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You might be paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not watching you. Adam lives a...
ClareR (6256 KP) rated The Shock of the Light in Books
Jun 16, 2026
Tessa and The are twins, born in the 1920s, and inseparable until university. Theo goes to Cambridge, Tessa to the Sorbonne. Something terrible happens to Tessa in France, widening the gap between the twins.
When WW2 breaks out, Theo joins the RAF, and a bored, unfulfilled Tessa joins Special Operations and goes to France.
Theo returns, Tessa does not.
Many years later, a PhD student researching the women in Special Operations, gets in contact with Theo about his sister, and together they uncover a shocking secret.
I loved this book. It was so well researched, exciting and emotionally devastating. I was left bereft at the end. The sacrifices people made during this time, even when society made it unacceptable, and women like Tessa did it anyway, were profound.
I couldn’t recommend this more if I tried!
When WW2 breaks out, Theo joins the RAF, and a bored, unfulfilled Tessa joins Special Operations and goes to France.
Theo returns, Tessa does not.
Many years later, a PhD student researching the women in Special Operations, gets in contact with Theo about his sister, and together they uncover a shocking secret.
I loved this book. It was so well researched, exciting and emotionally devastating. I was left bereft at the end. The sacrifices people made during this time, even when society made it unacceptable, and women like Tessa did it anyway, were profound.
I couldn’t recommend this more if I tried!
Becca Major (96 KP) rated Black in TV
May 26, 2018
Premise (3 more)
Story
Mystery
Interesting world-building
THAT TERRIBLE ENDING (1 more)
Manipulative asshat hero
"Black" is just weird, okay?
"Black" is a very weird show because it is a steaming pile of questions. What Black is actually about is a detective who kinda befriends a psychic woman right before getting shot, and the Grim Reaper that possesses his dead body for his own purposes. Oh, and the psychic and the reaper develop feelings for each other, because of course they do.
The Characters
The main female character is Kang Ha-ram, an unfortunate woman who is able to see black smokey clouds on the backs of people who are about to die. Then, if she touches them, she can see exactly how they die. She lives alone, has trouble keeping a job, and has a terrible relationship with her family. Out of all the characters in this show, she is the most relatable. It’s also nice to see a headstrong female character who is also compassionate and damaged.
The main male character, however, is the Grim Reaper. His designated number is 444, but he chooses to call himself Black pretty early on (as an homage to "Meet Joe Black" though I can't say anything about it because I haven't actually seen the movie). He's... interesting. On one hand, I hate him. I hate that he manipulates Ha-ram. I hate that he lies to her about everything, and still has the audacity to jerk her around. I hate that he is prejudiced and egotistical. On the other hand, after he's been on Earth for a little while, he starts to pick up on the nuances of human interaction, so I can't hate him too much.
The Story
The story caught my attention early on. It is first and foremost a mystery and a cold-case mystery at that. Shortly after Black takes over the life of detective Han Mu-gang, he is roped into a case of teenage prostitution, murder, and political cover-ups. It's very good and keeps you guessing. Plus there's the romance between Ha-ram and Black to worry about. Unfortunately, the entire final episode is terrible. It literally feels like they threw darts at a board to figure out how to finish the show.
Final Thoughts
It's a good show that could use a much better finale. It has strong characters and a hella good story. The effects are good, and the acting is great. If you like mysteries or need a change of pace, then give it a shot.
[I wrote a little bit more about this on my personal blog, and I plan to do a few more posts about Black on it. Check it out if you are interested. https://rebecca-major.com/2018/05/24/black-a-spoiler-free-k-drama-review/]
The Characters
The main female character is Kang Ha-ram, an unfortunate woman who is able to see black smokey clouds on the backs of people who are about to die. Then, if she touches them, she can see exactly how they die. She lives alone, has trouble keeping a job, and has a terrible relationship with her family. Out of all the characters in this show, she is the most relatable. It’s also nice to see a headstrong female character who is also compassionate and damaged.
The main male character, however, is the Grim Reaper. His designated number is 444, but he chooses to call himself Black pretty early on (as an homage to "Meet Joe Black" though I can't say anything about it because I haven't actually seen the movie). He's... interesting. On one hand, I hate him. I hate that he manipulates Ha-ram. I hate that he lies to her about everything, and still has the audacity to jerk her around. I hate that he is prejudiced and egotistical. On the other hand, after he's been on Earth for a little while, he starts to pick up on the nuances of human interaction, so I can't hate him too much.
