Ray Lily kicks ass. Annalise rips off heads!
355526
Finally we learn how Ray Lily met Annalise and why he doesn't go into any details  about it in the first three books.  The Twenty Palaces Books were THE MOST FUN books I read the year they came out ( Beating out Ghost Story by Jim Butcher & Cold Commands by Richard K Morgan just to mention two)  I first read this as an E book ( DON'T LIKE E books) so it's great to have it as a REAL BOOK .  All the books are fast paced with an interesting magic system that has dangerous repercussions. This is a great place to start but it was fun to read the first three wondering what did Ray do to make Annalise want to kill him and why didn't she?  I don't know why these books didn't sell better . I bought at least three sets and gave away and/or lent them to friends everyone really liked them.  BUY ENJOY and maybe Connolly will write some more.
422766
Glad to see this came out on DVD.  Playing twins. Bette &Lily are a riot in this movie  good price. Plus you get two more movies. 3 movies one low price what a great deal.
4915289
Baylee is an all American teenager, budding into a beautiful girl, blonde, blue eyed innocent child. I must emphasise - she's just  child!.
 She has typical teenage growing pains, beautiful boy in school pays attention to her, dad doesn't like her dating boys, doing her homework, date curfews. Life is pretty normal.
Unless one day everything is snatched from her!
She's kidnapped, held captive and ........
I don't wanna spoil your story, but remember this and teach your kids this - Predators don't have horns or wear cloaks or drive dark vans. They're  your average , everyday people.  Your next door neighbour, your family friend or your objects of attractions!!
Sadly the tender sapling is plucked from her protected garden and crushed and trampled upon by a monster who disguises himself as a Gardner.  But this horror house is just a pit stop. A training center to prepare her for really Evil, Sadistic, murderers in waiting.  They cover their  rotten bodies with White collars and spray their heinous stench with money perfume and gather to shop for their next" Flowers" to crush their petals , suck their nectar and chew their pulps.
This soft, innocent beauty is broken down , her soul stripped and fateful shoved into war.
A wierd place full of psychosis, paranoia imaginary diseases and phobias !!!
In War she finds peace.
She finds a few stolen moments of respite from the storm just on the horizon.
But Satan is forever plotting and he swoops in, ending her War and damn in her again to the dark cellar of hell !!!!
This book is really good, written very well and just when you are breathing easy and seeing light at the end of the tunnel, K pulls the ground beneath your feet .
I HATE salads from now on !!!!!
On to read the next book ......
319389
Wow, so much hype from everything I read and all for nothing. Sin and Punishment is listed by multiple reviewers as being intense, insane, NON-STOP WTFBBQ! awesome. In reality, you hold down the b-button the entire time while occasionally using the nun chuck to evade the seriously impossible.

++++: If you are a die hard Sin and Punishment fan or a living on the rails kind of shooter go for it!

----: Another piece of bloatware for the Wii novelty.
This is especially not any fun co-op as the second person literally isn't in the first stage, then just holds down the b-button from then on.
I fought Rodan but never saw Godzilla! BOOOO!
Cut scenes are horrendous along with the plot... which you would only understand if you played the first Sin and Punishment
2042919
WOW!! Fire!!!  More turns than a merry go round. The saying, " hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" and jealousy is as cruel as the grave are both understatements when it comes to this tale of four fabulous friends. Sasha and Tatum have it all college students, great boyfriends with plenty of money to spend. Kim because of her past has decided that sex and money is the only love that she needs. Neli is looking for love from anybody willing to give it to her. These are four best friends, but what happens when one allows jealousy to completely consume her. The author developed the heck out of these ladies. The funny part is they are totally relateable, they could very well be your friends. Although with these ladies you'd want to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.  Well you have to read it to find out. A 5 Star banger all the way.  Get the book!!!
3689938
Hey, i love my campy Horror's at times!
This one had all the right elements, even, Euro cult hunky Star, Domiziano Arcangeli, with an hispanic/american accent! Ha! He actually plays the warden with gusto!
And, gorgeous porno stars, like Yurizan Beltran, acting so amazingly bad, it's funny, or a few tacky, but great scream queens of insanely genius. And then more boobs, some cuties like Meredith Salenger and Eva Derrek.. you name it!
Some great, terrific SFX! Some scenes that not even in the sleaziest Euro Trash most famous gore fest's!
All together, a demented guilty pleasure and a thrilling ride!
Jeff Leroy shows how you can make a real fun movie,how to deliver a really gory and well made product with little.
I just remember Fangoria, back a few years ago, was stunned by this one! People were lining up at Midnight's screenings! So was i! Now, i gotta buy my DVD!
3536725
I will not spoil the book for those who have not read it, but for the original fans who are still clinging to scraps of hope that are shredded like so much raw meat, I say: do not get your hopes up. Only about 100 pages shamble brainlessly towards the Zombie Apocalypse Train. Even if the equally-vacuous author HAD managed to stumble with a pen in hand and accidentally write compound sentence on her way down, the voyage of the Plot Train has been canceled as usual. LKH will not refund your ticket, but you are more than welcome to take another 500-page trip on the All-Anita, All-the-Time cargo train. That's right!  You too can ride Anita, just like so many, MANY famous characters!  Scream, spill, and scratch your way alongside Jean Claude, Micah, Nathaniel, Richard, Asher and soooooo many others as you show off your enormous junk while listening to repetitive descriptions of your over-long hair and towering height. Relax in the comfort of redundancy as you pontificate on your actions for at least three hours after you were supposed to act and share your emotional angst with each passenger at least three times (per trip.).  On your tenth ride, receive your Anita Blake Harem & Menagerie membership card which entitles to you to handholding and rescue efforts by the manly MAnita herself for every minute of every day!  (One-time membership fee: your manhood.). Don't be a bigot, homophobe, religious zealot, or prude who is just jealous or blind to how in love with Anita you are; hop on today!  Whether it's your first, 57th or 512th ride (on the same page,) editor-free, jaw-dropping leaps of time and logic will leave you amazed and dumbfounded. Warning: The aforementioned train-of-thought does not actually go anywhere.

