Movie Madness Monday

Welcome to the first installment of my new weekly Movie Madness Monday!  (I almost forgot I was doing this… >_>)

Working for a movie rental chain means I get to watch movies the weekend before they’re released on DVD on Tuesdays.  I must say that I’m not in the habit of watching movies.  I tend to be doing other things… for instance, my best friend was married this past weekend, so I was a little busy and didn’t get all the pre-streets watched.

The ones I did squeeze in:

1. Skin Trade, featuring Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, Michael Jai White, and Peter Weller.  Obviously, I watched this because of all those actors.  It was an okay movie.  I’d say I was entertained.  I felt that they watered down Tony Jai’s fighting style quite a bit.  Not sure if that’s because he was going up against someone the size of Dolph or not… but yeah.  I’ll give it 3/5 stars.
2. Big Game, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and a bunch of other people that no one knows their names.  It’s one of our bigger titles and seemed more interesting than the others… at least to the Beau.  President of the USA gets shot down over Finland and is being hunted for sport while a young boy who has to spend 24 hours in the wild to prove he’s a man helps save the day.  This was another okay movie.  Kinda had a bit of a Homeward Bound feel to it… like it’s meant for pre-teens or something.  There’s some action and explosions and guns and Sammy L. Jackson.  Not too bad.  Another 3/5 stars.
3. Plague, featuring no one.  Really.  It’s another zombie movie.  I couldn’t pay attention.  Low budget, bad acting.  We didn’t finish it.  I was tired.  The Beau was tired.  We gave up.  Don’t bother with this one unless it ends up on Netflix and you literally have nothing else to watch.  In fact, go re-watch Fido or Evil Dead.  Or check out my next list for some not-so-new releases for suggestions.  Plague gets 1/5 stars. Can I give 0 stars?  This is probably a 0/5 stars.

Now for some better movie suggestions since this list kinda sucks:

1. Ex Machina.  Didn’t recognize any other actors in it.  That was perfectly fine.  This movie was done by the guys that did 28 Days Later.  That’s the only reason I grabbed it.  That and robots.  You know me and science fiction.  This movie is like watching three people play chess without actually seeing the chess board.  The ending was absolutely perfect.  OMG.  Spend the money and rent this movie.  Or just buy it.  WORTH IT!  5/5 stars.
2. The Kingsmen, Secret Service.  This has Colin Firth in his first ever action movie.  I looked up the trivia.  He wanted this role.  He trained for it.  And did 80% of his own stunts in this movie.  If you’ve seen… remember that church scene?!  One take.  The fucking shot that entire scene in one take.  Woah.  And then there’s Samuel L. Jackson with a lisp.  This movie is a perfect balance of action, snark, serious stuff, and really just everything.  It was balanced and the ending is just… mind blowing… 5/5 stars.

Oh, and a movie that really pissed me off: Maggie, starring the Arnold and Abigail Breslin.  FINALLY ARNOLD IS IN A ZOMBIE MOVIE! I was so excited to watch this movie.  It’s not an action movie.  At all.  It’s more about the family aspects of the zombie apocalypse.  What would you do if your daughter became infected?  There is really only one ending… the question is the method… It’s definitely more of the touchy feely, omg emotions side of the end of the world.  I mean, I suppose it did a great job at showing that but I wanted to see Arnold slaying.  It didn’t happen.  A couple zombies here and there but yeah… And this movie was a goddamn tease.  You think it’s finally getting somewhere, that something is finally going to happen… and……..

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Have you seen any of these movies?  What did you think?  Leave a comment below, send me a tweet @Owl8bit, or a message on Tumblr!

FINISHED READING: Deadline

by Mira Grant
Science Fiction/Horror

“Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has.

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.” — Goodreads

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I read this book far too fast.  Don’t worry, I took notes for my review.  There were just a few things that bothered me (though as I’m reading the third and final book in the series, it kinda makes sense).  I totally called the surprise ending, though I expected that part to happen sooner in the book than later.  And I’m fairly certain I’m in love with Dr. Abbey.  Check back soon with my review…  

FINISHED READING: Blackout

by Mira Grant
Science Fiction/Horror

“The explosive conclusion to the Newsflesh trilogy from New York Times bestseller Mira Grant.
Rise up while you can. — Georgia Mason

The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.