The Story
The story caught my attention early on. It is first and foremost a mystery and a cold-case mystery at that. Shortly after Black takes over the life of detective Han Mu-gang, he is roped into a case of teenage prostitution, murder, and political cover-ups. It's very good and keeps you guessing. Plus there's the romance between Ha-ram and Black to worry about. Unfortunately, the entire final episode is terrible. It literally feels like they threw darts at a board to figure out how to finish the show.
Final Thoughts
It's a good show that could use a much better finale. It has strong characters and a hella good story. The effects are good, and the acting is great. If you like mysteries or need a change of pace, then give it a shot.
[I wrote a little bit more about this on my personal blog, and I plan to do a few more posts about Black on it. Check it out if you are interested. https://rebecca-major.com/2018/05/24/black-a-spoiler-free-k-drama-review/]
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Spider-Man (2002) in Movies
Sep 25, 2019
Spider-man, starring Tobey Maguire, came out on 14th June 2002. Co-starring Kirsten Dunst, James Franco and Willem Dafoe. My god doesn't every one look young!
It's the classic story, boy meets spider, spider bites boy, boy gets super-human powers.
Okay, so I'll be serious... Awkward high school student Peter Parker gets bitten by a genetically modified spider while out on a school field trip. It isn't adolescence that's changing him though, it's the spider bite, and his new found spider-like abilities come in handy when he decides to fight evil while wearing spandex, after a tragedy hits his family.
Watching Maguire climb a wall is truly cringe-worthy (the effects were terrible). He has this wide-eyed look of insanity. And when he's trying to shoot web intentionally for the first time I half expect a nerdy friend of his to be standing in the background saying "laaaaaame, I knew you were full of shit, Parker."
Spidey learns a harsh lesson about holding grudges after he lets the armed robber go when he gets stiffed for prize money at the arena. Something you also learn in this film, evidently if someone is bleeding you don't need to apply pressure to a serious wound to try and prolong their life while the ambulance gets there.
We learn many important things from this film... best friends can be arseholes. "Oh you like that girl do you, well guess what, I'm going to date her and let you find out by accident."... Oh, and that people running in terror are oblivious to people ripping open their shirts to reveal a Spider-man costume (although the same is true for Superman and Supergirl sometimes too.)... Mary Jane is an idiot, she doesn't recognise her own friend's voice (maybe because he's dressed in spandex and she was distracted) and she doesn't get the hint that "he was in the neighbourhood."... And Willem Dafoe does evil really, really well.
The effects really are terrible, there's no denying that technology has developed a lot since this film was made, but I always find it really awful watching things that are so obviously generated... that hideous artificial looking outline of the green screening. Speaking of green things, Green Goblin's outfit is reminiscent of an over the top Power Ranger villain.
Between the terrible effects and the overacting, I'm honestly not sure what this film was going for. It had too many "funny" bits to be a serious film, and it had too many "serious" bits to be a funny film. I'm left thinking of Batman Forever as a comparison, the only difference being that BF was just over the top enough to be funny.
It's the classic story, boy meets spider, spider bites boy, boy gets super-human powers.
Okay, so I'll be serious... Awkward high school student Peter Parker gets bitten by a genetically modified spider while out on a school field trip. It isn't adolescence that's changing him though, it's the spider bite, and his new found spider-like abilities come in handy when he decides to fight evil while wearing spandex, after a tragedy hits his family.
Watching Maguire climb a wall is truly cringe-worthy (the effects were terrible). He has this wide-eyed look of insanity. And when he's trying to shoot web intentionally for the first time I half expect a nerdy friend of his to be standing in the background saying "laaaaaame, I knew you were full of shit, Parker."
Spidey learns a harsh lesson about holding grudges after he lets the armed robber go when he gets stiffed for prize money at the arena. Something you also learn in this film, evidently if someone is bleeding you don't need to apply pressure to a serious wound to try and prolong their life while the ambulance gets there.
We learn many important things from this film... best friends can be arseholes. "Oh you like that girl do you, well guess what, I'm going to date her and let you find out by accident."... Oh, and that people running in terror are oblivious to people ripping open their shirts to reveal a Spider-man costume (although the same is true for Superman and Supergirl sometimes too.)... Mary Jane is an idiot, she doesn't recognise her own friend's voice (maybe because he's dressed in spandex and she was distracted) and she doesn't get the hint that "he was in the neighbourhood."... And Willem Dafoe does evil really, really well.
The effects really are terrible, there's no denying that technology has developed a lot since this film was made, but I always find it really awful watching things that are so obviously generated... that hideous artificial looking outline of the green screening. Speaking of green things, Green Goblin's outfit is reminiscent of an over the top Power Ranger villain.
