look and feel of the thing is very good indeed, but the plot is a touch underpowered and linear. The book's ideas about the strange way evolution works in the lost world are faithfully reproduced, but not really explored enough, and don't contribute anything significant to the plot. The film's weaknesses are those of the source material, but its fidelity to Burroughs is commendable; its strengths are all its own.
Pulp, but superior pulp: good production values and unexpectedly thoughtful in places. Even the dinosaurs are a cut above (the pterodactyls still leave a bit to be desired). The look and feel of the thing is very good indeed, but the plot is a touch underpowered and linear. The book's ideas about the strange way evolution works in the lost world are faithfully reproduced, but not really explored enough, and don't contribute anything significant to the plot. The film's weaknesses are those of the source material, but its fidelity to Burroughs is commendable; its strengths are all its own.
Vegas (725 KP) rated The Guest House in Books
Jan 24, 2020
Keeps you guessing (2 more)
Atmospheric
Great setting
Can picture this as a good film
7 people in a remote house in Ireland, booked as a B&B through an online app. A family of 3, A man and his father and 2 young ladies, both on their own.
The weather sets in and strange things start happening, from food and drink going missing to sounds of a child crying and power cuts, but when a body is found, things can only get worse...
You learn a lot obout the history of the house, the back ground of the guests, with some of the story told in flashback form, and it is difficult to try and second guess what is going to happen.
The author manages to make the setting very atmospheric and you can almost feel the tension and pressure they are suffering through the narrative...
If you are a fan of psychological thrillers either as a book or film you should enjoy this.
The weather sets in and strange things start happening, from food and drink going missing to sounds of a child crying and power cuts, but when a body is found, things can only get worse...
You learn a lot obout the history of the house, the back ground of the guests, with some of the story told in flashback form, and it is difficult to try and second guess what is going to happen.
The author manages to make the setting very atmospheric and you can almost feel the tension and pressure they are suffering through the narrative...
If you are a fan of psychological thrillers either as a book or film you should enjoy this.
Dean (6927 KP) rated Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) in Movies
Jan 12, 2020
Strange
After hearing that this involved the key players in @Nightcrawler (2014) ,which is excellent so check that out, I had to check this out. A very satirical take on the Modern Art world and the greed of Art agents, gallery owners. After a bunch of paintings are found after the death of an artist everyone wants to get their share of the profits to make a fortune.
Quite an odd film although not as odd or surreal as say @The Neon Demon (2016) but hard to describe as a horror. An interesting take on the art world and the manipulation of critics, owners, advisors to have a piece of the latest trend. Sadly it turns out to be quite average overall and would have benefitted from being a bit more unusual. A lot of the cast are wasted in small roles and unnecessary scenes.
Quite an odd film although not as odd or surreal as say @The Neon Demon (2016) but hard to describe as a horror. An interesting take on the art world and the manipulation of critics, owners, advisors to have a piece of the latest trend. Sadly it turns out to be quite average overall and would have benefitted from being a bit more unusual. A lot of the cast are wasted in small roles and unnecessary scenes.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Invisible Man (2020) in Movies
Mar 2, 2020
Latest updating of the much-filmed Wells novel (though, to be honest, it bears almost no resemblance) has struggled from the wreckage of the Dark Universe project, but that doesn't mean it's any good. Young woman escapes from an abusive relationship with a brilliant optical scientist, but finds herself plagued by strange and disturbing events. Suspense builds - or it would, if the film wasn't actually called The Invisible Man.
Seriously, this is an issue: you're ahead of the main character from the word go, so the slow-burn build-up to her actually figuring out what you already know gets tedious quite quickly. There are some quite well-mounted sequences in the second half, and the recasting of the tale as a fable dealing with paranoia is reasonably done, but points knocked off for an irritatingly mishandled ending that only serves to make the film worse and longer. Disappointing in all sorts of ways.
