Alpha 2016

Movies
One movie per month or two because they take a lot of time... 

Books
Trying to meet my quota, 54 per year... but more realistic 2/3 books per month. Can't say much...

Series
Continue to watch my series and start new ones?

Series I am already watching... Red means I am up to date 

This ones I've never watch an episode but I am curious... probably try an ep or two and see if it catches my eye...

12 Monkeys	13
American Gods	?
American Horror Story	64
Bates Motel	30
Black Sails	18
Da Vinci's Demons	28
Dominion	26
Fargo	20
Falling Skies	52
Hemlock Grove	33
Into the Badlands	6
Jekyll and Hyde	10
Penny Dreadful	18
Residue	3
Salem	39
Sherlock	9
Supergirl	11
The Bastard Executioner	10
The Expanse	10
The Last Ship	36
The Leftovers	20
The Magicians	9
Emerald City Scream Queens	10 10

Anime

This is a more difficult area to talk about. I've watch four series in 2015 and I really enjoy anime but to watch it I must watch it all in a week or so or else it's hard. I have several series on the horizont 

- Ushio and Tora   -> Total Ep's 38 - I've watch 18

- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya -> Total Ep's 28

- The Heroic Legend of Arslan ->  S01 = 25   -> S02 = Not Released

- Terraformars -> S01 = 14  -> S02 = Not Released

- Stein's Gate -> Total Ep's 24

- Shimoneta - Boring World -> Total Ep's 12

- Seraph of the End -> Total Ep's 24 - I've watch 12

- Rokka -> Total Ep's 12

- Hellsing -> Total Ep's 13

- God Eater -> Total Ep's 13

- Gate -> Total Ep's 24

- Death note -> Total Ep's 37

- Chaos Dragon -> Total Ep's 12

- Berserk -> Total Ep's 25

- Asura's Crying -> Total Ep's 26

- Full Metal Alchemist -> Total Ep's 64

- Samurai Champloo -> Total Ep's 26

And other series... Let us see.. Of course I won't watch half of this but It's a try no?

Omega 2015

2015 was a year that changed a lot my life.
First and most important of all - I had a son in June 21 (my firstborn called Guilherme). There aren't any photos of him in the web because myself and my wife decided that way.

The second and third situation are interlinked. Why?
Because since June 21 I only read from beginning to the end - two books but I've watch more movies and series than the previous years combined. What I want from 2016 is the balance that includes reading, watching movies/series and playing board games which I started this year as well.

So, what were my favourite books, movies and boardgames.

- Boardgames 
This one is easy. Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror are my favourite and I can't get enough.... unfortunally time at home is rather scarce... Myth as a lot of potential but only after the 2.0 rules. I've been waiting for 2 years for that. Shadows of Brimstone are a good dungeon crawler boardgame with a mix of  lovecraftian, cowboy themes. 

- Books
I've heard some audiobooks and I enjoy hearing but only those books that I don't want to buy but still want to read them. One of my favorite audiobook was Tarkin (Star Wars), My top five favourite books of 2015 have four from 40K universe. The re-read of Death World then Darkcreed and Dark Disciple from Anthony Reynolds. Relentless was also a good novel and Konrad from Warhammer universe. Steven Erikson's Wilful Child a Star Trek pastiche was another good novel. Now for the worst of 2015 we've got Abortion Arcade, some Judge Dredd audiobooks and incredibly Outlander by Matt Keefe (Necromunda setting in the 40K universe).

Movies and Series
Well Star Wars: the Force Awakens was one of those movies that destroyed part of my fantasy vision of Star Wars. Disney made it clear that this is their world and not George Lucas. They want to make it crystal clear of that. I enjoyed and I want to see the next movies BUT my beautiful universe of 20 years was shattered... This year it happened on two universes. First Warhammer and now Star Wars. I hope that as the time passes I can understand the changes and try to enjoy the new Star Wars. 

