Search

Search only in certain items:

The Impossible (2012)
The Impossible (2012)
2012 | Action, Drama
Epic and intimate
How would you like to take your family on holiday to Thailand only to be caught in the onslaught of a tsunami? Such is the case in this film based on the true story of a family's painful and moving ordeal from the 2004 tidal wave.

The wall of water comes out of nowhere when no one was expecting anything and everyone was just having a good time playing or relaxing by the pool. In an instant everyone present has their lives changed forever as they just try and hold on to something and claw their way to safety.



The disaster sequences are amazing, but it is all over quickly so the film is about love, loss and survival. Trying to make it back to the civilized world or at least what is left of it and trying to locate your missing family members is all the family cares about.

Understandably emotions run high throughout the film and I dare you to hold back the tears when several of the most touching moments occur. You are moved continually as you hope and pray the family find each other again and make it off together and patched up the best they can.

Naomi Watts was nominated for an Oscar for this role and she really deserves it giving an intense, emotional performance. Ewan McGregor is also emotional when he gets to use a cell phone to call his family and breaks down. Even young Spider-Man, Tom Holland, is along for the ride as the couple's oldest son frantically trying to help his mother to safety.

The triumph of the human spirit is present here and you are taken along with them as your empathy pours out to the victims of this tragedy.

Keep your tissues close by for this one.

  
40x40

Scott Tostik (389 KP) rated 31 (2016) in Movies

Feb 3, 2018 (Updated Feb 3, 2018)  
31 (2016)
31 (2016)
2016 | Horror
Richard Brake (2 more)
Some interesting dialogue
Cliffhanger ending
Blood, guts and profanity... my 3 favorite things
I am and always will be a horror movie fan. And a Rob Zombie fan as well. While most in the horror community dispose the man, and do their best to ignore his reimagining of John Carpenter's beloved Halloween. I get his vision. I understand his process.
In 31, Zombie goes out of his way to remind us all of why he is here in this genre and why he should be here to stay.
The script penned for this flick is nothing short of dreadful, but in a good horror film That's what you want. His dialogue is full of pull no punches vulgarity that would make anyone blush. And his pattern of killing off his stars is brutal to say the least.
Capped with an amazing performance by Richard Brake, who from the beginnng of movie, let's you know that he "ain't no fucking clown!!!".
His ability to capture the true disgustingness that lives in every single one of us, that fire that burns in your body when someone cuts you off when your driving to work. Or bumps into you while walking by. That feeling that says, "Fuck, I'd love to kill that person,"... well he lets the beast out in this film.
He turns 5 mild mannered hippie carnies into vicious animalistic slashers. Killing at first out of that need for survival. Then killing because they had to do it. And finally killing because they were starting to enjoy it.
Zombie does what he does, sets them up to be knocked down as only he can. Chuck I'm some great one liners and awesome profanity filled dialogue, sprinkle it with some over the top kickass blood filled deaths and an acting performance by Richard Brake that I can't help but praise and you have a recipe for a disturbing good time. As Doomhead suggests in the opening sequence of 31. In hell everyone loves popcorn.
  
K(
Killbox (Sirantha Jax, #4)
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Killbox won't make any sense without reading the previous three books, and I honestly feel that I should have gone back and re-read them before starting it. I was impatient for more fresh Aguirre after finishing [b:Shady Lady|6767883|Shady Lady (Corine Solomon, #3)|Ann Aguirre|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302689192s/6767883.jpg|6913777], though, and [b:Killbox|7843135|Killbox (Sirantha Jax, #4)|Ann Aguirre|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1282093259s/7843135.jpg|6913748] is what I had on the Nook.

I really love Sirantha Jax's strength and complexity. She has grown and changed a great deal over the four books of the series, and reflects on the changes in herself during this book. Her relationship with March has deepened, as well. The depiction of a mature relationship being tested, rather than one that is fresh and new, is a nice switch from most of the books I've read recently.

The friendship between Velith and Jax is also a treasure. It is rare to see a pure friendship between a male and a female in fiction, without any sexual tension entering the picture. We're reminded that while he is an alien, Velith has had a human lover in the past, so it isn't as if that is impossible between the two — it just doesn't occur.

The book isn't solely about relationships, of course — I just appreciate how well Aguirre depicts relationships in and around the excellent plot. That's the part that you need background to understand.

The Morgut keep coming, a bigger threat than ever: they're colonizing instead of raiding. Jax secured a treaty with the Ithiss-Tor (Velith's people), but there's no help from them coming yet. Humanity's survival is on the line. Aguirre depicts battle believably, giving a sense of the horror without dwelling too much on gore.

Lovers are torn apart, established characters die, new ones come on stage. It's impossible to know at any given moment whether anyone, including Jax, will survive from scene to scene. That certainly kept me reading, and I think it will engage you, as well.
  
The Boy and His Ribbon
The Boy and His Ribbon
Pepper Winters | 2018 | Romance, Young Adult (YA)
8
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Often discomforting but gripping
I don't know how to categorise the genre of this book because the story is a metamorphosis of character growth in age and maturity. THE BOY AND HIS RIBBON is a story of becoming family, escaping abuse but never really being free. This is a tale told over a number of years, everything in this book has a tangible and realistic timeline.

