Hitch (2005)

Hitch (2005)

Director:

Andy Tennant

Starring:

Will Smith

Eva Mendes

Kevin James

Plot:

While helping his latest client woo the fine lady of his dreams, a professional “date doctor” finds that his game doesn’t quite work on the gossip columnist with whom he’s smitten.

Review:

I like this type of romantic comedy. It doesn’t require any kind of thought, it’s funny and silly, and never gets too deep. It’s nice to chill out too while you’re doing something else.

Will Smith’s character, ‘Hitch,’ is a sort of pickup artist, only he’s not a douchebag out for one thing, he’s trying to help other guys get noticed by their crushes. It’s something that could very easily go down a dark path, but I don’t feel like it ever does. He doesn’t force these women into dating the guys, he just gets the women to notice them, and then coaches the men on how to not let themselves get in the way. He tells them to listen and basically teaches them not to be that guy that can’t move past the fact that they’re finally out on a date with the person they’ve been mooning over. He gives good advice and it’s up to them to follow it and since the guys have paid a decent amount of money and actually love the girl they follow it.

The movie is about what happens when this smooth man that can hook other guys up can’t get anything to work right with the woman he likes but it works anyway. It’s silly and predictable but fun and I like it.

3.5/5

 

Star Trek: Discovery (2017-?)

Star Trek: Discovery (2017-?)

Network:

CBS

Starring:

Jason Isaacs

Sonequa Martin-Green

Doug Jones

Plot:

Ten years before Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien.

Review:

I really like Star Trek, specifically Star Trek: The Next Generation. Currently, I’m in the middle of a re-watch with a bunch of friends so it’s also fresh in my mind. Big reveal, I’ve never watched Star Trek: The Original Series. I’ve seen episodes and what I’ve seen has not been my cup of Earl Grey tea. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, I am not a fan of prequels. The fact that this show happens before TOS is not a bonus to me.

I went in with very low expectations. The trailers did nothing for me, the articles I read about the story did nothing either. All they showed me was that this was not going to be the diplomatic, thinking Star Trek with hope that I love so much.

First, the positives. I liked the interior design of the ship. It was interesting and looked different from the other ships, but still modern. I liked the little rivalry between the first officer and the science officer. I liked the different species, though I didn’t know what any of them were. I also really liked that the captain and first officer were women, even though I’m pretty sure TOS had an entire episode about how that wasn’t possible.

As far as positives go, that’s it. There was so much changed and I felt like there was very little respect for the source material. I get wanting to do your own spin to things, but when you’re dealing with something that’s got so much lore and cannon material already you can’t just reboot and expect people to fall in line.

They completely changed the design of Klingons, fine, they looked too much like Lord of the Rings orcs for my taste but whatever. However, why did they have to go and change the bat’leth? Why did they have to completely focus on one side of the Klingons and forget all the development that was done on their species? Yes they’re a warrior race, but they also have traditions and honor and diplomacy. It also felt like Klingon sounded different and I wondered if they had someone who spoke it on staff, but I could be wrong on that front.

I disliked the fact that the captain of the ship loses control on the first episode, that the first officer, who was raised by Vulcans, loses her emotional shit on the first episode as well. There was hardly any introduction to characters and you were just thrown into action. Where is the camaraderie? Where is the competence? I have no faith in this crew at all.

The first episode ended on a cliff hanger because CBS wants you to subscribe to their All Access streaming service, however they’re not uploading all episodes at once they’re releasing them weekly. My original plan was to wait until either the midway point or the end of the season to subscribe and binge, but the more I think about the episode the more I disliked it so I’m not sure what I’ll do.

I want more Star Trek, but I want the Star Trek I love. I’m tired of the grim dark, hopeless, action packed Star Trek. That’s fine for a Sci-Fi action series, just not Trek, not my Trek at least.

2/5

Lego City Undercover

Lego City Undercover

Publisher:

Nintendo

Developer:

TT Games

Platform:

Switch, Wii U, PS4, & XBOX One

Plot:

Play as Chase McCain, a police officer who’s been tasked with going undercover to hunt down the notorious – and recently escaped – criminal Rex Fury.

Review:

I played Lego City Undercover years ago on the Wii U, I liked it, but didn’t beat it because I got distracted by something else. When I saw that it was being released on the Switch I was excited to play it again and snatched it up.