Now about the series...
I've watch and re-watch a lot of series. Let us begin
X-Files - with the new series coming January I've try re-watching the previous series and oh boy I enjoy them now as much as 20 years ago
Sliders - Another great series that I really enjoy. 15 years ago I only watch the first three seasons so I am eagerly devouring all series. It's unfortunate that Arturo dies on season 3. He was my favourite character. 

Now, new series I am watching
Z Nation - Excelent zombie comedy series. They are not trying to be Walking Dead. Review to come (Third Season coming in 2016)
12 Monkey - Only watch the first episode, it's on my to watch list. I enjoy the movie and this first episode was a remake of part of the movie.
Arrow  I only watch the first season and it was quite good. I really tried to watch the second season. 
Ash Evil Dead - Only watch the first episode and it's a keeper
Colony - Watch the pilot this month and really enjoy it. It's a keeper as well.
Dominion - Was one of the first series I've watch after my baby was born but I stop watching at the second episode. I shall watch it because I really enjoy it. It's set 25 years after the scenes in the movie...
Gotham - I watch the first 15 with my wife but then stopped. Can't understand why. I shall start again.
Helix Good sci-fi series that were canceled in second season. I watch 4 eps from the second season then stop. Must end.
Killjoys Watched the first two episodes from a 10 episode series. Bounty-hunters sci-fi theme. Excelent.
Mr Robot  Really enjoy this sensational series. Only watched the first episode.
Overlord This anime series were great. Depiciting a player in the future that it's made flesh, sort of, on his personage in the world he was for several years. 
Rail Wars - A beautfiul series about trains, girls and nothing else. Not that good but I watch the 12 ep series.
Isuca - 13 episodes of pure nonsense. I made a lenghtly review here... 
Riddle Story of Devil 12 episodes series were quite good.
Scream - Probably my favourite series of the year. Slasher series based on the movie Scream. Excelent characters and ending. Eagerly waiting for the next series.
Seraph of the End - Excelent anime series about an apocalpytic world where vampires rule the earth. Watch the first season in a couple of days. must watch the second season.
Sleepy Hollow - Watch two episodes then gave up.
The Expanse - Based on sci-fi novels that I won't be reading I am devouring these series. Quite good.
The Knight in the Area - 37 anime soccer theme episodes of .... nothing. These series are quite good but then they ended in a clinfhanger with no second series coming... Dissapointing.
The Librarians - They continue the stories of the three movies made so far. Excelent, witty, funny. I am watching as they are being release. Each series has only 10 episodes.
The Man in the High Castle - based on book by Philip K Dick I really enjoy the pilot then no news.. 10 months later the episodes were released. Must watch them. Made by Amazon.
The Strain based on three novels I've read last year. I watch 21 episodes of the 26 made. Must watch the rest.
The Whisper - watch the first episode than read that the series once cancelled after one season which made me stop.
Wayward Pine was another of my favourite shows. With 10 episodes of a world that nothing is what it seems. It's a thriller, action, apocalypytic, spy, sci-fi and other genres.Matt Dillon is on good actor!
Zoo is another great series that only had 13 episodes. Devoured as they were coming out... Excelent

Movie Review: The Vatican Tapes

This movie is a journey to a exorcism festival. For no appearent reason a girl (Olivia Taylor Dudley) start to express strange behaviours. Animals converge on her, being even mean to her. After trying medical and psychological approach a priest advices her deep catholic father a new away - an exorcism. After an initial confrotion everyone is either killed or disabled and she and the satanic entity are able to roam the earth as the "good book" says it will happen.

So, what's interesting here? Well, for starts the young woman part. She is quite an actress and gives a new life to the demonic possession. The priests secretive ways are also very interesting - almost dan brown novel. Then we've got the father and boyfriend whose acting are also good yet not that very development. But as I said the show was Olivia. Her acting is good, her devious plan is also interesting (the battle in the end) and the ending was very nice that make me wonder if "good book" writing is tricking. It says in the bible's Matthew 7:15 - "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are savage wolves." or if you want in latin  "adtendite a falsis prophetis qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces".


