All reviews - Movies (232) - TV Shows (31) - DVDs (79) - Books (175) - Music (36) - Games (1)

Secret Vampire

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 26 August 2008 10:11 (A review of Night World No. 1: Secret Vampire; Daughters of Darkness; Spellbinder (Night World))

In this first Night World story, Smith introduces us to the world where creatures of the night secretly live along side humans.

After having finished Secret Vampire, I can't help but think that it felt more like a short story than a full novel in itself. Perhaps this is emphasized by the format the novels come in, with large volumes containing several stories. From reading the descriptions, it also seems that the main characters are not the same throughout. I do believe there are recurring characters, though, so it might become intersting to see how all of these will intertwine and if maybe they'll all come back in some form.

I did, however, get the urge to learn more about the Night World itself. There are hints of it in Secret Vampire, as if someone is opening the door to it, but we don't get anything in depth from Poppy's story.

What we do get is a young girl who is faced with the decision to either die as an innocent mortal, or to follow the one she loves and become something darker or perhaps more sinister. It becomes a rather interesting concept, and some tissues might be necessary when reading about Poppy's illness or how her family copes with the idea of losing her.

It's a great beginning, but I am glad there's more. As a stand-alone novel, I'm not sure it would have had much impact or if I would have remembered it too much in the future.

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Speed Racer review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 25 August 2008 07:11 (A review of Speed Racer)

Definitely a family movie or one aimed at kids who like pretty colours. Generally, that's enough to turn me off, but I actually kind of liked it all. The races were fun to watch and had plenty of action, while there were some cutely funny moments. It was definitely over the top and they didn't try to make a "serious" live-action version of the original show. For those who were hoping that's what this would be, they'll be very disappointed. But if you go into it to just have fun for a couple of hours, you'll probably be pleased.

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The Tattooist review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 05:36 (A review of The Tattooist)

A pretty decent movie... though I think that was due more to the interesting Samoan legends than to any actual "horror" in the movie. It was fairly tame, but had a sort of creepy vibe to it; kind of like the Japanese horror movies. I've definitely seen worse!

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BloodRayne II: Deliverance review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 03:17 (A review of BloodRayne II: Deliverance)

Interestingly enough, this wasn't any worse than the first movie. Which is to say that it was just as crappy but I'm not sure anyone expects any different.

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Wuthering Heights review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 10:59 (A review of Wuthering Heights)

While the movie might have had more impact with actors that didn't seem so blank and stiff, there was something rather compelling about the soundtrack. It's a classic tale of love and obsession, but this is not the best adaptation of the Bronte novel. If you watch, you do so simply because you happen to like the actors and don't expect much from the movie.

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Wicked Lovely review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 08:19 (A review of Wicked Lovely)

What a lovely gem!

I tend to pick my urban fantasy novels for different reasons. In the case of Marr's novel, it was because I really liked the cover for Ink Exchange. I also feel compelled to never read a second novel without first having read the one that started it all. So here I am.

In comparison to vampires and werewolves, fae stories aren't seen very often, but Marr's written an incredibly immersible universe with multi-dimensional characters. I'm not that knowledgeable about the lore and myth of fairies, but there are little excerpts before each chapter from actual old texts regarding the subject. (You can actually find some of them at Sacred-Texts.com along with other books on weres, unicorns, and grimoires). So you can see where Marr makes that link from old legends to the world in Wicked Lovely.

Except for maybe Seth, all of the characters have many levels to them. You find that not everyone is as straight-forward as they seem, but they're all ultimately on the same path with the same goals. Though I really loved the character of Seth (and would love one in my own life :P), he somehow felt the most imaginary. I would believe all the stuff about the faeries and glamours before I would even consider that someone as unfailing and steadfast as Seth exists. I would love to see more about him and see his character grow beyond that.

I really look forward to the next installment in this series and am really surprised I'm not hearing more about it!

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Prom Night review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 24 August 2008 07:52 (A review of Prom Night)

I don't often find myself saying this about horror or thriller movies, but this one was really boring. It's a strange word to use because normally you might say the plot was slow, the acting was bad, etc... But it really was boring. There were no surprises whatsoever: whatever you thought was going to happen, did. If you thought the bad guy was going to pop out of the closet, he did. If you thought they'd find a body in the ceiling, they did. And for something that was marketed as a horror movie, there wasn't much. The killings were clean and relatively quick. A few stabs and we moved back down to the prom scenes. Really not worth watching.

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How She Move review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 23 August 2008 05:20 (A review of How She Move)

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this movie. There were some great steps in there and really fun to watching dancing. I was expecting something cheap and cheesy, and instead got entertaining and moving.

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In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 23 August 2008 02:28 (A review of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale)

I'm sort of on the fence about this movie. First of all, it's a Uwe Boll movie. For whatever reason, he insists on doing movies that are not set in modern day but that are completely anachronistic. He doesn't pay attention at all to any time periods. So, you try and convince yourself that it's okay because it's a fantasy movie, right?! And the accents are all over the map, which is just wrong but you figure maybe that's better than a whole bunch of American actors donning awful British accents (See: Matthew Lillard). In the name of the king does star some really well-known actors, and I think in this case it worked better for him, considering he usually gets a bunch of hideous no names. So, at the very least, it's fairly watchable, but there's no one in the film who would consider it their best work.

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Dark Reunion

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 23 August 2008 10:26 (A review of The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion (The Vampire Diaries))

Wow! This fourth and final part of the series takes a decidedly more serious and much darker turn. There's a lot of imagery in here emphasizing Bonnie's fear and creating a great atmosphere for the whole story.

This story really brought together all the parts and tied up most of the loose ends. I say most if only because the whole Mrs. Flowers issue isn't truly resolved. I would have really been interested in finding out more about her and why she wasn't at all surprised by anything that the kids did. Aside from that, we find out a bit more about Caroline and Tyler... while Damon's character is revealed in pieces, letting us know that he was never as he appeared from the beginning. Matt's fears and hesitations are also addressed and it's interesting to see how far he goes and who brings him back.

This was all so much fun and it was nice to see that after all this time the whole series is still so much fun.

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