Seriously, this is an issue: you're ahead of the main character from the word go, so the slow-burn build-up to her actually figuring out what you already know gets tedious quite quickly. There are some quite well-mounted sequences in the second half, and the recasting of the tale as a fable dealing with paranoia is reasonably done, but points knocked off for an irritatingly mishandled ending that only serves to make the film worse and longer. Disappointing in all sorts of ways.
Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Pulp Fiction (1994) in Movies
Mar 2, 2020 (Updated Mar 3, 2020)
Is Pulp Fiction a gangster film? Well, if you define the genre as a morality tale about organised crime, then yes, it is. Of course, it is so much more than that. There is so much going on in Tarantino’s opus that it can’t be clearly defined – which is obviously part of the appeal. You can try not to enjoy every minute of it, but why bother? Once you are in on that amazing soundtrack, and the interwoven tales so unique it hurts, you are in to the end, no matter how many times you’ve seen it already. Incredible dialogue, naturally; colourful characters everywhere, it goes without saying; violence, remorse, betrayal, guns, cars, a gold watch, a samurai sword and a briefcase. A moment of decision or hesitation has a consequence that plays out in strange and mystical ways – as a theme, that in itself connects it to the gangster / crime genre.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) in Movies
Mar 6, 2020
The House of Horrors
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein- is such a classic horror movie mixed with humor, comedy, sci-fi and is in the universal monster universe. Plus this has Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolfman, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Glenn Strange as Frankenstein and Vincent Price as the voice of the Invisible Man. OMG so many horror icons/legends within one movie. Love it.
The Plot: In the first of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's horror vehicles for Universal Pictures, the inimitable comic duo star as railway baggage handlers in northern Florida. When a pair of crates belonging to a house of horrors museum are mishandled by Wilbur (Lou Costello), the museum's director, Mr. MacDougal (Frank Ferguson), demands that they deliver them personally so that they can be inspected for insurance purposes, but Lou's friend Chick (Bud Abbott) has grave suspicions.
Its funny, entertaining, thrilling, and overall excellent. If you havent seen it, than go and watch it.
The Plot: In the first of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's horror vehicles for Universal Pictures, the inimitable comic duo star as railway baggage handlers in northern Florida. When a pair of crates belonging to a house of horrors museum are mishandled by Wilbur (Lou Costello), the museum's director, Mr. MacDougal (Frank Ferguson), demands that they deliver them personally so that they can be inspected for insurance purposes, but Lou's friend Chick (Bud Abbott) has grave suspicions.
Its funny, entertaining, thrilling, and overall excellent. If you havent seen it, than go and watch it.
Vegas (725 KP) rated Locke and Key in TV
Feb 17, 2020
I wanted to like this more than I did
I liked the idea of this series, returning to the family house after the death of the dad, a widow and her children enter a strange fantasy world where keys unlock a random selection of things, memories, doors to anywhere, shape changing and other things...
What is the mystery of what happened to the dad and his friends years previous, who are hiding secrets.
While I didn't like it as much as I thought I would have, as it lacked something (not quite sure what) to make it a must watch, I did enjoy it to some degree and I think it is a series that would improve once it's been around a while, enough for the characters to mean something to us as viewers as it did feel as if it was quite rushed in its storytelling. Spreading it over a full 24 episode series would probably have been an improvement...
What is the mystery of what happened to the dad and his friends years previous, who are hiding secrets.
While I didn't like it as much as I thought I would have, as it lacked something (not quite sure what) to make it a must watch, I did enjoy it to some degree and I think it is a series that would improve once it's been around a while, enough for the characters to mean something to us as viewers as it did feel as if it was quite rushed in its storytelling. Spreading it over a full 24 episode series would probably have been an improvement...
The Long Goodbye: A Memoir
Book
Meghan O'Rourke was thirty-two when her mother died of cancer on Christmas Day, 2008. As a writer,...
The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation
Book
St. Joseph of Copertino began having mystical visions at the age of seven, but it was not until he...