This phrase says one thing but to a religous fanatic of priest it's says that beware of anyone who introduces himself as a prophet or if the church wants it, they can condemn anyone who do good as a false prophet maintaining the status quo of the waiting for the "real" prophet  and thus maintaining their power over the "Sheep".

This is not a scary movie or spooky/horror as other more famous exorcist movies (Exorcist for example). I think it wanted to be a thriller like as I said before but failed because there isn't much action. I said before and said it again. The only reason to watch this movie is the woman character/acting.

I give this movie a review of 3.5/10. Btw, there is no sex or nudity on this movie.

Movie Review: Goosebumps 2015

Goosebumps (2015) - What a nice film. If you are like me that read a lot of those juvenil horror novels than you surely enjoy this movie. If you like a mix of comedy and harmless horror then you enjoy this movie. It's one of those movies that everyone in the family can watch together.

For those who don't know about the books, let me tell you a story. RL Stine is now over 70 and by 2008 he had sold more than 400 million books.  Just to give you an example Agatha Christie hve sold 2 billion books (that's the top with shakespeare) and then we are down to Danielle Steele with 120 books sold 500 milion books. JK Rowling sold between 350 to 450 millions. RL Stine have sold more than 400 millions divided by more than 400 novels. So that's saying much. His most famous series were undoubtly Goosebumps with more than 150 novels (bear in mind that this novels had around 120 pages and others around 50 pages). Then he also wrote Fear Street with more than 100 divided in several series. There a lot of series and I bet that even him doesn't know all his series. He published one book per month or more throughout 90's. That's why in the movie there is comedy scene where he says to the boy "I write fast but not that fast". Most if not of all books were written to children or juvenil audiance. I've read a book last year and this book is not for adults. The book is quite weak but to children's is good. 

Well the plot of this movie is like one of those goosebumps books. Zach (Dylan Minette) and his mother are new in a small town. There Zach meets Hannah portrayed by the beautiful Odeya Rush and her spooky father Jack Black. After some adventures Hannah is grounded by her father. Zach who thinks the father is beating her storms his house and with the help of Champ discover a shelf with a lot of locked books. Curiosity takes advantage of them and they open one of those book unleashing the abominable snowman. After escaping the house, Hannah, Jack and Champ (short for Champion) capture the beast with the help of Hannah's father who is later revealed to be author of Goosebumps's R. L. Stine.

Incidently they release the Slappy the Living Dummy who stole all RL Stine books and release all monsters on the little town. After some adventures they discover that the only way to capture all beasts would be if RL Stine wrote a book depicting that scenario. Unfortunally, Zach discovers that Hannah is also a creation of RL Stine.

The ending of the movie, after all monsters were captured (including Hannah) RL Stine goes to Zach school to teach English. There he reveals that he has written a last book where he gave life to Hannah. The ending we see his typewriter writing on a paper "The Return of Invisible boy" - this also remembers the open ending in some RL Stine books.

So, what did I thought? 

I think this is a great movie to watch in an afternoon with the family. Jack Black is a great actor and he really gave life to RL Stine and the movie. This is comedy.

Movie Review: Howl 2015

I had made another review but somehow I lost it. This is a british horror movie about a grouple of people on the night train as they become strangled in the middle o



f nowhere There they are besieged by the beasts/werewolves.

Old Lady, Train Ticket Master & Food Giver ; Bussinesswoman & Self-Centered girlie

So, what to say about this movie?
One difference between american horror stories and english horror is the way the story is told. Usually the american use a lot of special effects and actions while the english are more focused on suspense story (not that this one has much story but...). The beasts themselves are not that perfect hairy werewolve but more gore, naked animal alike. Not that good special effects but good try.

Not that many good characters for that matter. Almost everyone is obnoxious pricks that turn me off in the beginning but as the tale follows it's course I began seeing in another perspective.