  Join everyone and everything else: come... on Anita today!
2087550
Ooof. This was one of my more highly anticipated books of the season. I actually surprise won a copy over Twitter from the publisher. I thrummed with excitement waiting for it to arrive and it arrived on the last day of GISHWHES week. I couldn't read it yet! It was crunch time! By the time I picked it up the next day, I was dying from excitement.

And yes! The first few chapters were really interesting. Lily Proctor was pretty much allergic to everything, moving towards an early death or life in a bubble. Her long time friend Tristan is making moves on her but is quite the user of girls. Yeah, theres some magnificently douchebag moments from him. She finds him in the bathroom balls deep in another girl when shes on a date with him. This spurs her pity party and world jump.

Finding herself in a new Salem, she meets her other self, Lillian. Lillian is the reigning power in this new Salem, her word is law and her law has outlawed SCIENCE.

Why? Well, magic would be just another tool if science was allowed to continue! So its time to hang all the scientists! Cue rebels! Science rebels! Okay, they're only recently more science filled. Really, they're just people who weren't citizens of the cities who lived outside the walls. The cities have walls because theres some fun hybrid critters who swoop in and eat people periodically. So, really, your choices are follow the rules or live outside the walls with murderbeasts.

A section of the rebels eventually befriend Lily, this includes Lillians ex-lover and former primary mechanic, Rowan and this worlds version of Tristan. While Lily had some Tristan feels to overcome, they were nothing in comparison to what Rowan had to get over to trust Lily. Such tragedy, very back story!

Lillians Salem uses something called willstones in order to direct magical energy. Turns out Lily has a fount of it and an uncanny ability to channel new energy where she needs it to go. She goes from being pretty much useless, to being one of the more powerful witches in this world. Too bad all she really wants is to go home. Even as she starts to fall in love, home is at the forefront of her mind.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, one that unfortunately makes me curious for the next book even though there were some intense character flaws that annoyed me.

What sort, you say? Well, Lily is a vegan. That in and of itself is -not- a character flaw. Its her insistent need to remind everyone of the fact every chance she gets. Even though the meat in this new Salem is grown in a similar fashion from the leather hides she feels comfortable wearing (seriously, any animal product is still an animal product), she refuses to eat the meat. At one point, she eats an entire jar of pickles! That is not how you healthy vegan! It got to the point where I just wanted to kick her every time she said it. It was awkwardly thrown in our faces to show her spirited will and her willingness to stick to her guns. These things are also not bad, the execution just nagged at me.

Yeah, that pretty much ruined the book for me. When you cant get behind the main character, the secondary characters usually pick up the slack (think Harry Potter). Unfortunately, this book doesnt let that happen. All characters are pretty much interchangeable. There are a few that stand out, but not exceptionally.

I expected more from it, perhaps it was the high bar I set that soured it? Or maybe it was just that sour.
1915891
5/5 stars for the sexy lead actress, Odette Annable, less 1 star for the last 30 minutes of this movie!

