Tag: reviews

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Movie Review – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

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We saw Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom over the weekend, and we’re going to try to break it down for you.

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Melissa’s Take: 3 out of 5 stars

I can’t hate this movie no matter how hard I try to! It brings me back to my childhood and the greatness of the 90s. The writers and producers do such a great job of putting a few subtle references in the Jurassic World movies that take you right back to the original 1993 Jurassic Park one. Although feeling a little disappointed when you leave, you mostly feel nostalgic.

With that said, I’m only allowing them to make one more! I think that’s the current plan with Jurassic World III in 2021, but you never know. They’re making billions of dollars, and Chris Pratt is fun to watch. I wish I had an official say! One more means they will mirror the original Jurassic Park trilogy. If they create more than three, they are just setting themselves up for failure. It would be chaos for all us Jurassic Park nerds.

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With that said, I really do think there’s enough to tell one more story, and I’m sure I’ll watch it in a packed theater like I did this one.

Joey’s Take: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I’m am giving this one a 2.5 star rating, because I felt satisfied leaving the theater, but it lacked something, and I wasn’t enthralled in the story line. The movie has great subtle references to the originals, which I love, and there is plenty of dinosaur action to feed that desire.  I think the thing that is dragged the rating down for me were the cheesy villains and how many there were (I think about 4).  I don’t mind cheesy villains but it felt a little excessive.

If you asked me “Joey, should I go see the new Jurassic World movie?” I would say, “Yes, you should take the time to go see it, because it is well done and enjoyable to watch, but take your expectation level down one notch before getting there.”

Despite our below average ratings, we still recommend you see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, especially if you are a Jurassic Park or dinosaur fan. It’s action-packed with fun terror, coupled with some “WTF?!” moments!

 

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Book Review: “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline

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Well, today you’re in for a special treat: A dual book review! As you may have learned from our book preferences post, you won’t get many dual book reviews, because we don’t typically read the same books. But today’s your lucky day, because we’ve both read “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline.

“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline

Joey’s Take: 4 out of 5 stars

This might be one of the only books that we have both read, because we have pretty different book interests. Melissa read this during our honeymoon, and it took me until the movie came out to get motivated to give it a try. Now before you start jumping to conclusions, I read the book BEFORE I saw the movie.

I thought the book was very good and would give it a 4 out of 5 stars, because I would describe it as a page-turner, full of excitement and adventure. It is one of those stories that at the end of every chapter I wanted to keep going to find out what happens next.  Normally, I have to put a book down after a chapter or two and get to the next chapter in a day or so, not this book.

**If you like the book, don’t get your hopes up on the movie.**

Melissa’s Take: 5 out of 5 stars

This book rocks! I’m a sucker for anything related to pop culture, and since this book immerses you into a world of 80s movies and video games, I couldn’t help but love it. Although I didn’t catch every reference because I’m a 90s baby, I still enjoyed this spin on a dystopian society where everything in life is centered around a virtual world. You can be whoever you want to be in Oasis, and it was fun to follow who the characters were in real life and this virtual world. What did bum me out was that one major corporation dictated the future of an entire population, which didn’t seem so far-fetched to me, especially because I read this as everything with net neutrality was going down. Either way, this book is action-packed, and even has some romance for the ladies! If you love science fiction and fantasy, or even just 80s pop culture, you won’t be able to put this down, which is why I give it a 5 out of 5 stars.

**And Joey and I are in agreement about the movie. Completely different references. Completely different timeline. But it still has the same feel. It’s just definitely not as great as the book. Movie gets 2.5 out of 5 stars.**

Happy reading, friends!

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What We Like To Read

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From Melissa’s love of horror movies to Joey’s love of the great outdoors, it should be no surprise that we enjoy very different things – including genres of books. We wanted to explain our book preferences more in depth, so you could know what to expect in our upcoming book reviews.

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What Melissa Likes To Read

I don’t even know where to start when it comes to books and my preferred genre. I love them all – from autobiographies to science fiction. I’ve always been an avid reader and writer. I’m not sure where my passion for reading began, but I would have to guess with my parents. They used books as tools for education. I learned early on how books could teach me things, from what it means to be adopted to how to treat others with respect (thanks, Berenstain Bears). Then, I learned you could use them to get lost in another world. One of my early favorites was Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.” But nowadays, you can find me reading less poetry and more autobiographies, murder mysteries, and science fiction.

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What Joey Likes To Read

Most of the time you will find me reading motivational, business, and non-fiction books, which might come as a surprise to my family because growing up I was NOT a reader. I wanted nothing to do with reading and preferred to be outside playing in the Florida sunshine. (Sorry to my parents for the stubbornness). My passion for reading really didn’t start until after I graduated college, when I was recommended by a friend to read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. After reading that book it was like a light bulb went off in my head, and I had found the type of reading I really enjoyed. This is what you should expect from my book reviews. Now that’s not to say I don’t enjoy a good adventure book every once in a while and might throw a few other curve balls into the mix.  I hope you enjoy some of these as much as I do, cheers!