The girl with the food, the train worker and the blue color guy-kid

I've watch a lot of horror movies this last couple of months. This one is alright - watchable.

The main character (or one of them) is Joe (Ed Speleers) who was turned down on a promotion. He is assigned to a train where Ellen (Holly Weston) is catering (He has a crush on her). Then there is a lot of other characters, the train driver is Sean Petwee (the buttler in the hollywood series Gotham) and he is the first victim as the train brakes down in the middle of nowhere. You've got some elderly couple, a young teen too self-centered, a bussinesswoman, the nerd, the Blue-collar worker-kid, a rich arrogant guy and the fat footballer guy.

In the age of technology, one of the first things the characters must say is... "I don't have signal in this area" or "Something blocking the signal" because, if you are trapped, all people have mobiles so the viewer must be reasure that they aren't stupid and didn't try the mobiles first.

One by one, the characters die, not that I care for any of them. Problably the blue collar kid was the only one I cared.

There are some stupid things... In the uk trains seem to be like lego. You can detach one seat and nailed to the windows to stop werewolves or something like that... where did the nails came from? 

WHAT's THAT ?!?

And then, right in the end, arrive at the terminal in waterloo? How? It took the train a lot of time to travel to where and there was some previous stops between. Did she walk in the tracks back to waterloo not pausing in those stops? Didn't she find anyone between the zone of attack and the waterloo station? Strange...

Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy that much the movie but that doesn't mean that it's unwatchable. There are far worst out there. You should watch it if you like werewolves or british horror movies... 3.5 out of 10

Movie Review: The Hoarder

Hmm, before I began to watch the movie I saw the movie and the cover and was quite intrigued. After watching the movie the feeling was substituted by disappointment and disatisfied. And why do you ask?  

Because this movie is rather bad. It has poor acting, the plot is rather stupid and dumb. The only difference is that it's in a storage facility - no wait... Storage (2009 by Michael Craft); Storage 24 (2012 by Johannes Roberts) and Self Storage (2013 by Tom DeNucci) and thats movies with Storage in the name....

Well so what's interesting about his? Not much. You've got a lady called Ella (Mischa Barton) that goes to a storage facility to search for a diary. She enlists a friend that is a skilled thief (image that). Now, they go that storage unit but unfortunally uncovers something very strange. A beast (with a mouth full of staples) kills imediately it's friend. As she flees the unit she discovers that the elevator is stuck on the minus fourth level. She climbs to the third level were she receives the help of a police officer and two other persons. The story then changes a bit as this band of storage users try to escape the facility to no avail.  The ending was suprising but not that much. 

It seems the worker of the facility kidnaps people, staple their mouth and lock them in storage units. The purpose is never revealed. Well in horror movies there can be several outcomes when the main character is the victim:
- (S)He escapes killing the bad guy.
- (S)He escapes not killing the bad guy and giving it an open-ending with the killer swearing revenge
- (S)He is captured and killed by the bad guy
- (S)He is captured and now it's the bad guy bitch.
In this case, the ending is the fourth outcome.

There are some things that could have improve the story. Most killings are off screen (not because they are hidden to make us afraid but probably because of money issues.

The dialogue is quite mediocre, and the top actress performance is bad. They all are. It felt bland or amateurish. Then there is the problem that plagues most horror movies and it's the plot... Some group of people are trapped in a place, instead of staying together they part, follow the eerie noises (?!?), people tripping. I have 35y and probably I can count with one hand the number of times I tripped... 

There are some tension moments and some comedy relief (with the divorce couple or the guy living on the storage but they are few in number).

 

Movie Review: Another World

Alright. I have a great conflict in mind on how to rate this movie. So let me write the review and the grade will come.

This movie deals with an apocalpytic event that bring zombies into existence. Of course, they are here to eat us. One thing I find odd was that a lot of time has happened but still there is electricity. There aren't many survivors and only 5 protagonists.