Between the terrible effects and the overacting, I'm honestly not sure what this film was going for. It had too many "funny" bits to be a serious film, and it had too many "serious" bits to be a funny film. I'm left thinking of Batman Forever as a comparison, the only difference being that BF was just over the top enough to be funny.
Fred (860 KP) rated Mother! (2017) in Movies
Jul 10, 2019
What the hell did I just watch?
Contains spoilers, click to show
Okay, so normally as soon as I watch a film, I review it. That keeps my initial thoughts fresh. But with "Mother", I just couldn't. Because I don't know what the hell I just watched. It was only at the very end, when I realized Javier Bardem was God, that I knew I had to think back & figure out what this mess was about. And so, I slept on it. And here's the way I see it.
Bardem is God, Jennifer Lawrence is Mother Earth, Ed Harris is Adam, Michelle Pfeiffer is Eve. Their sons are of course, Cain & Able & everyone else is the human race. So, now it clicks and I understand what the movie is about. It's a great premise. However, it's a terrible movie.
Let's start with the acting. It is terrible. Normally greats like Lawrence, Harris & Bardem would light up the screen, but here they come across as over-the-top novice actors. I blame the dialogue & the direction, of course. At no point during the film did I feel that any of the actors were even acting. This brings me to the next point.
No one in the film acts like they should act. Now, I get that they are playing people who are the interpretation of biblical beings. But come on. These people barge in to your home and you're like "Can you please...." and "Go downstairs..." when it should be "Get the f*ck out of my house!!!" Perhaps if I knew the meaning before I watched the movie, I would have picked up on the way they were acting in these situations, but even now knowing, I find it so goddamn annoying. That may be the one word that best describes this movie. Annoying. When you want to scream at the screen to tell people how to act in a situation, it's just annoying. There's nothing worse than a movie where someone is treated like shit & they don't do anything about it. That's the entire movie.
Sure, you can sit back & think that people are over-populating the Earth. And that God is super-interested in being worshipped and some people are trying to help the Earth, while others treat it like garbage. Blah blah blah. The movie is still not a good movie. The idea is great & should have made for a great movie, but it's execution is terrible. I would actually think about watching it again, knowing what I know now, but thinking about how bad the movie is, I doubt that would happen. This would probably have been better as a book. I'm giving it 4 points for the idea, but 0 extra points for the movie.
Bardem is God, Jennifer Lawrence is Mother Earth, Ed Harris is Adam, Michelle Pfeiffer is Eve. Their sons are of course, Cain & Able & everyone else is the human race. So, now it clicks and I understand what the movie is about. It's a great premise. However, it's a terrible movie.
Let's start with the acting. It is terrible. Normally greats like Lawrence, Harris & Bardem would light up the screen, but here they come across as over-the-top novice actors. I blame the dialogue & the direction, of course. At no point during the film did I feel that any of the actors were even acting. This brings me to the next point.
No one in the film acts like they should act. Now, I get that they are playing people who are the interpretation of biblical beings. But come on. These people barge in to your home and you're like "Can you please...." and "Go downstairs..." when it should be "Get the f*ck out of my house!!!" Perhaps if I knew the meaning before I watched the movie, I would have picked up on the way they were acting in these situations, but even now knowing, I find it so goddamn annoying. That may be the one word that best describes this movie. Annoying. When you want to scream at the screen to tell people how to act in a situation, it's just annoying. There's nothing worse than a movie where someone is treated like shit & they don't do anything about it. That's the entire movie.
Sure, you can sit back & think that people are over-populating the Earth. And that God is super-interested in being worshipped and some people are trying to help the Earth, while others treat it like garbage. Blah blah blah. The movie is still not a good movie. The idea is great & should have made for a great movie, but it's execution is terrible. I would actually think about watching it again, knowing what I know now, but thinking about how bad the movie is, I doubt that would happen. This would probably have been better as a book. I'm giving it 4 points for the idea, but 0 extra points for the movie.
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Mama (2013) in Movies
Apr 15, 2018
I thought I'd heard a lot of good things about this film, but watching it recently, I must have been horribly mistaken.
This is a poor excuse for a horror film. The plot is ridiculously weak and silly and it's this way right from the very opening scene. I do think Jessica Chastain is a good actress, but not in this. She isn't given a massive amount to work with and does badly with what she does have. The CGI is very poor for the most part and is often laughably bad, and the scares are just predictable. What really killed this film for me though is Mama herself. She isn't in the slightest bit scary or creepy, and instead looks that odd and weird that she's actually quite funny. She just looks terrible, and it kinda kills a horror film when the main terror is laughable.