The year was 2039. The world didn’t end when the zombies came, it just got worse. Georgia and Shaun Mason set out on the biggest story of their generation. The uncovered the biggest conspiracy since the Rising and realized that to tell the truth, sacrifices have to be made.

Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies-and if there’s one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it’s this:

Things can always get worse.

BLACKOUT is the conclusion to the epic trilogy that began in the Hugo-nominated FEED and the sequel, DEADLINE.” —Goodreads

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July 31st: Obviously started reading because I need to finish the trilogy.  I know I haven’t posted my review for Deadline yet (or that I didn’t even post that I read it! AHHH So much reading… so little updating blog… bad Siri).  I love this series so far.  I love the way this third book is set up.  I had know idea how she was going to do it with the way the other two were done (and what happened in them).  

Are you reading it?  Let me know what you think!

Book Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Goodreads Rating: 4.06 stars
My Rating: 2 stars (I was being generous).
Recommendations: Don’t bother.

What I Liked: The author had a different take on zombies than anything I’ve read/seen before.
What I Didn’t Like: Almost everything else.

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To be horribly truthful, this book was painful for me to get through. I picked it up because this years is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Figured, Alice and Zombies… that has to be a pretty interesting read, right? No.

This books reads as if the author took writing tips from Stephenie Meyer. It read like a Twilight knock off. There was very little to do with the zombie part of things… and almost nothing of the Alice in Wonderland aspect. The only four references: the main character’s name was Alice (though she goes by Ali), one her friends went by the name Kat, Ali dressed as a gender-swapped Mad Hatter for Halloween, and that there were ominous white rabbit shaped clouds that somehow predicted something bad was going to happen. The latter was explained at some point. But I wasn’t happy with these references. Seriously.

And here come the spoilers…

Book Review #1: FEED by Mira Grant

Goodreads Rating: 3.87 Stars
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Recommendations:  Get this book.  Immediately. 

What I Liked:  The main characters, the setting, the pace, the formatting of story vs blog posts in the book.

What I Didn’t Like: Some of the “incorrect” science, a few things were overly repetitious, the big bag villain was a little too easy to pick up before the big surprise was revealed.

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First, I’d like to start out by saying that by TBR list on Goodreads is getting a little out of control. I keep adding books and then forgetting that I have them there.  I had planned on grabbing a copy of the Count of Monte Cristo to read between semesters and needed something to fill the time before I picked it up.  So, perusing through my TBR list, I saw FEED.  It’s been on my list quite a while.  To the point that I’d forgotten when or why I added it and what it was about.

That being said, I thought this book was going to be about some psychopath feeding people to death while it would be live streamed on the internet.  There’s a movie about that right?  As impulsive as I am, I didn’t bother actually reading the synopsis of the book.  I just sent in the request to my local library.

A week later, picked up the book and finally read the back cover.  I was wrong.  This book isn’t about some dude trying to kill people.  It’s a post-apocalyptic zombie book!  I love zombie books!

But this isn’t quite your typical zombie book.  While the zombies hold a large presence in the story, it’s more of the backdrop.  Here is this world where humans have created a cure for the common cold.  They’ve also created a cure for cancer.  But those two cures didn’t interact well with each other.  ZOMBIES! The story follows Georgia and Shaun Mason, and Buffy, three professional bloggers that have teamed up to bring up the best news you can get. Each blogger has a specific role in their team: Georgia is the “Newsie”, she wants the cold, hard facts, and reports on just that; Shaun is the “Irwin” and goes out in the field to video tape himself poking zombies “for science!”;  Buffy is their technical support and the Fictional blogger, she deals with all of their equipment such as servers, cameras, recorders, etc… all while writing poetry about zombies. The three of them have the bases covered. Early on, they’re invited to cover a presidential election, because life is supposed to be as normal as possible, even when zombies are walking around.  And that’s where things start to go wrong.

About this point, there may be SPOILERS!!!  You may want to stop reading if you haven’t finished the book yet.  Or keep reading if you don’t mind spoilers…

Finished Reading: Feed by Mira Grant

Feed, by Mira Grant
Science-Fiction

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new,something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

FEED is the electrifying and critically acclaimed novel of a world a half-step from our own—a novel of geeks, zombies, politics and social media.” — Amazon.com