At this point I’ve beat the story one and a half times, this is due to me getting my own Switch and no longer using my husbands. There is so much stuff left for me to do that I’m honestly nowhere near one hundred percent but I feel like I’ve definitely gotten my monies worth.

The story is funny and entertaining, the controls are intuitive, and getting to basically play Grand Theft Auto with Lego is pretty awesome. I’ve been able to play in docked and handheld mode and had no problems either way, though I do prefer playing docked.

I’m not the sort of person that notices dropped frame rate or how many frames per second so I can’t speak to any of that, but I have ended up experiencing a few glitches. A couple times I got my character stuck and was unable to get him unstuck so I had to exit without saving and ended up having to restart levels which was frustrating. I also experienced some issues with summoning a helicopter involving the game freezing and me again having to reboot. While it’s disappointing to have those bugs in the game all and all I believe I only had it happen four times and considering I’ve played thirty-five hours plus I’m alright.

I really enjoy Lego games, but this game stands out for me. It’s not an established franchise, Lego City Undercover is its own thing. It creates a fun and interesting world that I’d love to see again. It’s low pressure but you can decide the difficulty, do you want to just complete the story mode and be done? Or do you want to one hundred percent the entire thing? I have no issues playing this around my kids either, which means I can play it more.

Really hope we get another installment in this series, though, I do believe there’s a 3DS game, but what I’d really like is another console release. I should probably look into that 3DS game.

Anyway, would definitely recommend this game to someone who already likes Lego games and is looking for something light and fun.

4/5

The Big Sick (2017)

The Big Sick (2017)

Director:

Michael Showalter

Starring:

Kumail Nanjiani

Zoe Kazan

Holly Hunter

Ray Romano

Plot:

Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family’s expectations, and his true feelings.

Review:

He handled the call to the parents pretty well.

All of the funny bits from the trailer were shown pretty early.

Holy cow this movie is two hours long?

Alright, so I could tell that they had connected before her coma, but I didn’t get that they had fallen in love. I could even understand him spending all that time at the hospital even though they weren’t in love, but I don’t know it just seemed kind of weird that he realized that he had such strong feelings for her while she was out.

I liked her reaction to him changing things on her. I also liked that he didn’t try and force the issue. Basically, he did what you should do when you’re rejected.

The movie was cute, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. It dragged a bit in the middle, but I liked the beginning and the end.

3/5

Fate of Devotion

Fate of Devotion (Finding Paradise #2) By: K.F. Breene

Plot:

After rescuing their daughter, Marie, from corporate-controlled Earth, Millicent and Ryker thought they were safe on their off-world paradise. They were wrong.

Toton, once thought the weakest conglomerate, is now dominating ruined Earth with a sinister new technology. By harvesting minds for use in their supercomputers, they’re enslaving the best and brightest humans to further their agenda. Millie and Ryker know that it’s just a matter of time before Toton realizes the biggest prize—Marie’s “gifted” mind—is merely a rocket ride away.

As the anticorporate Rebel Nation and rival companies alike scramble to thwart Toton’s inhuman machinations, society teeters on the brink. No longer safe, Millie and Ryker must sacrifice their hard-won freedom to return home and stand with the burgeoning revolution—outmanned, outgunned, and aided only by a most unexpected ally on the inside: Millie’s nemesis and estranged sister, Danissa.

But can a family’s love survive greed gone mad in a world that measures human life on a balance sheet?

Review:

This book basically didn’t stop at all. There was a point where I was actually wondering if everyone was going to die. There was a lot of death, mainly from red shirts, but the people I wanted to live, lived.

Again there was a lot of technical speak and my eyes would glaze over, I actually think there was more this time, so I didn’t always know what was going on. I’m actually a little unsure about the ending, I think I understand what happened, but there was just so much going on, and people were doing stuff with tech that isn’t real and it was confusing and I didn’t really care about that I just wanted to know if the people were alright.

My favorite character, Trent, wasn’t in it as much as I would have liked, and was constantly belittled and made fun of, it annoyed me because what he was saying was what I was most interested in.

The book had a lot of the same themes as the last one only the stakes were higher, this time two worlds. Lots of kicking butt, lots of close escapes, and just general all out chaos. Really wondering if there will be another book and if there is what will it be about?

3.5/5