Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Smashbomb (4683 KP) created a post in Smashbomb Council

Dec 3, 2020  
Hey Influencers (be prepared for a long post!)

Since we got so much positive feedback on the End of Year Polls idea - we’ve decided to do it again!

But obviously, we want to check with you, our influencers, before we make anything final. So below are the Nominations we have for each category - and we want your opinions!

The way each nomination is chosen for each category, to begin with, is easy - we simply have the most positively rated items that came out in the year 2020 (excluding Apps, Shows & YouTube Channels)! But, if you think something should be swapped or changed let us know!

---

App:
 - Hearthstone (8.8)
 - Netflix (8.7)
 - Amazon (8.9)
 - Amazon Kindle (9.1)
 - Spotify (8.6)


---

Book:
 - Matt Haig - The Midnight Library (8.6)
 - Sharon J. Bolton - The Split (9.0)
 - Kate Elizabeth Russell - My Dark Vanessa (9.5)
 - Danny Tobey - The God Game (9.0)
 - Maggie O’Farrell - Hamnet (9.3)

---

Movie:
 - 1917 (8.8)
 - The Invisible Man (7.8)
 - Onward (8.3)
 - The Gentlemen (8.3)
 - Bad Boys For Life (7.7)

---

Music:
 - Eminem - Music To Be Murdered By (10)
 - Blossoms - Foolish Loving Spaces (7.5)
 - Idles - Ultra Mono (9.0)
 - Tame Impala - Slow Rush (8.0)
 - Starflyer 59 - Miami EP (9.0)

---

Podcast:
 - Sword and Scale (7.1)
 - Loot Tine Postcast (7.9)
 - No Such Thing as Fish (8.9)
 - And That’s Why We Drink (8.8)
 - True Crime Garage (8.6)

---

Show:
 - Wicked (8.7)
 - We Will Rock You (8.0)
 - The Lion King (9.5)
 - The Exorcist (8.7)
 - Les Miserables (8.0)

---

Tabletop:
 - Calico (9.0)
 - Faza (9.0)
 - Chronicles of Crime: 1400 (9.0)
 - Macaron (9.0)
 - Tales of Evil (9.0)

---

Tech:
 - iPad Pro (7.4)
 - MacBook (7.2)
 - Dell XPS 13 (7.2)
 - Nest Learning Thermostat (8.4)
 - Amazon Echo Plus (8.4)

---

TV:
 - Locke and Key (7.8)
 - Tiger King (7.7)
 - Umbrella Academy - Season 2 (9.0)
 - The Haunting of Bly Manor (8.1)
 - Lovecraft Country (8.7)

---

Videogames:
 - Final Fantasy VII Remake (8.7)
 - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (8.5)
 - The Last of Us Part II (7.4)
 - Ghost of Tsushima (8.8)
 - Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (8.0)

---

YouTube Channels:
 - Ted-Ed (8.3)
 - The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (7.6)
 - Walt Disney Studios (8.7)
 - BBC News (8.2)
 - 20th Century Fox (9.3)

---

There will be one poll for each category, narrowing each of the 5 nominations down to one winner over the course of 2 weeks!

Would love to hear what everyone thinks below!
  
Show all 15 comments.
40x40

Smashbomb (4683 KP) Dec 7, 2020

@Melika Jeddi - Yes you're completely right - that's why the list above is of the items with both the MOST + HIGHEST ratings! :)

40x40

Kirk Bage (1775 KP) Dec 7, 2020

The Queen's Gambit 100% should be in TV. And yeah, Tenet in Movies maybe.

40x40

Smashbomb (4683 KP) created a post in Smashbomb Partners

Dec 3, 2020  
Hey Partners (be prepared for a long post!)

Since we got so much positive feedback on the End of Year Polls idea - we’ve decided to do it again!

But obviously, we want to check with you, our Partners, before we make anything final. So below are the Nominations we have for each category - and we want your opinions!

The way each nomination is chosen for each category, to begin with, is easy - we simply have the most positively rated items that came out in the year 2020 (excluding Apps, Shows & YouTube Channels)! But, if you think something should be swapped or changed let us know!

---

App:
 - Hearthstone (8.8)
 - Netflix (8.7)
 - Amazon (8.9)
 - Amazon Kindle (9.1)
 - Spotify (8.6)

---

Book:
 - Matt Haig - The Midnight Library (8.6)
 - Sharon J. Bolton - The Split (9.0)
 - Kate Elizabeth Russell - My Dark Vanessa (9.5)
 - Danny Tobey - The God Game (9.0)
 - Maggie O’Farrell - Hamnet (9.3)

---

Movie:
 - 1917 (8.8)
 - The Invisible Man (7.8)
 - Onward (8.3)
 - The Gentlemen (8.3)
 - Bad Boys For Life (7.7)