If you haven't already guess the secret ingredient of a successful horror movie, I'll let you in on this secret - just get a sexy actress to play the lead role! Nothing else really matters much!

Here's a movie blooper for "The Unborn" (2009):

A faithless translator of an ancient Hebrew text turns out to be covert Jewish exorcist? LOL!

A multi-faith exorcism on a victim who "isn't looking for a Christian exorcism"? LOL!

Does that boy spirit remind you of a replay of that Japanese female "Ju-on" horror movie? Wide open mouth that looks like it is looking for a pacifier as much as he needs to be drenched in Catholic Holy Water!

The lead actress is better seen in her jogging outfit and her night-time fashion, more so than her screams.

Recommended viewing:

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Possession-Blu-ray/dp/B009XTF8JM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Possession [Blu-ray</a>]

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Ward/dp/B0052DP1RC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Ward</a>
3568955
I did not purchase it on Amazon.com but am writing a review anyway due to the important subject a LOT of others are writing about. I have collected "stuff" for most of my whole life of 44 years and see a bad trend now from media companies in that they use copyright laws written by some stupid, greedy idiot(s) that do not realize that they are hurting the industry. This show was AWESOME when it was on TV. This was The Fast & the Furious made for TV! Tiffany Thiesen(I hope I spelled that right!) is so smokin' hot on this show! What was I talking about in the first couple of sentences? THEY REMOVED THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK(s). STUPID MOVE. VERY STUUUUUUUUUUUUPIIIIIIIIIIID MOOOOOOOOVE! Without the awesome songs on movies like Fast & Furious, the movie itself would still be excellent but just plain not as exciting. I gave this item 4 stars for it being an awesome, well made show that will remind you of the Fast & Furious movies. Why not 5 stars? Go back a couple of sentences.  Pure filthy rotten greed on the part of some overrated jerks that cost all of us an excellent soundtrack/set of music. Booker is another show I have on DVD that did the exact same thing. They took the Billy Idol songs off it and replaced them with some idiot they probably got at a local bar. There was a famous song still joked about to this day in country music from Johnny Paycheck called "Take this Job and Shove It." To the people in charge of these ridiculous removals of good music on movies and TV because some millionaire musician does not get more royalties and they complain about it like the greedy, petty, spoiled brats that they are, you can take your book of laws on copyrights and SHOVE!...IT!
2109651
Unspeakably awful! There's very little of Bettie, and a great, great deal of excruciatingly cornball late-'50s style variety "entertainment" that you might imagine might be cute and  endearing but most emphatically is not. You'd have to be a great deal  hornier than I was to find Lily St. Cyr's strip tease arousing, and the  only notable musical performer is a woman with an extraordinarily huge  head.  If you've never trusted another review in your life, trust this one:  you might as well throw the money away.
3959987
Dakota Fanning is brilliant in this film, her follow-up to her successful debut in "Harry Potter and The The". She is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreary and dull world. Too bad nine-year-olds cannot be President-I'd vote for her in a heartbeat! Is it possible that she is a visitor from another planet? Is she a living Powerpuff Girl? All I know is I dug her ripping guitar solo at the "Concert For George" during "It's A Small World"-Lindsay Lohan, eat your heart out! And so what if she recently lost her two front teeth? Now we know what to get her for Christmas! Dakota is God!
UltraLord has spoken!
2846559
GREAT compilation of artists and sounds which accompanied an awful movie!
3076762
Domo ArigaDIE!!! is basically the goriest, silliest, most over-the-top grindhouse kung-fu splatter-gore movie NEVER made.

Picture that last scene from the end of Kill Bill vol. 1 where the The Bride is chopping up the Crazy 88 and the music is awesome and its all bloody and hyper-cool. Yeah, thats basically this entire book. OH, except add in some crazy cyberpunk lesbian robots and mind-control powers and Satanism and a (literal) buttload of bodily fluids and goofy jokes. THIS IS AWESOME.

Adding to that is Jamie Grefes writing style: its is poetic, but not jagged. Its colorful, but not blinding. Its full of imagery and life and DEATH and guts. This was the first long-form work of Grefes Ive ever read and I was very impressed by both the flow of the story and the precision of the prose. Hes a very talented writer.

Now heres a personal story about why I don't own a copy of Domo ArigaDIE!!! anymore:

I was taking a train from Dallas to New York City and had to change trains in Chicago. I was tired and dirty and in a terrible mood. While waiting in line to be board the train, the guy in front of me asked where I was going. He had tattoos all over his neck and only one eye and he was carrying a stuffed black horse (whose name I found out later was Mack). He was very friendly, almost to the point where I thought there mightve been something wrong with him. He even showed me his drivers license. You see that little star in the corner? he said pointing to a star on it. Thats because Im a felon, he laughed.

