If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat
8.0
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Based on John Ortbergs award-winning best-seller. Youre One Step Away from the Adventure of Your...
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockerfeller, Sr.
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"John D. Rockefeller, Sr. history's first billionaire and the patriarch of America's most famous...
Sportsbet - Online Betting
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Join now and we’ll match your first bet up to $100 in Bonus Bets (T&Cs apply. Excludes residents...
King of Avalon: Dragon Warfare
Games and Social Networking
7.0
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Make friends and battle enemies across the globe, your dragon and throne await! Get your armor on,...
Message in a Bottle
7.8
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Shimmering with suspense and emotional intensity - takes readers on a hunt for the truth about a man...
Skull Tales: Full Sail!
8.0
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Skull Tales: Full Sail! Is a semi-cooperative pirate adventure game for 1 to 5 players. In Skull...
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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Central Intelligence (2016) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
The story is pretty inconsequential, and used as a framework to build set pieces around. Kevin Hart (“Ride Along”) plays Calvin Joyner – the life and soul of his high school and the guy voted ‘Most likely to succeed’. He’s also a nice guy, sensitively covering the modesty of overweight loser Robbie Wheirdicht (a good Dwayne Johnson lookalike actually played by internet wedding-dance sensation Sione Kelepi) after he’s been ridiculed by bullies in front of the whole school.
But sometimes life doesn’t go to plan and twenty year’s later Calvin may have married his high school sweetheart Maggie (Danielle Nicolet) but has ended up in a low-level forensic accountancy job and not where he wants to be.
Robbie on the other hand has transformed his life and physique to become Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson), a man with a ‘certain set of skills’ and, as it turns out, a rogue CIA operative. Bob is on the trail of financial codes to help identify the location of the traitorous ‘Black Badger’ who killed his long-term partner Stanton (Aaron Paul). But the Black Badger could be anyone, and the CIA lead (Amy Ryan) suspects it might actually be Stone. With the stakes rising the inept Joyner needs to make a decision on who to trust and who to fear.
The comedy lead Kevin Hart previously impressed with “Get Hard” and raises a few laughs in this one, notably with his attempt at his signature flip twenty years later than he should have attempted it! Johnson’s character is written to be just plain weird and with Johnson’s limited acting range (think Arnie in “Jingle All The Way”) it’s a performance that is on the outlandish side of bizarre. Together the duo make for a likeable pair but this is a very lightweight comedy and is generally a smile-along rather than a laugh-along. It is also uneven in tone, occasionally straying into highly un-comedic territory: a throat-ripping out scene anyone?
The director is Rawson Marshall Thurber who previously directed the better comedy “Dodgeball” and the far worse “We’re the Millers”. So that should set your expectations.
A fairly ho-hum comedy which might entertain you on a long plane flight but is not worth forking out much cash to rent.
Merissa (14046 KP) rated Daddy Protector (Night Ops Daddies #1) in Books
Sep 2, 2025
You know when a blurb grabs you, like really grabs you, and you can't wait to read the book? That was this one for me. Well, it didn't turn out as I expected...
Okay, first things first. I was confused within the first couple of pages when Cole (Daddy MC) meets up with Hunter and gets arm-twisted into looking after Hunter's son, Richie (Little MC). Hunter? Who's that? The blurb says his name is Mitch! In the same part, I was put off by the author's use of 'real men'. I quote "I might be in my forties now, but a cold beer or several still appeals to me from time to time, that's for sure. And to sink them with some REAL MEN, the kind you find in the Night Ops Guards... well that's just perfection." Alphahole alert coming up!
Which leads me nicely onto the next point - see the bit in the sentence above about the Night Ops Guards? Get used to seeing it. I counted 27 instances of this phrase being used in the first 15%, and I probably missed some, as my eyes were too busy rolling. There is also the repetitive use of 'gruff', 'the son of a Night Ops Guard', and other phrases. Honestly, it just feels trite and flat, used more for word count than something meaningful between the two MCs.
I also didn't feel as though Cole was the best example of a Daddy, so I really hope that if anyone does pick up this book, they will have read other Daddy books first. There is a difference between being firm and being a jerk. Walking into someone's home, who doesn't know you, laying down the law, and telling them to put on "proper clothes" when they were enjoying Little Space, is a jerk of the first degree. There is more I could say, but I think I've said more than enough.
I was really looking forward to this book, reading about a group of military Daddies, saving the world one boy at a time. I was disappointed with what I got, and as such, I won't be recommending this book.
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Sep 2, 2025
Merissa (14046 KP) rated Awakening of the Starborne (The Game of Endings and Beginnings #1) in Books
Nov 5, 2025
We begin with Savaé as a child, and what a childhood she had. However, Sully, a quiet blacksmith, takes her in and becomes her adoptive father. Sully is a great character for the time he is in the book, and I would love to know more of his past, but that's another story. Back to Savaé. She wants to become an Ellian Knight, one of the protectors of the realm. To do so, she needs to pass three trials, so Sully trains her. She has a lot to overcome and has her own coping mechanisms. Are they healthy? Well, I'll let you decide that! At her first trial, she meets Sølas, not knowing that things are about to change her life.
Sølas is such an outstanding character. There is so much I could say about him, but I don't want to give anything away. He is gorgeous, protective (think Touch-Her-And-D!e), and will not do anything to hurt Savaé. In fact, I don't think he physically can! He is her support system when she doesn't even think she needs one.
I was completely hooked on this book! The story is dark and full of action, with a fascinating group of characters that both help and hinder. Told mostly from Savaé's perspective, you get an inside seat on what she is thinking and feeling. As I said, this is epic, so it includes lots of descriptions (that are fantastic) plus betrayals, action, and more plot twists than you can shake a stick at. The ending just about killed me, but it has left me with a longing for the next book. I can already see this is a series I will buy as a hardcopy and re-read many times.
As a debut book, this was outstanding in pretty much every way. However, some of the segues and transitions from one scene to the next were either jarring or not entirely clear. And that is me being exceedingly picky! I loved this book and HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to any fantasy lovers out there.
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Nov 5, 2025
The Great Maple Mistake (Love in Maplewood #8)
8.0
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A small-town photographer who’s given up on love meets a smoking hot firefighter with a smile to...
Contemporary MM Romance