---

Music:
 - Eminem - Music To Be Murdered By (10)
 - Blossoms - Foolish Loving Spaces (7.5)
 - Idles - Ultra Mono (9.0)
 - Tame Impala - Slow Rush (8.0)
 - Starflyer 59 - Miami EP (9.0)

---

Podcast:
 - Sword and Scale (7.1)
 - Loot Tine Postcast (7.9)
 - No Such Thing as Fish (8.9)
 - And That’s Why We Drink (8.8)
 - True Crime Garage (8.6)

---

Show:
 - Wicked (8.7)
 - We Will Rock You (8.0)
 - The Lion King (9.5)
 - The Exorcist (8.7)
 - Les Miserables (8.0)

---

Tabletop:
 - Calico (9.0)
 - Faza (9.0)
 - Chronicles of Crime: 1400 (9.0)
 - Macaron (9.0)
 - Tales of Evil (9.0)

---

Tech:
 - iPad Pro (7.4)
 - MacBook (7.2)
 - Dell XPS 13 (7.2)
 - Nest Learning Thermostat (8.4)
 - Amazon Echo Plus (8.4)

---

TV:
 - Locke and Key (7.8)
 - Tiger King (7.7)
 - Umbrella Academy - Season 2 (9.0)
 - The Haunting of Bly Manor (8.1)
 - Lovecraft Country (8.7)

---

Videogames:
 - Final Fantasy VII Remake (8.7)
 - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (8.5)
 - The Last of Us Part II (7.4)
 - Ghost of Tsushima (8.8)
 - Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (8.0)

---

YouTube Channels:
 - Ted-Ed (8.3)
 - The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (7.6)
 - Walt Disney Studios (8.7)
 - BBC News (8.2)
 - 20th Century Fox (9.3)

---

There will be one poll for each category, narrowing each of the 5 nominations down to one winner over the course of 2 weeks!

Would love to hear what everyone thinks below!
  
Show all 3 comments.
40x40

Hadley (567 KP) Dec 4, 2020

I think this is a great way to pick for the polls.

40x40

Kirk Bage (1775 KP) Dec 7, 2020

The Queen's Gambit is a glaring omission from TV :)

40x40

TacoDave (3607 KP) rated Funhouse (2019) in Movies

Feb 15, 2022 (Updated Feb 15, 2022)  
Funhouse (2019)
Funhouse (2019)
2019 | Crime, Drama, Horror
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Editing (2 more)
Writing
Acting (mostly)
It is better than most bad horror movies, but it is still cheesy and bad (0 more)
This movie is better than it has any right to be...
Contains spoilers, click to show
I like to watch bad horror movies. I'm not sure why. I'm not a big fan of many modern horror movies (often referred to as "torture porn") like Hostel and Saw, but rather I like small, independent horror movies that focus on a single central conceit.

I go into these movies with rock-bottom expectations, hoping against hope that they will be slightly better than expected. "Funhouse" was suprisingly entertaining, when compared to similar genre films.

The premise is simple: eight wannabe famous people (think: influencers, normal people who married celebrities, low-level MMA fighters, etc.) sign up for a reality TV show in the vein of Big Brother where they will be locked in a house together and voted out by the public.

There's one catch, of course: the guy running the show - who uses a digital avatar of a panda to speak to the "contestants" - is a nutjob and the loser of the public vote gets killed in a gruesome way.

Is it real? Is it fake entertainment for the online era? Will reacters on Youtube believe it is real? How does society treat the death of someone who really, really wants to be famous, but is only barely-known?

These questions are good ones and the movie doesn't shy away from them. In fact, after each "kill" there is a cut to people in the real world reacting to it that gives the movie a lot more nuance than a typical horror film.

The kills are very graphic and gruesome and I actually looked away for a couple of them because (as I said before) I'm not a fan of torture porn. And there is some female nudity in the movie, specifically when one character decides to strip to earn viewer votes to stay alive.

Still, all in all I was entertained. And that's all I wanted for those 90 minutes - to shut off my logical brain and just watch something different. This movie fit the bill.
  
Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)
Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)
Charlaine Harris | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.1 (36 Ratings)
Book Rating
<a href="https://amzn.to/2Wi7amb">Wishlist</a>; | <a
<a href="https://diaryofdifference.com/">Blog</a>; | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/diaryofdifference/">Facebook</a>; | <a href="https://twitter.com/DiaryDifference">Twitter</a>; | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/diaryofdifference/">Instagram</a>; | <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/diaryofdifference/pins/">Pinterest</a>;

#1 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3262782990">Dead Until Dark</a> - ★★★★

<img src="https://i0.wp.com/diaryofdifference.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Book-Review-Banner-36.png?w=663&ssl=1"/>;

<b><i>Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. We follow the life of Sookie, a waitress in Louisiana, who also has the ability to read people’s minds. </i></b>

When a vampire enters the bar and Sookie can’t read his mind – she is intrigued and wants to know this mysterious man better. But vampires usually mean trouble, and maybe Sookie is not really for all the troubles to start coming her way.