So my felon friend was nervous about riding on the train. He had never gone cross country before and to help assuage his fear, he was chatting up everyone around us. I found out the two Australian lesbians behind me were on a golf tour of America. I found out the little girl behind them has a cousin named Betty and Betty has a cat named Sparkle. I found out the purple-haired punk rock chick behind them was heading up to Boston to visit her family. And, in turn, all these people found out that I am a published author.

Now my one-eyed new friend starts rambling. Were taking this train to the moooooon! Whats up with all these Amish people? Is it hot in here and where did those birds come from? You think they're getting on the train? He then goes to use the payphone (a payphone?!?!) and when he comes back hes holding $10 out to me.

Hey man, I want to buy one of your books, he says.

I don't have any on me, buddy, but you can find my stuff on Amazon and online.

He looks down, dejected.

Hey, I say, reaching into my bag and pulling out the copy of Domo ArigaDIE!!! that I had finished reading just a few hours before, You like crazy Japanese pinky violence exploitation movies? You can have this, if you want it.

Really man? his eyes lit up. Oh man, this is so great. Thank you! Thank you so much!!

He took the book and couldn't stop smiling. Soon after we boarded the train. I only saw him one more time after that, as he was getting off at his stop. He still had the book in his hands.

Interestingly enough, on my last long train ride, about 6 months before this, I made friends with an Englishman named Martin who was taking the same trip I was. About an hour before we parted ways, I gave him a copy of my book Stranger Danger. He read it to himself and chuckled in the seat behind me. I think Im becoming the Johnny Appleseed of literature on trains
2678335
Three choices of destruction for the cost of two!  EAT IT ALL YOU HATERS!  I'ma cast some bombs up in this house!  EXALTED LIFE, kid what, EXALTED LIFE!!!
4652748
Okay okay!  There is no plot really, the characters are pretty stereotypical, and the fights are live action cartoons.  But sue me!  I liked this one as pure gleeful entertainment.  It's an excuse for four ladies to look good - Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, and the still buff and babe-worthy Demi Moore.  And do they ever look incredible!
The DVD has some extended violence (two minutes added to the fight scenes and that's the UNRATED material!), two commentaries, featurettes, trailers, a video jukebox, onscreen trivia, on-line features, and on and on.  It's loaded!  Picture is good and the sound is rocking!  You could not ask for more from a DVD.  So if you liked the movie at all - it's a bargain!  And it's too funny to hear the WRITERS of the movie (at least 3 of them) discuss how this mish mosh came about.  It's all cotton candy!  If I wanted depth I would not have gotten on this ride of a movie!  But in my book ... chicks who can look good fighting in heels?  Good time!
3853726
Why is it that MGM treated Annette Funicello so very well with her classic Beach movie series in widescreen, yet Disney - Annette's original employer - acts like she's a $2 tramp?

First Annette's Babes In Toyland got the shaft and now this. Absolutely outrageous! This would never have happened on Walt's watch - or Roy's, either, for that matter. It all goes to prove what a total JERK Mike Eisner, the current head of Disney, is. Hopefully they'll finally vote him COMPLETELY out, and he won't be allowed on the lot. What a dummy!

Another reviewer has correctly noted that Disney titles including Babes In Toyland, The Moon-Spinners, and Blackbeard's Ghost have also been thrown into the horrible pan-and-scan scrap heap. What's the matter - they weren't good enough for the "Vault Disney" treatment? WHY NOT?

Disney even choked on the DVD for The Absent-Minded Professor... that is, until an enraged public boycotted them! Then Disney saw the light and rushed out another version in its proper widescreen format. But why must we fans - with all our big buying dollars - be put through all of this hassle on a case by case basis in the first place? Hey, Disney - just give us ALL your movies in cleaned up widescreen and decent stereo and shut up.

And let's look at another very stupid move by Disney's pathetic DVD hacks - like the Apple Dumpling Gang duo, both of which star Don Knotts and Tim Conway. They release the original Apple in widescreen, yet for some strange reason Rides Again gets only pan-and-scan?* HUH?!

Anyway, one can only hope that some year we'll be able to enjoy Merlin Jones (and Babes In Toyland) - featuring the awe-inspiring beauty of Annette Funicello - in the original widescreen that their directors intended. But it probably won't be THIS year!

Boycott all Disney DVDs after 1955 that are not in widescreen!

(*Update: Disney later released a second version (in 2005) of ADG2. They'd caved in and finally put it in widescreen.)