In the beginning we have the colonel and the wizard. Then they find the Doctor and the Daughter. As you watch the movie you see that each one represents something different. The colonel can represent life as a struggle. A political-economic way. The Wizard represents inovitation and sees life as a puzzle. The Doctor as love and healer of both mind and body and the daughter as someone who can see the bright side of life ignoring hardship and pain.

There is a fifth character, the antagonist, that I don't understand what it represents besides being almost chaotic in existence.

Another interesting thing was each day had a transition with a radio program of a man dealing with the extinction of dinosaurs and we can see similarities. The same happens with the intro of each day with Genesis references. There a lot of interest points, the evil vs good, the moral responsability, extiction, euthanasia, the begining of the world and it's ending. It's all very nice. 

But, unfortunally the movie is more than that. They are also chasing and killing zombies, running from place to place and that was, suprisingly boring because it was just fillers. Something to transition one day to another. They add nothing. And the special effects? Horrible. Almost Syfy... but worst. And the ending? Didn't enjoy it. First the Doctor day (the love and compassion) and then the Colonel in one death sequence of 7m were he berates everyone in existence. It's an awful scene. Way to long to someone who is dying...

We can understand the reason of those two characters dying and only the Wizard and the Daughter surviving but it was weak. Sorry.

After reviewing the movie, I cannot say this was a zombie movie but a existencialist / philosofical movie - with zombies. 

Another thing that upset me was the language they used. It's a cast of israelities and english so why try to speak with an american accent? 

Movie Review: We Are Still Here

So this another horror movie I've watch over this last week. This is good horror movie but it felt in the end that nothing new was done to innovate. 

This movie is set on 70's as a Paul (Andrew Sensenig) and Anne (Barbara Crampton) are  going to live to New England because their son has just died and they didn't want to continue to live on their previous house.

They are greeted by a man who says that particular house belong to Dagmar but he was killed after being condemned of selling bodies to universities.  

But the town has some hidden secrets of them own and it's seems the house kills each 30 years. It's here that lays the true interesting part of the novel. It's seems it's not the house itself, or Dagmar but something more evil and old. It's a unnamed darkness that wants a sacrifice or else the town it's sacrificed.

. 
The ending was good but how the ghost of their dead son was more powerful than an quasi-god is beyond me. Nevertheless a good story. No more than 1h20 and advisable to anyone who enjoys horror and some gore. Barbara Crampton is the real catch here. With 57 years she still is a beauty and a good performance.

One interesting thing, not particular with this movie, but it seems New England is probably the place with more horror stories of american writers/producers... I wonder why (Lovecraft and King I'm looking at you)

Movie Review: Bad Bulding 2015

Hmm.. I've just watch Bad Building (2015). It's a movie about an haunted house/hotel/land. We've got a group of ghosthunters wannabes that team up with some guys who just like to adventure and try to discover ghosts or other otherworldly phenomena for their reality show. 

From the start it's a waste of time that lack any characterization and good scenes. I won't watch it again but I dare anyone to count the time they are running around and on the sewers. That's at least 30. More 5m of opening credits and 4 of ending credits... Bear in mind that the total length is 74m of it.

 I must say It is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  I am sorry to all of those who participate in the movie and made the movie but unless this is try out or some college level stuff I must say it's horrible.

First of all, if you are not going to invest on it, don't use CGI or special effects. Those special effects from the outside of the Hotel are just wrong. You are not the Sci-Fi Channel and get away with it, well even Sci-Fi Channel would never do something as poor as this.

The acting? Where is the acting? People dying and they are without emotions. Some strange fuck up thing is going on and they are only running and nothing else. There isn't any character worth my time. After 40m I've just wanted all to be killed. 

The producer produced 15 movies in 2015. I mean, that's an indication of the quality of movies no?  This one has a rating of 2.9 it's an indication.

Would I advice someone to watch? Sorry I cannot. Maybe an hardcore guy who is doing a marathon and watch every horror movie...  I rate one out of ten.