This is a poor excuse for a horror film. The plot is ridiculously weak and silly and it's this way right from the very opening scene. I do think Jessica Chastain is a good actress, but not in this. She isn't given a massive amount to work with and does badly with what she does have. The CGI is very poor for the most part and is often laughably bad, and the scares are just predictable. What really killed this film for me though is Mama herself. She isn't in the slightest bit scary or creepy, and instead looks that odd and weird that she's actually quite funny. She just looks terrible, and it kinda kills a horror film when the main terror is laughable.
Madbatdan82 (341 KP) rated Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018) in Movies
Mar 2, 2019
Slaughterhouse Doesn't Rule!
This really pains me to write this as I LOVE Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Ever since Spaced and Big Train I've loved everything they've done...until now. This black comedy has no laughs! The attempted 'comedy' in this is 'theyre posh' and have funny voices. It really does fall flat at every turn. The characters don't really develop and the creature designs are terrible. It would get a 3/10 but I gave it an extra mark for some good gore but all in all this is a shame and such a massive waste of Pegg, Frost and the (normally) excellent Michael Sheen who again is used for laughs by having a posh voice! Such a shame...I need to go watch Shaun of the Dead to get the bad taste out of my mouth.
Madbatdan82 (341 KP) rated The Umbrella Academy in TV
Mar 4, 2019
Superheroes, time travel, doughnuts and talking chimps
Contains spoilers, click to show
Another day another superhero tv show - right?? Well this one is really something special. Was hooked from episode 1. The best way I can describe it is a not as dark watchmen tv series. Bunch of kids with powers adopted by man who turns them into a superhero team. Years later they reunite when their 'father' dies. Then happens time travel, drugs, assassins, talking chimps, bird watching, robots, JFK conspiracies, the apocalypse and doughnuts! Like watchmen this has an amazing soundtrack which adds to the quality of the show. This would get 10 out of 10 but I just find Ellen Page terrible and every scene with her just made me cringe so (SPOILER) when she turns out to be the villain (sort of) I was quite pleased!! Watch this show!!!
Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated The Curse: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller in Books
Mar 15, 2019
Who Can Defy The Curse?It's been thirty years since the End War destroyed civilization as we know it.
Now a terrible curse hangs over the survivors, one that's pushing them towards a slow and painful extinction.
Unless...
A group of women, known as 'The Complex', have banded together to rebuild and survive in the heart of New York.
Despite the odds, these women aren't going down without a fight. Organized and resourceful, they've set out to rebuild the human race no matter what the cost.
But can it be done?
Can anyone defy the curse?
This was quite a surprise story. This was a story of post apocalyptic New York. We have some great characters and the description of life afterwards was very believable.
This is a great plot and different take on this subject. Lots of twists and surprises here and looking forward to reading more,
Now a terrible curse hangs over the survivors, one that's pushing them towards a slow and painful extinction.
Unless...
A group of women, known as 'The Complex', have banded together to rebuild and survive in the heart of New York.
Despite the odds, these women aren't going down without a fight. Organized and resourceful, they've set out to rebuild the human race no matter what the cost.
But can it be done?
Can anyone defy the curse?
This was quite a surprise story. This was a story of post apocalyptic New York. We have some great characters and the description of life afterwards was very believable.
This is a great plot and different take on this subject. Lots of twists and surprises here and looking forward to reading more,
SquidGirl (13 KP) rated Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) in Movies
Mar 18, 2019
Worst Film Ever
Contains spoilers, click to show
Okay so first, we'll talk about the characters and their ages.
Some of them were too young, like Bronwyn for example, she was younger than what she should've been, same with "Emma" but the opposite way around.
Then we'll talk about Olive and Emma, they changed their characters around from the books "Emma" is actually the girl who controls fire and is the main romantic interested and "Olive" is supposed to be the floaty girl who is meant to be a young kid.
They totally boffed the ending and the only good thing was the Skeleton part by Enoch, but Enoch isn't that powerful and works with recently dead things that has flesh, not Skeletons that have been dead for many many years.
Just a bad movie and the acting was terrible and stiff considering its Asa Butterfield
Some of them were too young, like Bronwyn for example, she was younger than what she should've been, same with "Emma" but the opposite way around.
Then we'll talk about Olive and Emma, they changed their characters around from the books "Emma" is actually the girl who controls fire and is the main romantic interested and "Olive" is supposed to be the floaty girl who is meant to be a young kid.
They totally boffed the ending and the only good thing was the Skeleton part by Enoch, but Enoch isn't that powerful and works with recently dead things that has flesh, not Skeletons that have been dead for many many years.
Just a bad movie and the acting was terrible and stiff considering its Asa Butterfield