After watching the TV show “True Blood” and finding out that there is a book series, I had to read the books. I am usually a person that reads the books before watching the adaptations. The first book was great and I also loved the TV Show.

<b><i>I liked everyone, apart from Sookie. </i></b>

Possibly because she acts very immature at all times and behaves like a spoilt child, when others tell her no. Maybe it is the lack of fear, empathy and emotion she feels. Or maybe, it is just the fact that she feels entitled because of her special ability, and likes to talk about how people always treat her badly because she is different. I just didn’t like her at all. And given the fact that she is the main character in this series, I am wondering how I like this book. Sookie – if you don’t behave in the next books, we’re going to have some problems!

I loved this book because of the side characters. In Dead Until Dark, we meen many amazing characters that I loved who have their own stories to tell. This was something I really enjoyed, and considering I watched the TV Shows and knew some of these stories, I was actually excited to read the book version of them. It felt like I was meeting them again for the very first time. I was really hoping to meet Tara though, but she is not in the first book… Oh well. Maybe she’ll appear after? Don’t tell me if you know.

Charlaine Harris has an interesting writing style that kept me engaged. I was invested and curious throughout the whole book. I loved the adventures and the plot twists that kept coming up. The ending was meh, but considering the fact that it is a build-up for the second book, I wasn’t too surprised. It definitely gives you something to think about until you read the next book though.

<b><i>Vampire Bill was the character that intrigued me the most.</i></b>

I was so glad that he was not the usual vampire type we are used to, of the likes of Edward Cullen or the Salvatore brothers. Bill seemed more mature, more mysterious and I loved it.

I actually enjoyed the whole vampire world in this book. The rules and the hierarchy model was pleasantly surprising. It is interesting to dive in more in how the vampires respect each other depending on their ranks and age. Even though I do wish that the mythology was more followed through, it was nice to read a book where vampires are living in the society, and are more or less accepted. We could see how people still have their prejudice though, as is the example that the women who tend to hang out with vampires are called “fangbangers”, and they tend to be frowned upon by society.

<b><i>Overall, I believe Dead Until Dark is a great first book, and a promising beginning of the Sookie Stackhouse series. I will definitely be continuing the series!

Highly recommended if you are a fan of vampires, fantasy, romance and a bit of mystery, followed by many different side characters that you will instantly adore.</i></b>

<a href="https://amzn.to/2Wi7amb">Wishlist</a>; | <a
<a href="https://diaryofdifference.com/">Blog</a>; | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/diaryofdifference/">Facebook</a>; | <a href="https://twitter.com/DiaryDifference">Twitter</a>; | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/diaryofdifference/">Instagram</a>; | <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/diaryofdifference/pins/">Pinterest</a>;
  
Nerve
Nerve
Jeanne Ryan | 2016 | Children
6
6.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
The beauty of commuting to school: I CAN LISTEN TO ALL DA AUDIOBOOKS. (Even if it’s 15-20 minutes depending on morning traffic - not round trip.)
<h3><b>Storyline</b></h3>
<i>Nerve </i>is a book about dares. It is, essentially, <i>The Hunger Games: Dare Edition in the Modern World</i>.

Modern World meaning reality TV, where the world can watch players do said dares. Oh, and said reality TV show on the interwebs is called Nerve. The book follows Vee, who decides to give Nerve a try with a basic little dare that will land her spot in the semifinals.

Nerve has a cool concept - and I’ll admit that I decided to listen to the audiobook because there’s a psychological aspect to it I’d rather not talk of. (It’ll make me sound like I’m analyzing this for a research paper. Ew. No.)

My only problem is Nerve (the game) itself. Each dare as Vee and the other players get closer to the live finals is more daring than the one before. Each prize is bigger than the one before, with the grand prize varying from player to player. Each one more ridiculous in my opinion, because my brain facepalmed (I know brains can’t facepalm) so many times it wasn’t even funny.

Although I suppose if I got a full ride to a university, I would probably be very keen on taking the offer despite the risks of the dare. Psychology is an interesting thing.

But how does Nerve even get all that money, all those funds? I’m curious, but as I said, psychology is an interesting thing, and Jeanne Ryan does an interesting job exploring the psychological aspects involved.

Ugh. If I have to do a research paper for any psychology classes, <i>Nerve </i>is first on the blasted list to be picked apart page by page.
<h3><b>Narration</b></h3>
In my young experience of listening to audiobooks (assuming I’m blogging for the next few years, I’ll be getting those earful experiences), this is the first time I’ve heard Caitlin Davies perform.

Honestly? I can’t complain. Caitlin Davies is one of the few narrators I’ve heard about before I even started listening to audiobooks, and I’m just nodding along to everyone’s praise for her performances.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/nerve-by-jeanne-ryan-audiobook-review/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
  
    iYoga - Premium

    iYoga - Premium

    Health & Fitness and Medical

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    This app will not run on iPad 1. This app is for users that are looking for the very best content...