The two characters in this book are Ren Wild the boy on the run and his little fellow escapee Della Ribbon. These two were enchanting characters to read; beautiful souls. Ren knocked my socks off as a care giver, his love for Della evolved and bloomed as he fathered-her, brothered-her, best-friended-her. He was utterly selfless in carving out life and survival for his Ribbon and himself. The bond between these two was seemingly unbreakable. Della evolved the most in this book, growing from babe to teen and she was a complex, fiercely-loving and possessive girl.

"He treated me as capable and brave and bright, and that's what I became because I never wanted to let him down because he would never let me down. Simple as that.“

The story is narrated from a dual POV with an emphasis on Ren's perspective but Della then reflecting back on her experiences. I felt there were two distinct phases in this book, both difficult but certainly the latter years, more complex and challenging. There is a discomfort to the story direction that challenged my allegiances, my personal morality and it's a bit of noodled-mess of thinking right now. However, I could not look away, it was an addictive story, compelling in the best way.

I have thoughts about where I think the next book's story line is going and I'm full of trepidation over it but longing to read it nevertheless. I enjoyed Pepper Winter's writing in this immensely, especially the childhood era of Della and Ren.

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

Reviewed for Jo&IsaLoveBooks Blog.
  
40x40

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Us (2019) in Movies

Feb 3, 2020 (Updated Feb 3, 2020)  
Us (2019)
Us (2019)
2019 | Horror, Thriller
The Upside Down
Us- is Jordan Peele's second film as a director. This film like Get Out, is excellent, phenomenal, horrorfying, suspenseful, terrorfying and overall great.

The Plot: Accompanied by her husband, son and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.

So like Get Out, this movie does have a theme. Lets talk about it...

"One of the central themes in Us is that we can do a good job collectively of ignoring the ramifications of privilege. I think it's the idea that what we feel like we deserve comes, you know, at the expense of someone else's freedom or joy. You know, the biggest disservice we can do as a faction with a collective privilege like the United States is to presume that we deserve it, and that it isn't luck that has us born where we're born. For us to have our privilege, someone suffers. That's where the Tethered connection, I think, resonates the most, is that those who suffer and those who prosper are two sides of the same coin. You can never forget that. We need to fight for the less fortunate." Jordan Peele.

So Once Jordan Peele does a excellent job on his theme. Like Get Out, Jordan Peele does a excellent of this theme, of the world that we live in today and his views on it.

Like Get Out, Us is a must watch film, and if you havent seen it, than you must. Its psychological twisted, horrorfying, twisted, suspenseful, great, phenomenal and excellent until the very end.
  
40x40

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated the Xbox One version of Friday the 13th : The Game in Video Games

Feb 26, 2020  
Friday the 13th : The Game
Friday the 13th : The Game
2017 | Action
Now This Is A Friday The 13th Game
Friday The 13th- is a movie franchise, the had a video game on the NES but it was god awful. So many years later, a kickstarter happened for this game and overall, US$422,866 was raised by 18,068 backers in BackerKit and about US$823,704.20 from 12,128 backers in Kickstarter, collecting about US$1,246,570.20 from both platforms, becoming the 95th most crowdfunded project of all time. So yea it succed. So lets talk about the game.

Gameplay:

Friday the 13th: The Game is a semi-open world third-person survival horror game set throughout the 1980s in a variety of locations in and around the fictional Camp Crystal Lake from the Friday the 13th franchise.

The game is an asymmetrical multiplayer video game, with up to eight people able to play in one game session. One player is randomly selected to control Jason Voorhees.

The main objective of playing as a counselor is to escape the map alive, which can be done more quickly by completing the map's side objectives (which are easier to complete when coordinating with other players) that will allow counselors to escape or to survive long enough until time runs out on the session, Jason may also be defeated with an "epic win condition" that requires both teamwork and planning, and is difficult to perform. A player may also control Tommy Jarvis, who becomes playable when certain conditions are met.
 
Setting: Five primary maps are available, each of which are based on locations from the first five films, and each set concurrent with the films' time periods. Matches may take place at: Camp Crystal Lake, the setting of the first film, in 1979; Packanack Lodge, the setting of the second film, in 1984; Higgins Haven, the setting of the third film, in 1984; the Jarvis House, the setting of the fourth film, in 1984; and Pinehurst, the setting of the fifth film, in 1989.

Its a really good, entertaining, fun and overall finally a good Friday The 13th game.
  
    Cover Orange

    Cover Orange

    Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Make your day orange! Over 10 million iOS downloads! Join the party! :) - also available for iPad...

    Simply Learn Lithuanian

    Simply Learn Lithuanian

    Education and Travel

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    *** Learn lithuanian language when visiting Lithuania *** Simply Learn lithuanian Language App is a...

    The Fairyland

    The Fairyland

    Games and Stickers

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Did you ever dream like this? In the dream you are an alone traveler who lost in the space and time....